LITTLE is known about the following item. From its content one can reasonably assume that it belongs to the spring or summer of 1933, when Einstein was in Le Coq. There is about it an air of the ludicrous since Einstein was hardly the man to contemplate resort to physical violence:

You ask me what I thought when I heard that the Potsdam police had invaded my summer home to search for hidden weapons.

What else would a Nazi policeman assume?

(While the above more or less conveys the meaning, it is far from being close to the original. A literal translation of the last sentence of the German would read: “I am reminded of the German proverb: Everyone measures according to his own shoes.” The point of the proverb, of course, is that we evaluate others according to our own lights—that we expect them to be like ourselves.)

On one occasion Einstein remarked that a quiet and lonely job like that of a lighthouse keeper would be ideal for a reflective scholar or a theoretical physicist. For an Einstein this could well be so. But what of his apparent assumption that others would also flourish under such austere circumstances? It may well remind us of a German proverb.

__________

Here are two items that, each in its own way, must have lightened Einstein’s spirits in the dark days of the Nazi takeover.

Having heard that Einstein’s property in Germany had been confiscated by the Nazis, the Dutch astronomer W. de Sitter, in the name of his colleagues, wrote to Einstein offering financial assistance. On 5 April 1933 Einstein replied as follows:

In times like these one has an opportunity to learn who are one’s true friends. I thank you warmly for your readiness to help. But actually things are going very well with me so that not only can I manage for myself and mine with what I have but also I can help others keep their heads above water. From Germany, however, I will probably not be able to rescue anything because an action is being taken against me for high treason. The physiologist [Jacques] Loeb once said to me in conversation that political leaders must all really be pathological because a normal person would not be able to bear so tremendous a responsibility while being so little able to foresee the consequences of his decisions and acts. Although this may have sounded somewhat exaggerated at the time, it turns out to be true in full measure of Germany today. The only curious thing is the utter failure of the so-called intellectual aristocracy [in Germany].

During a visit to England in 1933, after having left Germany for good and just before going to the United States to take up his position at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., Einstein received a letter from a correspondent whose knowledge of physics could hardly be characterized as sound. For example, the correspondent said that, according to his understanding, the world moves so fast that it seems to be stationary. He went on to say, in all seriousness, that because of gravity a person on the spherical earth is sometimes upright, sometimes standing on his head, sometimes sticking out at right angles to the earth, and sometimes, as he put it, “at left angles.” And he asked if perhaps it was while upside down, standing on their heads, that people fell in love and did other foolish things.

So far as is known, the letter was not answered. But on it, in German, Einstein did jot down the following words:

Falling in love is not at all the most stupid thing that people do—but gravitation cannot be held responsible for it.

__________

In Princeton, shortly after his arrival there, Einstein was asked by a freshman publication, The Dink, for a message. He responded with these words, which were published in December 1933:

I am delighted to live among you young and happy people. If an old student may say a few words to you they would be these: Never regard your study as a duty, but as the enviable opportunity to learn to know the liberating influence of beauty in the realm of the spirit for your own personal joy and to the profit of the community to which your later work belongs.

On 24 March 1951 a student at a college in California wrote to Einstein in Princeton wondering if he recalled dedicating the little observatory there. She went on to ask him for advice. She had long had a deep interest in astronomy and wanted to become a professional astronomer. But two of her teachers had told her that there were already too many astronomers, and that anyway she was not good enough to be able to succeed in the field. Conceding that she was not outstanding in mathematics, she asked Einstein whether she should go on with astronomy or seek something else she might pursue.

Einstein replied in English as follows:

Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it. One should earn one’s living by work of which one is sure one is capable. Only when we do not have to be accountable to anybody can we find joy in scientific endeavor.

While this advice may seem to have been specially constructed for a student of whom Einstein knew little, he regarded it as fundamental and broadly applicable. He well knew the strain of being expected to produce new ideas. When invited to Berlin he likened himself to a hen that is expected to continue to lay eggs. He urged often that the would-be scientist or scholar earn his living in a non-demanding job like that of a cobbler, thus avoiding the “publish or perish” pressures that undermined joy in one’s creative work and led one to publish superficial results. After all, the great philosopher Spinoza, whom he revered, had earned his living as a lens grinder, and Einstein himself often recalled with nostalgic pleasure the days when he was earning his living by working at the patent office in Bern while producing some of his greatest ideas.

The following item offers further illustration of this theme.

On 14 July 1953 an Indian in Delhi wrote Einstein a long and somewhat repetitious letter seeking aid. The gist of the letter was this: The writer was a bachelor, 32 years old, who wanted to spend the rest of his life doing nothing but research in mathematics and physics, although he was, admittedly, “terribly weak” in those subjects. He was penniless, as witness the fact that he was not placing stamps on the envelope of his letter. Financial stringency in his young days had prevented him from acquiring a good foundation in science and mathematics although his interest in them was ardent. Family circumstances had obliged him to take a job to earn a living—something that was strongly against his inner nature. Fortunately, because of a small quarrel, he had been dismissed from his job more than a year before, and was thus free to pursue his true mission—but, alas, with no income at all to keep body and soul together. With or without help, he was determined to continue till he died, but, of course, life would be easier with financial aid, and he hoped that Einstein would help him.

On 28 July 1953 Einstein replied to him in English at some length in a letter that is interesting for more than just its courtesy:

I received your letter and was impressed by your ardent wish to continue to study physics. I must confess, however, that I can in no way agree with your attitude. We all are nourished and housed by the work of our fellow-men and we have to pay honestly for it not only by work chosen for the sake of our inner satisfaction but by work which, according to general opinion, serves them. Otherwise one becomes a parasite however modest our wants might be. This is the more so in your country where the work of educated persons is doubly needed in this time of struggle for economic improvement.

This is one side of the matter. But there is another side to it which would have to be considered also in the case that you would have ample means to choose freely what to do. In striving to do scientific work the chance—even for very gifted persons—to achieve something of real value is very little, so that it would always be a great probability that you would feel frustrated when the age of optimal working capacity has passed.

There is only one way out: Give most of your time to some practical work as a teacher or in another field which agrees with your nature, and spend the rest of it for study. So you will be able, in any case, to lead a normal and harmonious life even without the special blessings of the Muses.

__________

Einstein’s dislike of the academic pressure to produce extended to the rat race for promotion. On 5 May 1927, at a time when the scientific world was wondering who would succeed to the professorship held by Planck at the University of Berlin, Einstein wrote this to his friend Paul Ehrenfest in Holland:

I am not involved, thank God, and no longer need to take part in the competition of the big brains. Participating in it has always seemed to me to be an awful type of slavery no less evil than the passion for money or power.

__________

A handwritten statement by Einstein was found in the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem. It was written on 3 October 1933, the day on which he and other distinguished persons spoke at a mass meeting in the Albert Hall in London to obtain aid for scholars who were refugees from Nazi Germany. Shortly thereafter, Einstein left England for the United States, never to return to Europe. It is not known to whom the message was addressed. In it one sees a reflection of the mass dismissals of Jewish scholars by the Nazis:

The value of Judaism lies exclusively in its spiritual and ethical content and in the corresponding qualities of individual Jews. For this reason, from olden times till now, study has rightly been the sacred endeavor of the capable ones among us. That is not to say, however, that we should earn our livelihood by intellectual work, as is, unfortunately, too often the case among us. In these dire times we must do our utmost to adjust to practical necessity without giving up love of the spiritual and intellectual and cultivation of our studies.

__________

In a letter to Einstein in Princeton dated 30 March 1935 a correspondent quoted the following, which the New York Herald Tribune had attributed to Einstein: “There are no German Jews; there are no Russian Jews; there are no American Jews; there are only Jews.” He felt that Einstein must have been misquoted, pointing out, for example, that “people of the Jewish creed” fought in German, Russian, and American armies and staunchly upheld the causes of their respective nations.

On 3 April 1935 Einstein replied as follows:

In the last analysis, everyone is a human being, irrespective of whether he is an American or a German, a Jew or a Gentile. If it were possible to manage with this point of view, which is the only dignified one, I would be a happy man. I find it very sad that divisions according to citizenship and cultural tradition should play so great a role in modern practical life. But since this cannot be changed, one should not close one’s eyes to reality.

Now as to the Jews and their ancient traditional community: seen through the eyes of the historian, their history of suffering teaches us that the fact of being a Jew has had a greater impact than the fact of belonging to political communities. If, for example, the German Jews were driven from Germany, they would cease to be Germans and would change their language and their political affiliation; but they would remain Jews. Why this is so is certainly a difficult question. I see the reason not so much in racial characteristics as in firmly rooted traditions that are by no means limited to the area of religion. This state of affairs is not changed by the fact that Jews, as citizens of specific states, lose their lives in the wars of those states.

__________

In the above letter there is no specific mention of Zionism. And yet Zionism was already much in Einstein’s mind. Early in 1919—before the eclipse verification of the general theory of relativity, and thus before Einstein’s world fame—Kurt Blumenfeld, a Zionist official, had broached the subject to him. Two years later Blumenfeld persuaded Einstein to accept an invitation from Chaim Weizmann to travel to the United States with Weizmann in order to raise funds for the creation of a Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Weizmann, the world leader of the Zionist movement—he was later to become the first president of the State of Israel—was himself a scientist. Telling about the boat trip across the Atlantic he said, “Einstein explained his theory to me every day, and on my arrival I was fully convinced that he understood it.”

Here is part of a letter that Einstein wrote to his friend Heinrich Zangger on 14 March 1921:

On Saturday I’m off to America—not to speak at universities (though there will probably be that, too, on the side) but rather to help in the founding of the Jewish University in Jerusalem. I feel an intense need to do something for this cause.

And here is part of a letter he sent to his physicist friend Paul Ehrenfest on 18 June 1921:

Zionism indeed represents a new Jewish ideal that can restore to the Jewish people their joy in existence. … I am very happy that I accepted Weizmann’s invitation.

__________

Einstein had become a figure of enormous symbolic importance to Jews. In 1923, when he visited Mount Scopus, the site on which the Hebrew University was to rise, he was invited to speak from “the lectern that has waited for you for two thousand years.”

In a letter to Paul Ehrenfest dated 12 April 1926 Einstein wrote concerning the Hebrew University:

I do believe that in time this endeavor will grow into something splendid; and, Jewish Saint that I am, my heart rejoices.

__________

Responding to a Jewish anti-Zionist, probably in January 1946, Einstein wrote:

In my opinion, condemning the Zionist movement as “nationalistic” is unjustified. Consider the path by which Theodor Herzl came to his mission. Initially he had been completely cosmopolitan. But during the Dreyfus trial in Paris he suddenly realized with great clarity how precarious was the situation of the Jews in the western world. And courageously he drew the conclusion that we are discriminated against or murdered not because we are Germans, Frenchmen, Americans, etc. of the “Jewish faith” but simply because we are Jews. Thus already our precarious situation forces us to stand together irrespective of our citizenship. Zionism gave the German Jews no great protection against annihilation. But it did give the survivors the inner strength to endure the debacle with dignity and without losing their healthy self-respect. Keep in mind that perhaps a similar fate could be lying in wait for your children.

__________

And in March of 1955, less than a month before he died, Einstein wrote these words to Kurt Blumenfeld, mentioned above, who had introduced him to Zionism:

I thank you, even at this late hour, for having helped me become aware of my Jewish soul.

__________

Sam Gronemann was a man of many parts: a Berlin lawyer, an author, a playwright, and a prominent Zionist who left Nazi Germany to settle in Israel. On 13 March 1949, for Einstein’s seventieth birthday, he sent a letter from Tel Aviv in Israel containing verses of which the following is a translation:

Einstein responded forthwith. Here is a translation of his response:

There is in the Einstein Archives a letter dated 5 August 1927 from a banker in Colorado to Einstein in Berlin. Since it begins “Several months ago I wrote you as follows,” one may assume that Einstein had not yet answered. The banker remarked that most scientists and the like had given up the idea of God as a bearded, benevolent father figure surrounded by angels, although many sincere people worship and revere such a God. The question of God had arisen in the course of a discussion in a literary group, and some of the members decided to ask eminent men to send their views in a form that would be suitable for publication. He added that some twenty-four Nobel Prize winners had already responded, and he hoped that Einstein would too. On the letter, Einstein wrote the following in German. It may or may not have been sent:

I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science.

My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance—but for us, not for God.

__________

Here is an excerpt from a letter that Einstein wrote to Cornelius Lanczos on 24 January 1938. As will be seen, it is highly relevant to the present topic:

I began with a skeptical empiricism more or less like that of Mach. But the problem of gravitation converted me into a believing rationalist, that is, into someone who searches for the only reliable source of Truth in mathematical simplicity.

In speaking of gravitation, Einstein is here referring to his general theory of relativity, the fruit of ten years of inspired labor, from 1905 to 1915. It came about because of a feeling of aesthetic unease. According to the special theory of relativity of 1905, uniform motion was relative. Einstein felt that it was ugly to have only one special type of motion relative. If uniform motion was relative, then all motion should be. But common, everyday experience showed that non-uniform motion was absolute. In the face of such evidence a lesser man would have shrugged his shoulders and decided that there was nothing to do but tolerate his aesthetic discomfort. But not Einstein. Driven by an aesthetic compulsion, he looked anew at the everyday evidence and saw, to his surprise and delight, that it could be interpreted as showing that all motion could indeed be regarded as relative. This is not the place to tell how this insight led him to gravitational equations of transcendental beauty. But we can begin to see what Einstein had in mind when, in his letter to Lanczos, he said that he had been converted into a believing rationalist—a seeker after mathematical simplicity, by which he meant beauty.

Let us not be confused by the word “converted.” Einstein was seeking beauty in the Universe long before he created his general theory of relativity; this is clear from the fact that that theory arose from an aesthetic discontent. His belief—his religious belief—in the simplicity, beauty, and sublimity of the Universe was the primary source of inspiration in his science. He evaluated a scientific theory by asking himself whether, if he were God, he would have made the Universe in that way.

__________

Here are excerpts from two other letters from Einstein in Princeton to Lanczos. On 14 February 1938 he wrote:

I have now struggled with this basic problem of electricity for more than twenty years, and have become quite discouraged, though without being able to let go of it. I am convinced that a completely new and enlightening inspiration is needed; I also believe, on the other hand, that the flight into statistics is to be regarded only as a temporary expedient that by-passes the fundamentals.

On 21 March 1942 he wrote:

You are the only person I know who has the same attitude towards physics as I have: belief in the comprehension of reality through something basically simple and unified. … It seems hard to sneak a look at God’s cards. But that he plays dice and uses “telepathic” methods (as the present quantum theory requires of him) is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.

We see here Einstein’s vivid way of looking at and expressing his dissatisfaction with the quantum theory, with its denial of determinism and its limitation to probabilistic, statistical predictions. He was himself a pioneer in the development of the quantum theory, but he remained convinced that there was need for a different understanding. He vividly expressed his frustration, which never left him, in this excerpt from a letter that he wrote to Paul Ehrenfest on 12 July 1924:

The more one chases after quanta, the better they hide themselves.

__________

A Chicago Rabbi, preparing a lecture on “The Religious Implications of the Theory of Relativity,” wrote to Einstein in Princeton on 20 December 1939 to ask some questions on the topic. Einstein replied as follows:

I do not believe that the basic ideas of the theory of relativity can lay claim to a relationship with the religious sphere that is different from that of scientific knowledge in general. I see this connection in the fact that profound interrelationships in the objective world can be comprehended through simple logical concepts. To be sure, in the theory of relativity this is the case in particularly full measure.

The religious feeling engendered by experiencing the logical comprehensibility of profound interrelations is of a somewhat different sort from the feeling that one usually calls religious. It is more a feeling of awe at the scheme that is manifested in the material universe. It does not lead us to take the step of fashioning a god-like being in our own image—a personage who makes demands of us and who takes an interest in us as individuals. There is in this neither a will nor a goal, nor a must, but only sheer being. For this reason, people of our type see in morality a purely human matter, albeit the most important in the human sphere.

__________

The following statement by Einstein is dated September 1937. Beyond the fact that it has to do with a “Preaching Mission,” nothing of any consequence is known of the circumstances that prompted its composition. It may have been written in response to a personal request from a member of the Princeton Theological Seminary, but that is pure conjecture:

Our time is distinguished by wonderful achievements in the fields of scientific understanding and the technical application of those insights. Who would not be cheered by this? But let us not forget that knowledge and skills alone cannot lead humanity to a happy and dignified life. Humanity has every reason to place the proclaimers of high moral standards and values above the discoverers of objective truth. What humanity owes to personalities like Buddha, Moses, and Jesus ranks for me higher than all the achievements of the enquiring and constructive mind.

What these blessed men have given us we must guard and try to keep alive with all our strength if humanity is not to lose its dignity, the security of its existence, and its joy in living.

__________

The German draft of the following was among many items brought to Le Coq from Einstein’s last stay in Pasadena in the winter of 1932–33. No date appears on the slip of paper, and no indication of the occasion. The words may have been in response to a letter from an individual or a group, or they may have been an aphorism prompted by a Nazi boast. Certainly, they stand well on their own as a message addressed to us all:

Do not pride yourself on the few great men who, over the centuries, have been born on your earth—through no merit of yours. Reflect, rather, on how you treated them at the time, and how you have followed their teachings.

__________

On 25 February 1931 a correspondent wrote a deeply pessimistic letter to Einstein in Berlin telling of disillusion with the technological marvels of the time, declaring that for most people life was a bitter disappointment, and wondering whether it was sensible to propagate mankind. On 7 April 1931 Einstein replied as follows:

I do not share your opinion. I have always felt that my own life was interesting and worth living, and I am firmly convinced that it is both possible and likely that people’s lives in general can be made worth living. The objective and psychological possibilities for this seem to be there.

__________

Of course, Einstein was aware that sorrow is a part of life. On 26 April 1945 he wrote the following letter of condolence to a medical doctor and his wife who had lost a grandchild, or perhaps a child. The doctor had been active in helping refugees from Nazi Germany:

I am profoundly shocked by the news of the terrible blow that has so suddenly and unexpectedly befallen you both. This is the most grievous thing that can happen to older people, and it is no consolation that untold thousands are similarly afflicted. I would not dare presume to try to comfort you, but I do want to tell you how deeply and with what sorrow I sympathize with you, as do all those who have come to know the kindness of your heart.

For the most part we humans live with the false impression of security and a feeling of being at home in a seemingly familiar and trustworthy physical and human environment. But when the expected course of everyday life is interrupted, we realize that we are like shipwrecked people trying to keep their balance on a miserable plank in the open sea, having forgotten where they came from and not knowing whither they are drifting. But once we fully accept this, life becomes easier and there is no longer any disappointment.

Here’s hoping that the planks on which we are swimming will meet again soon, Cordially,

Here is a sentence from a letter that Einstein sent to Cornelius Lanczos on 9 July 1952:

One is born into a herd of buffaloes and must be glad if one is not trampled underfoot before one’s time.

__________

The botanist A. V. Fric found a small, hitherto unknown flowering cactus plant in the rarefied atmosphere on the highest mountain peak of the Cordilleras. In a graciously worded report, he gave it the name “Einsteinia” and sent Einstein a copy of the report. On 9 September 1933 Einstein replied as follows from Le Coq:

Dear Sir,

You have given me great pleasure by your thoughtful act. The naming is apt to the extent that not just the little plant but I too have not been left in peace at the aethereal summit.

In grateful appreciation of your gratifying gesture, I am,

__________

Here is a translation of lines that were inscribed and autographed by Einstein below a photograph of himself that he sent to an old friend, Mrs. Cornelia Wolf, in 1927:

There is an interesting story connected with this inscribed photograph. During World War II, Mrs. Wolf crossed the ocean on her way to Havana and subsequently to California. The boat stopped in Trinidad, where a British officer interrogated her (she had a German passport) and began to examine her baggage. Although she knew that the British did not permit passengers to take along any photographs or letters, she had not been able to bring herself to leave the Einstein photograph behind. When the officer found it, he at once stopped interrogating her and asked very politely whether he could borrow it, to copy the poem and to show his colleagues. She told him that it was in his power even to keep it, but he replied that he would return it the next day before the ship sailed. This he did, with the utmost courtesy, and there was no further interrogation or search of baggage.