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Noordwijk, 18 August 1910
Dear friend,
At the beginning of the summer I resolved not to flood you with my letters, but the fates have decreed otherwise and now I must write to you again. I have received the Jahrbuch and of course I must express my thanks and appreciation. At last I see you in full control as editor and feel your firm hand. Your remarks about Wittels1 are supremely wise—a programme that seems to well from deep layers of my soul. We understand each other. I have reread with pleasure the charming story of the children (cf. Worcester, Anna and Sophie2) but regretted that the scientist did not entirely overcome the father; it is a delicate relief when it might have been a vigorous statue, and because of its subtlety the lesson will be lost on most readers. In the children's fear that their father intends to drown them, one glimpses the symbolism of water-dreams (disguised childbirth). The analogies with Little Hans are developed only here and there; you forget that the reader is by definition a simpleton and deserves to have his nose rubbed in these things. Your reviews and abstracts show a freedom and humour that I would like to see in the Zentralblatt. If I could rely on similar attitudes in the Zentralblatt, I would be glad to remove