Have we not, in the course of Eternity, traveled some months of our Life-journey in partial sight of one another; have we not existed together, though in a state of quarrel?"

The scattered papers were after some time brought together by Mr. Emerson, and published at Boston, with a preface almost apologetic in its tone. The editors did not expect for the little work any immediate popularity. "They would not undertake, as there was no need, to justify the gay costume in which the author delights to dress his thoughts, or the German idioms with which he has sportively sprinkled his pages. It is his humor to advance the gravest speculations in a quaint and burlesque style. If his masquerade offend any of his audience to that degree that they will not hear what he has to say, it may chance to draw others to listen to his wisdom. But we will venture to remark that the distaste excited by these peculiarities, in some readers, is greatest at first, and is soon forgotten. The author makes ample amends for the occasional eccentricity of his genius, not only by frequent bursts of pure splendor, but by the wit and sense which never fail him."

Mr. Alexander H. Everett, in the "North American Review," gravely undertook to argue the question whether "Sartor Resartus" was in fact, as it purported to be, a review and synopsis of a German book. The critic had traveled in

Germany, and had consulted all manner of maps, but could not learn that there was any such place as Weissnichtwo; there was certainly no such place the seat of a university. As for the work on the "Philosophy of Clothes," which was reported to have excited so much attention abroad, he could not find any mention of it in any critical journal of Germany. He plumes himself upon the discovery that Weisshichtwo and its University, Professor Teufelsdröckh and his Book, were all a sham. The style of "Sartor Resartus" "6 was a sort of Babylonish dialect, not deficient, it is true, in richness, vigor, and at times a sort of singular felicity of expression, but very strongly tinged throughout with the peculiar idioms of the German language."

Whatever else may be said of the work, there is nothing gay or sportive about it. It has enough of biting sarcasm and trenchant humor, but it is as serious and earnest as "The Pilgrim's Progress," "the Burdens" of Isaiah, or the "Word of the Lord which came to Jeremiah." Indeed, as to matter and manner, we think Carlyle resembles the prophet Jeremiah more than he does any German writer.

"Sartor Resartus " ("The Tailor tailored over") is in form "The Life and Opinions of Godborn Devilsdung" (Diogenes Teufelsdröckh, the vulgar name for the malodorous, antispasmodic drug asafoetida, "stinking gum "), who was left

by a stranger at the door of Andreas Futteral (Fodderbag) in the village of Entepfuhl (Duckpuddle). He was kindly cared for, educated at the school in Hinterschlag (Spanking), and at the university of Weissnichtwo (Don'tknowwhere), where he came to be professor, without, however, having any pupils, of Hodge-podge Philosophy (Allerlei Wissenschaft). These strange proper names are no more burlesque than Bunyan's "City of Destruction" or "Vanity Fair," "Mr. Facingboth-ways" or "Lord Hategood."

The philosophy of the imaginary Professor Teufelsdröckh's imaginary book on "Clothes" ir in brief, that all forms, habits, and institutions, which man has fashioned, are but the garments in which he has from time to time arrayed himself for his own decoration, comfort, or protection; that these garments, like all other of man's works, grow old, decay, become useless, and, in spite of all patching and retailoring, must sooner or later be thrown away, and be replaced by new ones; and that many of the garments which the men of our days are wearing have wellnigh reached the last stage of dilapidation. From this pregnant text are preached discourses upon the loftiest topics of human thought-such, for instance, as the following:

ON MIRACLES.

"Deep has been, and is, the significance of Miracles; far deeper than we imagine. Meanwhile, the question

of questions were: What specially is a miracle? To that King of Siam an icicle had been a miracle; whoso had carried with him an air-pump and vial of vitriolic ether, might have worked a miracle. To my horse again, who unhappily is still more unscientific, do I not work a miracle and magical Open sesame! every time I please to pay twopence, and open for him an impassable Schlagbaum, or shut Turnpike?

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'But is not a real Miracle simply a violation of the Laws of Nature?' ask several. Whom I answer by this new question: What are the Laws of Nature?' To me perhaps the raising of one from the dead were no violation of these Laws, but a confirmation; were some far deeper law now first penetrated into, and by Spiritual Force, even as the rest have all been, brought to bear on us with its Material Force. Here too some may inquire, not without astonishment, 'On what ground shall one, that can make Iron swim, come and declare that therefore he can teach Religion?' To us, truly of the Nineteenth Century, such declaration were inept enough; which nevertheless to our fathers, of the First Century, was full of meaning.

“But is it not the deepest Law of Nature that she be constant?' cries an illuminated class. 'Is not the Machine of the Universe fixed to move by unalterable rules?' Probable enough, good friends: nay, I too must believe that the God, whom ancient inspired men assert to be without variableness or shadow of turning,' does indeed never change; that Nature, that the Universe, which no one who pleases can be prevented from calling a Machine, does move by the most unalterable rules. And now of you too I make the old inquiry: What those same unalterable rules, form

ing the complete Statute-Book of Nature, may possibly be.'

"They stand written in our Works of Science,' say you, 'in the accumulated records of man's Experience.' -Was man with his Experience present at the Creation, then, to see how all went on? Have any deepest scientific individuals yet dived down to the foundations of the Universe, and gauged everything there? Did the Maker take them into His counsel; that they read His ground-plan of the incomprehensible All; and can say, 'This stands marked therein, and no more than this?'Alas! not in any wise. These scientific individuals have been nowhere but where we also are; have seen some handbreadths deeper than we see into the Deep that is infinite, without bottom as without shore.

ON THE SYSTEM OF NATURE.

"System of Nature! To the wisest man, wide as is his vision, Nature remains of quite infinite depth, of quite infinite expansion, and all experience thereof limits itself to some few computed centuries, and measured square miles. The course of Nature's phases, on this little fraction of a Planet, is partially known to us: but who knows what deeper causes these depend on; what infinitely larger Cycle (of causes) our little Epicycle revolves on? To the Minnow every little cranny and pebble, and quality, and accident of its native Creek may have become familiar; but does the Minnow understand the Ocean Tides and Periodic Currents, the Trade-winds and Monsoons and Moon's Eclipses; by which the condition of its little Creek is regulated, and may from time to time (unmiraculously enough) be quite overset and reversed?-Such a Minnow is Man; his Creek this Plan