> In one of the intros or prefaces to _The German Ideology_ , Engels says that
> it was not published and served as socalled self-clarification for Marx and
> Engels. Engels famous comment is that they "left it to the criticism of the
> knawing mice" in an attic in Paris or something. The comment might be in
> the preface to something else like _Ludwig Feuerbach_., but he definitely
> says it.
That's right: it's Engels right at the start of the Foreword to "Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy":
*** In the preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy, published in Berlin, 1859, Karl Marx relates how the two of us in Brussels in the year 1845 set about: ³to work out in common the opposition of our view² ‹ the materialist conception of history which was elaborated mainly by Marx ‹ to the ideological view of German philosophy, in fact, to settle accounts with our erstwhile philosophical conscience. The resolve was carried out in the form of a criticism of post-Hegelian philosophy. The manuscript, two large octavo volumes, had long reached its place of publication in Westphalia when we received the news that altered circumstances did not allow of its being printed. We abandoned the manuscript to the gnawing criticism of the mice all the more willingly as we had achieved our main purpose ‹ self-clarification! ***
http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886/ludwig-feuerbach/foreword.ht m
Chris