London, 26 February, 1895 
41 Regent’s Park Road, N. W. 

My dear Plekhanov, 

Everything was arranged eight days ago, Vera* wrote to me and said that 
she would be delighted to be treated by Freyberger. He went to see her eight 
days ago yesterday, and has since been twice. He discovered that she had a 
severe case of bronchitis, and has prescribed the necessary medicines. 
However, he says that what she needs most is a different diet. 

Zasulich - * See p. 453, Vol. 27 - ™ See p. 459, Vol. 27 

She should eat meat instead of fruit jellies and other vegetable foods. 
Freyberger is out at the moment, so I will return to the question of her health 
before finishing this letter. 

Now, since you have made me more or less responsible for the state of her 
health, you must tell me if she has need of money. If she has, I would ask you 
to permit me to offer you some for her, however little, at least during her 
illness, I will send you, say, five pounds to begin with, that you can persuade 
her to accept as coming from you, so that I do not come into it at all. You 
could tell her that you have sent her this money to remove any excuse for 
refusing to change her diet, and that Freyberger has said that she must do so. 
Or perhaps you can find another excuse. 

I will not have the time to read the critical review of my book* in Russian 
Heritage.” I have already seen enough on this subject in the issue for January 
1894. °°? As for Danielson, I fear that there is nothing to be done with him. I 
sent him by /etter post ~* the Russian material from Internationales aus dem 
Volketaat, and in particular the 1894 appendix, which was written, in part, 
directly with him in view. °°? He has received it but, as you see, it is useless. 
There is no way of discussing with this generation of Russians to which he 
belongs, and which still believes in the spontaneous-communist mission 
which distinguishes Russia, the true Holy Russ,° from other profane peoples. 

As for the rest, in a country such as yours, where largescale modern 
industry is grafted onto the primitive peasant commune, and where all the 
intermediary stages of civilisation are represented simultaneously, in a 
country which, in addition, is surrounded more or less effectively by an 
intellectual wall of China erected by despotism, it is scarcely surprising if the 
most bizarre and impossible combinations of ideas are produced. Take the 
poor devil Flerovsky, who imagines that tables and beds think, but have no 
memory. It is a phase the country must pass through. Little by little, with the 
growth of the towns, the isolation of men of talent will disappear, and with it 
these mental aberrations caused by loneliness, the inconsistency of the 
patchy knowledge of these curious thinkers, and also a little, in the 
Narodniki,’ by the despair of seeing their hopes evaporate. Indeed, one ex- 
terrorist Narodnik" would end quite appropriately by becoming a tsarist. 

“F. Engels, The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. -? The magazine title is 
written by Engels in Russian. - ° [in Russian] - “ [in Russian] 

To join in these polemics I would have to read a vast literature, keep up to 
date, and reply. This would then take up all my time for a whole year, and the 
only useful result would be that I would probably know Russian considerably 
better than I do now, but I am asked to do the same for Italy on the question 
of lillustre* Loria. And I am already overwhelmed with work! 

Jaurés is on the right road. He is /Jearning Marxism, and he should not be 
hurried too much. However, he has already made good progress, much more 
than I had dared hope. °*'* As for the rest, let us not require too much 
orthodoxy! The party is too large, and the theory of Marx has become too 
widespread for relatively isolated muddle headed persons to do too much 
harm in the West. In your part of the world it is different, as it was with us in 
1845-59. 

I share your opinion as regards Nicholas. '’ The ‘Zemsky Sobor’ will 
come despite this little gentleman. >” 

Freyberger has just returned, and tells me that Vera is a great deal better, 
and that up to the present he has discovered nothing more than chronic and 
neglected bronchial catarrh. 

Yours, 
FE.