Princeton, 21 April 1946

On the 'scientific demon', the lack of wisdom in the world's rulers, and the effects of his advancing years.

As so often, Einstein has been a bad correspondent, although he humorously blames this on his scientific preoccupations: 'My bad conscience about my long silence is almost unbearable. It comes simply from the fact that the scientific demon [Problemteufel] hardly leaves me a minute free, so that I am wearing out my last remaining teeth on mathematical difficulties'.

Besso has been surprised to see a report of Einstein's appearance before the Palestine Commission in Washington D.C., at which he had emphatically denounced the 'perfidious' conduct of the British: in fact, Einstein had very sound reasons for his forceful words, and not all that he said was reported. Besso should not imagine that Einstein devotes very much time to such matters, 'for it would be sad to waste much energy on the arid soil of politics. But from time to time there comes a moment when one has no choice, e.g. when it comes to alerting the public to the necessity of the creation of a world government, without which our whole human splendour will in a few years go to the dogs. Little survives of the respect that one had to a certain degree in younger years before those in power and positions of responsibility. The state of affairs can be perfectly expressed in the famous saying of Oxenstierna, "You little think, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed", together with that of Hegel, "What we can learn from history is that people learn nothing from history"...'.

Einstein's sister Maja is preparing to return home: they have been reading Herodotus, Aristotle, Bertrand Russell's history of philosophy and much else together. Einstein's health is fine, 'even if my old frame is already showing quite clearly that it will soon completely fall apart, as its age would suggest [obwohl der alte Kasten schon recht deutlich zeigt, dass er bald vollends aus dem Leim gehen will, wie es den Jahren entspricht]'.

Einstein had invited his sister Maja to join him in Princeton in 1939 as a refuge from the increasingly anti-semitic regime in Italy, where she was living: her husband Paul Winteler was denied entry to the US on health grounds. In spite of the planned return mentioned here, she was never to be reunited with her husband: she suffered a stroke later in 1946, and died in Princeton in 1951.