Letter to Ferdinand Lassalle, March 14, 1859

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 14 March 1859


First published in: F. Lassalle. Nachgelassene Briefe und Schriften, Bd. III, Stuttgart-Berlin, 1922
Printed according to the original
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 40


ENGELS TO FERDINAND LASSALLE

IN BERLIN

Manchester, 14 March 1859 6 Thorncliffe Grove, Oxford Street Dear Lassalle,

First of all my thanks for your bons offices[1] with Duncker, which have met with such outstanding success and will, for the first time in nearly ten years, give me the opportunity of appearing before the German public. I sent the manuscript to Marx last Wednesday[2] and he will have forwarded it on Thursday. The title page should read simply Po and Rhine, Berlin, Published by... etc., etc. Marx and I both consider it better that the thing should first appear anonymously because specialised and, at the start, the name of a civilian could only be detrimental to a military paper. If the thing is successful, as I hope, it will be time enough to put my name to it. There's no need for a table of contents, the sections being merely numbered. Nor have I written a foreword.

Marx thinks it will amount to 4 sheets, which I doubt, but it all depends on the printing, of course.

As regards terms, I have decided in favour of half the net profits; it goes without saying, of course, that there should be the usual number of free copies, one of which you must naturally bespeak in advance. They can be sent through publisher's channels, though I'd like one (or else proofs) to be sent direct to me by post. I might bring it out in English. The matter lends itself less readily to a French translation which would, furthermore, be difficult to place; however, I shall see.

How is the printing of Marx's manuscript[3] getting on? So far I've only heard of one sheet having been printed, and yet the manuscript has been in Berlin for over a month. This seems to me very slow. One or two instalments at least should be out in time for the Leipzig Fair and there's not long to go.

Reiterated promises notwithstanding, Marx hasn't yet sent me your Heraclitus,[4] which I greatly look forward to seeing, although both my Greek and the speculative concept have grown exceeding- ly rusty. I am equally anxious to read your play,[5] which I have

seen advertised. Despite your versatility, I would never have expected you to take up this speciality as well.

Since I've been here I have been devoting myself largely to militaria, also dallying at intervals with an old love, comparative philology. But when one has engaged in noble commerce all day long, it's impossible to go beyond sheer dilettantism in so vast and extensive a discipline. And even though I once cherished the brash idea of writing a comparative grammar of the Slavonic languages, I gave it up long ago, the more so since Miklosich[6] has undertaken the same thing with such brilliant success.

So once again very many thanks and kind regards from your

F. E.

  1. ↑ good offices
  2. ↑ 9 March
  3. ↑ of Marx's A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy
  4. ↑ F. Lassalle, Die Philosophie Herakleitos des Dunklen von Ephesos.
  5. ↑ F. Lassalle, Franz von Sickingen.
  6. ↑ F. Miklosich, Vergleichende Grammatik der slawischen Sprachen.