Marx-Engels Correspondence 1884

Engels to Eduard Bernstein

Abstract

Source: Marx Engels On Art and Literature, Progress Publishers, 1976;
Transcribed: by Andy Blunden.

June 29, 1884

So you, too, are finally coming round to the view that one can, after all, deal with the “wise men” quite well. I sent for a few copies of Neue Welt to get to know the gentlemen chez eux. So far, I've only read the editorial post column. German schoolboy impudence, which assumes a very tame readership.

For the rest, don’t allow yourself to be drawn by pinpricks, that is the first rule in battle. Remember that:

There’s nothing nicer in this world
Than all one’s foes to answer back,
Than about all those clumsy blokes
One’s feeble little jokes to crack.