A year into college, I read most of the texts by Albert Einstein. My favorite was a book called, Essays in Science (New York, 1934). The first paragraph, which had a profound life-long impact on me, states:

In the temple of Science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were an angel of the Lord to come and drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, it would be noticeably emptier, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him.

in which, if my memory serves me, was copied from his 1918 address to the Physical Society in Berlin for Max Planck's 60th birthday.

Recently, I searched the internet for this quote and I discovered:

In the temple of science are many mansions, and various indeed are they that dwell therein and the motives that have led them thither. Many take to science out of a joyful sense of superior intellectual power; science is their own special sport to which they look for vivid experience and the satisfaction of ambition; many others are to be found in the temple who have offered the products of their brains on this altar for purely utilitarian purposes. Were [someone to] drive all the people belonging to these two categories out of the temple, the assemblage would be seriously depleted, but there would still be some men, of both present and past times, left inside. Our Planck is one of them, and that is why we love him. Reference#1, Reference#2, and Reference#3

where you'll notice the replacement of "an angel of the Lord to" with "[someone to]" and the latter two references scrub the entire last third of the paragraph, and thus the third group of scientist, altogether.

Why would they, whomever "they" are, replace Einstein's words with something else? The only conclusion is that the original quote is offensive to someone. But what can their reason be to exclude it? Did Einstein own slaves or was he some sort of elitist or supremacist? Was he an oppressive founding father of an imperialistic capitalistic nation? Why would anyone cancel Einstein's exact wording? I ask such questions and use such wording only because it is the questions and wording used by a subset of today's society for justification of removing historical contributors of whom we all benefit from their sacrifices, including Einstein's.

Einstein obviously, blatantly believed in "an angel of the Lord", heaven, and even in judgement. In fact, Einstein used to respond to Neils Bohr with "God does not roll dice." In a modern culture of promoting scientists to near stardom and superhero status, I ask again and given the above, why would "they" modify or censor Einstein? Perhaps, his religious or spiritual verbalizations or acknowledgements are in some way offensive. Perhaps, its because he was Jewish, was persecuted as such, and literally hunted by the Nazis. Perhaps, the modern cancel culture forbid those conversations in the present.

Despite today's motivations for censoring Einstein's work, its compelling to return with the following paragraph:

I am quite aware that we have just now lightheartedly expelled in imagination many excellent men who are largely, perhaps chiefly, responsible for the buildings of the temple of science; and in many cases our angel would find it a pretty ticklish job to decide. But of one thing I feel sure: if the types we have just expelled were the only types there were, the temple would never have come to be, any more than a forest can grow which consists of nothing but creepers. For these people any sphere of human activity will do, if it comes to a point; whether they become engineers, officers, tradesmen, or scientists depends on circumstances. Now let us have another look at those who have found favor with the angel. Most of them are somewhat odd, uncommunicative, solitary fellows, really less like each other, in spite of these common characteristics, than the hosts of the rejected. What has brought them to the temple? That is a difficult question and no single answer will cover it. To begin with, I believe with Schopenhauer that one of the strongest motives that leads men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from personal life into the world of objective perception and thought; this desire may be compared with the townsman's irresistible longing to escape from his noisy, cramped surroundings into the silence of high mountains, where the eye ranges freely through the still, pure air and fondly traces out the restful contours apparently built for eternity.

"But of one thing I feel sure: if the types we have just expelled were the only types there were, the temple would never have come to be.." is an important statement of Einstein's.

acknowledgement of the third group, i.e., the pure intentioned, pure minded natural scientist seeking absolute Truth ____ After the above, Einstein details the motivations of the first two groups as being rather self-centered, primarily through competition and personal gain, respectively, and then proposes the motivations of the third group.

Please inform me if any of the above references change their quote to the correct accurate version.

Thank you and Sincerely.
Stephen Lukacs, Ph.D., Physical Chemistry
April 30, 2024