Marx’s book, “Capital,” has been called the Bible of the social democrats, and it deserves the name. It defends their doctrines with acuteness of understanding and profundity of learning, and certainly ranks among the ablest politico-economic treatises ever written. I should place it on a par with Ricardo’s “Principles of Political Economy and Taxation.” Much has been said against its style. I think it, at least, equal to Ricardo’s. It is difficult reading, not because it is poorly written, but because it is deep. Any one, however, who has had some training in political economy, and is ordinarily bright, ought not to find its difficulty insurmountable. Marx lived a quiet life in London, directing from that point the movements of the International, corresponding for the _New York Tribune_ for a time, besides writing his books and pamphlets, and enjoying the society of his friends. His family life was a happy one. His wife was Jenni von Westphalen, daughter of the Prussian minister of the same name, who belonged to the celebrated reactionary ministry of which Von Manteuffel was president. He had four children, of whom two have already been mentioned as wives of well-known French socialists. The death of a son in early life was a severe blow to him, and he never recovered from the death of his wife, in 1881. About the ability of Marx there is unanimity of opinion. The philosopher Professor Friedrich A. Lange regarded him as one of the ablest political economists that ever lived. So conservative a man as Professor Knies, of Heidelberg, has often spoken in high terms of his talents and acquisitions; and the well-known _Cologne Gazette_ used these words in an obituary notice:[174] “He exercised, perhaps, a more lasting influence on the inner politics of civilized states than any one of his contemporaries. Political economy, especially in Germany, knows no writer who has influenced both masses and scholars in a more decided, thoroughgoing manner than Karl Marx.... He was one of the sharpest thinkers and readiest dialecticians ever possessed by economic science.... His ‘Capital’ is classical and indispensable for every one who wishes to concern himself earnestly with social and economic science.” Immediately after the death of Marx, meetings were held in all parts of the United States and elsewhere, as far as the laws would allow it, to do honor to his memory. One characteristic feature of these meetings was the vow which was taken in all to spread the works and to disseminate the ideas of their departed leader. At the mass-meeting in the Cooper Institute, in New York city, undoubtedly the largest one held, the following resolutions were read and adopted: “In common with the workers and the disinherited, with the true friends of liberty of all countries, we deplore the death of our great thinker and champion, Karl Marx, as a grievous and irreparable loss to the cause of labor and freedom.