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ness of Symbols, so likewise in his progress he at length defaces, or even desecrates them; and Symbols, like all terrestrial Garments, wax old. Homer's Epos has not ceased to be true; yet it is no longer our Epos, but 5 shines in the distance, if clearer and clearer, yet also 'smaller and smaller, like a receding Star. It needs a 'scientific telescope, it needs to be reinterpreted and artificially brought near us, before we can so much as 'know that it was a Sun. So likewise a day comes when 10 'the Runic Thor, with his Eddas, must withdraw into 'dimness; and many an African Mumbo-Jumbo, and 'Indian Pawaw be utterly abolished. For all things, even 'Celestial Luminaries, much more atmospheric meteors, ' have their rise, their culmination, their decline.'

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Small is this which thou tellest me, that the Royal 'Sceptre is but a piece of gilt-wood; that the Pyx has 'become a most foolish box, and truly, as Ancient Pistol thought, "of little price." A right Conjuror might I name thee, couldst thou conjure back into these wooden 20 tools the divine virtue they once held.'

'Of this thing, however, be certain: wouldst thou plant 'for Eternity, then plant into the deep infinite faculties of man, his Fantasy and Heart: wouldst thou plant for 'Year and Day, then plant into his shallow superficial facul25 ties, his Self-love and Arithmetical Understanding, what 'will grow there? A Hierarch, therefore, and Pontiff of 'the World will we call him, the Poet and inspired Maker; 'who, Prometheus-like, can shape new Symbols, and 'bring new Fire from Heaven to fix it there. Such too 30' will not always be wanting; neither perhaps now are. 'Meanwhile, as the average of matter goes, we account 'him Legislator and wise who can so much as tell when 'a Symbol has grown old, and gently remove it.

When, as the last English Coronation was preparing,'

concludes this wonderful Professor, I read in their 'Newspapers that the "Champion of England," he who has to offer battle to the Universe for his new King, 'had brought it so far that he could now mount his 'horse with little assistance,” I said to myself: Here also 5

ee

we have a Symbol well-nigh superannuated. Alas, move

' whithersoever you may, are not the tatters and rags of superannuated worn-out Symbols (in this Ragfair of a World) dropping off everywhere, to hoodwink, to halter, 'to tether you; nay, if you shake them not aside, threat- 10 ening to accumulate, and perhaps produce suffocation?'

CHAPTER IV.

HELOTAGE.

AT this point we determine on adverting shortly, or rather reverting, to a certain Tract of Hofrath Heuschrecke's, entitled Institute for the Repression of Population; which lies, dishonourably enough (with torn leaves, 15 and a perceptible smell of aloetic drugs), stuffed into the Bag Pisces. Not indeed for the sake of the Tract itself, which we admire little; but of the marginal Notes, evidently in Teufelsdröckh's hand, which rather copiously fringe it. A few of these may be in the right place here. 20 Into the Hofrath's Institute, with its extraordinary schemes, and machinery of Corresponding Boards and the like, we shall not so much as glance. Enough for us to understand that Heuschrecke is a disciple of Malthus; and so zealous for the doctrine, that his zeal almost 25 literally eats him up. A deadly fear of Population possesses the Hofrath; something like a fixed-idea; un

doubtedly akin to the more diluted forms of Madness. Nowhere, in that quarter of his intellectual world, is there light; nothing but a grim shadow of Hunger; open mouths opening wider and wider; a world to terminate 5 by the frightfullest consummation: by its too dense inhabitants, famished into delirium, universally eating one another. To make air for himself, in which strangulation, choking enough to a benevolent heart, the Hofrath founds, or proposes to found, this Institute of his, as the 10 best he can do. It is only with our Professor's comments thereon that we concern ourselves.

First, then, remark that Teufelsdröckh, as a speculative Radical, has his own notions about human dignity; that the Zähdarm palaces and courtesies have not made him 15 forgetful of the Futteral cottages. On the blank cover of Heuschrecke's Tract, we find the following indistinctly engrossed:

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'Two men I honour, and no third. First, the toilworn 'Craftsman that with earth-made Implement laboriously 20 'conquers the Earth, and makes her man's. Venerable to me is the hard Hand; crooked, coarse; wherein not'withstanding lies a cunning virtue, indefeasibly royal, as of the Sceptre of this Planet. Venerable too is the 'rugged face, all weather-tanned, besoiled, with its rude 25 'intelligence; for it is the face of a Man living manlike.

O, but the more venerable for thy rudeness, and even 'because we must pity as well as love thee! Hardlyentreated Brother! For us was thy back so bent, for us were thy straight limbs and fingers so deformed: thou wert our Conscript, on whom the lot fell, and fighting our battles wert so marred. For in thee too lay a god'created Form, but it was not to be unfolded; encrusted 'must it stand with the thick adhesions and defacements 'of Labour: and thy body, like thy soul, was not to know

'freedom. Yet toil on, toil on: thou art in thy duty, be 'out of it who may; thou toilest for the altogether indispensable, for daily bread.

'A second man I honour, and still more highly: Him 'who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable; not 5 'daily bread, but the bread of Life. Is not he too in his 'duty; endeavouring towards inward Harmony; reveal'ing this, by act or by word, through all his outward en'deavours, be they high or low? Highest of all, when his outward and his inward endeavour are one: when 10 'we can name him Artist; not earthly Craftsman only, 'but inspired Thinker, who with heaven-made Implement 'conquers Heaven for us! If the poor and humble toil 'that we have Food, must not the high and glorious toil 'for him in return, that he have Light, have Guidance, 15 *Freedom, Immortality? These two, in all their degrees, 'I honour: all else is chaff and dust, which let the wind 'blow whither it listeth.

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Unspeakably touching is it, however, when I find 'both dignities united; and he that must toil outwardly 20 for the lowest of man's wants, is also toiling inwardly 'for the highest. Sublimer in this world know I nothing 'than a Peasant Saint, could such now anywhere be met 'with. Such a one will take thee back to Nazareth itself; 'thou wilt see the splendour of Heaven spring forth from 25 'the humblest depths of Earth, like a light shining in 'great darkness.'

And again: 'It is not because of his toils that I lament 'for the poor we must all toil, or steal (howsoever we name our stealing), which is worse; no faithful workman 30 'finds his task a pastime. The poor is hungry and 'athirst; but for him also there is food and drink: he is 'heavy-laden and weary; but for him also the Heavens 'send Sleep, and of the deepest; in his smoky cribs, a

clear dewy heaven of Rest envelops him, and fitful glit'terings of cloud-skirted Dreams. But what I do mourn

over is, that the lamp of his soul should go out; that no 'ray of heavenly, or even of earthly knowledge, should 5 visit him; but only, in the haggard darkness, like two 'spectres, Fear and Indignation bear him company. Alas, 'while the Body stands so broad and brawny, must the 'Soul lie blinded, dwarfed, stupefied, almost annihilated! Alas, was this too a Breath of God; bestowed in 10 Heaven, but on earth never to be unfolded! - That 'there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity 'for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy, were it to happen 'more than twenty times in the minute, as by some computations it does. The miserable fraction of Science 15 'which our united Mankind, in a wide Universe of Nes'cience, has acquired, why is not this, with all diligence, 'imparted to all?'

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Quite in an opposite strain is the following: 'The old 'Spartans had a wiser method; and went out and hunted20 'down their Helots, and speared and spitted them, when 'they grew too numerous. With our improved fashions * of hunting, Herr Hofrath, now after the invention of fire'arms, and standing-armies, how much easier were such a a hunt! Perhaps in the most thickly-peopled country, 25 some three days annually might suffice to shoot all the ' able-bodied Paupers that had accumulated within the Let Governments think of this. The expense 'were trifling: nay, the very carcasses would pay it. 'Have them salted and barrelled; could not you victual 30 therewith, if not Army and Navy, yet richly such infirm 'Paupers, in workhouses and elsewhere, as enlightened 'Charity, dreading no evil of them, might see good to 'keep alive?'

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'And yet,' writes he farther on, there must be some