(Manchester, 22 April 1857]! 
Dear Moor, 

This business of the Cyclopaedia' has come as a real boon to 
me, and to you too, no doubt. Voila enfin’ a prospect of making 
good your loss of earnings and, for me, a prospect of a regular 

a Cf. Matthew 5:29, 30 - > Edgar Bauer’s - © See this volume, p. 106. -4 At last 
there’s 

occupation in the evenings. La paix allait me démoraliser*; ever 
since there have been no more articles to write for the Tribune I 
have been doing far too much loafing, for which there is every 
inducement up here. As to the militaria, Dana must provide an 
immediate answer to the following questions: 

1. How many volumes, roughly, will the whole amount to and 
how far does he propose to get in Vol. 1 or Vols. 1 and 2? 

2. Are the military articles to be confined primarily to defining 
technical terms, €.g. ARTILLERY, CASTRAMETATION, COLUMN, with historical 
notes and a brief synopsis of the individual branches of military 
science—thus e.g. artillery: 1. Definition. 2. History and present 
state. 3. Résumé of the branches of the modern science of artillery 
(gunnery, personnel, transport, use in the field and before 
fortresses, etc., etc.)? 

3. Or is the intention to have additional articles on military 
history, e.g. under the Heap Austerlitz, Arbela, etc., etc., brief 
comptes rendus” of the actual battles, and under Alexander, Caesar, 
Carnot, etc., etc., military biographies together with particulars in 
each case of any epoch-making progress? 

Next, you must write to Steffen at once and ask him for the title 
or author of an encyclopaedia of military science, as short and 
complete as possible; one that has the most but also the shortest 
articles would be best, since all I want is to know at once what 
articles to do and to have the alphabetical material as complete 
and Hanpy as possible. As soon as I have this I can start work on 
Letters A and B—perhaps even sooner, since I can do a lot of 
articles from Brockhaus‘ alone and a few more without it. 

The pay is quite profitable, even at $2 per large page; a lot of 
the stuff will only have to be copied or translated and the longer 
articles won’t involve a great deal of work. I shall take a look at 
one or two English encyclopaedias straight away to see what 
military articles they contain, but then concentrate on Brockhaus 
which, after all, not only provides a better basis but is also more 
complete and is evidently looked upon by Dana as a model. 

Should there be any philological sections for the taking, e.g. the 
Germanic languages, Middle High German, Old High German, 
etc., etc., literature (likewise in the Romance languages, especially 
Provengal), no harm would be done. Either the Jakob woman or 
Mr Gurowski will have taken on the Slav things; the former knows 
more about those languages than I do. 

a I was becoming demoralised by inactivity. - > accounts - ¢ Brockhaus’ Konversations- 
Lexikon 

Which articles shall you be taking on? German philosophy, at 
any rate—biographies of modern English and French statesmen? 
Some financial pieces? Chartism? Communism? Socialism? Aristo- 
tle—Epicurus—Code Napoléon—and the like. Themes certainly 
harder to handle without any PARTY TENDENCY WHATEVER than the good 
old military stuff, where needless to say one always sides with the 
victor. 

Take as many articles as you can and set up an office by 
degrees. Mr Pieper can toil away, too; he will do well enough for 
biographical pieces and will, at the same time, get some plain 
wholesome information into his genius’ noddie. Lupus might also 
be prepared to do something in the early classical field; je verrai!* 

Even though the work won’t be very interesting (most of it, at 
any rate), I’m immensely tickled by the whole thing since it will 
mean an enormous urr for you. I was really hellish anxious this 
time about how the Tribune business would turn out, particularly 
when Dana tried to put you on half-pay. But now everything is 
going to be all right again and even though there’s no immediate 
prospect of payment, it’s still a very secure berth and one need 
have no qualms about doing one or two letters of the alphabet in 
advance; the money will arrive in its own good time. 

Haven’t you heard anything from Olmsted about Putnam’s? I 
should very much like to have the article on Bazancourt™; maybe 
I can do something with it here through Acton. Apart from that 
there may be a possibility of doing something further with 
Putnam’s— PROGRESS IN THE ART OF WAR, IMPROVEMENTS IN ARTILLERY, SMALL 
ARMS, €tC., EtC., SHIPS AGAINST STONE Walls; I’m willing to do anything so 
long as the fellows undertake to publish it Dana would certainly 
arrange it to make you less dependent on the Tribune. By the way, 
get the eprror of Putnam’s to write in person, cela vaut mieux.” 

You must also find out from Dana whether the articles should 
in general take up more or less space than e.g. in Brockhaus, and 
whether the whole is intended to be bigger or smaller than 
Brockhaus. Then we shall know what we are about. Also when they 
will pay—and by when the job must be completed. It’s as well to 
know all this. 

In your place I should offer to do the whole encyclopaedia 
alone; we could manage it all right. At all events, take whatever 
you can get. If we have 100 to 200 pages in each volume it won't 
be too much. We can easily supply that amount of ‘unalloyed’ 

a I shall see! - > that would be better 

erudition so long as unalloyed Californian gold is substituted for 
it. 

But now, warm regards to your wife and children; let me hear 
from you again soon. 

Your 
F. Engels 

Most obliged for the eye lotion. I’m still having some trouble but 
think it’s because I’ve recently been drinking more port than 
usual— prop THatT!