London, 15 November 1882 

Dear Mr Kautsky, 

I got your telegram at 3 p.m. today and at once replied by tele- 
graph: ‘Impossible’. Not having your home address to hand and nec- 
essarily assuming from the ‘Reply paid’ that the office of origin 
would know where to send the reply, I addressed the telegram simply 
‘Kautsky, Vienna’. Well, I have this moment, 9.30 p. m., received the 
enclosed slip. There is no possibility of tracing the letter with your 
home address, so all I can do is write to you at once in order not to 
miss the morning post. 

If I am not to dissipate every bit of my energy again, and I have 
been doing this for years, I shall have to draw a very strict line so far 
as my journalistic activity is concerned—— confining myself to the 
Soztaldemokrat and even then writing only when practical need arises 

? See this volume, p. 320.-° ‘Imperial Parliament. House of Commons. The Obliga- 
tions of Civil Servants’, The Standard, No. 18195, 10 November 1882. 

or when, as in the recent case of Mehring’s inanities, it has to be 
shown that there is no hostility between the Seztaldemokrat and us 
over here. As a result of Marx’s absence and illness, party correspond- 
ence with diverse countries has devolved exclusively upon myself, and 
that is a heavy enough burden anyway. So if I am to devote my ad- 
vancing years to the completion of my more weighty works,*?° it will 
be utterly impossible for me to contribute to your periodical,* though 
I wish it every success. 

The Darwin article in particular is an impossibility just now. 
I wrote to Bernstein saying he should have it as soon as I lit upon this 
subject in the course of my studies, and that might be months ahead; 
not that he is entirely blameless for he has encouraged me to work in 
a quite different field one that I, too, consider to be more neces- 
sary.” So until I have slogged my way through that, returned to 
natural science and then progressed to zoology, there can be no 
question of it. To dash off a few commonplaces on Darwin would 
serve neither you nor me. For the rest | must confine myself, in view 
of the late hour, to thanking you for the various interesting reports on 
the situation over there and in conclusion sending you my heartiest 
congratulations on your engagement. ° 

Yours very sincerely, 
FB: