The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index
General
The World's Greatest Books — Volume 20 — Miscellaneous Literature and Index
Literature -- Collections
I.--_The Philosophy of Clothes_
Considering our present advanced state of culture, and how the torch
of science has now been brandished and borne about, with more or
less effect, for five thousand years and upwards, it is surprising
that hitherto little or nothing of a fundamental character, whether
in the way of philosophy or history, has been written on the subject
of clothes. Every other tissue has been dissected, but the vestural
tissue of woollen or other cloth, which man's soul wears as its outmost
wrappage, has been quite overlooked. All speculation has tacitly
figured man as a clothed animal, whereas he is by nature a naked
animal, and only in certain circumstances, by purpose and device, masks
himself in clothes.
But here, as in so many other cases, learned, indefatigable,
deep-thinking Germany comes to our aid. The editor of these sheets
has lately received a new book from Professor Teufelsdröckh, of
Weissnichtwo, treating expressly of "Clothes, their Origin and
Influence" (1831). This extensive volume, a very sea of thought,
discloses to us not only a new branch of philosophy, but also
the strange personal character of Professor Teufelsdröckh, which
is scarcely less interesting. We were just considering how the
extraordinary doctrines of this book might best be imparted to our
own English nation, when we received a letter from Herr Hofrath
Heuschrecke, our professor's chief associate, offering us the requisite
documents for a biography of Teufelsdröckh. This was the origin of our
"Sartor Resartus," now presented in the vehicle of "Frazer's Magazine."
Professor Teufelsdröckh, when we knew him at Weissnichtwo, lived a
still and self-contained life, devoted to the higher philosophies and
to a certain speculative radicalism. The last words that he spoke in
our hearing were to propose a toast in the coffee-house--"The cause of
the poor, in heaven's name and the devil's." But we looked for nothing
moral from him, still less anything didactico-religious.
Brave Teufelsdröckh, who could tell what lurked in thee? In thine eyes,
deep under thy shaggy brows, and looking out so still and dreamy,
have we not noticed gleams of an ethereal or else a diabolic fire?
Our friend's title was that of Professor of Things in General, but he
never delivered any course. We used to sit with him in his attic,
overlooking the town; he would contemplate that wasp-nest or bee-hive
spread out below him, and utter the strangest thoughts. "That living
flood, pouring through these streets, is coming from eternity, going
onward to eternity. These are apparitions. What else?" Thus he lived
and meditated with Heuschrecke as Boswell for his Johnson.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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