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Special pages :
Letter to Friedrich Engels, August 22, 1865
| Author(s) | Karl Marx |
|---|---|
| Written | 22 August 1865 |
Published in English for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 42
MARX TO ENGELS
IN MANCHESTER
[London,] 22 August 1865
DEAR FRED,
BEST THANKS FOR THE £20, FIRST HALF of which received. I most certainly would not BOTHER you, but the end of the quarter, whose bills have been put off, is a very difficult time.
Regarding Kirkwood's law, there is no doubt that it explains the difference in the ROTATORY MOVEMENTS, e.g., between those of Jupiter and those of Venus, which hitherto appeared entirely fortuitous.[1]
But how he finds out and proves the law itself, I do not know, but on my next visit to the British Museum I will try to get to the bottom of the original work and will tell you more about it then. The only 'problem' attached to the matter, as far as I can see, consists in mathematically determining the SPHERE OF ATTRACTION of each planet. The only hypothetical thing about it is probably the assumption of Laplace's theory as a premise.
My INFLUENZA has invaded my nose to such an extent that the TEXAN Bovs[2] 'nozzle' has reproduced itself in me, accompanied by a frightful cold and a muzziness in the head such as must have filled the whole of Laplace's universe of incandescent gas.
The fellows and friends of the 'INTERNATIONAL' have now discovered after all that I am not away, and I have therefore received a SUMMONS TO ATTEND a meeting of the SUBCOMMITTEE today. The 4 weeks of my disappearance have been totally SPOILT for me by the DOCTORS prescriptions.
Amongst the books from Lupus' legacy I have in my possession there is a copy of Egli's Neue Handelsgeographie. This Swiss says in the preface that into the 'biographies of commercial geography' he has now and again
'woven a view from life, a view in contemplation of which the soul may lose itself for a moment, in comfortable repose... genre miniatures woven in... a piece of life shall here unfold before our eyes. Life evolves from life alone'.
The following shows you what this naive Swiss means by 'views from life':
'Markgräfler wine grows on the sunny hills of Mühlheim and Badenweiler. It was not for nothing that our dearly beloved Hebel sang:
"At t'Mill by t'Post
Tally ho, mine host!
Drink up lads: a grand wine flows,
Smooth as olive oil it goes!
At t'Mill by t'Post."'[3]
To prove 'that I have not taken the easy path', this same naive Swiss refers to the list of works he has used. This list numbers precisely 20 items, where along with naive 'children's literature' as the Buch der Erfindungen, etc., there are two works by the self-same Mr Egli.[4]
Kindest regards from the WHOLE FAMILY.
Your
K. M.