ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY”!! 

London, 28 January 1889 

Dear Kautsky, 

Today I have a proposal to make to you which has Ede’s, Gina’s and 
Tussy’s blessing. 

I foresee that in the most favourable circumstances I shall have to 
continue to spare my eyes for a very long time if they are to get right again. 

4 of Volume 3 of Capital — > Regina Bernstein 

And that rules out the possibility, at least for several years to come, of 
anyone taking down the ms. of Book IV of Capital* at my own dictation. 

On the other hand, I must see to it that not only this but Marx’s other 
mss. remain usable even in my absence. There is no way of my doing so 
other than by giving coaching in these hieroglyphics to people who can, 
if necessary, take my place and in any case help me with the editing in 
the meantime. And for this purpose you and Ede are the only ones I can 
employ. So for the time being I propose that that is what the three of us 
should do. 

But then the first thing to be tackled is Book IV, and Ede is too preoc- 
cupied with the editing of the Sozialdemokrat and with the many hold- 
ups and intrigues that are part and parcel of the shop here. But I imagine 
that, after a bit of coaching and practice and with the help of your wife,’ 
you would in the course of, say, two years, find sufficient time to turn 
the 750 pages or so of the original (a good part of which will probably 
be dropped as having been included in Book III) into a legible ms. Once 
you were able to read the writing fairly well, you could dictate to your 
wife and then things would go faster. 

Now I have worked it out as follows: if, as hitherto, I could dictate to 
Eisengarten for 5 hours a day, that would take me a year—allowing for 
interruptions. In return I would have to pay Eisengarten £2 a week— 
£100. So that is what it would cost me in any event and, if you are 
prepared to take the work on for that amount, that is what I shall pay. 
Spread over two years it would mean a payment of £50 each year; should 
the work go ahead faster, payment would be forthcoming sooner. We 
here are of the opinion that in these circumstances you might perhaps 
have no objection to returning. I would suggest that I pay you in quar- 
terly advances of £12.10, for progress would be slow at first and faster 
later on, and hence there would be no sense in proposing that payments 
should be related from the outset to the quantity of work done. 

Ede simply cannot wait to be initiated in the hieroglyphics. I have in 
fact some other mss. for him and shall likewise give him coaching, but I 
told him, of course, that I could only pay one of you and this he readily 
accepted. 

What I have in mind here is the ultimate publication at some later 
date—though perhaps this won’t be possible during my life time—of 
collected editions of things by Marx and myself, and it is in regard to this 

* Louise Kautsky — > of Capital 

particular matter that I would now like to make the necessary provi- 
sions. I have also mentioned it to Tussy and we can expect all possible 
help from that quarter. Once I have got you both to the stage of reading 
Marx’s handwriting well, a heavy load will have been lifted from my 
shoulders and I shall then be able to spare my eyes without neglecting an 
important duty, for by that time there will be two people, at any rate, to 
whom the mss. are no longer a book with seven seals. 

Apart from Lenchen, only Ede and Aveling and their wives know of 
my plan and, if you are in agreement, no one save the two of you need 
know anything about the details of the affair. It might also provide 
Louise with a congenial occupation. 

So give the matter some thought and, if you agree to it, come over as 
soon as you can. You'll be able to secure Schliiter’s furniture at little cost 
and at the same time attractive, if temporary, lodgings. Louise will 
doubtless want to get her course and exams? over first, but how that 
can be arranged is something of which the two of you are better judges 
than we over here. 

Boulanger’s election is bringing the situation in France to a head. The 
Radicals, in their haste to come to power, have made themselves the 
servants of opportunism and corruption and by doing so have virtually 
become a breeding ground for Boulangism.'’” But it bodes ill for Paris that 
in its rage at these goings-on it has cast itself into the arms of a barely 
disguised Bonapartism. For the present, the only conclusion I can draw 
from all this is that Paris is renouncing its traditional revolutionary 
mission. Fortunately the provinces are better. The worst of it is that the 
danger of war looms ever larger and that Bismarck can now have a war 
whenever he wants one. He only needs to provoke another Schnaebelé- 
type incident?”—-which Boulanger won’t be able to swallow as Ferry did. 

Best wishes to Louise from Nim and myself, 

Your 
FEE. 

Give my regards to those trusty friends who sent me their New Year’s 
greetings, in particular Frankel. You all seem to be going strong again 
over there.