| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 15 November 1882 |
ENGELS TO KARL KAUTSKY
IN VIENNA
London, 15 November 1882
Dear Mr Kautsky,
I got your telegram at 3 p. m. today and at once replied by telegraph: 'Impossible'. Not having your home address to hand and necessarily assuming from the 'Reply paid' that the office of origin would know where to send the reply, I addressed the telegram simply 'Kautsky, Vienna'. Well, I have this moment, 9.30 p. m., received the enclosed slip. There is no possibility of tracing the letter with your home address, so all I can do is write to you at once in order not to miss the morning post.
If I am not to dissipate every bit of my energy again, and I have been doing this for years, I shall have to draw a very strict line so far as my journalistic activity is concerned — confining myself to the Sozialdemokrat and even then writing only when practical need arises or when, as in the recent case of Mehring's inanities, it has to be shown that there is no hostility between the Sozialdemokrat and us over here. As a result of Marx's absence and illness, party correspondence with diverse countries has devolved exclusively upon myself, and that is a heavy enough burden anyway. So if I am to devote my advancing years to the completion of my more weighty works, it will be utterly impossible for me to contribute to your periodical, though I wish it every success.
The Darwin article in particular is an impossibility just now. I wrote to Bernstein saying he should have it as soon as I lit upon this subject in the course of my studies, and that might be months ahead; not that he is entirely blameless for he has encouraged me to work in a quite different field — one that I, too, consider to be more necessary. So until I have slogged my way through that, returned to natural science and then progressed to zoology, there can be no question of it. To dash off a few commonplaces on Darwin would serve neither you nor me. For the rest I must confine myself, in view of the late hour, to thanking you for the various interesting reports on the situation over there and in conclusion sending you my heartiest congratulations on your engagement.[1]
Yours very sincerely,
F.E.