Letter to Pyotr Lavrov, January 19, 1872

Author(s) Friedrich Engels
Written 19 January 1872


First published, in Russian, in Letopisi marksizma, Book V, Moscow-Leningrad, 1928
Printed according to the original
Translated from the French
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44


ENGELS TO PYOTR LAVROV

IN PARIS

London, 19 January 1872 122 Regent's Park Road, N.W.

My dear Friend,

You will already have received the books[1] listed in the enclosed invoice for the sum of £1 16s. 5d. and I have debited your account accordingly.[2]

On the other hand I have credited you with your remittance of £2 8s., which I have not yet cashed.

Hodgson's work is quite unknown to me, nor have I seen it advertised anywhere. However, I shall endeavour to find out something about it.

Our accounts should more or less balance now. I shall be writing to you about the Gazette des Tribuneaux, a journal of which I do not think we shall have any further need; the subscription expires at the end of January.

You will have received The Eastern Post journals which I addressed to you, as also the other printed matter which I have enclosed with them from time to time.

As for the International, things are going well. B.'s[3] intrigues will not amount to anything much. That man forgets that the working masses cannot be led as could a little bunch of doctrinaire sectarians. We have had, by the bye, some most valuable intelligence regarding his machinations in Russia—from the original source, at that. They are unutterably despicable.

Ever your obedient servant,

Yours,

F. E.

  1. ↑ In a letter to Engels of 21 December 1871 Pyotr Lavrov asked for two works by Alexander Bain, The Senses and the Intellect and The Emotions and the Will, and for The Principles of Psychology by Herbert Spencer. He also requested Engels to look for Sh. H. Hodgson's A New System of Philosophy (the title is inaccurate; the reference is either to Hodgson's Philosophy of Reflection, published in 1870, or to another of his philosophical works).
  2. ↑ See this volume, p. 276.
  3. ↑ Engels uses the Russian letter B for the initial. The reference is to Bakunin.