the great world, from which we at one time fancied him to have been always excluded. The Zähdarms,' says he, 'lived in the 'soft sumptuous garniture of Aristocracy; whereto Literature 'and Art, attracted and attached from without, were to serve as 'the handsomest fringing. It was to the Gnädigen Frau (her 'Ladyship) that this latter improvement was due assiduously 'she gathered, dexterously she fitted on, what fringing was to be 'had; lace or cobweb, as the place yielded.' Was Teufelsdröckh also a fringe, of lace or cobweb; or promising to be such? 'With his Excellenz (the Count),' continues he, 'I have more 'than once had the honour to converse; chiefly on general affairs. 'and the aspect of the world, which he, though now past middle 'life, viewed in no unfavourable light; finding indeed, except the 'Outrooting of Journalism (die auszurottende Journalistik), little 'to desiderate therein. On some points, as his Excellent was 'not uncholeric, I found it more pleasant to keep silence. Be

sides, his occupation being that of Owning Land, there might 'be faculties enough, which, as superfluous for such use, were lit'tle developed in him.

That to Teufelsdröckh the aspect of the world was nowise so faultless, and many things besides the Outrooting of Journalism.' might have seemed improvements, we can readily conjecture. With nothing but a barren Auscultatorship from without, and so many mutinous thoughts and wishes from within, his position was no easy one. The Universe, he says, 'was as a mighty Sphinx' riddle, which I knew so little of, yet must rede, or be devoured. In red streaks of unspeakable grandeur, yet also in the black'ness of darkness, was Life, to my too-unfurnished Thought, un'folding itself. A strange contradiction lay in me; and I as yet 'knew not the solution of it; knew not that spiritual music can 'spring only from discords set in unison; that but for Evil there were no Good, as victory is only possible by battle.'

'I have heard affirmed (surely in jest),' observes he elsewhere, 'by not unphilanthropic persons, that it were a real increase of 'human happiness, could all young men from the age of nineteen 'be covered under barrels, or rendered otherwise invisible; and 'there left to follow their lawful studies and callings, till they

6

ged, sadder and wiser, at the age of twenty-five. With suggestion, at least as considered in the light of a practiheme, I need scarcely say that I nowise coincide. Nevertness it is plausibly urged that, as young ladies (Mädchen) 'are, to mankind, precisely the most delightful in those years; so young gentlemen (Bübchen) do then attain their maximum of detestability. Such gawks (Gecken) are they, and foolish 'peacocks, and yet with such a vulturous hunger for self-indulgence so obstinate, obstreperous, vain-glorious; in all senses, 6 so froward and so forward No mortal's endeavour or attain'ment will, in the smallest, content the as yet unendeavouring, 'unattaining young gentleman; but he could make it all infi'nitely better, were it worthy of him. Life every where is the 'most manageable matter, simply as a question in the Rule of Three multiply your second and third term together, divide 'the product by the first, and your quotient will be the answer, '-which you are but an ass if you cannot come at. The booby 'has not yet found out, by any trial, that, do what one will, there 'is ever a cursed fraction, oftenest a decimal repeater, and no 'net integer quotient so much as to be thought of.'

In which passage does there not lie an implied confession that Teufelsdröckh himself, besides his outward obstructions, had an inward, still greater, to contend with; namely, a certain temporary, youthful, yet still afflictive derangement of head? Alas! on the former side alone, his case was hard enough. It contin'ues ever true,' says he, 'that Saturn, or Chronos, or what we 'call TIME, devours all his Children: only by incessant Running, 'by incessant Working, may you (for some threescore and ten 'years) escape him; and you too he devours at last. Can any 'Sovereign, or Holy Alliance of Sovereigns, bid Time stand still; ' even in thought, shake themselves free of Time? Our whole 'terrestrial being is based on Time, and built of Time; it is 'wholly a Movement, a Time-impulse; Time is the author of it, 'the material of it. Hence also our Whole Duty, which is to 'move, to work,—in the right direction. Are not our Bodies and 'our Souls in continual movement, whether we will or not; in a 'continual Waste, requiring a continual Repair? Utmost satis

'faction of our whole outward and inward Wants were but satis'faction for a space of Time; thus, whatso we have done, is done, 'and for us annihilated, and ever must we go and do anew. 0 'Time-Spirit, how hast thou environed and imprisoned us, and 'sunk us so deep in thy troublous dim Time-Element, that, only ' in lucid moments, can so much as glimpses of our upper Azure 'Home be revealed to us! Me, however, as a Son of Time, un'happier than some others, was Time threatening to eat quite 'prematurely; for, strive as I might, there was no good Running, so obstructed was the path, so gyved were the feet.' That is to say, we presume, speaking in the dialect of this lower world, that Teufelsdröckh's whole duty and necessity was, like other men's, 'to work, in the right direction,' and that no work was to be had; whereby he became wretched enough. As was natural: with haggard Scarcity threatening him in the distance; and so vehement a soul languishing in restless inaction, and forced thereby, like Sir Hudibras's sword by rust,

6

To eat into itself, for lack

Of something else to hew and hack!

6

But on the whole, that same 'excellent Passivity,' as it has all along done, is here again vigorously flourishing; in which circumstance, may we not trace the beginnings of much that now charac terises our Professor; and perhaps, in faint rudiments, the origin of the Clothes-Philosophy itself? Already the attitude he has assumed towards the World is too defensive; not, as would have been desirable, a bold attitude of attack. So far hitherto,' he says, 'as I had mingled with mankind, I was notable, if for any 'thing, for a certain stillness of manner, which, as my friends ' often rebukingly declared, did but ill express the keen ardour of 'my feelings. I, in truth, regarded men with an excess both of 'love and of fear. The mystery of a Person, indeed, is ever 'divine, to him that has a sense for the Godlike. Often, notwith'standing, was I blamed, and by half-strangers hated, for my so'called Hardness (Härte), my Indifferentism towards men; and 'the seemingly ironic tone I had adopted, as my favourite dia

'lect in conversation.

Alas, the panoply of Sarcasm was but as ' a buckram case, wherein I had striven to envelope myself; that so my own poor Person might live safe there, and in all friendli'ness, being no longer exasperated by wounds. Sarcasm I now 'see to be, in general, the language of the Devil; for which reason I have, long since, as good as renounced it. But how many 'individuals did I, in those days, provoke into some degree of hostility thereby! An ironic man, with his sly stillness, and ' ambuscading ways, more especially an ironic young man, from 'whom it is least expected, may be viewed as a pest to society. Have we not seen persons of weight and name, coming forward, 'with gentlest indifference, to tread such a one out of sight, as 'an insignificancy and worm, start ceiling-high (balkenhoch); and thence fall shattered and supine, to be borne home on 'shutters, not without indignation, when he proved electric and a torpedo!'

Alas, how can a man with this devilishness of temper make way for himself in Life; where the first problem, as Teufelsdröckh too admits, is 'to unite yourself with some one, and with somewhat (sich anzuschliessen)?' Division, not union, is written on most part of his procedure. Let us add too that, in no great length of time, the only important connexion he had ever succeeded in forming, his connexion with the Zähdarm Family, seems to have been paralysed, for all practical uses, by the death of the 'not uncholeric' old Count. This fact stands recorded, quite incidentally, in a certain Discourse on Epitaphs, huddled into the present Bag, among so much else; of which Essay the learning and curious penetration are more to be approved of than the spirit. His grand principle is, that lapidary inscriptions, of what sort soever, should be Historical rather than Lyrical. By request of that worthy Nobleman's survivors,' says he, I undertook to compose his Epitaph; and not unmindful of my own rules, produced the following; which, however, for an 'alleged defect of Latinity, a defect never yet fully visible to 'myself, still remains unengraven ;'-wherein, we may predict, there is more than the Latinity that will surprise an Eng lish reader:

HIC JACET

PHILIPPUS ZAEHDARM, COGNOMINE MAGNUS, ZAEHDARMI COMES,

EX IMPERII CONCILIO,

VELLERIS AUREI, PERISCELIDIS, NECNON VULTURIS NIGRI

EQUES.

QUI DUM SUB LUNA AGEBAT,

QUINQUIES MILLE PERDRICES

PLUMBO CONFECIT:

VARII CIBI

CENTUMPONDIA MILLIES CENTENA MILLIA,
PER SE, PERQUE SERVOS QUADRUPEDES BIPEDESVE,
HAUD SINE TUMULTU DEVOLVENS,

IN STERCUS

PALAM CONVERTIT.

NUNC A LABORE REQUIESCENTEM

OPERA SEQUUNTUR.

SI MONUMENTUM QUÆRIS,

FIMETUM ADSPICE.

PRIMÙM IN ORBE DEJECIT [sub dato]; POSTREMUM [sub dato].