And again: 'It is not because of his toils that I lament fr 'the poor we must all toil, or steal (howsoever we name var 'stealing), which is worse; no faithful workman finds his task a pastime. The poor is hungry and athirst; but for him ako there is food and drink he is heavy-laden and weary; but f him also the Heavens send Sleep, and of the deepest; in b 'smoky cribs, a clear dewy heaven of Rest envelopes him, and fr 'ful glitterings of cloud-skirted Dreams. But what I do mourn over is, that the lamp of his soul should go out; that no ray of 'heavenly, or even of earthly knowledge, should visit him: but 'only, in the haggard darkness, like two spectres, Fear and In'dignation bear him company. Alas, while the Body stands so 'broad and brawny, must the Soul lie blinded, dwarfed, stupified, 'almost annihilated! Alas, was this too a Breath of God; be 'stowed in Heaven, but on earth never to be unfolded!—That 'there should one Man die Ignorant who had capacity for Know'ledge, this I call a tragedy, were it to happen more than twenty 'times in the minute, as by some computations it does. The mis 'erable fraction of Science which our united Mankind, in a wide Universe of Nescience, has acquired, why is not this, with all diligence, imparted to all?'

Quite in an opposite strain is the following: The old Spartans 'had a wiser method; and went out and hunted down their Helots, and speared and spitted them, when they grew too numer ous. With our improved fashions of hunting, Herr Hofrath, 'now after the invention of fire-arms, and standing armies, how 'much easier were such a hunt! Perhaps in the most thickly 'peopled country, some three days annually might suffice to 'shoot all the able-bodied Paupers that had accumulated within Let Governments think of this. The expense were Have them salt'ed and barrelled; could not you victual therewith, if not Army and Navy, yet richly such infirm Paupers, in workhouses and elsewhere, as enlightened Charity, dreading no evil of them, 'might see good to keep alive?'

เ

6

6 the

year.

trifling: nay, the very carcasses would pay it.

And yet,' writes he farther on, there must be something 'wrong. A full-formed Horse will, in any market, bring from 'twenty to as high as two hundred Friedrichs d'or: such is his

'worth to the world. A full-formed Man is not only worth nothing to the world, but the world could afford him a round sum 'would he simply engage to go and hang himself. Nevertheless, which of the two was the more cunningly-devised article, even as an Engine? Good Heavens! A white European Man, standing on his two Legs, with his two five-fingered Hands at his 'shackle-bones, and miraculous Head on his shoulders, is worth, I should say, from fifty to a hundred Horses!'

True, thou Gold-Hofrath,' cries the Professor elsewhere: too 'crowded indeed! Meanwhile, what portion of this inconsidera'ble terraqueous Globe have ye actually tilled and delved, till it 'will grow no more? How thick stands your Population in the Pampas and Savannas of America; round ancient Carthage, and in the interior of Africa; on both slopes of the Altaic chain, in the central Platform of Asia; in Spain, Greece, Turkey, Crim Tartary, the Curragh of Kildare? One man, in one year, as I 'have understood it, if you lend him Earth, will feed himself and 'nine others. Alas, where now are the Hengsts and Alarics of our still glowing, still expanding Europe; who, when their home is grown too narrow, will enlist and, like Fire-pillars, guide on'wards those superfluous masses of indomitable living Valour; ' equipped, not now with the battle-axe and war-chariot, but with the steam-engine and ploughshare? Where are they?-Pre'serving their Game!'

CHAPTER V.

THE PHOENIX.

PUTTING which four singular Chapters together, and alongside of them numerous hints, and even direct utterances, scattered over these Writings of his, we come upon the startling yet not quite unlooked-for conclusion, that Teufelsdröckh is one of those who consider Society, properly so called, to be as good as extinct: and that only the Gregarious feelings, and old inherited habi tudes, at this juncture, hold us from Dispersion, and universal national, civil, domestic and personal war! He says expressly: 'For the last three centuries, above all, for the last three quarters 'of a century, that same Pericardial Nervous Tissue (as we named 'it) of Religion, where lies the Life-essence of Society, has been 'smote at and perforated, needfully and needlessly; till now it is 'quite rent into shreds; and Society, long pining, diabetic, con'sumptive, can be regarded as defunct; for those spasmodic, gal'vanic sprawlings are not life; neither indeed will they endure, 'galvanise as you may, beyond two days.'

Call ye that a Society,' cries he again, 'where there is no longer any Social Idea extant; not so much as the Idea of a common Home, but only of a common, over-crowded Lodging'house? Where each, isolated, regardless of his neighbour, ' turned against his neighbour, clutches what he can get, and cries "Mine!" and calls it Peace, because, in the cut-purse and cut'throat Scramble, no steel knives, but only a far cunninger sort, 'can be employed? Where Friendship, Communion, has become 'an incredible tradition; and your holiest Sacramental Supper is 'a smoking Tavern Dinner, with Cook for Evangelist? Where 'your Priest has no tongue but for plate-licking: and your high 'Guides and Governors cannot guide; but on all hands hear it 'passionately proclaimed: Laissez faire; Leave us alone of your

guidance, such light is darker than darkness; eat you your wages, and sleep!

'Thus, too,' continues he, 'does an observant eye discern everywhere that saddest spectacle: The Poor perishing, like neglected, foundered Draught-Cattle, of Hunger and Overwork; the Rich, still more wretchedly, of Idleness, Satiety, and Over'growth. The Highest in rank, at length, without honour from the Lowest; scarcely, with a little mouth-honour, as from tavernwaiters who expect to put it in the bill. Once sacred Symbols fluttering as empty Pageants, whereof men grudge even the expense; a World becoming dismantled: in one word, the CHURCH fallen speechless, from obesity and apoplexy; the STATE shrunken into a Police-Office, straitened to get its pay!'

We might ask, are there many 'observant eyes,' belonging to Practical men, in England or elsewhere, which have descried these phenomena; or is it only from the mystic elevation of a German Wahngasse that such wonders are visible? Teufelsdröckh contends that the aspect of a 'deceased or expiring Society' fronts us everywhere, so that whoso runs may read. 'What, for example,' says he, 'is the universally-arrogated Vir'tue, almost the sole remaining Catholic Virtue, of these days? 'For some half century, it has been the thing you name, “Inde'pendence." Suspicion of "Servility," of reverence for Superiors 'the very dogleech is anxious to disavow. Fools! Were your Superiors worthy to govern, and you worthy to obey, reverence 'for them were even your only possible freedom. Independence, in all kinds, is rebellion; if unjust rebellion, why parade it, and 'everywhere prescribe it?'

But what then? Are we returning, as Rousseau prayed, to the state of Nature? The Soul Politic having departed,' says Teufelsdröckh, what can follow but that the Body. Politic be 'decently interred, to avoid putrescence? Liberals, Economists, Utilitarians enough I see marching with its bier, and chaunting 'loud paans, towards the funeral-pile, where, amid wailings from 'some, and saturnalian revelries from the most, the venerable Corpse is to be burnt. Or, in plain words, that these men, 'Liberals, Utilitarians, or whatsoever they are called, will ulti'mately carry their point, and dissever and destroy most existing

'Institutions of Society, seems a thing which has some time ago 'ceased to be doubtful.

'Do we not see a little subdivision of the grand Utilitarian 'Armament come to light even in insulated England? A living 'nucleus, that will attract and grow, does at length appear there also; and under curious phasis; properly as the inconsiderable fag-end, and so far in the rear of the others as to fancy itself the 'van. Our European Mechanisers are a sect of boundless diffu'sion, activity, and cooperative spirit: has not Utilitarianism 'flourished in high places of Thought, here among ourselves, and in every European country, at some time or other, within the 'last fifty years? If now in all countries, except perhaps Eng'land, it has ceased to flourish, or indeed to exist, among Thinkers, and sunk to Journalists and the popular mass,—who sees 'not that, as hereby it no longer preaches, so the reason is, it now 'needs no Preaching, but is in full universal Action, the doctrine 'everywhere known, and enthusiastically laid to heart? The fit 'pabulum, in these times, for a certain rugged workshop-intellect and heart, nowise without their corresponding workshop-strength ' and ferocity, it requires but to be stated in such scenes to make 'proselytes enough.—Admirably calculated for destroying, only 'not for rebuilding! It spreads like a sort of Dog-madness; till 'the whole World-kennel will be rabid: then woe to the Hunts'men, with or without their whips! They should have given the 'quadrupeds water,' adds he; the water, namely, of Knowledge 'and of Life, while it was yet time.'

Thus, if Professor Teufelsdröckh can be relied on, we are at this hour in a most critical condition; beleaguered by that boundless Armament of Mechanisers' and Unbelievers, threatening to strip us bare! The World,' says he, 'as it needs must. is 'under a process of devastation and waste, which, whether by 'silent assiduous corrosion, or open quicker combustion, as the 'case chances, will effectually enough annihilate the past Forms ' of Society; replace them with what it may. For the present, 'it is contemplated that when man's whole Spiritual Interests are ' once divested, these innumerable stript-off Garments shall mostly 'be burnt; but the sounder Rags among them be quilted toge'ther into one huge Irish watch-coat for the defence of the