D O C . 3 2 7 F E B R U A R Y 1 9 2 0 2 7 3 Yesterday I received the following letter from my publisher,[6] which amused me so much that I would like to share this pleasure with you. He writes me— “When you send in the matter for the prospectus of Einstein’s book I shall be glad if you will make the description of its contents as intelligible as possible to the ordinary man. Our travellers tell us that there is complete ignorance in the public mind as to what Relativity means. A good many people seem to think that the book deals with the relations between the sexes. Perhaps you would explain the meaning of the word and say something about the epoch-making character of the book and how Einstein’s discovery affects Newton’s law. Most people have heard of Newton and his apple and that will give some kind of a clue.” With cordial regards, yours, Robert W. Lawson. 327. From Moritz Schlick Rostock, 23 Orléans St., 22 February 1920 Dear, highly esteemed Professor, Your correspondence has now surely taken on such a vast scale that one should first think thrice about whether it is right to approach you and expect you to read a letter, or even have a special request—especially if it does not even involve an in- tellectual issue. I find myself in this situation today, for I come with a personal mat- ter—by which, in perhaps an indirect way (or so I hope, at least), ultimately some benefit to knowledge could emerge. In those fine days of the Rostocker five-hundredth anniversary,[1] I told you, as you may perhaps recall, that the philosopher at the Zurich Polytechnic Medicus[2] had prospects of a call to Giessen, and you thought that on the basis of your support it could well be possible that as his successor even my humble self could be taken into consideration. A few days ago my colleague Katz[3] told me that, according to newspaper reports, the Giessen call actually has gone out to Medicus. Now, al- though I do not know whether he will really go to Giessen, I do not want to fail to inform you about the matter and ask if you might put in a good word for me with the people in Zurich. Would you please do so and alert the Zurichers, who probably have heard virtually nothing about me, to the fact that here up north is a philosophy lecturer with tolerably good common sense who would prefer nothing better than to shift his activities just a few latitudes farther south? Or do you think that the dis- taste for a German would be too great a hurdle, even when his political sentiments are as neutral as mine? You know what the acquisition of a chair would mean to me, and especially also to my family—and add to that, one in a country full of at- tractions now beyond our reach, the mere mention of which sometimes brings tears