Letter to Maurice Lachâtre, March 18, 1872

Author(s)	Karl Marx
Written	18 March 1872

A facsimile of this letter was published as the preface to the French edition of Capital. First published in: K. Marx, Le Capital, Vol. I, Paris, 1872
Published in English for the first time in: Karl Marx, Capital, Foreign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, 1954
Published in English in Marx-Engels Collected Works, Volume 44

MARX TO MAURICE LACHATRE

IN SAN SEBASTIAN

London, 18 March 1872

To Citizen Maurice La Châtre

Dear Citizen,

I applaud your idea of publishing the translation of Das Kapital in periodic instalments. In this form the work will be more accessible to the working class and for me that consideration outweighs any other.

That is the bright side of your medal, but here is the reverse. The method of analysis I have used, a method not previously applied to economic subjects, makes for somewhat arduous reading in the early chapters, and it is to be feared that the French public, ever impatient to arrive at conclusions and eager to know how the general principles relate to the immediate questions that excite them, may become discouraged because they will not have been able to carry straight on.

That is a disadvantage about which I can do nothing other than constantly caution and forewarn those readers concerned with the truth. There is no royal road to learning and the only people with any chance of scaling its sunlit peaks are those who have no fear of weariness when ascending the precipitous paths that lead up to them.

I remain, dear Citizen,

Yours very sincerely,

Karl Marx