Karl Marx to Ferdinand Lassalle in Berlin  
London, 21 December 1857  

121 December, 1857.  
9, Grafton Terrace, Maitland Park,  
Haverstock Hill, London.  

Dear Lassalle,

Of the various letters you mention, I received only one, the one via Freiligrath. I did not reply, or rather I waited for a private opportunity to reply, which did not arise—for reasons that may fittingly not be communicated in writing. Incidentally, I merely note that you first broke off the correspondence by not answering for a year and a day a letter dated Manchester.

My thanks for Heraklit. I always had a great tenderness for this latter philosopher, to whom, among the ancients, I prefer only Aristotle. The [later] philosophy—Epicurus (this one in particular), the Stoa and Scepticism I had [made] the object of special study, but more out of [political] than philosophical interest. [In expressing] this thanks to you, I [say] at the same time that I have not yet received the work. [Nutt] will probably send it as soon as he in its [xxx]

[...] draw [attention ...] I [...] writing to the ministry. You know my views on Palmerston, which have not changed. Besides, I do not know the paper at all, since no Austrian journal is displayed anywhere here, so I know nothing of its general tendency. In any case, it would interest me to see a couple of numbers of it.

I live here very isolated, since apart from Freiligrath all my friends have left London. For the rest, I wish for no company. Freiligrath, relatively speaking, is tolerably well off as manager of the Swiss Bank, and he is invariably the same likeable, good fellow. Lupus and Engels are still in Manchester. We continue to mourn the loss of Weerth.

The present commercial crisis has spurred me on to set about working out my basic principles of economics in earnest, and also to prepare something on the present crisis. I am forced to kill the day [xx] with bread-and-butter work. Thus [only] the night remains for true work, and then indisposition comes disrupting— in between. I have not yet looked around for a publisher [xxx], since from experience the [xxx] come of it [xxx] where I [xxx] || I can write you no news, since I live as a hermit. My wife was very ailing during the previous winter and summer, but has now somewhat recovered.

If you know the address of Dr. Eisner, then convey a greeting to him from me.

The old donkey Rüge, as I hear, has made an attempt to warm up his Deutsche Jahrbücher again. History will not retreat so far that these become possible again.

Yours  
KMI