Letter to Friedrich Engels, July 16, 1857

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 16 July 1857


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 2, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


80

MARX TO ENGELS

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 16 July 1857

Dear Frederic,

I have today sent you the Rüstow,[1] which you should return as soon as possible, since Steffen is working on it just now. I told him I wanted it for myself.

The enclosed notes are of little value, EXCEPT PERHAPS for a quotation or two.[2] I did, in fact, take a look at the Encyclopaedia Britannica but there was no time to read it properly. I fear that the notes will contain little that is new to you. Were taken from: Ersch and Gruber: Encyclopédie universelle[3] ; Pauly: Realencyclopädie der classischen Alterthumswissenschaft (1844-52). Impossible for me to read the works themselves just now. Pity I didn't apply myself to them sooner. The Encyclopaedia Britannica seems to have been copied pretty well word for word from the German and French works and hence is difficult to get away from unless one reads the specialised writings.

My wife better physically; however still in bed; also extraordi- narily out of temper for which, au fond de coeur[4] and UNDER PRESENT AUSPICES, I don't blame her though I find it wearisome.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

I trust your health keeps improving.

  1. ↑ W. Rüstow, Heerwesen und Kriegführung C. Julius Cäsars.
  2. ↑ This refers to excerpts which Marx made from the various sources on the military history of antiquity for Engels, who was working on the article 'Army' for The New American Cyclopaedia. The notes from the encyclopaedias of Ersch-Gruber and Pauly mentioned below in the text are extant. Marx also made excerpts, probably later, from Wilkinson's three-volume Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, London, 1837.—147, 565
  3. ↑ This probably refers to the French translation of Allgemeine Encyclopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste... herausgegeben von J. S. Ersch und J. G. Gruber.
  4. ↑ at the bottom of my heart