The Life and Work of Friedrich Engels/Chapter 23
Engels—the Man
And now in conclusion we must say a few more words as to Engels—the man. About his personal life we shall say little more. Whilst he, too, knew what it was to be in straitened circumstances, yet there were not in his life those terribly poignant pathetic times of suffering which we know Marx and his family had to go through during their life of exile in London.
That he was a remarkably clear thinker, that he had a most original mind, and that quality of taking infinite pains to study and thoroughly master every problem and subject which interested him—which appertains to every true genius—that we have already seen above.
In addition to his knowledge of history and philosophy, he made a searching study of the natural sciences, of military science and of comparative philology. Like Marx, he was a good linguist. He knew ten languages, and at the age of seventy he learnt Norwegian so as to read Ibsen in the original. His personal appearance is described thus by Lessner, who knew him well. "Engels' personal appearance was quite different from that of Marx. Engels was tall and slender, his movements quick and impulsive, his language short and to the point, his bearing erect and with a soldierly effect. He was of a lively nature with an effective wit, and everyone who came into contact with him could feel at once that he had to deal with an unusually intellectual man."
This description is borne out by a letter of Mrs. Marx to Sorge, written January 21, 1877, in which, after telling him all the latest news of her daughters and their families, and so forth, she also speaks about Engels: "Our friend Engels is getting on as well as ever. He is always in good health, fresh, lively, and in good spirits, and he has a great relish for his beer, especially if it is Viennese."
That he was often wrong in his judgment of men, that he had no patience with anyone whom he suspected of the least intellectual dishonesty, or of dilettantism, that he was not as polite, as tolerant, or as the Germans would call it, as “höflich," to those for whom he had no regard, of that we can have little doubt; nevertheless, the strictures passed on him by Hyndman in his memoirs are quite undeserved.
That his estimate of Hyndman personally was unjust and too harsh, we readily admit. Both Engels' and Marx’s judgment on Lassalle and others was also far from accurate always, but after all we cannot say that Engels was so far wrong when he said of the Social Democratic Federation that it had made a dogma of Marxism which it wished to force down the throats of the workers, that its leaders were trying to make a sect of the party instead of making it a real Labour movement—that it was better to have a real proletarian movement, although it may at times make grievous mistakes, than to be a sect which hugs correct theories but knows not how to apply them, and, therefore, does nothing, and so comes "from nothing through nothing to nothing."
We can now see that had the early leaders of the S.D.F. not held the party outside the Labour movement, had the party been allowed to work with and through it, both the party and the movement would not have presented the sorry spectacle they did present for so long a time.
Mehring tells us that Engels himself once said that in England Hyndman and the men of the S.D.F. understood the Marxian theory the best. What Engels attacked was their application of the theory.
From a different point of view, and with quite equal justice, he attacked the leaders of the Fabians, with their mortal fear of revolution, and of the Independent Labour Party. But throughout he had faith in the rank and file of both the S.D.F. and the I.L.P., and of the Labour movement in general. And on the whole his faith has not proved to have been misplaced. In Engels, as in Marx, there was no trace of the philistine. Engels could be, and was, exceedingly friendly and considerate to his friends, but to an opponent or what he considered to be a false friend, an enemy to the cause he had at heart, he could be merciless and even rude. His relations with Marx were throughout life of a most affectionate and sincere nature. To this not only their interchange of letters testify, but also the way in which Mrs. Marx and her daughter Eleanor refer to him. It is interesting to note that before Marx's second daughter Laura would consent to a formal engagement with Lafargue, so Marx wrote, she insisted on having Engels' consent to it. So again later on when Marx was anxious about Lissagaray's attachment to his youngest daughter Eleanor it is with Engels he talks matters over. He was a real intimate of the whole family, and we cannot help thinking that what Hyndman says in his memoirs his wife told him of Mrs. Marx having said about Engels must have been due to some misapprehension on Mrs. Hyndman's part. It surely speaks volumes for the characters of both men, that during the stress and storm of their forty years' friendship, through success and disappointment, and they had many, no shadow of discord came between them, never did their friendship flag except on the one occasion mentioned above, which was due to a misunderstanding.
Already in 1845, when Engels heard that Marx had been expelled from Paris, he at once opened up a subscription for him "in order," he wrote, "that the extra cost occasioned thereby should be shared by all of us communistically." And later he says: "As I do not know whether this (the money collected) will suffice for your settling down in Brussels, it goes without saying that my honorarium for my first English thing (Thе Condition of the Working Classes in England), which I hope very soon to get at least in part, and which for the moment I can do without, will be placed, with the greatest pleasure, entirely at your disposal. The hounds shall not at least have the pleasure of causing you pecuniary embarrassment through their infamy." And, as we have seen above, he was ever afterwards always ready to help Marx in every way.
During the last illness of Marx's wife, and later that of his daughter Jenny, Engels was not only all sympathy in words, but did all he could practically to mitigate their suffering. When Marx had gone to Paris with his wife on her last visit to her daughters, he writes to Marx telling him to let him know if he needs anything—not to hesitate in the least about naming whatever sum of money he may need. "Your wife must be denied nothing. Whatever she wants, or whatever any of you think may cause her pleasure, that she must have," he writes—July 29, 1881.
Lessuer bears testimony to the fact that Engels was always ready to help anyone who came to him in need. Perhaps, however, no better testimony to his generosity can be adduced than the truly remarkable way in which both during Marx's lifetime and after his death Engels always belittled his own share of their joint work, and gave Marx credit for all that was best and most profound in it. The quotations given above already prove this. At other times he said: "Marx stood higher, saw farther, observed more, and comprehended more rapidly than any of us." He maintained that what he (Engels) had discovered Marx would in any case have discovered without him.
But, after all, this does not detract in the least from his own merit, and as Mehring well says: "History has to do with what was, not with what might have been." If Marx was the greater genius, Engels undoubtedly runs him a very close second, and is almost absurdly modest about it.
But Engels always was very modest. Thus, regarding the congratulations on his seventieth birthday, he writes: "I wish it were all over. I am not in the least in a birthday humour … and, after all, I am only just the one who is gathering in the harvest of Marx's fame."
In 1893 he made a journey through Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Naturally, as the veteran founder, leader, and guide of a movement that was gaining strength every day, he was accorded a very warm and noisy welcome. In a letter dated October 7, 1893, this, however, is what he says about it: "This was, indeed, all very nice of the people, but it is not the thing for me. I am glad it is over, and next time I shall demand a written pledge that there will be no need for me to parade before the public, but that I travel as a private person under private circumstances. I was and am amazed at the magnitude of the welcome prepared for me wherever I went, but I had rather leave this sort of thing to the parliamentarians and peoples tribunes to whose rôle this sort of thing belongs—but for my work this is hardly the thing."
But he was, of course, delighted with the splendid progress made by the movement in Germany and Austria during the seventeen years of his absence.
Perhaps we cannot better conclude this short sketch of Engels' life and work than by reproducing the quotation by Lessuer of the words of Julian Harney, one of the finest of the Chartist leaders, and at one time editor of the Chartist organ, the Northern Star:—
"I have known him, he was my friend and occasional contributor for many years. It was in 1843, when he came from Bradford to Leeds and inquired after me at the office of the Northern Star. … I found a tall, stately young man, with an almost boyish face; his English was already at that time—in spite of his German birth and education—without fault. He told me he was a constant reader of the Northern Star, and with the greatest interest had followed the Chartist movement. And so commenced our friendship thirty-two years ago. Engels, with all his work and troubles, found always time to remember his friends, to give advice, to help where required. His vast knowledge and influence never made him proud; on the contrary, with fifty-five years, he was just as modest and ready to acknowledge the work of others as when he was twenty-two. He was extremely hospitable, full of fun, and his fun was contagious. He was the soul of an entertainment, and managed admirably to make his guests comfortable, who at that time were mostly Owenites, Chartists, Trade Unionists and Socialists.
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