Letter to Friedrich Engels, June 16, 1864

Author(s) Karl Marx
Written 16 June 1864


First published in Der Briefwechsel zwischen F. Engels und K. Marx, Bd. 3, Stuttgart, 1913
Printed according to the original
Published in English in full for the first time in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 41


MARX TO ENGELS[1]

IN MANCHESTER

[London,] 16 June 1864

DEAR Frederick,

THANKS FOR Dagbladet. Before I start on this letter—and so that I don't forget—here's a question for you: Are the following word groups I found in a Belgian etymologist's work[2] OK ANY VALUE?

Sanskrit Wer (couvrir, protéger, respecter, honorer, aimer, chérir[3] ), adjective Wertas (EXCELLENT, RESPECTABLE), Gothic Wairths, ANGLO-SAXON Weorth, English worth, Lithuanian werthas, Alemanic Werth. Sanskrit Wertis, Latin virtus, Gothic Wairthi, Teutonic Werth. Sanskrit Wal (couvrir, fortifier[4] ), valor, value. (???)

Strohn is here. Arrived yesterday. Leaves for Bradford again tomorrow. Seems to me very much better. Also more PLUCKY now.

I and various other people here have collected so much for the two Solingen chaps'[5] that only 2 more pounds are needed to enable them to leave for New York by sailing-vessel and not be completely broke on arrival there. I am also giving them a note for Dr Jacobi, by which means we shall discover what the modest little man is ABOUT.

Herewith a letter I have received from Liebknecht who also sent a piece from the Grenzboten about Lupus.[6] Liebknecht will by now have got my second letter containing a 'real consideration' (as Mr Patkul calls it in his secret despatches[7] ).

The Russians would seem to be claiming Schleswig-Holstein for themselves under the heading of Oldenburg,[8] and to be 'compensating' Prussia for it. This TRANSACTION WOULD BE TOO CLEVER.

A Dutch orientalist, Professor Dozy of Leyden, has brought out a book[9] to prove that 'Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are figments; that the Israelites were idolaters; that they carried round a "stone" in the " arke des Verbunds"[10] ; that the tribe of Simeon (driven out under Saul) went to Mecca where they built a heathen temple and worshipped stones; that, after the release from Babylon, Ezra invented the myth of the creation up to and including Joshua, and also wrote laws and dogmas, thus paving the way for reform, monotheism, etc.'.

That's what they write and tell me from Holland; they also say that the book has created a great sensation among theologians there, particularly since Dozy is the most learned orientalist in Holland and, what's more—a professor at Leyden! Outside Germany at any rate (Renan, Colenso, Dozy, etc.) there is a remarkable anti-religious movement.

T h e children send you their love, and my wife asks me to d u n you for her chain.

Salut.

Your

K. M.

(You might let me have your 'PRIVATE ADDRESS' in case there should be ANYTHING else I want to communicate to you of a Saturday evening.)

Send me Ernest Jones's ADDRESS.

  1. ↑ An excerpt from this letter was first published in English in The Letters of Karl Marx. Selected and Translated with Explanatory Notes and an Introduction by Saul K. Padover, Prentice-Hall Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1979.
  2. ↑ H.J. Chavée, Essai d'étymologie philosophique ou Recherches sur l'origine et les variations des mots qui expriment les actes intellectuels et moraux.
  3. ↑ cover, protect, respect, honour, love, cherish
  4. ↑ cover, fortify
  5. ↑ Moll and Melchior (see this volume, pp. 533-34, 540).
  6. ↑ 'Eine Erinnerung an den Communisten Wolff, Die Grenzboten, 1864, I. Semester, 2. Band, pp. 398-400.
  7. ↑ J. R. von Patkul, Berichte an das Zaarische Cabinet in Moscou...
  8. ↑ Russia put forward Peter Nicholaus Friedrich, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, as pretender to the Schleswig-Holstein throne. Marx is alluding to the fact that the Romanov dynasty was related to the Oldenburg house through Peter III (see Note 380). From the second half of the eighteenth century many of the Oldenburg princes lived in Russia.
  9. ↑ R. Dozy, De Israëlieten te Mekka.
  10. ↑ Ark of the Covenant