November 25, 1948

Dear Solo,

The good Lord seems to have been very nonchalant about accepting your consignment, but the effect was still the same, as you see by this letter. He probably follows scrupulously the maxim of a governmental employee: There is no affair so pressing that it will become more pressing if laid aside for some time.

My friend Lowe spoke to me about you. From his account it is clear that aside from the above-mentioned God and some black marketeers, no one in France lives better. It is worth noting also that there are attempts to uphold “our” policy of bringing the Nazis back to power in Germany in order to use them against the wicked Russians. It is hard to believe that men learn so little from their toughest experiences. Following his suggestion, I sent Hadamard a telegram to support opposition to the policy. In it I said: “This world war would not have occurred if people had listened to the far-sighted Clemenceau.” Let us hope that the intellectuals will achieve something.

At home, everything goes smoothly so far. My sister does not suffer, though, objectively, she sinks visibly. I always read to her in the evening—today, for instance, the odd arguments which Ptolemy advances against Aristarchus’ opinion that the world rotates and even moves around the sun. I could not keep from thinking of certain arguments of present-day physicians: learned and subtle, but without insight. The examining of arguments in theoretical affairs is precisely a matter of intuition.

In my scientific activity, I am always hampered by the same mathematical difficulties, which make it impossible for me to confirm or refute my general relativist field theory, though I have a very competent young mathematician as collaborator. I shall never solve it; it will fall into oblivion and be discovered anew later. That has already happened to many problems.

Among the works that I have been reading to my sister in the evening are certain things from the philosophical writings of Aristotle. They were actually deceptive. If they had not been so obscure and so confusing, this kind of philosophy would not have held its own very long. But most men revere words that they can not understand and consider a writer whom they can understand to be superficial. That is a touching sign of modesty.

The English show a kind of cheap resentment which I would not have believed possible against our small Jewish tribe. But their internal politics really deserves praise. They are perhaps the only ones to end outmoded capitalism without a revolution. Objectively they are actually in a worse condition than France, which is neither overpopulated nor reduced to importing foodstuffs.

During these last months, one of Conrad Habicht’s sons came here; he is a very clean-cut, well-built boy, who is also a mathematician. Once again I had news of the old man. We really had a wonderful time in Berne, when we were intent upon our studies in our happy “Academy,” which was less childish than the respectable Academies that I became more intimately acquainted with later on.

One of the good sides of old age is in gaining the right perspective for viewing all things human. You certainly do not have to grow old for that.

Cordial greetings and wishes from

Your

A. E.