Vienna
December 6, 1936

My dear Marie

Just received your card from Athens and your manuscript of the Topsy book.1 I love it; it is so movingly genuine and true. It is not an analytical work, of course, but the analyst's thirst for truth and knowledge can be perceived behind this production, too. It really explains why one can love an animal like Topsy (or Jo-fi)2 with such extraordinary intensity: affection without ambivalence, the simplicity of a life free from the almost unbearable conflicts of civilization, the beauty of an existence complete in itself; and yet, despite all divergence in the organic development, that feeling of an intimate affinity, of an undisputed solidarity. Often when stroking Jo-fi I have caught myself humming a melody which, unmusical as I am, I can't help recognizing as the aria from Don Giovanni:

A bond of friendship
Unites us both….