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Pápa, December 5, 1915
Dear Professor,
I will correct as well as possible what you found fault with in my critique of the little Machian opus, when Rank sends the manuscript back. As you presumed correctly, failure to consider the principle “nonum prematur” is to blame for the deficiencies. I didn't want to divulge the greatest part of my ideas on the subject in this critique, but rather save them for my—still germinating—bioanalytic work. The latter is taking on larger and larger dimensions (in fantasy); the number of sheets of paper with ideas written on them is growing to the point of being out of sight. But my inner voice (which must be respected) is still holding back from a final formulation; in
“Nathan: Wohl uns! Denn was / Mich Euch zum Christen macht, das macht Euch mir / zum Juden!…”
[Friar: Nathan, Nathan! You are a Christian! By God, you are a Christian! There never was a better Christian!
Nathan: Well for us! For what makes me a Christian to you makes you a Jew to me! …] Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781), . Ein dramatisches Gedicht in fünf Aufzügen (1779), act 4, scene 7. See also Pfister to Freud, October 29, 1918, (Freud/Pfister, p. 63).