Argenteuil, jeudi, 3 aodt* 1882 
11 Boulevard Thiers 

Dear Frep, 

The difficulty over letter-writing is due to the following: at 7.30 
a.m. I start off by washing and dressing myself, taking early morning 
coffee, etc.; at 8.30 a.m. departure for Enghien, not as a rule return- 
ing before noon, then déjeuner en famille’ at Argenteuil; from 2-4 p. m., 
rest, then a walk and pottering about with the children with conse- 
quences more detrimental to one’s faculties of sight and hearing (let 
alone thought) than were ever experienced even by the Hegel of the 
Phanomenologie; finally, at 8 p.m., evening supper, thereby concluding 
the day’s work. So when would one find time for correspondence? 

Tussychen is being of enormous help to Jennychen, nor could her 
stay here really be considered as a rest cure if she were not so fond of 
the children‘ and of poor Jennychen and evincing in these particular 
circumstances qualities which lie dormant in London. Tussy and 
Laura have not seen one another yet and aren’t exactly longing to do 
so. But for decency’s sake they will have to meet at least once while 
I am here. 

Now for a health bulletin. My cure began on 17 June. The weather 
up till now has been so far below the average for summer (French) 
that the season which starts in June in Enghien is regarded as a ral- 
ure by the établissement thermal? and something ‘better’ is looked for 
in August and September. Constant changes of temperature, the sky 
often heavily overcast, particularly in the mornings after rain and orages,’ 
violent winds, moisture-laden atmosphere and hence often une chaleur 
lourde,' alias London’s ‘ctose’ starus. The French have been at pains 
to stave off an alliance with England °°%; by contrast, the English 
climate (I mean specifically the London climate) would seem to be 
making itself increasingly at home here, in Paris and environs. 
Such is the case this year at any rate. In between times, of course, we 

* Thursday, 3 August-” lunch en famille-° Jean, Henri, Edgar and Marcel Lon- 
guet-° thermal establishment-* storms-' oppressive heat 

have an occasional fine day, or fragments thereof. In these circum- 
stances my cure is having to contend with ‘agreeable obstacles’. As 
Lenchen will recall, there was one particular day when Dr Feugier’s 
examination, and the one undertaken a few hours later by Dr Dour- 
len, resulted in the same verdict: the rdlements* had disappeared and 
this meant the ‘bronchial’ character of the catarrh had been eliminat- 
ed. I didn’t pass on ‘such matters’ to you; I suspected that the said 
bronchial catarrh had by no means croaked its last, and, indeed, dur- 
ing a brief spell of bad weather, it began to croak anew. That the 
cough hadn’t ‘disappeared’ (though greatly alleviated, of course), 
I was aware, but didn’t much mind about what remained of the 
cough once its character had changed. 

Indeed, upon auscultating me last Monday (31 July), Dr Feugier 
found that the rale was still there, although grown fainter; the 
weather, he said, was especially malign and harmful in the case of 
these particular complaints. As a rule, patients only continue the sul- 
phur cure for 3 weeks; indeed, many people cannot tolerate it for 
a longer period without the risk of feverish attacks, etc. In view of my 
otherwise strong constitution and since I am still troubled by a cough, 
especially of a morning, he thought it best to continue the cure uni 
the middle of August, with 1NHALATION, BATHS, douches and the drinking of 
sulphurous waters; no purpose would be served by prolonging it 
beyond that date. I shall, of course, follow the doctor’s advice. On the 
other hand, however, it will by then probably be too late for the 
Engadine plan °°*;-both Feugier and Dourlen are afraid that I might 
otherwise expose myself to climatic apventures which a man, above all 
one in my condition, would do better not to invite unnecessarily.— I 
hope you will in any case come and spend a few days here (in which 
case the Lafargues would easily find you accommodation in Paris), 
not only so that we may confer about que faire aprés,” but more espe- 
cially, you must understand, because I long to see you again after all 
these Damned vésicatotres* and one or two very close shaves! 

Laurachen wrote and told me that Deville is leaving for his home 
town of Tarbes on the evening of 2 August. But since I had expressed 
a desire to see him, Mesa proposed we should come to déjeuner* with 
him on 2 August, when I should meet, besides the Lafargues, also 
Deville and Guesde. This was the first time that I had agreed to such 
a meeting. (It is always the livelier talk, and/or chatter which tells on 

2 rale-> what’s to be done next-° vesicatories-? luncheon 

me— after the event.) Went off well. The Citoyen people seem to me 
to be succeeding with their public meetincs on the Egyptian, etc., 
affaires °°5; however, as far as the performance of their paper is con- 
cerned, ils laissent beaucoup a désirer.* Incidentally, and aside from the self- 
styled socialist journals, a large and most influential part of the Parts 
press is incomparably more independent than that of London. Despite 
pressure from most of the professional Politicians, despite collusion be- 
tween the République Frangaise, the Temps and the Journal des Débats, 
working hand-in-glove under the immediate direction of Gambetta; 
despite, what is more, the attempts at bribery by the Financiers 
(Rothschilds, etc.) who have an immediate interest in joining the 
English crusade against Egypt, the Paris press has quashed every at- 
tempt (even Freycinet’s disguised ones 35°) at joint intervention with 
England or with a Quadruple Alliance °°’; without that press, Cle- 
menceau would not have won his victory in parliament. But where in 
London is there even a modicum of an ‘independent’ press? 

I cannot in fact remember where Loria’s grandes’ opus< is to be 
found in my library; nor would it seem to me worth your while taking 
the trouble to look for it. As you know, after reading the ‘opus’ (or 
RATHER the first half of the book, for I hadn’t the patience to do more 
than skim through the 2nd half containing Mr Loria’s fantasies about 
how his ideal norm, small landed property, i. e. smallholdings, could 
adequately be constructed), I was far from edified by the sickening covert 
flattery vis-a-vis myself and the overt assumption of ‘superiority’ not 
to mention falsification of certain of my views the better to refute 
them. Yet, though my first reaction was that I wanted to have no 
truck with him, I allowed myself to become further involved because 
he showed talent, because he had done a lot of swotting; because he 
was a poor devil who had written to me at length about his thirst for 
knowledge; because he was still very young and his admittedly far 
from youthful tendencies— they were, if anything, wise beyond his 
years — seemed understandable in view, partly of conditions in Italy, 
and partly of the school from which he derived; also because he 
sought to make his own, in so far as in him lay and not always with- 
out success, the methods of research he had found in Capital. I was 
‘amused’ and pleased by his way of openly preening himself on hav- 
ing ‘antiquated’ Capital with his ‘landed property’. For all that, 
I still harbour serious doubts about the young man’s character. 

a 

they were much disappointed -” great-° A. Loria, La rendita fondiaria e la sua elisione 
naturale, Milan, Naples, Pisa, 1880.