DOCS. 456-458 FEBRUARY
1918 465
[2]Deleted
text in
draft:
“I already
read with
very great
interest
your essay
“Cos-
mological
Considerations”
during
the
holidays.”
[7]Draft
formulations:
“is,
however,
in
some way
only apparent”;
“can
be
easily
misunderstood”; and
“its content
is
somewhat less
notable than what
one
might
think
at first
glance.”
[16]Deleted
text in
draft:
“I
have been
told,
Felix Klein has discovered that,
upon
assumption
of
general
transformability,
the
energy principle
becomes
an
identity?
I
did
not allow
this
story to
spoil my joy
in
your
marvelous
theory,
for
this
version of
Klein’s
discovery
seems
improbable
to
me.
I have sometimes considered Hamilton’s
principle
as
not
being
an
independent
axiom
but rather
derivable
mathematically
from
the
axiom of
general
transformability.
Could
this
connection
perhaps
have
played
a
role in Klein’s
discovery?
We
shall
surely
soon
learn
more,
maybe
you
already know
what?”
457.
From Mileva Einstein-Maric
[Zurich,
after
6
February
1918][1]
You
will
understand that
with
my
current
illness[2]
it
is
difficult for
me
to
come
to
a
decision.[3]
I do not have
an
overview
of
the situation-I
must
first
accustom
myself
to
the
idea,
also
for
the
children’s
sake. I
understand that
you
want
an
unhampered
future;
I
don’t know whether it
is
necessary
for
you
and
your work,
but
I
don’t want to
stand
in
your
way
and
obstruct
your happiness.
But all
of
it,
communications, everything,
would
seem
to
me
easier
after the
war.
I’ve
asked Dr. Zürcher to
inquire
into
the
procedure.[4]
It
doesn’t
seem so
simple;
I
am so
worried
about
agitations
and must do
everything
so
that
we are
secure
and
so
that
nothing
can
take this
security
from
me,
for the children’s sake.
Have
your lawyer
write
to
Dr. Zürcher
about
how he envisions it
all,
how
the
contract
should be.
I
must
leave
the
upsetting
things
to
objective persons
and
experts
in
the
practical
matters.
You
see,
I
do not
want to
stand
in
the
way
of
your happiness,
if
you
are
resolved,
but with the
illness it
is
harder
than
you
think-especially nowadays-to do
anything
decisive.
458. From
Ernst Troeltsch
Charlottenburg, Berlin, 4/1
Reichskanzler
Place, 7 February 1918
Highly
esteemed
Colleague,
Cordial
thanks
for
your
kind information.
I
knew
nothing
about
these cir-
cumstances,
as you yourself presumably are safely assuming. They
do
make
it