MARX TO ENGELS 
IN MANCHESTER 


{London,] 8 January 1868 
Dear Frep, 


I have ditto received the Staats-Anzeiger and the Beobachter 
from Kugelmann. I am returning you your Staats-Anzeiger today. 
Also the cory Kugelmann sent me of the letter from the colonel 
who arranged the whole thing. Wirttemberg is now sufficiently 
provided. In my opinion,—with special regard to sales— Austria is 
now the most important. Notabene, if you have the patience to 
write more prescriptions.* Little Jenny, an expert in this respect, 
claims that you are developing great dramatic talent, or comic 
talent, in pursuing this action from ‘different’ viewpoints and in 
different disguises. 


a Demokratisches Wochenblatt - > Paul Lafargue - © F. Engels’ reviews of Volume One 
of Capital for the Staats-Anzeiger fiir Wiirttemberg and for the Beobachter. - 4 Adolf 
Friedrich Seubert - © reviews of the first volume of Capital 


314. Marx to Engels. 8 January 1868 513 


In the next few days—I am still a trifle limp, and do not feel 
much like writing—but as soon as I am quite on my feet I shall 
give Wilhelmchen* a good hiding. This is because of his 
identification of my views with the specific views of Wilhelm. 

Dihring’s article” (he is lecturer at Berlin University) is very 
decent, particularly since I handled his master ‘Carey’ so roughly. 
Dihring obviously misunderstood various things. But the oddest 
thing is that he ranks me with Stein, because I pursue the 
dialectic, and Stein assembles thoughtlessly the greatest trivialities 
in clumsy hair-splitting, with a few Hegelian category conversions.‘ 

Have you already received Borkheim’s Perle“? 

It appears that professional poesy is simply a mask for the driest 
sort of prosiness. Take, for example, the Freiligrath family. Kate 
travels (on her honeymoon) to Paris with Kréker, the young corn 
usurer. However, since this noble man has ‘business’ to do at the 
same time, he leaves her alone in one of the big Paris hotels for 
2-3 days. Kate and the whole ramiy find this quite in order. Kate 
even writes delightedly that in the hotel they call her ‘mademoisel- 
le’ (after she had spent the night together with Kroker there), and 
that all the waiters and even the porter give her friendly ‘nods’. 
But even more: Kréker (after this business trip to the provinces) 
returns from Paris immediately to London with Kate, and the 
whole family is delighted that the ‘Honeymoon’ is to be postponed 
for 6 months, since business ‘comes first’. After all, for a poet the 
HonEYMoon is only a flower of speech, and can be ‘celebrated’ before 
or after the accouchement, early or late (the facts were related by 
the Freiligrath boys in my house). Kate even seems to have read 
Clauren, for she described herself—from Paris—as a ‘grass 
widow’. 

The Yankees will show John Bull what’s what. What do you 
think of the latest rodomontades of the Russians? 

Dwarf Alberich‘ was very delighted by your letter.) He is just off 
to the gymnastics school, where he is doing great things. 

Salut. 


Your 
K. M.