| Author(s) | Friedrich Engels |
|---|---|
| Written | 31 July 1877 |
Dear Liebknecht,
Have received your two letters of 21 and 28. I can only hope that the Dühringian fiasco is over for good and that things won't be patched up again. The fact remains that those party organs which allowed themselves to be misled into according him scientific importance simply because of his harassment by the Prussians (!) have made asses of themselves. And that means all the ones I have seen.[1]
Vahlteich certainly made the remark about Marxians and Dühringians; immediately after the congress it appeared in all the papers that published his speech at the public meeting (where it was perpetrated).[2] Nor do I think he would repudiate it. The fact that he is now doing time seems to me no reason for making him out to be better than he is.
Élisée Reclus is a mere compiler and nothing more. Since he and his brother[3] were co-founders of the secret Alliance,[4] he could, if he would, give you more inside information than you could give him. Whether or not he belongs to your little lot makes no difference at all; politically he is muddle-headed and impotent.
I never said that the bulk of your people didn't want real science. I was speaking[5] of the party, and that's whatever it makes itself out to be before the public, in the press and at congresses. And there the order of the day is semi-literacy and your ex-worker dolling himself up as a man of letters. If, as you say, these people amount to no more than a tiny minority, then obviously the only reason you and the others have to pay any heed to them is that each of them has his supporters. The moral and intellectual decline of the party dates from the unification[6] and could have been avoided had a little more caution and intelligence been shown at the time. Much can ultimately be sweated out by a healthy party, but it is a long and arduous process and the health of the masses is certainly not an adequate reason for injecting them unnecessarily with a disease.
As regards the Zukunft, it's lucky that your letter reached me in time to prevent my sending the reply I had already decided to make to the invitation that I should contribute.[7] An invitation from completely anonymous editors who can proffer no better scientific credentials than a resolution in congress, as though a congress could confer a scientific character upon anything![8] What presumption, that we should entrust our manuscripts to completely anonymous people who might very well be the most arrant Dühringians!
You say that Wiede is a co-editor. But as recently as the 20th inst.[9] he himself invited me to work for a review[10] he was proposing to found in Zurich!
In short, I am sick of this muddle, this perpetual embarking on hare-brained and over-precipitate schemes. If only because of the necessity of my now finishing off, at my own, lengthier works, I cannot at present enter into any agreements whatsoever. I shall complete the "Dühring",[11] after which I shall write articles only when I myself consider it to be imperative and, were there to be a journal that was not a party organ, I would choose it for preference rather than remain at the mercy of congressional debates.[12] When all is said and done, there is no democratic forum for scientific works, and I don't want a repetition of my earlier experience.
You ought to go to Ghent[13] and come on to London from there; we certainly shan't be going to Ghent, otherwise why should we have withdrawn from practical participation at The Hague?[14] You would be able to reach London quickly and very cheaply via Antwerp, and there'll always be a room ready for you at my house.
I have got to close as the table is being laid.
Your
F. E.