London, 20 June 1884 

Dear Old Man, 

I hereby notify you that I have today taken out a £5 money order 
on your behalf and hope the post office will have advised you of its re- 
ceipt by the time this letter arrives—it goes off by the next post. 
I have long looked forward to being able to make the above available 
and am glad that the moment has now come. 

However, I cannot, alas, write you a long letter since, in my par- 
ticular condition, prolonged sitting at my desk is bad for me and conse- 
quently prohibited. Unfortunately I have again knocked myself up 
a bit by doing so, for I have had a great deal of work to get through; 
but resting in a prone position, as I have again been doing most assid- 
uously for the past few days, will soon put me to rights again. I am 
now dictating the 2nd volume of Capital,* and so far it has been go- 

@ Presumably to Oskar Eisengarten (see this volume, p. 153). 

ing quite quickly, but it’s the devil of a job and will demand a great 
deal of time and, in parts, much brain-racking. Luckily my brain is in 
pretty good shape and quite up to the mark where work is concerned 
as you will, I hope, be able to see from a little book on the origin of 
the family, private property and the state soon to be published. The 
second book of Capital will also, I think, come out before the end of 
the year, and the third next year. 

At Whitsuntide I spent a week with Borkheim ?%°; he is still laid 
up, with one side half paralysed, gets up three times a day for meals 
and to do some writing, is writing his biography,? and is in good 
spirits and surprisingly cheerful for one in his condition, but some- 
times suffers terribly from boredom. Moreover, he cannot read any- 
thing that demands much effort — not that he ever really has done. I 
send him books and the like every so often. He asked fondly after you 
and, in fact, we talked a great deal about you and about the old days. 

Amongst Marx’s papers I have found a few military campaign 
journals and the like relating to German columns in Switzerland 
which, no doubt, form part of the papers you mention.'? Some more 
may turn up. Everything is safely here, but is still in a state of com- 
plete disorder. For the time being I shall have to lock away all corres- 
pondence, etc., in a large trunk until I have time to sort the stuff out 
and put it in order. But now it is absolutely essential that a text, both 
printable and written in a legible hand, be produced of the final vol- 
umes of Capital. Neither of these things can be done by any one now 
alive save for myself. If I were to kick the bucket first, no one else 
could possibly decipher the things which Marx himself was often un- 
able to read, although his wife and I could do so. The letters, on 
the other hand, are written in such a way that others can read 
them. 

In three or four months’ time we shall be having elections in Ger- 
many.'** I am extremely optimistic. There are many milksops 
amongst the leaders, but my faith in the masses is unshakable. 

Your old friend 
F. Engels