CHAPTER VII.

ORGANIC FILAMENTS.

FOR us, who happen to live while the World-Phoenix is burning herself, and burning so slowly that, as Teufelsdröckh calculates, it were a handsome bargain would she engage to have done within two centuries,' there seems to lie but an ashy prospect. Not altogether so, however, does the Professor figure it. In the living 'subject,' says he,' change is wont to be gradual: thus, 'while the serpent sheds its old skin, the new is already 'formed beneath. Little knowest thou of the burning ' of a World-Phoenix, who fanciest that she must first 'burn out, and lie as a dead cinereous heap; and there'from the young one start up by miracle, and fly heaven'ward. Far otherwise! In that Fire-whirlwind, 'Creation and Destruction proceed together; ever as the ' ashes of the Old are blown about, do organic filaments of the New mysteriously spin themselves: and amid 'the rushing and the waving of the Whirlwind-Element, come tones of a melodious Deathsong, which end not 'but in tones of a more melodious Birthsong. Nay, look into the Fire-whirlwind with thy own eyes, and 'thou wilt see.' Let us actually look, then: to poor individuals, who cannot expect to live two centuries, those same organic filaments, mysteriously spinning themselves, will be the best part of the spectacle. First, therefore, this of Mankind in general :

thou

'In vain thou deniest it,' says the Professor; 'art my Brother. Thy very Hatred, thy very Envy, 'those foolish Lies thou tellest of me in thy splenetic 'humour: what is all this but an inverted Sympathy? 'Were I a Steam-engine, wouldst thou take the trouble to tell Lies of me? Not thou! I should grind all 'unheeded, whether badly or well.

'Wondrous truly are the bonds that unite us one and 'all; whether by the soft binding of Love, or the iron chaining of Necessity, as we like to choose it. More than once, have I said to myself, of some perhaps 'whimsically strutting Figure, such as provokes whim'sical thoughts: "Wert thou, my little Brotherkin, sud'denly covered up within the largest imaginable Glass'bell, what a thing it were, not for thyself only, but for the world! Post Letters, more or fewer, from all 'the four winds, impinge against thy Glass walls, but must drop unread neither from within comes there ' question or response into any Postbag; thy Thoughts fall into no friendly ear or heart, thy Manufacture into 'no purchasing hand; thou art no longer a circulating ' venous-arterial Heart, that, taking and giving, circu'latest through all Space and all Time: there has a 'Hole fallen out in the immeasurable, universal World'tissue, which must be darned up again!"

'Such venous-arterial circulation, of Letters, verbal 'Messages, paper and other Packages, going out from 'him and coming in, are a blood-circulation, visible to 'the eye but the finer nervous circulation, by which all 'things, the minutest that he does, minutely influence and the very look of his face blesses or curses whomso it lights on, and so generates ever new blessing

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all men,

or new cursing all this you cannot see, but only ima'gine. I say, there is not a red Indian, hunting by Lake Winnipic, can quarrel with his squaw, but the whole 'world must smart for it will not the price of beaver 'rise? It is a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters the centre of gravity of 'the Universe.

'If now an existing generation of men stand so 'woven together, not less indissolubly does generation 'with generation. Hast thou ever meditated on that 'word Tradition: how we inherit not Life only, but all 'the garniture and form of Life; and work, and speak, ' and even think and feel, as our Fathers, and primeval grandfathers, from the beginning, have given it us ?— 'Who printed thee, for example, this unpretending ' Volume on the Philosophy of Clothes? Not the Herren 'Stillschweigen and Company: but Cadmus of Thebes, 'Faust of Mentz, and innumerable others whom thou 'knowest not. Had there been no Mæsogothic Ulfila, 'there had been no English Shakespeare, or a different " one. Simpleton it was Tubalcain that made thy very Tailor's needle, and sewed that court suit of 'thine.

'Yes, truly, if Nature is one, and a living indivisible whole, much more is Mankind, the Image that reflects ' and creates Nature, without which Nature were not. 'As palpable life-streams in that wondrous Individual Mankind, among so many life-streams that are not palpable, flow on those main-currents of what we call Opinion ; as preserved in Institutions, Polities, Churches, ' above all in Books. Beautiful it is to understand and 'know that a Thought did never yet die; that as thou,

the originator thereof, hast gathered it and created it 'from the whole Past, so thou wilt transmit it to the 'whole Future. It is thus that the heroic Heart, the 'seeing Eye of the first times, still feels and sees in us ' of the latest; that the Wise Man stands ever encom'passed, and spiritually embraced, by a cloud of wit

nesses and brothers; and there is a living, literal Com'munion of Saints, wide as the World itself, and as the "History of the World.

'Noteworthy also, and serviceable for the progress of this same Individual, wilt thou find his subdivision ' into Generations. Generations are as the days of 'toilsome Mankind; Death and Birth are the vesper and 'the matin bells, that summon Mankind to sleep, and 'to rise refreshed for new advancement. What the 'Father has made the Son can make and enjoy; but has 'also work of his own appointed him. Thus all things 'wax, and roll onwards; Arts, Establishments, Opinions, 'nothing is completed, but ever completing. Newton 'has learned to see what Kepler saw; but there is also a fresh heaven-derived force in Newton; he must mount to still higher points of vision. So too the Hebrew Lawgiver is, in due time, followed by an 'Apostle of the Gentiles. In the business of Destruction, 'as this also is from time to time a necessary work, thou ' findest a like sequence and perseverance: for Luther it was as yet hot enough to stand by that burning of the Pope's Bull; Voltaire could not warm himself at the glimmering ashes, but required quite other fuel. Thus likewise, I note, the English Whig has, in the second generation, become an English Radical; who, in the 'third again, it is to be hoped, will become an English

'Rebuilder. Find Mankind where thou wilt, thou findest 'it in living movement, in progress faster or slower the 'Phoenix soars aloft, hovers with outstretched wings, 'filling Earth with her music; or, as now, she sinks, and with spheral swan-song immolates herself in flame, 'that she may soar the higher and sing the clearer.'

Let the friends of social order, in such a disastrous period, lay this to heart, and derive from it any little comfort they can. We subjoin another passage, concerning Titles:

'Remark, not without surprise,' says Teufelsdröckh, 'how all high Titles of Honour come hitherto from Fighting. Your Herzog (Duke, Dux) is Leader of 'Armies; your Earl (Jarl) is Strong Man; your 'Marshall cavalry Horse-shoer. A Millenium, or reign 'of Peace and Wisdom, having from of old been pro'phesied, and becoming now daily more and more indu'bitable, may it not be apprehended that such Fighting'titles will cease to be palatable, and new and higher 'need to be devised ?

The only Title wherein I, with confidence, trace eternity, is that of King. König (King), anciently 'Könning means Ken-ning (Cunning), or which is the 'same thing, Can-ning. Ever must the Sovereign of Mankind be fitly entitled King.'

'Well, also,' says he elsewhere, was it written by 'Theologians: a King rules by divine right. He carries in him an authority from God, or man will never give 'it him. Can I choose my own King? I can choose my own King Popinjay, and play what farce or tra'gedy I may with him but he who is to be my Ruler, 'whose will is to be higher than my will, was chosen for