9 Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park, 
Haverstock Hill 

Dear Lassalle, 

Nutt has now sent me Heraclitus.’ As soon as I have read it all I 
shall let you have my opinion. But you will have to wait a while 

a at bottom - > i.e. jumper - © don’t worry - 4 F. Lassalle, Die Philosophie Herakleitos 
des Dunklen von Ephesos. 

since I have,exceptionally little spare time just now. As regards the 
Stoics, I did not myself study their relationship to Heraclitus in the 
matter of natural philosophy, because of the novice-like earnest- 
ness of their approach to this discipline. Of Epicurus, on the other 
hand, it can be shown en détail that, although he bases himself on 
the natural philosophy of Democritus, he is for ever turning the 
argument inside out. Cicero and Plutarch can hardly be blamed 
for not having grasped this since it has eluded even men of 
intellect such as Bayle, not to speak of Hegel ipsissimus.* Nor, for 
that matter, could one expect Hegel, the first to comprehend 
the entire history of philosophy, not to commit errors of 
detail. 

From, the papers you will have seen that Palmerston has fallen. 
Those best acquainted with the old rascal are generally inclined to 
suspect that his last BLuNpDERs were deliberate, so that he could make 
his exit pro tempore. They affirm that le dernier but de toute sa vie 
was to engineer a war between England and France, that he now 
believes he has managed to do so, that at first other hands are to 
be concerned with the execution of his plan and that, when the 
imbroglio has become sufficiently involved and is far enough
advanced, THE NATION WILL BE FORCED TO CALL AGAIN UPON HIM. This latter 
opinion may be too recherché, but that Pam did not resign in any 
way against his will seems to me unquestionable. 

Now, as to your cousin,° there’s one thing I am willing to do, but 
the Presse, I assume, would not.?** All I could commit myself to 
would be one article a week on trade, finance, etc., in any one of 
the three countries, England, France and the United States of 
America, depending on which is interestinc. This is also the most 
practicable form in which to attack Bonaparte. It is also a form 
which would permit me to have absolutely nothing to do with the 
Presse politically. It seems to me that just now there is widespread 
ignorance, especially about French financial affairs and French 
economic conditions in general. The question is whether the 
subject will be of sufficient interest to the Presse, or RATHER, to its 
readers. They, of course, must be the best judges of that. For a 
weekly article of this kind I would ask £1 sterling. Moreover, it 
would be necessary for me to have a few copies of the Presse 
beforehand so that I could see whether my principles would -at all 
permit me to work for the paper. However That May BE, will you 
thank your cousin on my behalf for having remembered me in 
this connection. 


a his very self - > the ultimate aim of his whole life - ¢ Max Friedlander 




Now let me tell you how my political economy” is getting on. I 
have in Fact been at work on the final stages for some months. But 
the thing is proceeding very slowly because no sooner does one set 
about finally disposing of subjects to which one has devoted years 
of study than they start revealing new aspects and demand to be 
thought out further. On top of which I am not master of my time 
but RATHER its slave. Only the nights are left for my own work, 
which in turn is often disrupted by bilious attacks or recurrences 
of liver trouble. All things considered it would be most convenient 
for me to bring out the whole work in instalments without any 
rigid datelines. This might also have the advantage of making it 
easier to find a publisher, since less working capital would be tied 
up in the venture. You would, or course, oblige me by trying to 
find someone in Berlin prepared to undertake this. By ‘instal- 
ments, I mean fascicles similar to those in which Vischer’s 
Aesthetik came out. 

The work I am presently concerned with is a Critique of 
Economic Categories or, IF you Like, a critical exposé of the system of 
the bourgeois economy. It is at once an exposé and, by the same 
token, a critique of the system. I have very little idea how many 
sheets the whole thing will amount to. Had I the means, the time 
and the leisure to finish the whole thing off completely prior to 
placing it before the public, I would condense it a great deal, a 
method for which I have always had a predilection. But printed 
thus, in successive instalments—easier for readers to understand 
perhaps but certainly detrimental to the form—it is bound to be 
rather more diffuse. Nota bene: As soon as you know definitely 
whether or not the thing can be done in Berlin, kindly write to me, 
since if it’s no go there [ll try Hamburg. A further point is that I 
must be paid by the publisher who takes the thing on—a 
stipulation over which it might come to grief in Berlin. 

The presentation—the manner of it, I mean—is entirely 
scientific, hence unobjectionable to the police in the ordinary 
sense. The whole is divided into 6 books: 1. On Capital (contains a 
few introductory chapters). 2. On Landed Property. 3. On Wage 
Labour. 4. On the State. 5. International Trade. 6. World Market. 
I cannot, of course, avoid all critical consideration of other 
economists, in particular a polemic against Ricardo in as much as 
even he, qua bourgeois, cannot but commit blunders even from a 
strictly economic viewpoint. But generally speaking the critique and 
history of political economy and socialism would form the subject 
of another work, and, finally, the short historical outline of the 
development of economic categories and relations yet a third. Now 




that I am at last ready to set to work after 15 years of study, I 
have an uncomfortable feeling that turbulent movements from 
without will probably trerrere arrer att. Never mind. If I finish too 
late and thus find the world no longer attentive to such subjects, 
the fault is clearly my own. 

I was greatly amused by your remarks about Rudolf Schramm.* 
Sad to say, a worthier Schramm, Conrad, brother of the above and 
one of my best friends, died of consumption in Jersey some 
4 weeks ago. The death within the past few years of Weerth, 
Schramm and Dr Daniels has been a blow to their friends, 
amongst whom I was happy enough to count myself. 

There are turbulent times in the offing. If I were merely to 
consult my own private inclinations, I would wish for another few 
years of superficial calm. There could, at any rate, be no better 
time for scholarly undertakings and, after all, what has happened 
over the last ten years must have increased any RATIONAL BEING's 
contempt for the masses as for individuals to such a degree that 
‘odi profanum vulgus et arceo” has almost become an inescapable 
maxim. However all these are themselves philistine ruminations 
which will be swept away by the first storm. 


Your 
K. M. 


The connection between the latest events in France?” and the 


commercial crisis is, perhaps, apparent only to a few. It becomes 
EVIDENT, however, if one considers 1. THE REAL ECONOMICAL STATE 
PRODUCED IN FRANCE BY THE LAST crisis; 2. asks oneself and conscien- 
cieusement answers, why the attempted assassination brought forth 
the effects it did, effects which Apparently STOOD IN NO PROPORTION 
WHATEVER, AND EVEN IN NO NECESSARY RELATION TO THE ALLEGED CAUSE.