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Vienna, April 9, 1917
IX., Berggasse 19
Dear friend,
These are especially arid and unfriendly Easter days, in which the entire impoverishment of our existence comes to the fore. Thirty-one years ago yesterday, when I began my practice in Vienna, despite all difficulties, life still had other colors. One piece of this change is, of course, unavoidable; but the other is only the maliciousness of fate.
Your news occupies me very much. The fact that you are much better corresponds to all expectations. It is right for you to have an extension. Now, I think your fear of becoming too healthy through further therapy should be dismissed. In the examination for military fitness a certain consideration is assured, so that you won't get to serve in a field hospital, for instance. But if you are completely set free (very improbable!), then the consequence would be only that you would do analytic treatment all day, instead of half, and that would hardly be a relief. So, with military service you would have to expect at most a loss of money, and you won't need to relinquish therapy. The X-ray treatment would also lead you to Vienna.
So, nothing can be done with Frau G. now, if she doesn't yield to continued courtship. My comparison with the Sibylline books not only had a hidden relation to age but was also supposed to have been an open reference to it. You have both misspent such a large part of your lives in vacillation that the remainder gets to be especially valuable.
The Lectures, which few will probably like as much as you, should also be taken care of this month, and in the next they will go out in print into the narrow world. I don't have much desire for further works. I also have intimations of a summer of being imprisoned in the city, which is very bad. Sophie won't stay here with the child beyond May 12. The womenfolk [Frauenzimmer] all look bad. I also can't praise my state of health. Oli and Martin, who were here together for Easter, are still at their best. Ernst is still h