even Prophecy, what is it that the Dandy asks in return? Solely, we may say, that you would recognise his existence; would admit him to be a living object or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light. Your silver or your gold (beyond what the niggardly Law has already secured him) he solicits not; simply the glance of your eyes. Understand his mystic significance, or altogether miss and misinterpret it; do but look at him, and he is contented. May we not well cry shame on an ungrateful world, which refuses even this poor boon; which will waste its optic faculty on dried Crocodiles, and Siamese Twins; and over the domestic wonderful wonder of wonders, a live Dandy, glance with hasty indifference, and a scarcely concealed contempt! Him no Zoologist classes among the Mammalia, no Anatomist dissects with care: when did we see any injected Preparation of the Dandy, in our Museums; any specimen of him preserved in spirits? Lord Herringbone may dress himself in a snuff-brown suit, with snuff-brown shirt and shoes: it skills not; the undiscerning public, occupied with grosser wants, passes by regardless on the other side.

The age of Curiosity, like that of Chivalry, is, indeed, properly speaking, gone. Yet perhaps only gone to sleep for here arises the Clothes-Philosophy to resuscitate, strangely enough, both the one and the other! Should sound views of this Science come to prevail, the essential nature of the British Dandy, and the mystic significance that lies in him, cannot always remain hidden under laughable and lamentable hallucination. The following long Extract from Professor Teufelsdrockh may set the matter, if not in its true light, yet in the way towards such. It is to be regretted however that here, as so often elsewhere, the Professor's keen philosophic perspicacity is somewhat marred by a certain mixture of almost owlish purblindness, or else of some perverse, ineffectual, ironic tendency; our readers shall judge which:

In these distracted times,' writes he, when the Religious Principle, driven out of most Churches, either lies unseen in the hearts of good men, looking and longing and silently working 'there towards some new Revelation; or else wanders homeless 6 over the world, like a disembodied soul seeking its terrestrial

'organisation,-into how many strange shapes, of Superstition and 'Fanaticism, does it not tentatively and errantly cast itself! The higher Enthusiasm of man's nature is for the while without Ex'ponent; yet does it continue indestructible, unweariedly active, ' and work blindly in the great chaotic deep: thus Sect after 'Sect, and Church after Church, bodies itself forth, and melts ' again into new metamorphosis.

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Chiefly is this observable in England, which, as the wealthiest ' and worst-instructed of European nations, offers precisely the 'elements (of Heat, namely, and of Darkness), in which such 'moon-calves and monstrosities are best generated. Among the

newer Sects of that country, one of the most notable, and closely 'connected with our present subject, is that of the Dandies; con'cerning which, what little information I have been able to procure may fitly stand here.

'It is true, certain of the English Journalists, men generally 'without sense for the Religious Principle, or judgment for its 'manifestations, speak, in their brief enigmatic notices, as if this were perhaps rather a Secular Sect, and not a Religious one: 'nevertheless, to the psychologic eye its devotional and even 'sacrificial character plainly enough reveals itself. Whether it 'belongs to the class of Fetish-worships, or of Hero-worships or 'Polytheisms, or to what other class, may in the present state of our intelligence remain undecided (schweben). A certain touch ' of Manicheism, not indeed in the Gnostic shape, is discernible 'enough also (for human Error walks in a cycle, and reappears at intervals) a not inconsiderable resemblance to that Supersti'tion of the Athos Monks, who by fasting from all nourishment, ' and looking intensely for a length of time into their own navels, came to discern therein the true Apocalypse of Nature, and 'Heaven Unveiled. To my own surmise, it appears as if this 'Dandiacal Sect were but a new modification, adapted to the new 'time, of that primeval Superstition, Self-Worship; which Zer'dusht, Quangfoutchee, Mohamed, and others, strove rather to 'subordinate and restrain than to eradicate; and which only in 'the purer forms of Religion has been altogether rejected. 'Wherefore, if any one chooses to name it revived Ahrimanism,

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or a new figure of Demon-Worship, I have so far as is yet visi'ble, no objection.

For the rest, these people, animated with the zeal of a new 'Sect, display courage and perseverance, and what force there is ' in man's nature, though never so enslaved. They affect great 'purity and separatism; distinguish themselves by a particular 6 costume (whereof some notices were given in the earlier part of 'this Volume); likewise, so far as possible, by a particular speech '(apparently some broken Lingua-franca, or English-French); 'and, on the whole, strive to maintain a true Nazarene deport'ment, and keep themselves unspotted from the world.

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They have their Temples, whereof the chief, as the Jewish 'Temple did, stands in their metropolis; and is named Almack's 'a word of uncertain etymology. They worship principally by 'night; and have their Highpriests and Highpriestesses, who, 'however, do not continue for life. The rites, by some supposed 'to be of the Menadic sort, or perhaps with an Eleusinian or 'Cabiric character, are held strictly secret. Nor are Sacred 'Books wanting to the Sect; these they call Fashionable Novels: however, the Canon is not completed, and some are canonical ' and others not.

Of such Sacred Books I, not without expense, procured my'self some samples; and in hope of true insight, and with the zeal which beseems an Inquirer into Clothes, set to interpret and study them. But wholly to no purpose: that tough faculty of reading, for which the world will not refuse me credit, was 'here for the first time foiled and set at naught. In vain that I 'summoned my whole energies (mich weidlich anstrengte), and did my very utmost; at the end of some short space, I was uni'formly seized with not so much what I can call a drumming in my ears, as a kind of infinite, unsufferable Jew's-harping and scrannel-piping there; to which the frightfulest species of Mag'netic Sleep soon supervened. And if I strove to shake this away, and absolutely would not yield, came a hitherto unfelt 'sensation, as of Delirium Tremens, and a melting into total deli'quium till at last, by order of the Doctor, dreading ruin to my 'whole intellectual and bodily faculties, and a general breaking'up of the constitution, I reluctantly but determinedly forbore.

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iracle a

'Was there some miracle at work here; like those Fire-balls, and 'supernal and infernal prodigies, which, in the case of the Jewish 'Mysteries, have also more than once scared back the Alien? Be 'this as it may, such failure on my part, after best efforts, must 'excuse the imperfection of this sketch; altogether incomplete, 'yet the completest I could give of a Sect too singular to be ' omitted.

'Loving my own life and senses as I do, no power shall induce 'me, as a private individual, to open another Fashionable Novel. 'But luckily, in this dilemma, comes a hand from the clouds; 'whereby if not victory, deliverance is held out to me. Round one 'of those Book-packages, which the Stillschweigen'sche Buchhand'lung is in the habit of importing from England, come, as is 'usual, various waste printed-sheets (macalatur-blätter), by way of 'interior wrappage into these the Clothes-Philosopher, with a 'certain Mohamedan reverence even for waste paper, where curi6 ous knowledge will sometimes hover, disdains not to cast his eye. 'Readers may judge of his astonishment when on such a defaced stray sheet, probably the outcast fraction of some English 'Periodical, such as they name Magazine, appears something like a Dissertation on this very subject of Fashionable Novels ! It sets out, indeed, chiefly from the Secular point of view; direct'ing itself, not without asperity, against some to me unknown 'individual, named Pelham, who seems to be a Mystagogue, and 'leading Teacher and Preacher of the Sect; so that, what indeed 'otherwise was not to be expected in such a fugitive fragmentary 'sheet, the true secret, the Religious physiognomy and physiology ' of the Dandiacal Body, is nowise laid fully open there. Nevertheless, scattered lights do from time to time sparkle out, whereby I have endeavoured to profit. Nay, in one passage selected 'from the Prophecies, or Mythic Theogonies, or whatever they are (for the style seems very mixed) of this Mystagogue, I find 'what appears to be a Confession of Faith, or Whole Duty of 'Man, according to the tenets of that Sect. Which Confession 'or Whole Duty, therefore, as proceeding from a Source SO 'authentic, I shall here arrange under Seven distinct Articles, and in very abridged shape lay before the German world; there• with taking leave of this matter. Observe, also, that to avoid

'possibility of error, I, as far as may be, quote literally from the 'Original:

6 ARTICLES OF FAITH.

1. Coats should have nothing of the triangle about them; at 'the same time, wrinkles behind should be carefully avoided. “2. The collar is a very important point: it should be low be'hind, and slightly rolled.

"3. No license of fashion can allow a man of delicate taste to 'adopt the posterial luxuriance of a Hottentot.

"4. There is safety in a swallow-tail.

"5. The good sense of a gentleman is nowhere more finely de'veloped than in his rings.

"6. It is permitted to mankind, under certain restrictions, to 'wear white waistcoats.

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"7. The trowsers must be exceedingly tight across the hips." All which Propositions I, for the present, content myself with 'modestly but peremptorily and irrevocably denying.

'In strange contrast with this Dandiacal Body stands another 'British Sect, originally, as I understand, of Ireland, where its 'chief seat still is; but known also in the main Island, and in'deed everywhere rapidly spreading. As this Sect has hitherto ' emitted no Canonical Books, it remains to me in the same state of obscurity as the Dandiacal, which has published Books that 'the unassisted human faculties are inadequate to read. The 'members appear to be designated by a considerable diversity of names, according to their various places of establishment in 'England they are generally called the Drudge Sect; also, un'philosophically enough, the White Negroes; and, chiefly in 'scorn by those of other communions, the Ragged-Beggar Sect. 'In Scotland, again, I find them entitled Hallanshakers, or the Stook-of-Duds Sect; any individual communicant is named "Stook-of-Duds (that is, Shock of Rags), in allusion, doubtless, to 'their professional Costume. While in Ireland, which, as mentioned, is their grand parent hive, they go by a perplexing mul'tiplicity of designations, such as Bogtrotters, Redshanks, Ribbon

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