Page:Karl Kautsky - Frederick Engels - 1899.djvu/28

 Engels. A numerous collection of articles in the Zurich "Social Democrat," in the Stuttgart "Neuen Zeit," the Paris "Socialiste," etc., are the results of the activity of Engels at this time.

At the same time new editions and translations of his writings were produced in English, Italian, French, Danish, etc., all of which he had to revise and provide with notes and prefaces. And finally came the difficult and tiresome task of the revision of the English translation of the first volume of "Capital," which translation was accomplished by Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, and appeared in 1887.

How many of us younger ones who would be physically equal to such a task? But our veteran, in spite of his 67 years, is still young. He has none of the irritableness of old age, none of that enviousness which glorifies the past at the expense of the present. No one realizes better than he the possibilities of youth. No one is more indulgent of youthful mistakes. He is equally opposed to Utopianism and place-seeking and to undue regard for respectability. He objects quite as much to every assertive impotence that feels itself called upon to rescue humanity, and presses forward to a task for which it is not fitted, causing irreparable injury, and which, in its good nature, seeks to justify every foolishness.

He gives full value to the present, but not at the cost of the past.

He has not undervalued the early socialists, as so many have done who have merely tasted scientific socialism. No one has spoken with greater modesty than he of his own learning, of which he created so brilliant a monument in his "Anti-Duhring."

Engels has always succeeded in keeping himself free from illusions. This he can do because behind him lies the experience of half a hundred years, in which the world has changed more than in any previous hundred years. These experiences have made him a cool, quiet observer. The whole development during his later years has made him certain that the proletariat will become the determining force in the life of the state within a comparatively few years in the lands of capitalistic civilization. To be sure, there are many and great obstacles yet to be overcome, but the dynamic forces of present historic development in the economic and political spheres are such that these obstacles will not prove insurmountable. "We cannot wish anything better, said Engels, than that existing relations be allowed to develop further