thought) and what can not be expressed by props, but only shown (gezeigt);
which, I believe, is the cardinal problem of philosophy. –
I also sent my MS to Frege. He wrote to me a week ago and I gather that
he doesn’t understand a word of it all. So my only hope is to see you
soon and explain all to you, for it is very hard not to be understood by a
single sole!
Now the day after tomorrow we shall probably leave the campo concen-
tramento and go home. Thank God! – But how can we meet as soon as
possible. I should like to come to England, but you can imagine that it’s
rather awkward for a German to travel to England now. (By far more so,
than for an Englishman to travel to Germany.) But in fact I didn’t think of
the autobiography of bertrand russell 332asking you to come to Vienna now, but it would seem to me the best thing
to meet in Holland or Svitserland. Of cors, if you cann’t come abroad I will
do my best to get to England. Please write to me as soon as possible about
this point, letting me know when you are likely to get the permission of
coming abroad. Please write to Vienna IV Alleegasse 16. As to my MS,
please send it to the same address; but only if there is an absolutely safe way
of sending it. Otherwise please keep it. I should be very glad though, to get
it soon, as it’s the only corrected coppy I’ve got. – My mother wrote to me,
she was very sorry not to have got your letter, but glad that you tried to
write to her at all.
Now write soon. Best wishes.
Ever yours
Ludwig Wittgenstein
P.S. After having ?nished my letter I feel tempted after all to answer some of
your simpler points...
1
20.9.20
Lieber Russell!
Dank’ Dir fuer Deinen lieben Brief! Ich habe jetzt eine Anstellung bekommen; und zwar als
Volksschullehrer in einem der kleinsten Doerfer; es heisst Trattenbach und liegt 4 Stunden suedlich
von Wien im Gebirge. Es duerfte wohl das erste mal sein, dass der Volksschullehrer von Trattenbach
mit einem Universitaetsprofessor in Peking korrespondiert. Wie geht es Dir und was traegst Du
vor? Philosophie? Dann wollte ich, ich koennte zuhoeren und dann mit Dir streiten. Ich war bis vor
kurzem schrecklich bedrueckt und lebensmuede, jetzt aber bin ich etwas ho?nungsvoller und
jetzt ho?e ich auch, dass wir uns wiedersehen werden.
Gott mit Dir! Und sei herzlichst gegruesst
von Deinem treuen
Ludwig Wittgenstein
20.9.20
Dear Russell
Thank you for your kind letter. I have now obtained a position: I am to be an
elementary-school teacher in a tiny village called Trattenbach. It’s in the moun-
tains, about four hours’ journey south of Vienna. It must be the ?rst time that the
schoolmaster at Trattenbach has ever corresponded with a professor in Peking. How
are you? And what are you lecturing on? Philosophy? If so, I wish I could be there
and could argue with you afterwards. A short while ago I was terribly depressed and
tired of living, but now I am slightly more hopeful, and one of the things I hope is
that we’ll meet again.
God be with you! Kindest regards.
Yours ever
Ludwig Wittgenstein
russia 333[Trattenbach]
23.10.21
Lieber Russell!
Verzeih, dass ich Dir erst jetzt auf Deinen Brief aus China antworte. Ich habe ihn sehr
verspaetet erhalten. Er traf mich nicht in Trattenbach und wurde mir an verschiedene Orte
nachgeschickt, ohne mich zu erreichen. – Es tut mir sehr leid, dass Du krank warst; und gar
schwer! Wie geht es denn jetzt?! Bei mir hat sich nichts veraendert. Ich bin noch immer in
Trattenbach und bin nach wie vor von Gehaessigkeit und Gemeinheit umgeben. Es ist wahr, dass
die Menschen im Durchschnitt nirgends sehr viel wert sind; aber hier sind sie viel mehr als
anderswo nichtsnutzig und unverantwortlich. Ich werde vielleicht noch dieses Jahr in Trattenbach
bleiben, aber laenger wohl nicht, da ich mich hier auch mit den uebrigen Lehrern nicht gut
vertrage. (Vielleicht wird das wo anders auch nicht besser sein.) Ja, das waere schoen, wenn
Du mich einmal besuchen wolltest! Ich bin froh zu hoeren, dass mein Manuskript in Sicherheit ist.
Wenn es gedruckt wird, wird’s mir auch recht sein. –
Schreib mir bald ein paar Zeilen, wie es Dir geht, etc. etc.
Sei herzlich gegruesst
von Deinem treuen
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Emp?ehl mich der Miss Black.
[Trattenbach]
23.10.21
Dear Russell
Forgive me for only now answering your letter from China. I got it after a very
long delay. I wasn’t in Trattenbach when it arrived and it was forwarded to several
places before it reached me. – I am very sorry that you have been ill – and seriously
ill! How are you now, then? As regards me, nothing has changed. I am still at Trattenbach,
surrounded, as ever, by odiousness and baseness. I know that human beings on the
average are not worth much anywhere, but here they are much more good-for-
nothing and irresponsible than elsewhere. I will perhaps stay on in Trattenbach for
the present year but probably not any longer, because I don’t get on well here even
with the other teachers (perhaps that won’t be any better in another place). Yes, it
would be nice indeed, if you would visit me sometime. I am glad to hear that my
manuscript is in safety. And if it’s printed, that will suit me too. –
Write me a few lines soon, to say how you are, etc. etc.
Kindest regards
Yours ever
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Remember me to Miss Black.
[Trattenbach]
28.11.21
Lieber Russell!
Dank Dir vielmals fuer Deinen lieben Brief. Ehrlich gestanden: es freut mich, dass mein Zeug
the autobiography of bertrand russell 334gedruckt wird. Wenn auch der Ostwald ein Erzscharlatan ist! Wenn er es nur nicht verstuem-
melt! Liest Du die Korrekturen? Dann bitte sei so lieb und gib acht, dass er es genau so druckt,
wie es bei mir steht. Ich traue dem Ostwald zu, dass er die Arbeit nach seinem Geschmack,
etwa nach seiner bloedsinnigen Orthographie, varaendert. Am liebsten ist es mir, dass die
Sache in England erscheint. Moege sie der vielen Muehe die Du und andere mit ihr hatten wuerdig
sein! –
Du hast recht: nicht die Trattenbacher allein sind schlechter, als alle uebrigen Menschen; wohl
aber ist Trattenbach ein besonders minderwertiger Ort in Oesterreich und die Oesterreicher
sind – seit dem Kreig – bodenlos tief gesunken, dass es zu traurig ist, davon zu reden! So ist es. –
Wenn Du diese Zeilen kriegst, ist vielleicht schon Dein Kind auf dieser merkwuerdigen Welt. Also:
ich gratuliere Dir und Deiner Frau herzlichst. Verzeih, dass ich so lange nicht geschrieben habe;
auch ich bin etwas kraenklich und riesig beschaeftift. Bitte schreibe wieder einmal wenn Du Zeit
hast. Von Ostwald habe ich keinen Brief erhalten. Wenn alles gut geht werde ich Dich mit tausend
Freuden besuchen!
Herzlichste Gruesse
Dein
Ludwig Wittgenstein
[Trattenbach]
28.11.21
Dear Russell
Many thanks for your kind letter! I must admit I am pleased that my stu? is
going to be printed. Even though Ostwald2
is an utter charlatan. As long as he
doesn’t tamper with it! Are you going to read the proofs? If so, please take care that
he prints it exactly as I have it. He is quite capable of altering the work to suit his
own tastes – putting it into his idiotic spelling, for example. What pleases me most
is that the whole thing is going to appear in England. I hope it may be worth all
the trouble that you and others have taken with it.
You are right: the Trattenbachers are not uniquely worse than the rest of
the human race. But Trattenbach is a particularly insigni?cant place in Austria and
the Austrians have sunk so miserably low since the war that it’s too dismal to talk
about. That’s what it is.
By the time you get this letter your child will perhaps already have come into
this remarkable world. So: warmest congratulations to you and your wife! Forgive
me for not having written to you for so long. I too haven’t been very well and I’ve
been tremendously busy. Please write again when you have time. I have not had a
letter from Ostwald. If all goes well, I will come and visit you with the greatest of
pleasure.
Kindest regards
Yours
Ludwig Wittgenstein
russia 335From C. K. Ogden
The International Library of
Psychology
Nov. 5, 1921
Dear Russell
Kegan Paul ask me to give them some formal note for their ?les with
regard to the Wittgenstein rights.
I enclose, with envelope for your convenience, the sort of thing I should
like. As they can’t drop less than ￡50 on doing it I think it very satisfactory to
have got it accepted – though of course if they did a second edition soon and
the price of printing went suddenly down they might get their costs back. I
am still a little uneasy about the title and don’t want to feel that we decided in
a hurry on Philosophical Logic. If on second thoughts you are satis?ed with it, we
can go ahead with that. But you might be able to excogitate alternatives that I
could submit.
Moore’s Spinoza title which he thought obvious and ideal is no use if you
feel Wittgenstein wouldn’t like it. I suppose his sub specie aeterni in the last
sentences of the book made Moore think the contrary, and several Latin
quotes. But as a selling title Philosophical Logic is better, if it conveys the right
impression.
Looking rapidly over the o? print in the train last night, I was amazed that
Nicod and Miss Wrinch had both seemed to make so very little of it. The
main lines seem so reasonable and intelligible – apart from the Types
puzzles. I know you are frightfully busy just at present, but I should very
much like to know why all this account of signs and symbols cannot best be
understood in relation to a thoroughgoing causal theory. I mean the sort of
thing in the enclosed: – on ‘Sign Situations’ (= Chapter II of the early
Synopsis attached). The whole book which the publishers want to call The
Meaning of Meaning is now passing through the press; and before it is too late
we should like to have discussed it with someone who has seriously con-
sidered Watson. Folk here still don’t think there is a problem of Meaning at all,
and though your Analysis of Mind has disturbed them, everything still remains
rather astrological.
With best wishes for, and love to the family,
Yours sincerely
C. K. Ogden
P.S. On second thoughts, I think that as you would prefer Wittgenstein’s
German to appear as well as the English, it might help if you added the P.S. I
have stuck in, and I will press them further if I can.
3
the autobiography of bertrand russell 336To Ottoline Morrell
Hotel Continental
Stockholm
25th June 1920
Dearest O
I have got thus far on my return, but boats are very full and it may be a
week before I reach England. I left Allen in a nursing home in Reval, no
longer in danger, tho’ twice he had been given up by the Doctors. Partly
owing to his illness, but more because I loathed the Bolsheviks, the time
in Russia was in?nitely painful to me, in spite of being one of the most
interesting things I have ever done. Bolshevism is a close tyrannical bureau-
cracy, with a spy system more elaborate and terrible than the Tsar’s, and an
aristocracy as insolent and unfeeling, composed of Americanised Jews. No
vestige of liberty remains, in thought or speech or action. I was sti?ed and
oppressed by the weight of the machine as by a cope of lead. Yet I think it
the right government for Russia at this moment. If you ask yourself how
Dostoevsky’s characters should be governed, you will understand. Yet it is
terrible. They are a nation of artists, down to the simplest peasant; the aim of
the Bolsheviks is to make them industrial and as Yankee as possible. Imagine
yourself governed in every detail by a mixture of Sidney Webb and Rufus
Isaacs, and you will have a picture of modern Russia. I went hoping to ?nd
the promised land.
All love – I hope I shall see you soon.
Your B.
From Emma Goldman
Mrs E. G. Kerschner
Bei Von Futtkamer
Rudesheimerstr. 3
Wilmersdorf, Berlin
July 8th [1922]
My dear Mr Russell
My niece forwarded your kind letter to her of June 17th. I should have
replied earlier, but I was waiting for her arrival, as I wanted to talk the matter
over with her.
Thank you very much for your willingness to assist me. I daresay you will
meet with very great di?culties. I understand that the British Foreign O?ce
refused visés to such people as Max Eastman of the Liberator, and Lincoln
Ste?ens, the journalist. It is not likely that the Government will be more
gracious to me.
I was rather amused at your phrase ‘that she will not engage in the
more violent forms of Anarchism?’ I know, of course, that it has been my
russia 337reputation that I indulged in such forms, but it has never been borne out by
the facts. However, I should not want to gain my right of asylum in England
or any country by pledging to abstain from the expression of my ideas, or the
right to protest against injustice. The Austrian Government o?ered me
asylum if I would sign such a pledge. Naturally, I refused. Life as we live it
today is not worth much. I would not feel it was worth anything if I had to
forswear what I believe and stand for.
Under these conditions, if it is not too great a burden, I would appreciate
any e?orts made in my behalf which would give me the right to come to
England. For the present I will probably get an extension of my visé in
Germany because I have had an o?er to write a book on Russia from Harper
Bros. of New York.
No, the Bolsheviki did not compel me to leave Russia. Much to my surprise
they gave me passports. They have however made it di?cult for me to obtain
visés from other countries. Naturally they can not endure the criticism
contained in the ten articles I wrote for the New York World, in April last, after
leaving Russia.
Very sincerely yours
Emma Goldman
Emma Goldman did at last acquire permission to come to England. A dinner was given in her
honour at which I was present. When she rose to speak, she was welcomed enthusiastically; but
when she sat down, there was dead silence. This was because almost the whole of her speech was
against the Bolsheviks.
the autobiography of bertrand russell 33810
CHINA
We travelled to China from Marseilles in a French boat called Portos. Just before
we left London, we learned that, owing to a case of plague on board, the
sailing would be delayed for three weeks. We did not feel, however, that we
could go through all the business of saying goodbye a second time, so we
went to Paris and spent the three weeks there. During this time I ?nished
my book on Russia, and decided, after much hesitation, that I would publish
it. To say anything against Bolshevism was, of course, to play into the hands
of reaction, and most of my friends took the view that one ought not to say
what one thought about Russia unless what one thought was favourable. I
had, however, been impervious to similar arguments from patriots during
the War, and it seemed to me that in the long run no good purpose would
be served by holding one’s tongue. The matter was, of course, much compli-
cated for me by the question of my personal relations with Dora. One hot
summer night, after she had gone to sleep, I got up and sat on the balcony
of our room and contemplated the stars. I tried to see the question without
the heat of party passion and imagined myself holding a conversation with
Cassiopeia. It seemed to me that I should be more in harmony with the
stars if I published what I thought about Bolshevism than if I did not. So I
went on with the work and ?nished the book on the night before we started
for Marseilles.
The bulk of our time in Paris, however, was spent in a more frivolous
manner, buying frocks suitable for the Red Sea, and the rest of the trousseau
required for uno?cial marriage. After a few days in Paris, all the appearance
of estrangement which had existed between us ceased, and we became gay
and light-hearted. There were, however, moments on the boat when things
were di?cult. I was sensitive because of the contempt that Dora had pouredon my head for not liking Russia. I suggested to her that we had made a
mistake in coming away together, and that the best way out would be to
jump into the sea. This mood, however, which was largely induced by the
heat, soon passed.
The voyage lasted ?ve or six weeks, so that one got to know one’s fellow-
passengers pretty well. The French people mostly belonged to the o?cial
classes. They were much superior to the English, who were rubber planters
and business men. There were rows between the English and the French, in
which we had to act as mediators. On one occasion the English asked me
to give an address about Soviet Russia. In view of the sort of people that they
were, I said only favourable things about the Soviet Government, so there was
nearly a riot, and when we reached Shanghai our English fellow-passengers
sent a telegram to the Consulate General in Peking, urging that we should
not be allowed to land. We consoled ourselves with the thought of what had
befallen the ring-leader among our enemies at Saigon. There was at Saigon an
elephant whose keeper sold bananas which the visitors gave to the elephant.
We each gave him a banana, and he made us a very elegant bow, but our
enemy refused, whereupon the elephant squirted dirty water all over his
immaculate clothes, which also the keeper had taught him to do. Perhaps our
amusement at this incident did not increase his love of us.
When we arrived at Shanghai there was at ?rst no one to meet us. I had had
from the ?rst a dark suspicion that the invitation might be a practical joke,
and in order to test its genuineness I had got the Chinese to pay my passage
money before I started. I thought that few people would spend ￡125 on a
joke, but when nobody appeared at Shanghai our fears revived, and we began
to think we might have to creep home with our tails between our legs. It
turned out, however, that our friends had only made a little mistake as to the
time of the boat’s arrival. They soon appeared on board and took us to a
Chinese hotel, where we passed three of the most bewildering days that I
have ever experienced. There was at ?rst some di?culty in explaining about
Dora. They got the impression that she was my wife, and when we said that
this was not the case, they were afraid that I should be annoyed about their
previous misconception. I told them that I wished her treated as my wife, and
they published a statement to that e?ect in the Chinese papers. From the ?rst
moment to the last of our stay in China, every Chinese with whom we came
in contact treated her with the most complete and perfect courtesy, and with
exactly the same deference as would have been paid to her if she had been in
fact my wife. They did this in spite of the fact that we insisted upon her always
being called ‘Miss Black’.
Our time in Shanghai was spent in seeing endless people, Europeans,
Americans, Japanese, and Koreans, as well as Chinese. In general the various
people who came to see us were not on speaking terms with each other; for
the autobiography of bertrand russell 340instance, there could be no social relations between the Japanese and the
Korean Christians who had been exiled for bomb-throwing. (In Korea at that
a time a Christian was practically synonymous with a bomb-thrower.) So we
had to put our guests at separate tables in the public room, and move round
from table to table throughout the day. We had also to attend an enormous
banquet, at which various Chinese made after-dinner speeches in the best
English style, with exactly the type of joke which is demanded of such an
occasion. It was our ?rst experience of the Chinese, and we were somewhat
surprised by their wit and ?uency. I had not realised until then that a civilised
Chinese is the most civilised person in the world. Sun Yat-sen invited me
to dinner, but to my lasting regret the evening he suggested was after my
departure, and I had to refuse. Shortly after this he went to Canton to
inaugurate the nationalist movement which afterwards conquered the whole
country, and as I was unable to go to Canton, I never met him.
Our Chinese friends took us for two days to Hangchow to see the Western
Lane. The ?rst day we went round it by boat, and the second day in chairs. It
was marvellously beautiful, with the beauty of ancient civilisation, surpassing
even that of Italy. From there we went to Nanking, and from Nanking by boat
to Hankow. The days on the Yangtse were as delightful as the days on the
Volga had been horrible. From Hankow we went to Changsha, where an
educational conference was in progress. They wished us to stay there for a
week, and give addresses every day, but we were both exhausted and anxious
for a chance to rest, which made us eager to reach Peking. So we refused to
stay more than twenty-four hours, in spite of the fact that the Governor of
Hunan in person held out every imaginable inducement, including a special
train all the way to Wuchang.
However, in order to do my best to conciliate the people of Changsha, I
gave four lectures, two after-dinner speeches, and an after-lunch speech,
during the twenty-four hours. Changsha was a place without modern hotels,
and the missionaries very kindly o?ered to put us up, but they made it clear
that Dora was to stay with one set of missionaries, and I with another. We
therefore thought it best to decline their invitation, and stayed at a Chinese
hotel. The experience was not altogether pleasant. Armies of bugs walked
across the bed all through the night.
The Tuchun1
gave a magni?cent banquet, at which we ?rst met the
Deweys, who behaved with great kindness, and later, when I became ill, John
Dewey treated us both with singular helpfulness. I was told that when he
came to see me in the hospital, he was much touched by my saying, ‘We must
make a plan for peace’ at a time when everything else that I said was delirium.
There were about a hundred guests at the Tuchun’s banquet. We assembled in
one vast hall and then moved into another for the feast, which was sumptu-
ous beyond belief. In the middle of it the Tuchun apologised for the extreme
china 341simplicity of the fare, saying that he thought we should like to see how
they lived in everyday life rather than to be treated with any pomp. To my
intense chagrin, I was unable to think of a retort in kind, but I hope the
interpreter made up for my lack of wit. We left Changsha in the middle of a
lunar eclipse, and saw bon?res being lit and heard gongs beaten to frighten
o? the Heavenly Dog, according to the traditional ritual of China on such
occasions. From Changsha, we travelled straight through to Peking, where
we enjoyed our ?rst wash for ten days.
Our ?rst months in Peking were a time of absolute and complete happi-
ness. All the di?culties and disagreements that we had had were completely
forgotten. Our Chinese friends were delightful. The work was interesting,
and Peking itself inconceivably beautiful.
We had a house boy, a male cook and a rickshaw boy. The house boy spoke
some English and it was through him that we made ourselves intelligible to
the others. This process succeeded better than it would have done in England.
We engaged the cook sometime before we came to live in our house and
told him that the ?rst meal we should want would be dinner some days
hence. Sure enough, when the time came, dinner was ready. The house boy
knew everything. One day we were in need of change and we had hidden
what we believed to be a dollar in an old table. We described its whereabouts
to the house boy and asked him to fetch it. He replied imperturbably, ‘No,
Madam. He bad.’ We also had the occasional services of a sewing woman.
We engaged her in the winter and dispensed with her services in the summer.
We were amused to observe that while, in winter, she had been very fat, as the
weather grew warm, she became gradually very thin, having replaced the
thick garments of winter gradually by the elegant garments of summer. We
had to furnish our house which we did from the very excellent second-hand
furniture shops which abounded in Peking. Our Chinese friends could not
understand our preferring old Chinese things to modern furniture from
Birmingham. We had an o?cial interpreter assigned to look after us. His
English was very good and he was especially proud of his ability to make
puns in English. His name was Mr Chao and, when I showed him an article
that I had written called ‘Causes of the Present Chaos’, he remarked, ‘Well, I
suppose, the causes of the present Chaos are the previous Chaos.’ I became a
close friend of his in the course of our journeys. He was engaged to a Chinese
girl and I was able to remove some di?culties that had impeded his marriage.
I still hear from him occasionally and once or twice he and his wife have
come to see me in England.
I was very busy lecturing, and I also had a seminar of the more advanced
students. All of them were Bolsheviks except one, who was the nephew of the
Emperor. They used to slip o? to Moscow one by one. They were charming
youths, ingenuous and intelligent at the same time, eager to know the world
the autobiography of bertrand russell 342and to escape from the trammels of Chinese tradition. Most of them had been
betrothed in infancy to old-fashioned girls, and were troubled by the ethical
question whether they would be justi?ed in breaking the betrothal to marry
some girl of modern education. The gulf between the old China and the new
was vast, and family bonds were extraordinarily irksome for the modern-
minded young man. Dora used to go to the Girls’ Normal School, where
those who were to be teachers were being trained. They would put to her
