Letter to Friedrich Engels, December 22, 1857

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To Engels in Manchester

[London,] 22 December 1857

Dear Frederick,

Thou hast triumphantly snatched me out of the clutches of the Exchequer, praised be thy name — halleluiah!

Herewith a letter (with enclosure) from the great Lassalle who now positively assures me that he is seriously beginning to be known in Berlin by reason of his fame. These effusions of a beautiful soul will amuse you and Lupus. The worthy Lassalle took up philosophy and Heraclitus as he took up the Hatzfeldt case and, if he is to be believed, eventually won his ‘case’. It would, indeed, seem that the old school — both philologists and Hegelians — were surprised to see such a posthumous blossoming of a by-gone epoch. But we shall be seeing the thing for ourselves and, gift-horse or no, shall look it long and searchingly in the mouth — on the express condition, of course, that Heraclitus doesn’t reek of garlic. *Fancy only this fellow going up and down the streets of Berlin and ‘asking for himself’ strutting like a peacock, a stride and a stand: biting his lips, with ‘a political regard’ as who should say: ‘This is the man who has written Heraclit.'* The laddie might be of some service to us in finding a publisher, unless, perhaps, he’s afraid that competition might endanger the reputation to which he also aspires in the field of economics, thereby losing him his ‘case’. I have replied to Friedländer through Mr Lassalle saying that, while I, too, am ‘anti-French’, I am no less ‘anti-English’, and that the last thing I could do would be to write in favour of ‘Lord Pam’. So I have turned the thing down. Should Friedländer send me the Presse so that I can see beforehand whose spiritual offspring it is, and if the fellows want no more than one money article a week — for which they would, of course, have to shell out — I might perhaps agree. There can be no question of politics in this case.

I have written to Lassalle, brief and cool, to say that, while I had received the letter sent through Freiligrath, I hadn’t answered it for reasons that could hardly be committed to paper. For the rest a few words, no more.

Schramm has written to my wife from Jersey; an extremely witty letter. For his sins, Kosmos Leiden has lost 3 of his children; 2 daughters (including Mrs Mevissen) died of consumption and one of his sons went down with the Pacific.

In last Sunday’s issue of Reynold’s there is a significant attack upon those apostates who advocate union with the middle class. Meaning Jones. I haven’t seen the laddie for a long time. He seems to be avoiding me, for which he must have his ‘raysons’. However, I shall probably surprise him — one fine morning.

Regards to Lupus.

Your
K. M.