THE EDGE OF HISTORY 171lated immediately in his mind into an anticipation of new phenomena, susceptible
some day to experimental verification. I would not say that all his expectations
will resist experimental check when such checks will become possible. Since he is
probing in all directions, one should anticipate, on the contrary, that most of the
roads he is following will lead to dead ends; but, at the same time, one must hope
that one of the directions he has indicated will be a good one; and that suffices'
[P6].
That, as best I know, is the single and final judgment on Einstein that Poincare
left us. Twice, having met Einstein and written this letter, did he comment on
relativity [P7, P8]. Twice did he mention Lorentz but not Einstein, though he
referred to Einstein in connection with the photo effect on the second of these
occasions. That was in an address given on April 11, 1912. He died unexpectedly
three months later.
In 1919, the mathematician Mittag-Leffler wrote to Einstein, asking him to
contribute an article to the Ada Mathematica volume in honor of Poincare [M3].
Four months later, Einstein responded. The letter had reached him after a long
delay and 'it might be too late' now [E14]. Mittag-Leffler replied that Einstein
could still send a paper if he cared to do so [M4]. Two and a half months later,
Einstein replied that obligations and travel prevented him from contributing, add-
ing that his decision 'should be considered as nothing but high respect for the task'
[EH].
In December 1920, a New York Times correspondent interviewed Einstein in
his home on the Haberlandstrasse in Berlin. In reply to a question about the
origins of relativity theory, Einstein said, 'It was found that [Galilean invariance]
would not conform to the rapid motions in electrodynamics. This led the Dutch
professor Lorentz and myself to develop the theory of special relativity. ..' [El5].
An additional mention of Poincare's pioneering ideas might have been gracious.
In an interview with Le Figaro in 1921, he expressed his great admiration for
Poincare, however [El6].
In the early 1950s, I once asked Einstein how Poincare's Palermo paper had
affected his thinking. Einstein replied that he had never read that paper. I owned
a copy—a second-hand exemplar of the Gauthier-Villars reprint—and asked if
he would like to borrow that. Yes, he said, he would. I brought it to him. It was
never returned to me. Some time after Einstein's death, I asked Helen Dukas if
she would please look for it. It had vanished. ...
Perhaps he did read it. In 1953 Einstein received an invitation to attend the
forthcoming Bern celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of special relativity. Ein-
stein wrote back that his health did not permit him to plan such a trip. In this
letter Einstein mentions for the first time (as far as I know) Poincare's role in
regard to the special theory: 'Hoffentlich wird dafiir gesorgt dasz die Verdienste
von H. A. Lorentz und H. Poincare bei dieser Gelegenheit ebenfalls sachgemass
gewiirdigt werden'* [E17]. The Bern conference took place shortly after Ein-
*I hope that one will also take care on that occasion to honor suitably the merits of L. and P.