BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

GENESIS.

IN a psychological point of view, it is perhaps questionable whether from birth and genealogy, how closely scrutinised soever, much insight is to be gained. Nevertheless, as in every phenomenon the Beginning remains 5 always the most notable moment; so, with regard to any great man, we rest not till, for our scientific profit or not, the whole circumstances of his first appearance in this planet, and what manner of Public Entry he made, are with utmost completeness rendered manifest. To the 10 Genesis of our Clothes-Philosopher, then, be this First Chapter consecrated. Unhappily, indeed, he seems to be of quite obscure extraction; uncertain, we might almost say, whether of any: so that this Genesis of his can properly be nothing but an Exodus (or transit out of 15 Invisibility into Visibility); whereof the preliminary portion is nowhere forthcoming.

'In the village of Entepfuhl,' thus writes he, in the Bag Libra, on various Papers, which we arrange with difficulty, dwelt Andreas Futteral and his wife; childless, 20 in still seclusion, and cheerful though now verging 'towards old age. Andreas had been grenadier Sergeant, ' and even regimental Schoolmaster under Frederick the 'Great; but now, quitting the halbert and ferule for the 'spade and pruning-hook, cultivated a little Orchard, on

the produce of which, he Cincinnatus-like, lived not 'without dignity. Fruits, the peach, the apple, the grape, 'with other varieties came in their season; all which 'Andreas knew how to sell: on evenings he smoked 'largely, or read (as beseemed a regimental School- 5 'master), and talked to neighbours that would listen ' about the Victory of Rossbach; and how Fritz the Only (der Einzige) had once with his own royal lips spoken 'to him, had been pleased to say, when Andreas as 'camp-sentinel demanded the pass-word, "Schweig' Hund 10 *(Peace, hound)!" before any of his staff-adjutants could ' answer. "Das nenn' ich mir einen König, There is what 'I call a King," would Andreas exclaim; "but the 'smoke of Kunersdorf was still smarting his eyes."

Gretchen, the housewife, won like Desdemona by the 15 'deeds rather than the looks of her now veteran Othello, 'lived not in altogether military subordination; for, as Andreas said, "the womankind will not drill (wer kann 'die Weiberchen dressiren ?):” nevertheless she at heart 'loved him both for valour and wisdom; to her a Prus- 20 'sian grenadier Sergeant and Regiment's Schoolmaster 'was little other than a Cicero and Cid: what you see, 'yet cannot see over, is as good as infinite. Nay, was 'not Andreas in very deed a man of order, courage, downrightness (Geradheit); that understood Büsching's 25 'Geography, had been in the victory of Rossbach, and 'left for dead in the camisade of Hochkirch? The good 'Gretchen, for all her fretting, watched over him and 'hovered around him, as only a true housemother can: ' assiduously she cooked and sewed and scoured for him; 30 so that not only his old regimental sword and grenadier'cap, but the whole habitation and environment, where on pegs of honour they hung, looked ever trim and gay: 'a roomy painted Cottage, embowered in fruit-trees and

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'forest-trees, evergreens and honeysuckles; rising many'coloured from amid shaven grass-plots, flowers strug'gling-in through the very windows; under its long pro'jecting eaves nothing but garden-tools in methodic piles 5 (to screen them from rain), and seats where, especially on summer nights, a King might have wished to sit and 'smoke, and call it his. Such a Bauergut (Copyhold) 'had Gretchen given her veteran; whose sinewy arms, ' and long-disused gardening talent, had made it what 10 'you saw.

'Into this umbrageous Man's-nest, one meek yellow evening or dusk, when the Sun, hidden indeed from terrestrial Entepfuhl, did nevertheless journey visible and 'radiant along the celestial Balance (Libra), it was that 15 a Stranger of reverend aspect entered; and, with grave 'salutation, stood before the two rather astonished house' mates. He was close-muffled in a wide mantle; which 'without farther parley unfolding, he deposited there'from what seemed some Basket, overhung with green 20 Persian silk; saying only: Ihr lieben Leute, hier bringe 'ein unschätzbares Verleihen; nehmt es in aller Acht, sorgfältigst benützt es: mit hohem Lohn, oder wohl mit schweren Zinsen, wird's einst zurückgefordert. "Good Christian 'people, here lies for you an invaluable Loan; take all 25 heed thereof, in all carefulness employ it with high ' recompense, or else with heavy penalty, will it one day 'be required back." Uttering which singular words, in 'a clear, bell-like, forever memorable tone, the Stranger gracefully withdrew; and before Andreas or his wife, 30 gazing in expectant wonder, had time to fashion either question or answer, was clean gone. Neither out of doors could aught of him be seen or heard; he had ' vanished in the thickets, in the dusk; the Orchard-gate 'stood quietly closed: the Stranger was gone once and

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'always. So sudden had the whole transaction been, in 'the autumn stillness and twilight, so gentle, noiseless, 'that the Futterals could have fancied it all a trick of 'Imagination, or some visit from an authentic Spirit. 'Only that the green-silk Basket, such as neither Imagi- 5 'nation nor authentic Spirits are wont to carry, still 'stood visible and tangible on their little parlour-table. 'Towards this the astonished couple, now with lit candle, 'hastily turned their attention. Lifting the green veil, to 'see what invaluable it hid, they descried there amid 10 'down and rich white wrappages, no Pitt Diamond or 'Hapsburg Regalia, but in the softest sleep, a little red'coloured Infant! Beside it, lay a roll of gold Friedrichs 'the exact amount of which was never publicly known; 'also a Taufschein (baptismal certificate), wherein unfort- 15 'unately nothing but the Name was decipherable; other 'documents or indication none whatever.

To wonder and conjecture was unavailing, then and 'always thenceforth. Nowhere in Entepfuhl, on the 'morrow or next day, did tidings transpire of any such 20 'figure as the Stranger; nor could the Traveller, who had 'passed through the neighbouring Town in coach-and'four, be connected with this Apparition, except in the 'way of gratuitous surmise. Meanwhile, for Andreas ' and his wife, the grand practical problem was: What to 25 'do with this little sleeping red-coloured Infant? Amid amazements and curiosities, which had to die away with'out external satisfying, they resolved, as in such circum'stances charitable prudent people needs must, on nurs'ing it, though with spoon-meat, into whiteness, and if 30 'possible, into manhood. The Heavens smiled on their ' endeavour thus has that same mysterious Individual ' ever since had a status for himself in this visible Universe, some modicum of victual and lodging and par

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ade-ground; and now expanded in bulk, faculty, and 'knowledge of good and evil, he, as HERR DIOGENES TEUFELSDRÖCKн, professes or is ready to profess, per'haps not altogether without effect, in the new University 5 of Weissnichtwo, the new Science of Things in General.' Our Philosopher declares here, as indeed we should think he well might, that these facts, first communicated, by the good Gretchen Futteral, in his twelfth year, 'produced on the boyish heart and fancy a quite indelible 10 'impression. Who this reverend Personage,' he says, 'that glided into the Orchard Cottage when the Sun was in Libra, and then, as on spirit's wings, glided out again, might be? An inexpressible desire, full of love. ' and of sadness, has often since struggled within me to 15 'shape an answer. Ever, in my distresses and my loneli

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ness, has Fantasy turned, full of longing (sehnsuchtsvoll), 'to that unknown Father, who perhaps far from me, per'haps near, either way invisible, might have taken me to 'his paternal bosom, there to lie screened from many a ' woe. Thou beloved Father, dost thou still, shut out 'from me only by thin penetrable curtains of earthly 'Space, wend to and fro among the crowd of the living? 'Or art thou hidden by those far thicker curtains of the Everlasting Night, or rather of the Everlasting Day, 25 'through which my mortal eye and outstretched arms 'need not strive to reach? Alas! I know not, and in

' vain vex myself to know. More than once, heart'deluded, have I taken for thee this and the other noble'looking Stranger; and approached him wistfully, with 30 'infinite regard; but he too had to repel me, he too was 'not thou.

And yet, O Man born of Woman,' cries the Autobiographer, with one of his sudden whirls, wherein is my case peculiar? Hadst thou, any more than I, a Father