Marx-Engels Correspondence 1857
Source: MECW Volume 40, p. 141;
First published: abridged in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Stuttgart, 1913 and in full in Marx and Engels, Works, Moscow, 1929.
Dear Engels,
Rüstow is not to be had at Williams. And I wouldn’t care to write to Steffen on this score for, being himself engaged on an English rendering of the book, he tends to be mistrustful. So far as the ancient world is concerned, I believe you could restrict yourself to a few generalities and simply say — in the article itself — that these themes are to be discussed under the headings ‘Greek Army’ and ‘Roman Army’. This will save time, during which it will be possible not only to procure Rüstow but also to send you a mass of other data, for I have now discovered at the Museum, after prolonged searching, a complete list of sources on the military history of Antiquity. But at the moment speed is the main consideration. As you know, I took your advice and sent Dana a second list. So what excuse can I offer the man? I cannot plead illness, for if I do I shall have to interrupt my writing for the Tribune altogether and so reduce to nothing my already exiguous income. At a pinch Dana could have recourse to the man who already provides him with some of the military articles. In which case I would be elbowed out. To obviate this I shall have to write on Friday. But the difficulty is, what?
As you will understand, nothing could be more distasteful to me than to press upon you while you are ill; nor, indeed, when you left here did I have any inkling that, in the state you are in, you would at once resume — and so seriously at that — your work in the office.
My own situation is such that everything depends on whether I can persuade little Bamberger to discount a bill on myself this week. The end of the quarter has come, and all hell will now be let loose.
Freiligrath has written me a note from which I can see the Crédit mobilier’s scare. The constant fall in securities on the Paris Bourse, despite the prospect of a good harvest, has given rise to a veritable panic amongst the financiers.
The Indian affair is delicious. Mazzini’s putsch quite in the old official style. The ass might at least have avoided dragging in Genoa!
Salut.
K. M.
There is a cheap Dictionary of Military Science by Campbell.