196 THE CLASS STRUGGLE AN UNUSUAL FRIENDSHIP 197 It is clear from the above that Engels was better fitted for a journalistic career than Marx; a real walking encyclopedia. s0 Marx once described him to a mutual friend, capable of work at any hour of the day or night, drunk or sober, swift with his pen and alert as the devil. It seems that both, after the cessation of the Neue Rheinische Revue, in the autumn of 1850, had still in mind the issuing of another journal in common, to be printed in London; at least, in December, 1853, Marx wrote to Engels: If we you and had started our business as English correspondents in time, you would not now be condemned to office work in Manchester, nor to my debts. Engels choice of a position of clerk in his father firm, in preference to the prospects of this business was probably due to his consideration for the hopeless situation of Marx, and to a hope of better times in the future, and certainly not with the object of devoting himself permanently to the damned business. In the spring of 1854, Engels again considered the desirability of returning to London for literary work, but this was the last time; it must have been about this time that he made up his mind to assume the cursed burden for good, not merely in order to be of assistance to his friend, but in order thus to preserve the party best mental asset.
Only with this motivation could Engels make the great sacrifice, and Marx accept it: both the offer and the acceptance required a great spirit.
cealed a large item and began paying it off by stinting with her household money, thus starting the old trouble over again, with the best of all intentions; on this occasion Engels allowed his friend the rather pharisaical amusement of bewailing the idiocy of women, who manifestly are in constant need of guardianship, and contented himself with the gentle admonition: See it doesn happen again.
But Engels did not alone slave away for his friend in office and exchange all day long, but he also gave to him most of his evening leisure hours, in fact, a great part of the night. Although the original reason for this added labor was the necessity of preparing an English version of Marx articles for the New York Tribune, until Marx should be able to use the language well enough for literary purposes, the laborious cooperation continued for many years after the original reason had been overcome.
But all this seems a slight sacrifice as compared with the greatest service Engels rendered his friend, namely, his renunciation of his independent accomplishments as a thinker and investigator, which, in view of his incomparable energy and his rich talents would have produced valuable results. correct notion of this sacrifice can also be obtained from the correspondence of the two men, even if we note only the studies in linguistic and military science, which were carried on by Engels partly owing to an old predilection and partly with a view to the practical needs of the struggle for proletarian emancipation. For, much as he hated all autodidacticism. it all damn nonsense, he contemptuously said and thorough as were his methods of scientific work, he was yet as little a mere closet scholar as Marx, and every new piece of knowledge was doubly precious in his eyes, if it might aid at once in lightening the chains of the proletariat.
He therefore undertook the study of the Slavic languages because of the consideration that in the next great clash of national interests, at least one of us should be acquainted with the language, history, literature, social institutions of And before Engels became a partner in the firm some years later, he cannot exactly be said to have trod a path of roses, but from the first day of his stay at Manchester he aided Marx and never ceased aiding him. An unending stream of one pound, five pound, ten pound, later even hundred pound notes began to flow toward London. Engels never lost his patience, even though it was often sorely tried by Marx and his wife, who had no over great supply of domestic wisdom. He amount of a note and appeared unpleasantly surprised to learn of it when the note fell due. Slight also was his concern when, on the occasion of another general clean up of the domestic economy, Mrs. Marx, through misplaced considerateness, con