6

'during the French war, say thirty able-bodied men: Dum( drudge, at her own expense, has suckled and nursed them; she 'has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, 'and even trained them up to crafts, so that one can weave, ano'ther build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under 'thirty stone avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid much weeping 'and swearing, they are selected; all dressed in red; and 'shipped away, at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain; and fed there till wanted. 'And now to that same spot in the south of Spain, are thirty simi'lar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner 'wending till at length, after infinite effort, the two parties 'come into actual juxta-position; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word "Fire!" is given: and they blow the souls out of one another; 'and in place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty 'dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. 'Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the Devil is, not the 'smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest 'strangers; nay, in so wide a Universe, there was even, uncon'sciously, by Commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. 'How then? Simpleton! their Governors had fallen out; and, 'instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these 'poor blockheads shoot.-Alas, so is it in Deutchsland, and 'hitherto in all other lands; still as of old, “what devilry soever 'Kings do, the Greeks must pay the piper!"—In that fiction of 'the English Smollet, it is true, the final Cessation of War is 'perhaps prophetically shadowed forth; where the two Natural

Enemies, in person, take each a Tobacco-pipe, filled with Brim'stone; light the same, and smoke in one another's faces till the 'weaker gives in: but from such predicted Peace-Era, what blood-filled trenches, and contentious centuries, may still di'vide us!'

Thus can the Professor, at least in lucid intervals, look away from his own sorrows, over the many-coloured world, and pertinently enough note what is passing there. We may remark, indeed, that for the matter of spiritual culture, if for nothing else, perhaps few periods of his life were richer than this. Internally,

there is the most momentous instructive Course of Practical Philosophy, with Experiments, going on; towards the right compre hension of which his Peripatetic habits, favourable to Meditation, might help him rather than hinder. Externally, again, as he wanders to and fro, there are, if for the longing heart little substance, yet for the seeing eye sights enough in these so boundless Travels of his, granting that the Satanic School was even partially kept down, what an incredible Knowledge of our Planet, and its Inhabitants and their Works, that is to say, of all knowable things, might not Teufelsdröckh acquire!

'I have read in most Public Libraries,' says he, 'including 'those of Constantinople and Samarcand: in most Colleges, 'except the Chinese Mandarin ones, I have studied, or seen that 'there was no studying. Unknown Languages have I oftenest 'gathered from their natural repertory, the Air, by my organ of 'Hearing; Statistics, Geographies, Topographies came, through 'the Eye, almost of their own accord. The ways of Man, how he 'seeks food, and warmth, and protection for himself, in most 'regions, are ocularly known to me. Like the great Hadrian, I 'meted out much of the terraqueous Globe with a pair of Com'passes that belonged to myself only.

'Of great Scenes, why speak? Three summer days, I lingered 'reflecting, and even composing (dichtete), by the Pine-chasms of 'Vaucluse; and in that clear Lakelet moistened my bread. I 'have sat under the palm-trees of Tadmor; smoked a pipe among 'the ruins of Babylon. The great Wall of China I have seen; 'and can testify that it is of grey brick, coped and covered with 'granite, and shews only second-rate masonry.-Great Events, 'also, have I not witnessed? Kings sweated down (ausgemergelt) 'into Berlin-and-Milan Customhouse-officers; the World well won, and the world well lost; oftener than once a hundred 'thousand individuals shot (by each other) in one day. All 'kindreds and peoples and nations dashed together, and shifted 'and shovelled into heaps, that they might ferment there, and in 'time unite. The birth-pangs of Democracy, wherewith convulsed 'Europe was groaning in cries that reached Heaven, could not escape me.

6

'For great Men I have ever had the warmest predilection;

'and can perhaps boast that few such in this era have wholly 'escaped me. Great Men are the inspired (speaking and acting) 'Texts of that divine BOOK OF REVELATIONS, whereof a Chapter 'is completed from epoch to epoch, and by some named HISTORY; 'to which inspired Texts your numerous talented men, and your ' innumerable untalented men, are the better or worse exegetic Commentaries, and wagonload of too-stupid, heretical or orthodox, weekly Sermons. For my study, the inspired Texts them'selves! Thus did I not, in very early days, having disguised me 6 as tavern-waiter, stand behind the field-chairs, under that shady Tree at Treisnitz by the Jena Highway; waiting upon the great 'Schiller and greater Goethe; and hearing what I have not for'gotten. For

At

But at this point the Editor recalls his principle of caution, some time ago laid down, and must suppress much. Let not the sacredness of Laurelled, still more, of Crowned Heads, be tampered with. Should we, at a future day, find circumstances altered, and the time come for Publication, then may these glimpses into the privacy of the Illustrious be conceded; which for the present were little better than treacherous, perhaps traitorous Eavesdroppings. Of Lord Byron, therefore, of Pope Pius, Emperor Tarakwang, and the White Water-roses' (Chinese Carbonari) with their mysteries, no notice here! Of Napoleon himself we shall only, glancing from afar, remark that Teufelsdröckh's relation to him seems to have been of very varied character. first we find our poor Professor on the point of being shot as a spy; then taken into private conversation, even pinched on the ear, yet presented with no money; at last indignantly dismissed, almost thrown out of doors as an 'Ideologist.' 'He himself,' says the Professor, was among the completest Ideologists, at least 'Ideopraxists in the Idea (in der Idee) he lived, moved, and 'fought. The man was a Divine Missionary, though unconscious 'of it; and preached, through the cannon's throat, that great doctrine, La carrière ouverte aux talens (The Tools to him that can handle them), which is our ultimate Political Evangel, 'wherein alone can Liberty lie. Madly enough he preached, it is true, as Enthusiasts and first Missionaries are wont, with imper'fect utterance, amid much frothy rant; yet as articulately per

เ

haps as the case admitted. Or call him, if you will, an American ‘Backwoodsman, who had to fell unpenetrated forests, and battle 'with innumerable wolves, and did not entirely forbear strong 'liquor, rioting, and even theft; whom, notwithstanding, the 'peaceful Sower will follow, and, as he cuts the boundless har'vest, bless.'

More legitimate and decisively authentic is Teufelsdröckh's appearance and emergence (we know not well whence) in the solitude of the North Cape, on that June Midnight. He has a 'light-blue Spanish cloak' hanging round him, as his 'most commodious, principal, indeed sole upper-garment;' and stands there, on the World-promontory, looking over the infinite Brine, like a little blue Belfry (as we figure), now motionless indeed, yet ready, if stirred to ring quaintest changes.

'Silence as of death,' writes he; for midnight, even in the 'Arctic latitudes, has its character: nothing but the granite cliffs. 'ruddy-tinged, the peaceable gurgle of that slow-heaving Polar Ocean, over which in the utmost North the great Sun hangs low 'and lazy, as if he too were slumbering. Yet is his cloud-couch 'wrought of crimson and cloth-of-gold; yet does his light stream 'over the mirror of waters, like a tremulous fire-pillar, shooting 'downwards to the abyss, and hide itself under my feet. In 'such moments, Solitude also is invaluable; for who would speak, 'or be looked on, when behind him lies all Europe and Africa, 'fast asleep, except the watchmen; and before him the silent 'Immensity, and Palace of the Eternal, whereof our Sun is but 'a porch-lamp.

6

6

'Nevertheless, in this solemn moment, comes a man, or mon'ster, scrambling from among the rock-hollows; and, shaggy, 'huge as the Hyperborean Bear, hails me in Russian speech: 'most probably, therefore, a Russian Smuggler. With courteous 'brevity, I signify my indifference to contraband trade, my humane intentions, yet strong wish to be private. In vain the monster, counting doubtless on his superior stature, and minded 'to make sport for himself, or perhaps profit, were it with murder, continues to advance; ever assailing me with his importu'nate train-oil breath; and now has advanced, till we stand both 'on the verge of the rock, the deep Sea rippling greedily down

เ

'below. What argument will avail? On the thick Hyperborean, cherubic reasoning, seraphic eloquence were lost. Pre'pared for such extremity, I, deftly enough, whisk aside one step ; 'draw out, from my interior reservoirs, a sufficient Birmingham 'Horse-pistol, and say, "Be so obliging as retire, Friend (Er 'ziehe sich zurück, Freund), and with promptitude!" This logic 'even the Hyperborean understands: fast enough, with apolo'getic, petitionary growl, he sidles off; and, except for suicidal 'as well as homicidal purposes, need not return.

Such I hold to be the genuine use of Gunpowder: that it 'makes all men alike tall. Nay, if thou be cooler, cleverer than 'I, if thou have more Mind, though all but no Body whatever, 'then canst thou kill me first, and art the taller. Hereby, at 'last, is the Goliath powerless, and the David resistless; savage 'Animalism is nothing, inventive Spiritualism is all.

'With respect to Duels, indeed, I have my own ideas. Few 'things, in this so surprising world, strike me with more surprise. 'Too little visual Spectra of men, hovering with insecure enough 'cohesion in the midst of the UNFATHOMABLE, and to dissolve 'therein, at any rate, very soon,-make pause at the distance of 'twelve paces asunder; whirl round; and, simultaneously by the 'cunningest mechanism, explode one another into Dissolution; ' and off-hand become Air, and Non-extant! Deuse on it (ver' dammt), the little spitfires !-Nay, I think with old Hugo von "Trimberg: "God must needs laugh outright, could such a thing 'be, to see his wondrous Manikins here below."'

But amid these specialities, let us not forget the great generality, which is our chief quest here: How prospered the inner man of Teufelsdröckh under so much outward shifting? Does Legion still lurk in him, though repressed; or has he exorcised that Devil's Brood? We can answer that the symptoms continue promising. Experience is the grand spiritual Doctor; and with him Teufelsdröckh has now been long a patient, swallowing many a bitter bolus. Unless our poor Friend belong to the numerous class of Incurables, which seems not likely, some cure will doubtless be effected. We should rather say that Legion, or the Satanic School, was now pretty well extirpated and cast out, but next to