Sartor Resartus | Page 4

tell the Universe, which so often forgets that fact, what o'clock
it really is. Not unfrequently the Germans have been blamed for an
unprofitable diligence; as if they struck into devious courses, where
nothing was to be had but the toil of a rough journey; as if, forsaking
the gold-mines of finance and that political slaughter of fat oxen
whereby a man himself grows fat, they were apt to run goose-hunting
into regions of bilberries and crowberries, and be swallowed up at last
in remote peat-bogs. Of that unwise science, which, as our Humorist
expresses it,
"By geometric scale Doth take the size of pots of ale;"
still more, of that altogether misdirected industry, which is seen
vigorously thrashing mere straw, there can nothing defensive be said.
In so far as the Germans are chargeable with such, let them take the
consequence. Nevertheless be it remarked, that even a Russian steppe
has tumult and gold ornaments; also many a scene that looks desert and
rock-bound from the distance, will unfold itself, when visited, into rare
valleys. Nay, in any case, would Criticism erect not only finger-posts
and turnpikes, but spiked gates and impassable barriers, for the mind of
man? It is written, "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased." Surely the plain rule is, Let each considerate person have
his way, and see what it will lead to. For not this man and that man, but
all men make up mankind, and their united tasks the task of mankind.
How often have we seen some such adventurous, and perhaps
much-censured wanderer light on some out-lying, neglected, yet vitally
momentous province; the hidden treasures of which he first discovered,
and kept proclaiming till the general eye and effort were directed
thither, and the conquest was completed;--thereby, in these his
seemingly so aimless rambles, planting new standards, founding new

habitable colonies, in the immeasurable circumambient realm of
Nothingness and Night! Wise man was he who counselled that
Speculation should have free course, and look fearlessly towards all the
thirty-two points of the compass, whithersoever and howsoever it
listed.
Perhaps it is proof of the stunted condition in which pure Science,
especially pure moral Science, languishes among us English; and how
our mercantile greatness, and invaluable Constitution, impressing a
political or other immediately practical tendency on all English culture
and endeavor, cramps the free flight of Thought,--that this, not
Philosophy of Clothes, but recognition even that we have no such
Philosophy, stands here for the first time published in our language.
What English intellect could have chosen such a topic, or by chance
stumbled on it? But for that same unshackled, and even sequestered
condition of the German Learned, which permits and induces them to
fish in all manner of waters, with all manner of nets, it seems probable
enough, this abtruse Inquiry might, in spite of the results it leads to,
have continued dormant for indefinite periods. The Editor of these
sheets, though otherwise boasting himself a man of confirmed
speculative habits, and perhaps discursive enough, is free to confess,
that never, till these last months, did the above very plain
considerations, on our total want of a Philosophy of Clothes, occur to
him; and then, by quite foreign suggestion. By the arrival, namely, of a
new Book from Professor Teufelsdrockh of Weissnichtwo; treating
expressly of this subject, and in a style which, whether understood or
not, could not even by the blindest be overlooked. In the present
Editor's way of thought, this remarkable Treatise, with its Doctrines,
whether as judicially acceded to, or judicially denied, has not remained
without effect.
"_Die Kleider, ihr Werden und Wirken_ (Clothes, their Origin and
Influence): _von Diog. Teufelsdrockh, J. U. D. etc. Stillschweigen und
Cognie. Weissnichtwo_, 1831.
"Here," says the _Weissnichtwo'sche Anzeiger_, "comes a Volume of
that extensive, close-printed, close-meditated sort, which, be it spoken
with pride, is seen only in Germany, perhaps only in Weissnichtwo.
Issuing from the hitherto irreproachable Firm of Stillschweigen and
Company, with every external furtherance, it is of such internal quality

as to set Neglect at defiance.... A work," concludes the well-nigh
enthusiastic Reviewer, "interesting alike to the antiquary, the historian,
and the philosophic thinker; a masterpiece of boldness, lynx-eyed
acuteness, and rugged independent Germanism and Philanthropy
(_derber Kerndeutschheit und Menschenliebe_); which will not,
assuredly, pass current without opposition in high places; but must and
will exalt the almost new name of Teufelsdrockh to the first ranks of
Philosophy, in our German Temple of Honor."
Mindful of old friendship, the distinguished Professor, in this the first
blaze of his fame, which however does not dazzle him, sends hither a
Presentation-copy of his Book; with compliments and encomiums
which modesty forbids the present Editor to rehearse; yet without
indicated wish or hope of any kind, except what may be