THe circumstances under which this paperwas read are narrated at the beginning ofthe work. The paper was never publishedduring the lifetime of Marx. It was foundamongst his papers after the death of En-gels.
Among many other characteristics ofMarx,this paper shows two especially.These are his patient willingness to makethe meaning of his ideas plain to the hum-blest student,and the extraordinary clear-ness of those ideas..
In a partial sense the present volume is anepitome of the first volume of Capital.More than one of us have attempted to ana-lyze and simplify that volume,with not toomuch success perhaps.In fact,a wittyfriend and commentator has suggested thatwhat is now required is an explanation byMarx of our explanations of him