MARX TO MAURICE LACHATRE‘*” 

London, 18 March 1872 

To Citizen Maurice La Chatre 

Dear Citizen, 

I applaud your idea of publishing the translation of Das Kapital 
in periodic instalments. In this form the work will be more 
accessible to the working class and for me that consideration 
outweighs any other. 

That is the bright side of your medal, but here is the reverse. 
The method of analysis I have used, a method not previously 
applied to economic subjects, makes for somewhat arduous 
reading in the early chapters, and it is to be feared that the 
French public, ever impatient to arrive at conclusions and eager to 
know how the general principles relate to the immediate questions 
that excite them, may become discouraged because they will not 
have been able to carry straight on. 

That is a disadvantage about which I can do nothing other than 
constantly caution and forewarn those readers concerned with the 
truth. There is no royal road to learning and the only people with 
any chance of scaling its sunlit peaks are those who have no fear 
of weariness when ascending the precipitous paths that lead up to 
them. 

I remain, dear Citizen, 
Yours very sincerely, 
Karl Marx