'that no ray of heavenly, or even of earthly knowledge, 'should visit him; but, only in the haggard darkness, ' like two spectres, Fear and Indignation. 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: bestowed in 'Heaven, but on earth never to be unfolded !—That 'there should one Man die Ignorant who had capacity ' for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy, were it to happen more than twenty times in the minute, as by some computations it does. The miserable fraction of 'Science which united mankind, in a wide Universe of Nescience, has acquired, why is not this, with all dili'gence, imparted to all?'

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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 numerous. With our im'proved 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 the year. Let Governments 'think of this. The expense were trifling: nay, the very carcasses would pay it. Have them salted and 'barrelled; could not you victual therewith, if not Army and Navy, yet richly such infirm Paupers, in work'houses and elsewhere, as enlightened Charity, dreading ' no evil of them, might see good to keep alive?'

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'And yet,' writes he farther on, there must be some'thing 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!'

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True, thou Gold-Hofrath,' cries the Professor elsewhere too crowded indeed! Meanwhile, what por'tion of this inconsiderable 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 onwards those superfluous masses of indo'mitable living Valour; equipped, not now with the 'battle-axe and war-chariot, but with the steam-engine ' and ploughshare?-Where are they?-Preserving 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 habitudes, 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 Peri-cardial "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, dia'betic, consumptive, can be regarded as defunct; for 'those spasmodic, galvanic 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 neigh

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'bour, 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 your wages, and sleep!

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'Thus, too,' continues he, 'must an observant eye 'discern every where that saddest spectacle: The Poor 'perishing, like neglected, foundered Draught-Cattle, of 'Hunger and Overwork; the Rich, still more wretch'edly, of Idleness, Satiety, and Overgrowth. The 'Highest in rank, at length, without honour from the Lowest; scarcely, with a little mouth-honour, as from tavern-waiters who expect to put it in the bill. Once 'sacred Symbols fluttering as empty Pageants, whereof men grudge even the expense; a world becoming dis'mantled 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 Virtue, 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 every where prescribe it?'

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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 pæans, '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 ultimately 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 Utili'tarian Armament come to light even in insulated Eng'land? 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 diffusion, activity, and co-operative spirit: has not