drockh's imaginary book upon "Clothes, their Origin and Influence," the following, which purports to be an extract from that work, is not without significance. The reader is presumed to be able to "read between the lines;" that is, to translate the symbol into the thing signified :

ON CLOTHES IN GENERAL.

"As Montesquieu wrote a Spirit of Laws, so could I write a Spirit of Clothes; thus with an Esprit des Loix, properly an Esprit de Coutumes, we should have an Esprit de Costumes. For neither in Tailoring nor in Legislating does man proceed by mere accident, but the Hand is ever guided on by mysterious operations of the Mind. In all his modes and habilatory endeavors, an Architectural Idea will be found lurking; his Body and the Cloth are the site and materials whereon and whereby his beautified edifice, of a Person, is to be built. Whether he flow gracefully out in folded mantles, based on light sandals; tower up in high headgear, from amid peaks, spangles and bell-girdles; swell out in starched ruffs, buckram stuffings and monstrous tuberosities; or girth himself into separate sections, and front the world an Agglomeration of four limbs,-will depend on the nature of such Architectural Idea: whether Grecian, Gothic, Later-Gothic, or altogether Modern, and Parisian or Anglo-Dandiacal.

Again, what meaning lies in Color! From the soberest Drab to the high-flaming Scarlet, spiritual idiosyncrasies unfold themselves in the choice of color. If the Cut betoken Intellect and Talent, so does the Color betoken Temper and Heart. In all which, among nations

as among individuals, there is incessant, indubitable, though infinitely complex working of Cause and Effect. Every snip of the Scissors has been regulated and prescribed by ever-active Influences, which doubtless to Intelligences of a superior order are neither invisible nor illegible. For such superior Intelligences a Cause-andEffect Philosophy of Clothes, as of Laws, were probably a comfortable winter evening entertainment. Nevertheless, for inferior Intelligences, like men, such Philosophies have always seemed to me uninstructive enough. Nay, what is your Montesquieu himself but a clever infant spelling Letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic Book, the lexicon of which lies in Eternity, in Heaven? -Let any such Cause-and-Effect Philosopher explain not why I wear such and such a garment, obey such and such a Law; but even why I am here to wear and obey anything."

That is, translating the word "Clothes" into "Institutions," social, civil, and religious-none of our philosophers are able to tell us, for example, why Persians and Turks wear flowing robes, loose trousers, and turbans; hold to the Koran ; are ruled by a Shah or Padishah, with authority theoretically unlimited, and have as many wives as each man wishes or can afford; while the English and Germans wear boots, tight trousers, and hats; hold to the Bible; are ruled by a King, Queen, or Emperor, with authority very much limited; and no man of them can have more than one wife at a time. Or, to come to closer particulars, what philosopher can tell us how it comes

to pass that among the Persians the only proper ecclesiastical garments must be of the Shiite cut ; that is, that Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, was his true successor : while with the Turks the ecclesiastical garments must be of the Sunnite pattern; that is, that Abubekr, the father-in-law of the Prophet, was his true successor? Or again : What philosopher can tell us why the Latin Church will have "Filioque" embroidered upon its ecclesiastical robes, while the Greek Church holds it to be an abomination ? Or again: Why the political garb of the British is of the "Constitutional Monarchy" cut; that of the Americans strictly 'Republican"; that of the Russians "Autocratic"; that of the French, from time to time, anything from "Imperial" to "Communistic "?

66

But for the civilized man Clothes-that is, Institutions-of some sort are an absolute necessity. Teufelsdröckh thus dilates upon the condition and character of the primeval man, before the idea of Clothes, material or moral, had fairly begun to dawn upon him. His professed theory is that "the first purpose of Clothes, or Institutions, was not warmth or decency, but ornament.

THE PRIMEVAL AND THE CIVILIZED MAN.

"Miserable indeed," exclaims the Professor in that imaginary book of his, "was the condition of the Aboriginal Savage glaring fiercely from under his fleece of hair, which with the beard reached down to the loins,

and hung round him like a matted cloak; the rest of his body sheeted in its thick natural fell. He loitered in the sunny glades of the forest, living on wild fruits; or, as the ancient Caledonian, squatted himself in morasses, lurking for his bestial or human prey; without implements, without arms, save the ball of heavy Flint, to which, that his sole possession and defense might not be lost, he had attached a long cord of plaited thongs; thereby recovering as well as hurling it with deadly unerring skill. Nevertheless the pains of Hunger and Revenge once satisfied, his next care was not Comfort but Decoration (Putz). Warmth he found in the toils of the chase; or amid dried leaves in his hollow tree, in his bark shed, or natural grotto: but for Decoration he must have Clothes. Nay, among wild people, we find tattooing and painting even prior to Clothes. The first spiritual want of a barbarous man is Decoration, as indeed we see among the barbarous classes in civilized countries.

"Reader, the heaven-inspired melodious Singer; loftiest Serene Highness: nay, thy own amber-locked, snowand-rosebloom Maiden, worthy to glide sylphlike almost on air, whom thou worshipest as a divine Presence, which indeed, symbolically taken, she is―has descended, like thyself, from that same hair-mantled flint-hurling Aboriginal Anthropophagus! 'Out of the eater cometh forth meat; out of the strong cometh forth Sweetness.' What changes are wrought, not by Time, yet in Time! For not Mankind only, but all that Mankind does or beholds, is in continual growth, re-genesis, and self-perfecting vitality. Cast forth thy Act, thy Word, into the ever-living, ever-working Universe: it is a seed-grain that cannot die; unnoticed to-day (says one), it will be

found flourishing as a Banyan-grove (perhaps, alas, as a Hemlock-forest!) after a thousand years."

Following out the same vein of thought, the unpupiled Professor of Hodge-Podge Philosophy continues:

PROGRESS OF CLOTHING.

"He who first shortened the labor of Copyists by device of Movable Types was disbanding hired armies, and cashiering most Kings and Senators, and creating a whole new Democratic World: he had invented the Art of Printing. The first ground handful of Nitre, Sulphur, and Charcoal drove Monk Schwartz's pestle through the ceiling: what will the last do? Achieve the final undisputed prostration of Force under Thought, of Animal courage under Spiritual. A simple invention it was in the old-world Grazier,-sick of lugging his slow Ox about the country till he got it bartered for corn or oil,-to take a piece of Leather, and thereon scratch or stamp the mere Figure of an Ox (or Pecus); put it in his pocket, and call it Pecunia, Money. Yet hereby did Barter grow Sale; the Leather Money is now Golden and Paper, and all miracles have been out-miracled for there are Rothschilds and English National Debts; and whoso has sixpence is Sovereign (to the length of sixpence) over all men; commands Cooks to feed him, Philosophers to teach him, and Kings to mount guard over him,-to the length of sixpence.-Clothes, too, which began in the foolishest love of Ornament, what have they not become! Increased Security and pleasurable Heat soon followed: but what of these? Shame, divine Shame (Schaam, Modesty), as yet a stranger to the Anthropophagous bosom, arose there mysteriously