Karl Marx

Capital Volume One

1872

PREFACE TO THE

FRENCH EDITION

To the citizen Maurice Lachâtre

Dear Citizen,

I applaud your idea of publishing the translation of “Das Kapital”
as a serial. In this form the book will be more accessible to the working
class, a consideration which to me outweighs everything else.

That is the good side of your suggestion, but here is the reverse
of the medal: the method of analysis which I have employed, and which had
not previously been applied to economic subjects, makes the reading of
the first chapters rather arduous, and it is to be feared that the French
public, always impatient to come to a conclusion, eager to know the connexion
between general principles and the immediate questions that have aroused
their passions, may be disheartened because they will be unable to move
on at once.

That is a disadvantage I am powerless to overcome, unless it be
by forewarning and forearming those readers who zealously seek the truth.
There is no royal road to science, and only those who do not dread the
fatiguing climb of its steep paths have a chance of gaining its luminous
summits.

Believe me,

dear citizen,

Your devoted,

Karl Marx

London

March 18, 1872