of the Illustrious be conceded; which for the present were little better than treacherous, perhaps traitorous Eavesdroppings. Of Lord Byron, therefore, of Pope Pius, Emperor Tarakwang, and the 'White Water-roses' 5 (Chinese Carbonari) with their mysteries, no notice here! Of Napoleon himself we shail only, glancing from afar, remark that Teufelsdröckh's relation to him seems to have been of very varied character. At first we find our poor Professor on the point of being shot as a spy; then 10 taken into private conversation, even 'pinched on the ear, yet presented with no money; at last indignantly dismissed, almost thrown out of doors, as an 'Ideologist.' 'He himself,' says the Professor, 'was among the com'pletest Ideologists, at least Ideopraxists: in the Idea 15' (in der Idee) he lived, moved and fought. The man

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'was a Divine Missionary, though unconscious of it; and preached, through the cannon's throat, that great doctrine, La carrière ouverte aux talens (The Tools to 'him that can handle them), which is our ultimate Politi20 'cal Evangel, wherein alone can Liberty lie. Madly ' enough he preached, it is true, as Enthusiasts and first 'Missionaries are wont, with imperfect utterance, amid 'much frothy rant; yet as articulately perhaps as the case admitted. Or call him, if you will, an American Backwoodsman, who had to fell unpenetrated forests, and battle with innumerable wolves, and did not entirely 'forbear strong liquor, rioting, and even theft; whom, 'notwithstanding, the peaceful Sower will follow, and, as he cuts the boundless harvest, bless.'

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More legitimate and decisively authentic is Teufelsdröckh's appearance and emergence (we know not well whence) in the solitude of the North Cape, on that June Midnight. He has a 'light-blue Spanish cloak' hanging round him, as his 'most commodious, principal, indeed

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sole upper-garment;' and stands there, on the Worldpromontory, looking over the infinite Brine, like a little blue Belfry (as we figure), now motionless indeed, yet ready, if stirred, to ring quaintest changes.

'Silence as of death,' writes he; 'for Midnight, even in 5 'the Arctic latitudes, has its character: nothing but the 'granite cliffs ruddy-tinged, the peaceable gurgle of that slow-heaving Polar Ocean, over which in the utmost 'North the great Sun hangs low and lazy, as if he too were slumbering. Yet is his cloud-couch wrought of 10 'crimson and cloth-of-gold; yet does his light stream over 'the mirror of waters, like a tremulous fire-pillar, shoot'ing downwards to the abyss, and hide itself under my 'feet. In such moments, Solitude also is invaluable; 'for who would speak, or be looked on, when behind 15 'him lies all Europe and Africa, fast asleep, except the 'watchmen; and before him the silent Immensity, and 'Palace of the Eternal, whereof our Sun is but a porch'lamp?

'Nevertheless, in this solemn moment, comes a man, 20 or monster, scrambling from among the rock-hollows; 'and, shaggy, huge as the Hyperborean Bear, hails me ' in Russian speech: most probably, therefore, a Russian 'Smuggler. With courteous brevity, I signify my indif'ference to contraband trade, my humane intentions, yet 25 'strong wish to be private. In vain: the monster, count'ing doubtless on his superior stature, and minded to 'make sport for himself, or perhaps profit, were it with 'murder, continues to advance; ever assailing me with 'his importunate train-oil breath; and now has advanced, 30 'till we stand both on the verge of the rock, the deep Sea 'rippling greedily down below. What argument will 'avail? On the thick Hyperborean, cherubic reasoning, 'seraphic eloquence were lost. Prepared for such ex

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'tremity, I, deftly enough, whisk aside one step; draw out, from my interior reservoirs, a sufficient Birmingham Horse-pistol, and say, "Be so obliging as retire, Friend (Er ziehe sich zurück, Freund), and with promptitude ! " 5 This logic even the Hyperborean understands: fast enough, with apologetic, petitionary growl, he sidles off; 'and, except for suicidal as well as homicidal purposes, 'need not return.

'Such I hold to be the genuine use of Gunpowder : Io 'that it makes all men alike tall. Nay, if thou be cooler, cleverer than I, if thou have more Mind, though all but no Body whatever, then canst thou kill me first, and art 'the taller. Hereby, at last, is the Goliath powerless, and the David resistless; savage Animalism is nothing, 15 inventive Spiritualism is all.

'With respect to Duels, indeed, I have my own ideas. Few things, in this so surprising world, strike me with more surprise. Two little visual Spectra of men, hover'ing with insecure enough cohesion in the midst of the 20 UNFATHOMABLE, and to dissolve therein, at any rate, very soon, make pause at the distance of twelve paces 'asunder; whirl round; and, simultaneously by the cunningest mechanism, explode one another into Dissolu'tion; and off-hand become Air, and Non-extant! Deuce 25 on it (verdammt), the little spitfires! Nay, I think with 'old Hugo von Trimberg: "God must needs laugh out'right, could such a thing be, to see his wondrous Mani'kins here below."

But amid these specialties, let us not forget the great 30 generality, which is our chief quest here: How prospered the inner man of Teufelsdröckh under so much outward shifting? Does Legion still lurk in him, though repressed; or has he exorcised that Devil's Brood? We

can answer that the symptoms continue promising. Experience is the grand spiritual Doctor; and with him. Teufelsdröckh has now been long a patient, swallowing many a bitter bolus. Unless our poor Friend belong to the numerous class of Incurables, which seems not likely, 5 some cure will doubtless be effected. We should rather say that Legion, or the Satanic School, was now pretty well extirpated and cast out, but next to nothing introduced in its room; whereby the heart remains, for the while, in a quiet but no comfortable state.

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'At length, after so much roasting,' thus writes our Autobiographer, 'I was what you might name calcined. 'Pray only that it be not rather, as is the more frequent 'issue, reduced to a caput-mortuum! But in any case, 'by mere dint of practice, I had grown familiar with 15 many things. Wretchedness was still wretched; but I could now partly see through it, and despise it. Which 'highest mortal, in this inane Existence, had I not found. a Shadow-hunter, or Shadow-hunted; and, when I looked 'through his brave garnitures, miserable enough? Thy 20 wishes have all been sniffed aside, thought I but what, 'had they even been all granted! Did not the Boy 'Alexander weep because he had not two Planets to conquer; or a whole Solar System; or after that, a 'whole Universe? Ach Gott, when I gazed into these 25 'Stars, have they not looked-down on me as if with pity, 'from their serene spaces; like Eyes glistening with 'heavenly tears over the little lot of man! Thousands 'of human generations, all as noisy as our own, have been 'swallowed-up of Time, and there remains no wreck of 30 'them any more; and Arcturus and Orion and Sirius and 'the Pleiades are still shining in their courses, clear and 'young, as when the Shepherd first noted them in the 'plain of Shinar. Pshaw! what is this paltry little Dog

cage of an Earth; what art thou that sittest whining 'there? Thou art still Nothing, Nobody: true; but who, 'then, is Something, Somebody? For thee the Family of 'Man has no use; it rejects thee; thou art wholly as a 5 'dissevered limb: so be it; perhaps it is better so!'

Too-heavy-laden Teufelsdröckh? Yet surely his bands are loosening; one day he will hurl the burden far from him, and bound forth free and with a second youth.

'This,' says our Professor, was the CENTRE of IndifΙΟ 'FERENCE I had now reached; through which whoso 'travels from the Negative Pole to the Positive must 'necessarily pass.'

CHAPTER IX.

THE EVERLASTING YEA.

'TEMPTATIONS in the Wilderness!' exclaims Teufelsdröckh: Have we not all to be tried with such? Not 15 so easily can the old Adam, lodged in us by birth, be 'dispossessed. Our Life is compassed round with Neces'sity; yet is the meaning of Life itself no other than Freedom, than Voluntary Force: thus have we a war'fare; in the beginning, especially, a hard-fought battle. 20 For the God-given mandate, Work thou in Welldoing, lies 'mysteriously written, in Promethean Prophetic Charac'ters, in our hearts; and leaves us no rest, night or day, 'till it be deciphered and obeyed; till it burn forth, in 'our conduct, a visible, acted Gospel of Freedom. And 25 as the clay-given mandate, Eat thou and be filled, at the 'same time persuasively proclaims itself through every 'nerve, must there not be a confusion, a contest, before 'the better Influence can become the upper?

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