40
DOC.
32 AUGUST
1914
32. To Elsa
Einstein
[Berlin,
after
3
August
1914][1]
Dear
little
Darling,
I
just
received
your
detailed and dear
letter
and
am glad
not to have lost
my
dearest
in
the
turbulence of
the
last
few
days.
It’s
brutal that
I
had
to make
you
so
bitterly
disappointed.[2]
But
the
most
important thing
remains. For
me
there
is
no
other
female creature besides
you.
It
is not
a
lack of
true affection which
scares
me
away again
and
again
from
marriage!
Is
it
a
fear
of
the
comfortable
life,
of nice
furniture,
of
the
odium
that
I
burden
myself
with,
or even
of
becoming
some
sort
of contented
bourgeois?
I
myself
don’t
know;
but
you
will
see
that
my
attachment
to
you
will endure. In this
respect
I
am
not
inferior to
married
men.
Outwardly,
as well,
I will
always
stand
up
for
you
vigorously
and
shall
not
allow
any
cause
for
pity to
arise.
No
one can
take
away
from
us our
inimitably lovely
walks,
either.
I
am never
going
to torment
you
with
anything
else,
but
when
you
give,
I shall
gratefully
take. You also should be
proud
in front of
others,
and
don’t allow
them the
pleasure
of
sympathy
at
your expense.
You have
someone
on
whom
you
can
lean
just
as
well
as a
wedded husband.
The little bit
of distance
in
our
external
life will
be sufficient
to protect
what
has made
life
so
wonderful
for
us now
from
becoming
banal and from
growing pale.
All
day long
I
sit at
the
institute and
enjoy
working again.
Presently I
am con-
ducting
a
difficult
study
which, owing
to
its
complexity,
had
constantly
resisted
my
efforts in
the last
few
years.
But
now
it
has succeeded for
the
most
part.[3]
I
have
submitted
to
the
printers
the
paper
I
had had
to
present
on
that
unlucky
day
(Friday).[4]
I
see
little
of
my
mother
and
your
parents.
A considerable rift
has formed which
without the
“fame”
would be
completely irreparable.
The
regulations regarding
mode
of
living
are
being
followed
strictly.
Twice
a
day
1/2
l[iter]
milk;
otherwise
only
one
meal. In
fulfilling
these
regulations,
I feel
like I’m
performing
a
kind of
divine
service
that
is
inextricably
connected
to
your
person.
I’m
glad
that
our
delicate
relationship
does
not
have to founder
on a
provincial
narrowminded
lifestyle.
Soon
you
will be
as
cheerful and vivacious
again
as
before.
As for
me,
it
will
be
even
better because
the
living plague
that had
made
my
life
so
hard
since
my
youth is
gone.
Concerning
Petzoldt, I
have
sent
a
very warmly phrased
letter
of
recommen-
dation
to
the
minister.[5]
It
will
not misfire.
Fond kisses from
your
Albert.
Best
regards
to
the
ex-stepchildren!
Another
kiss for
your
dear
letter.