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PARTISAN REVIEW
causality is more than a category of pure reason. It is the very
essence of creation. You may even call it the thing in itself."
"Who made causality?" I asked, just to say something.
"No one, and therein is its beauty. Let me tell you-about two
years ago something happened to me which had all the earmarks of
one of your miracles. I was absolutely convinced that no explanation
of it was possible. Rationalist that I am, I said to myself,
'If
this ac–
tually happened and it was not a dream, I will have to reappraise
everything I learned from the first grade in Gymnasium to the
universities of Bonn and Bern.' But then I heard the explanation and
it was as convincing and as simple as only the truth can
be.
As a
matter of fact, I thought I would write a story about it myself.
However, I don't want to compete with our literati. I guess you
know that I don't have too high an opinion of fiction. It may sound
like a sacrilege to you, but I find more human fallacies, more
psychology, and even more entertainment in the daily press than in
all your literary magazines. Does my cigar bother you?"
"Not at all."
"You certainly know - I don't need to tell you - that our type–
setters in
The Haint
and in the Yiddish press generally make more er–
rors than all the other typesetters in the whole world. Although they
consider themselves ardent Yiddishists, they don't have the slightest
respect for their language. I don't sleep nights because of these bar–
bari'ans. Who was it who said that ninety-nine percent of all writers
die not from cancer or consumption but from misprints . Every week
I read three proofs of my Friday feuilleton, but when they correct
one mistake they immediately make another, and sometimes two,
three, or four.
"About two years ago I happened to write an article about
Kant,
ajubilieum
of a sort. When it comes to philosophic terms, our
typesetters get especially rattled. Besides, the man who makes up the
page layout has a tradition of losing at least one line from my
feuilleton every time, and I often find it in another article, some–
times even in the news. On that day I quoted a phrase which offered
a perfect target for misprints :
The transcendental unity ofthe apperception.
I knew our typesetters would make mincemeat out of it, but I had to
use it. I read the proofs three times as usual, and miraculously the
words came out correctly every time. But I uttered a little prayer for
the future, just in case. That night I went to sleep as hopeful as a
writer in Yiddish can afford to be.
"The papers are brought to me every morning about eight
