THE OPEN COURT PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO,
La Salle, Ill., May 23, 1916.
Prof. Ernest Haeckel,
Jena, Germany.
My dear Professor:
Your letter of March 30th reached me yesterday, which is fully seven weeks since it was written, and I wonder that it reached me at all, for the letter has been opened by the English censor, but I suppose he did not know your name and was satisfied that you had not betrayed any war secrets. I write again in English because I want to announce the arrival of your letter and send you a preliminary answer in German. In the meantime I will say that I know your God conception, and I know that if you think it over you will agree with my conception of the Over-God. In fact you say so. It is the same as Goethe’s conception and there are only details where I would object to your God conception, and I feel convinced that you would consider those points as indifferent or would even withdraw them.
I do not see God in matter or energy but in those factors of nature which produce order and bring about the development of man or evolution in general, or what we call the world order, and so I call it nomotheism. I believe it is better to retain the God idea an account oft he deep truth it contains.
I am glad that you are in fairly good health, and I will say that || I hope many years will be added unto you so as to enjoy a pleasant evening of your laborious and successful life.
I shall very soon write again in German. I am sorry that I could not publish your book an Eternity, but the main thing is that it appears in German, and I will do my best to announce it and take the agency of the book for Chicago and surroundings. I plan a careful review of the book and will say the main thing is not that I publish it, but that it appears in English translation and that it becomes accessible and well known in the United States.
With kindest regards, I remain,
Your old friend and admirer,
PC/N
Paul Carus
Werde bald deutsch antworten u. gleichzeitig Ihnen ein kleines Drama über den Krieg zuschicken, was Sie vielleicht interessiren wird. Wir haben hier schwere Zeiten um die unglaublichen Vorurtheile unserer antideutschen Mitbürger zu bekämpfen u. bei der nächsten Präsidentenwahl die Deutschhasser herauszuhalten. Wilson hat wohl keine Aussicht auf Wiederwahl da alle Deutsch-Amerikaner u. Irisch-Amerikaner darin zusammen gehen, ihn nicht wieder zu erwählen u. beide zusammen sind wohl ein Drittel aller Stimmberechtigten. Die Hauptsache ist Sieg der Deutschen Waffen u. das wird doch seinen Weg gehen.