Princeton        

April 10, 1938

Dear Solovine,

I still hope to be able to entrust the translation of our book into French to you. Mr. Infeld has, it is true, already promised a French concern (Flammarion) the publication rights; but we reserved the right to choose the translator ourselves. Mr. Infeld has already given your address to the publisher. The book owes its existence to the fact that I was obliged to provide for Mr. Infeld, who was refused a fellowship. We worked out the subject very carefully together, giving particular attention to the epistemological point of view. In Mach’s time a dogmatic materialistic point of view exerted a harmful influence over everything; in the same way today, the subjective and positivistic point of view exerts too strong an influence. The necessity of conceiving of nature as an objective reality is said to be superannuated prejudice while the quanta theoreticians are vaunted. Men are even more susceptible to suggestion than horses, and each period is dominated by a mood, with the result that most men fail to see the tyrant who rules over them.

If this were true only of science, one could dismiss it with a smirk. But the same holds in politics and in our lives. Our times are so wretched that not one enlightened man is left. On the one hand are fools with evil intentions; on the other, a base egotism. Naturally, America is no different, everything coming here later and more slowly. You are not made for this situation. One must be young and cut to a pattern or die of hunger. To be sure, I am highly esteemed, like an old museum piece or curiosity, but such a dada is overlooked. I work earnestly always, supported by a few courageous colleagues. I can still think, but my capacity for work has slackened. And then: to be dead is not so bad after all.

Warmest greetings,
Your         

A. E.