Einstein by Philipp Frank Read Free Book Online

straightforwardness that he had not encountered before. The world with its disorder and uncleanliness suddenly appeared to him to contain also an element of intellectual and psychological order and beauty.
    Ever since Albert was six years old his parents had insisted that he take violin lessons. At first this was only another kind of compulsion added to the coercion of the school, as he had the misfortune to be taught by teachers for whom playing was nothing but a technical routine, and he was unable to enjoy it. But when he was about thirteen years old he became acquainted with Mozart’s sonatas and fell in love with their unique gracefulness. He recognized that his technique was not equal to the performance of these compositions in the light-handed manner necessary to bring out their essential beauty, and he attempted repeatedly to express their light, carefree grace in his playing. In this way, as a result of his efforts to express a particular emotional mood as clearly as possible and not through technical exercises, he acquired a certain skill in playing the violin and a love for music, which he has retained throughout his life. The feeling of profound emotion that he experienced in reading the geometry books is perhaps to be compared only with his experience as a fourteen-year-old boy when for the first time he was able to take an active part in a chamber-music performance.
    At the age of fourteen, while he was still reading Büchner’s books, Einstein’s attitude toward religion experienced an important change. While in the elementary school he had received Catholic instruction, in the gymnasium he received instructionin the Jewish religion, which was provided for the students of this sect. Young Einstein was greatly stirred by the comments of the teachers of religion on the Proverbs of Solomon and the other parts of the Old Testament dealing with ethics. This experience made a permanent impression and left him with a profound conviction of the great ethical value of the Biblical tradition. On the other hand Einstein saw how the students were compelled to attend religious services in Jewish temples whether they had any interest in them or not. He felt that this did not differ from the coercion by means of which soldiers were driven to drill on the parade ground, or students to unravel subtly invented grammatical puzzles. He was no longer able to regard ritual customs as poetic symbols of the position of man in the universe; instead he saw in them, more and more, superstitious usages preventing man from thinking independently. There arose in Einstein an aversion to the orthodox practices of the Jewish or any other traditional religion, as well as to attendance at religious services, and this he has never lost. He made up his mind that after graduation from the gymnasium he would abandon the Jewish religious community and not become a member of any other religious group, because he wanted to avoid having his personal relationship to the laws of nature arranged according to some sort of mechanical order.
     
5.
Departure from Munich
    When Einstein was fifteen an event occurred that diverted his life into a new path. His father became involved in business difficulties, as a result of which it appeared advisable to liquidate his factory in Munich and seek his fortune elsewhere. His pleasure-loving, optimistic temperament led him to migrate to a happier country, to Milan in Italy, where he established a similar enterprise. He wanted Albert, however, to complete his studies at the gymnasium. At this time it was axiomatic for every middle-class German that an educated person must have a diploma from a gymnasium, since only this diploma entitled him to become a student at a university. And as a course of study leading to a degree was in turn necessary before one could obtain a position in one of the intellectual professions, Einstein, like all the others, felt compelled to complete his course at the gymnasium.
    In the field