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Letter to Karl Marx, December 11 or 12, 1859
First published: abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in: Marx and Engels, Works, Moscow, 1929.
To Marx in London
[Manchester, 11 or 12 December 1859][edit source]
Dear Moor,
Herewith Post Office Order for £5 payable at Camden Town. Beta is the dirtiest dog I have ever come across. The infamous article put me into a real rage. Unfortunately the chap’s such a cripple already that no amount of beating could make him more misshapen than he is. However, sometime we shall have to wreak personal vengeance on the rascal. At any rate, some satisfaction can be derived from the fact that Kinkel’s beautiful soul is forced to seek its mate in a filthy pig of this kind. Just think what it takes to produce one single Bettziech! Whole generations of crippled moles having, by the Darwinian process of Natural Selection, evolved to the highest degree the faculty to live on dung, with shit for their chosen element. Filthy, blatant lies and impotent malice — such are the tools with which that mendacious parson Kinkel’s bad conscience seeks to keep on its legs. Let us get these fellows once face to face again, and you'll see what becomes of the gang of scoundrels.
Darwin, by the way, whom I'm reading just now, is absolutely splendid. There was one aspect of teleology that had yet to be demolished, and that has now been done. Never before has so grandiose an attempt been made to demonstrate historical evolution in Nature, and certainly never to such good effect. One does, of course, have to put up with the crude English method.
Warm regards to your wife and children.
Your
F. E.