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〃You see two individuals;〃 he writes; 〃one dressed in fine Red; the other in coarse threadbare Blue: Red says to Blue; 'Be hanged and anatomized;' Blue hears with a shudder; and (O wonder of wonders!) marches sorrowfully to the gallows; is there noosed up; vibrates his hour; and the surgeons dissect him; and fit his bones into a skeleton for medical purposes。 How is this; or what make ye of your _Nothing can act but where it is_? Red has no physical hold of Blue; no _clutch_ of him; is nowise in _contact_ with him: neither are those ministering Sheriffs and Lord…Lieutenants and Hangmen and Tipstaves so related to commanding Red; that he can tug them hither and thither; but each stands distinct within his own skin。 Nevertheless; as it is spoken; so is it done: the articulated Word sets all hands in Action; and Rope and Improved…drop perform their work。
〃Thinking reader; the reason seems to me twofold: First; that _Man is a Spirit_; and bound by invisible bonds to _All Men_; secondly; that _he wears Clothes_; which are the visible emblems of that fact。 Has not your Red hanging…individual a horsehair wig; squirrel…skins; and a plush…gown; whereby all mortals know that he is a JUDGE?Society; which the more I think of it astonishes me the more; is founded upon Cloth。
〃Often in my atrabiliar moods; when I read of pompous ceremonials; Frankfort Coronations; Royal Drawing…rooms; Levees; Couchees; and how the ushers and macers and pursuivants are all in waiting; how Duke this is presented by Archduke that; and Colonel A by General B; and innumerable Bishops; Admirals; and miscellaneous Functionaries; are advancing gallantly to the Anointed Presence; and I strive; in my remote privacy; to form a clear picture of that solemnity;on a sudden; as by some enchanter's wand; theshall I speak it?the Clothes fly off the whole dramatic corps; and Dukes; Grandees; Bishops; Generals; Anointed Presence itself; every mother's son of them; stand straddling there; not a shirt on them; and I know not whether to laugh or weep。 This physical or psychical infirmity; in which perhaps I am not singular; I have; after hesitation; thought right to publish; for the solace of those afflicted with the like。〃
Would to Heaven; say we; thou hadst thought right to keep it secret! Who is there now that can read the five columns of Presentations in his Morning Newspaper without a shudder? Hypochondriac men; and all men are to a certain extent hypochondriac; should be more gently treated。 With what readiness our fancy; in this shattered state of the nerves; follows out the consequences which Teufelsdrockh; with a devilish coolness; goes on to draw:
〃What would Majesty do; could such an accident befall in reality; should the buttons all simultaneously start; and the solid wool evaporate; in very Deed; as here in Dream? _Ach Gott_! How each skulks into the nearest hiding…place; their high State Tragedy (_Haupt… und Staats…Action_) becomes a Pickleherring…Farce to weep at; which is the worst kind of Farce; _the tables_ (according to Horace); and with them; the whole fabric of Government; Legislation; Property; Police; and Civilized Society; _are dissolved_; in wails and howls。〃
Lives the man that can figure a naked Duke of Windlestraw addressing a naked House of Lords? Imagination; choked as in mephitic air; recoils on itself; and will not forward with the picture。 The Woolsack; the Ministerial; the Opposition Benches_infandum! infandum_! And yet why is the thing impossible? Was not every soul; or rather every body; of these Guardians of our Liberties; naked; or nearly so; last night; 〃a forked Radish with a head fantastically carved〃? And why might he not; did our stern fate so order it; walk out to St。 Stephen's; as well as into bed; in that no…fashion; and there; with other similar Radishes; hold a Bed of Justice? 〃Solace of those afflicted with the like!〃 Unhappy Teufelsdrockh; had man ever such a 〃physical or psychical infirmity〃 before? And now how many; perhaps; may thy unparalleled confession (which we; even to the sounder British world; and goaded on by Critical and Biographical duty; grudge to reimpart) incurably infect therewith! Art thou the malignest of Sansculottists; or only the maddest?
〃It will remain to be examined;〃 adds the inexorable Teufelsdrockh; 〃in how far the SCARECROW; as a Clothed Person; is not also entitled to benefit of clergy; and English trial by jury: nay perhaps; considering his high function (for is not he too a Defender of Property; and Sovereign armed with the _terrors_ of the Law?); to a certain royal Immunity and Inviolability; which; however; misers and the meaner class of persons are not always voluntarily disposed to grant him。〃
〃O my Friends; we are 'in Yorick Sterne's words' but as 'turkeys driven; with a stick and red clout; to the market:' or if some drivers; as they do in Norfolk; take a dried bladder and put peas in it; the rattle thereof terrifies the boldest!〃
CHAPTER X。 PURE REASON。
It must now be apparent enough that our Professor; as above hinted; is a speculative Radical; and of the very darkest tinge; acknowledging; for most part; in the solemnities and paraphernalia of civilized Life; which we make so much of; nothing but so many Cloth…rags; turkey…poles; and 〃bladders with dried peas。〃 To linger among such speculations; longer than mere Science requires; a discerning public can have no wish。 For our purposes the simple fact that such a _Naked World_ is possible; nay actually exists (under the Clothed one); will be sufficient。 Much; therefore; we omit about 〃Kings wrestling naked on the green with Carmen;〃 and the Kings being thrown: 〃dissect them with scalpels;〃 says Teufelsdrockh; 〃the same viscera; tissues; livers; lights; and other life…tackle; are there: examine their spiritual mechanism; the same great Need; great Greed; and little Faculty; nay ten to one but the Carman; who understands draught…cattle; the rimming of wheels; something of the laws of unstable and stable equilibrium; with other branches of wagon…science; and has actually put forth his hand and operated on Nature; is the more cunningly gifted of the two。 Whence; then; their so unspeakable difference? From Clothes。〃 Much also we shall omit about confusion of Ranks; and Joan and My Lady; and how it would be everywhere 〃Hail fellow well met;〃 and Chaos were come again: all which to any one that has once fairly pictured out the grand mother…idea; _Society in a state of Nakedness_; will spontaneously suggest itself。 Should some sceptical individual still entertain doubts whether in a world without Clothes; the smallest Politeness; Polity; or even Police; could exist; let him turn to the original Volume; and view there the boundless Serbonian Bog of Sansculottism; stretching sour and pestilential: over which we have lightly flown; where not only whole armies but whole nations might sink! If indeed the following argument; in its brief riveting emphasis; be not of itself incontrovertible and final:
〃Are we Opossums; have we natural Pouches; like the Kangaroo? Or how; without Clothes; could we possess the master…organ; soul's seat; and true pineal gland of the Body Social: I mean; a PURSE?〃
Nevertheless it is impossible to hate Professor Teufelsdrockh; at worst; one knows not whether to hate or to love him。 For though; in looking at the fair tapestry of human Life; with its royal and even sacred figures; he dwells not on the obverse alone; but here chiefly on the reverse; and indeed turns out the rough seams; tatters; and manifold thrums of that unsightly wrong…side; with an almost diabolic patience and indifference; which must have sunk him in the estimation of most readers; there is that within which unspeakably distinguishes him from all other past and present Sansculottists。 The grand unparalleled peculiarity of Teufelsdrockh is; that with all this Descendentalism; he combines a Transcendentalism; no less superlative; whereby if on the one hand he degrade man below most animals; except those jacketed Gouda Cows; he; on the other; exalts him beyond the visible Heavens; almost to an equality with the Gods。
〃To the eye of vulgar Logic;〃 says he; 〃what is man? An omnivorous Biped that wears Breeches。 To the eye of Pure Reason what is he? A Soul; a Spirit; and divine Apparition。 Round his mysterious ME; there lies; under all those wool…rags; a Garment of Flesh (or of Senses); contextured in the Loom of Heaven; whereby he is revealed to his like; and dwells with them in UNION and DIVISION; and sees and fashions for himself a Universe; with azure Starry Spaces; and long Thousands of Years。 Deep…hidden is he under that strange Garment; amid Sounds and Colors and Forms; as it were; swathed in; and inextricably over…shrouded: yet it is sky…woven; and worthy of a God。 Stands he not thereby in the centre of Immensities; in the conflux of Eternities? He feels; power has been given him to know; to believe; nay does not the spirit of Love; free in its celestial primeval brightness; even here; though but for moments; look through? Well said Saint Chrysostom; with his lips of gold; 'the true SHEKINAH is Man:' where else is the GOD'S…PRESENCE manifested not to our eyes only; but to our hearts; a