fessor der Allerley-Wissenschaft, or as we should say in English, 'Professor of Things in General,' he had never delivered any Course; perhaps never been incited thereto by any public furtherance or requisition. To all appearance, the enlightened Government of Weissnichtwo, in founding their New University, imagined they had done enough, if in times like ours,' as the halfofficial Program expressed it, when all things are, rapidly or 'slowly, resolving themselves into Chaos, a Professorship of this 'kind had been established; whereby, as occasion called, the task ' of bodying somewhat forth again from such Chaos might be, even 'slightly, facilitated.' That actual Lectures should be held, and Public Classes for the Science of Things in General,' they doubtless considered premature; on which ground too they had only established the Professorship, nowise endowed it; so that Teufelsdrockh, recommended by the highest Names,' had been promoted thereby to a Name merely.

Great, among the more enlightened classes, was the admiration of this new Professorship: how an enlightened Government had seen into the Want of the Age (Zeitbedürfniss); how at length, instead of Denial and Destruction, we were to have a science of Affirmation and Reconstruction; and Germany and Weissnichtwo were where they should be, in the vanguard of the world. Considerable also was the wonder at the new Professor, dropt opportunely enough into the nascent University; so able to lecture, should occasion call; so ready to hold his peace for indefinite periods, should an enlightened Government consider that occasion did not call. But such admiration and such wonder, being followed by no act to keep them living, could last only nine days; and long before our visit to that scene, had quite died away. The more cunning heads thought it was all an expiring clutch at popularity, on the part of a Minister, whom domestic embarrassments, court intrigues, old age, and dropsy soon afterwards finally drove from the helm.

As for Teufelsdröckh, except by his nightly appearances at the Grünen Ganse, Weissnichtwo saw little of him, felt little of him. Here, over his tumbler of Gukguk, he sat reading Journals; sometimes contemplatively looking into the clouds of his tobaccopipe, without other visible employment: always, from his mild

ways, an agreeable phenomenon there; more especially when he opened his lips for speech; on which occasions the whole Coffeehouse would hush itself into silence, as if sure to hear something noteworthy. Nay, perhaps to hear a whole series and river of the most memorable utterances; such as, when once thawed, he would for hours indulge in, with fit audience: and the more memorable, as issuing from a head apparently not more interested in them, not more conscious of them, than is the sculptured stone head of some public Fountain, which through its brass mouth-tube emits water to the worthy and the unworthy; careless whether it be for cooking victuals or quenching conflagrations; indeed maintains the same earnest assiduous look, whether any water be flowing or not. To the Editor of these sheets, as to a young enthusiastic Englishman, however unworthy, Teufelsdröckh opened himself perhaps more than to the most. Pity only that we could not then half guess his importance, and scrutinise him with due power of vision! We enjoyed, what not three men in Weissnichtwo could boast of, a certain degree of access to the Professor's private domicile. It was the attic floor of the highest house in the Wahngasse; and might truly be called the pinnacle of Weissnichtwo, for it rose sheer up above the contiguous roofs, themselves rising from elevated ground. Moreover, with its windows, it looked towards all the four Orte, or as the Scotch say, and we ought to say, Airts: the Sitting room itself commanded three; another came to view in the Schlafgemach (Bed-room) at the the opposite end; to say nothing of the Kitchen, which offered two, as it were duplicates, and shewing nothing new. So that it was in fact the speculum or watch-tower of Teufelsdröckh; wherefrom, sitting at ease, he might see the whole life-circulation of that considerable City; the streets and lanes of which, with all their doing and driving (Thun und Treiben), were for the most part visible there.

"I look down into all that wasp-nest or bee-hive," have we heard him say, "and witness their wax-laying and honey-making, "and poison-brewing, and choking by sulphur. From the Palace "esplanade, where music plays while Serene Highness is pleased "to eat his victuals, down the low lane, where in her door-sill the "aged widow, knitting for a thin livelihood, sits to feel the after"noon sun, I see it all; for, except the Schlosskirche weathercock,

"no biped stands so high. Couriers arrive bestrapped and be"booted, bearing Joy and Sorrow bagged up in pouches of leather; "there, topladen, and with four swift horses, rolls in the country "Baron and his household; here, on timber leg, the lamed Soldier "hops painfully along, begging alms: a thousand carriages, and "wains, and cars, come tumbling in with Food, with young Rus"ticity, and other Raw Produce, inanimate or animate, and go 66 tumbling out again with Produce manufactured. That living "flood, pouring through these streets, of all qualities and ages, "knowest thou whence it is coming, whither it is going? Aus "der Ewigkeit, zu der Ewigkeit hin: From Eternity, onwards "to Eternity! These are Apparitions: what else? Are they "not Souls rendered visible; in Bodies, that took shape and "will lose it, melting into air? Their solid pavement is a Picture "of the Sense; they walk on the bosom of Nothing, blank Time "is behind them and before them. Or fanciest thou, the red "and yellow Clothes-screen yonder, with spurs on its heels, and "feather in its crown, is but of To-day, without a Yesterday or a "To-morrow; and had not rather its Ancestor alive when Hengst "and Horsa overran thy Island? Friend, thou seest here a "living link in that Tissue of History, which inweaves all Being: "watch well, or it will be past thee, and seen no more."

"Ach, mein Lieber!" said he once, at midnight, when he had returned from the Coffee-house in rather earnest talk, "it is a "true sublimity to dwell here. These fringes of lamplight, "struggling up through smoke and thousand-fold exhalation, 66 some fathoms into the ancient reign of Night, what thinks "Boōtes of them, as he leads his Hunting Dogs over the Zenith, "in their leash of sidereal fire? That stifled hum of Midnight, "when Traffic has lain down to rest; and the chariot-wheels of "Vanity, still rolling here and there through distant streets, are "bearing her to Halls roofed in, and lighted to the due pitch for "her; and only Vice and Misery, to prowl or to moan like night"birds, are abroad: that hum, I say, like the stertorous, unquiet "slumber of sick Life, is heard in Heaven! Oh, under that hid"eous coverlet of vapours, and putrefactions, and unimaginable "gases, what a Fermenting-vat lies simmering and hid! The "joyful and the sorrowful are there; men are dying there, men

are being born: men are praying,-n the other side of a brick "partition, men are cursing; and around them all is the vast, "yoid Night. The proud Grandee still lingers in his perfumed "saloons, or reposes within damask curtains; Wretchedness cow"ers into truckle-beds, or shivers hunger-stricken into its lair of "straw: in obscure cellars, Rouge-et-Noir languidly emits its "voice-of-destiny to haggard hungry Villians; while Councillors "of State sit plotting, and playing their high chess-game, where"of the pawns are Men. The Lover whispers his mistress that "the coach is ready; and she, full of hope and fear glides down, to "fly with him over the borders: the Thief, still more silently, sets "to his picklocks and crowbars, or lurks in wait till the watchmen "first snore in their boxes. Gay mansions, with supper-rooms, "and dancing-rooms, are full of light and music and high-swelling "hearts; but, in the Condemned Cells, the pulse of life beats "tremulous and faint, and bloodshot eyes look out through the "darkness, which is around and within, for the light of a stern last "morning. Six men are to be hanged on the morrow: comes no "hammering from the Rabenstein ?—their gallows must even now "be o'building. Upwards of five hundred thousand two-legged "animals without feathers lie round us, in horizontal position; "their heads all in nightcaps, and full of the foolishest dreams. "Riot cries aloud, and staggers and swaggers in his rank dens of "shame; and the Mother, with streaming hair, kneels over her "pallid dying infant, whose cracked lips only her tears now "moisten.-All these heaped and huddled together, with nothing "but a little carpentry and masonry between them;—crammed "in, like salted fish, in their barrel;-or weltering, shall I say, "like an Egyptian pitcher of tamed Vipers, each struggling to get "its head above the other: such work goes on under that smoke66 counterpane!—But I, mein Werther, sit above it all; I am alone "with the Stars."

We looked in his face to see whether, in the utterance of such extraordinary Night-thoughts, no feeling might be traced there; but with the light we had, which indeed was only a single tallowlight, and far enough from the window, nothing save that old calmness and fixedness was visible.

These were the Professor's talking seasons: most commonly

he spoke in mere monosyllables, or sat altogether silent and smoked; while the visitor had liberty either to say what he listed, receiving for answer an occasional grunt; or to look round for a space, and then take himself away. It was a strange apartment; full of books and tattered papers, and miscellaneous shreds of all conceivable substances, 'united in a common element of dust.' Books lay on tables, and below tables; here fluttered a sheet of manuscript, there a torn handkerchief, or nightcap hastily thrown aside; ink-bottles alternated with bread-crusts, coffee-pots, tobacco-boxes, Periodical Literature, and Blücher Boots. Old Leischen (Lisekin, 'Liza), who was his bed-maker and stovelighter, his washer and wringer, cook, errand-maid, and general lion's-provider, and for the rest a very orderly creature, had no sovereign authority in this last citadel of Teufelsdröckh; only some once in the month, she half-forcibly made her way thither, with broom and duster, and (Teufelsdröckh hastily saving his manuscripts) effected a partial clearance, a jail-delivery of such lumber as was not Literary. These were her Erdbebungen (Earthquakes), which Teufelsdröckh dreaded worse than the pestilence; nevertheless, to such length he had been forced to comply. Glad would he have been to sit here philosophising for ever, or till the litter, by accumulation, drove him out of doors: but Leischen was his right-arm, and spoon, and necessary of life, and would not be flatly gainsayed. We can still remember the ancient woman; so silent that some thought her dumb; deaf also you would often have supposed her; for Teufelsdröckh and Teufelsdröckh only would she serve or give heed to; and with him she seemed to communicate chiefly by signs; if it were not rather by some secret divination that she guessed all his wants, and supplied them. Assiduous old dame! she scoured, and sorted, and swept, in her kitchen, with the least possible violence to the ear; yet all was tight and right there: hot and black came the coffee ever at the due moment; and the speechless Leischen herself looked out on you, from under her clean white coif with its lappets, through her clean withered face and wrinkles, with a look of helpful intelligence, almost of benevolence.

Few strangers, as above hinted, had admittance hither: the only one we ever saw there, ourselves excepted, was the Hofrath