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on the Clothes-Philosopher from the very threshold of his Science; nothing even of those 'architectural ideas' which, as we have seen, lurk at the bottom of all Modes, and will one day, better unfolding themselves, lead to important revolutions,―let us glance for a moment, and with the faintest light of ClothesPhilosophy, on what may be called the Habilatory Class of our fellow-men. Here too overlooking, where so much were to be looked on, the million spinners, weavers, fullers, dyers, washers, and wringers, that puddle and muddle in their dark recesses, to make us Clothes, and die that we may live,-let us but turn the reader's attention upon two small divisions of mankind, who, like moths, may be regarded as Cloth-animals, creatures that live, move and have their being in Cloth: we mean, Dandies and Tailors.

In regard to both which small divisions it may be asserted, without scruple, that the public feeling, unenlightened by Philosophy, is at fault; and even that the dictates of humanity are violated. As will perhaps abundantly appear to readers of the two following Chapters.

CHAPTER X.

THE DANDIACAL BODY.

FIRST, touching Dandies, let us consider, with some scientific strictness, what a Dandy specially is. A Dandy is a Clotheswearing man, a Man whose trade, office, and existence consists in the wearing of Clothes. Every faculty of his soul, spirit, purse, and person is heroically consecrated to this one object, the wearing of Clothes wisely and well: so that as others dress to live, he lives to dress. The all-importance of Clothes, which a German Professor, of unequalled learning and acumen, writes his enormous Volume to demonstrate, has sprung up in the intellect of the Dandy, without effort, like an instinct of genius; he is inspired with Cloth, a Poet of Cloth. What Teufelsdröckh would call a 'Divine Idea of Cloth' is born with him; and this, like other such Ideas, will express itself outwardly, or wring his heart asunder

with unutterable throes.

But, like a generous, creative enthusiast, he fearlessly makes his Idea an Action; shews himself, in peculiar guise, to mankind; walks forth, a witness and living Martyr to the eternal Worth of Clothes. We called him a Poet: is not his body the (stuffed) parchment-skin whereon he writes, with cunning Huddersfield dyes, a Sonnet to his mistress' eyebrow? Say, rather, an Epos, and Clotha Virumque cano, to the whole world, in Macaronic verses, which he that runs may read. Nay, if you grant, what seems to be admissible, that the Dandy has a Thinking-principle in him, and some notions of Time and Space, is there not in this Life-devotedness to Cloth, in this so willing sacrifice of the Im mortal to the Perishable, something (though in reverse order) of that blending and identification of Eternity with Time, which, as we have seen, constitutes the Prophetic character?

And now, for all this perennial Martyrdom, and Poesy, and

even Prophecy, what is it that the Dandy asks in return? Solely. we may say, that you would recognise his existence; would admit him to be a living object; or even failing this, a visual object, or thing that will reflect rays of light. Your silver or your gold (beyond what the niggardly Law has already secured him) he solicits not; simply the glance of your eyes. Understand his mystic significance, or altogether miss and misinterpret it; do but look at him, and he is contented. May we not well cry shame on an ungrateful world, which refuses even this poor boon; which will waste its optic faculty on dried Crocodiles, and Siamese Twins; and over the domestic wonderful wonder of wonders, a live Dandy, glance with hasty indifference, and a scarcely concealed contempt! Him no Zoologist classes among the Mammalia, no Anatomist dissects with care: when did we see any injected Preparation of the Dandy, in our Museums; any specimen of him preserved in spirits? Lord Herringbone may dress himself in a snuff-brown suit, with snuff-brown shirt and shoes: it skills not; the undiscerning public, occupied with grosser wants, passes by regardless on the other side.

The age of Curiosity, like that of Chivalry, is, indeed, properly speaking, gone. Yet perhaps only gone to sleep for here arises the Clothes-Philosophy to resuscitate, strangely enough, both the one and the other! Should sound views of this Science come to prevail, the essential nature of the British Dandy, and the mystic significance that lies in him, cannot always remain hidden under laughable and lamentable hallucination. The following long Extract from Professor Teufelsdrockh may set the matter, if not in its true light, yet in the way towards such. It is to be regretted however that here, as so often elsewhere, the Professor's keen philosophic perspicacity is somewhat marred by a certain. mixture of almost owlish purblindness, or else of some perverse, ineffectual, ironic tendency; our readers shall judge which:

In these distracted times,' writes he, when the Religious 'Principle, driven out of most Churches, either lies unseen in the 'hearts of good men, looking and longing and silently working 'there towards some new Revelation; or else wanders homeless 'over the world, like a disembodied soul seeking its terrestrial

'organisation,-into how many strange shapes, of Superstition and 'Fanaticism, does it not tentatively and errantly cast itself! The 'higher Enthusiasm of man's nature is for the while without Ex'ponent; yet does it continue indestructible, unweariedly active, 'and work blindly in the great chaotic deep: thus Sect after 'Sect, and Church after Church, bodies itself forth, and melts ' again into new metamorphosis.

'Chiefly is this observable in England, which, as the wealthiest ' and worst-instructed of European nations, offers precisely the 'elements (of Heat, namely, and of Darkness), in which such " moon-calves and monstrosities are best generated. Among the 'newer Sects of that country, one of the most notable, and closely 'connected with our present subject, is that of the Dandies; con'cerning which, what little information I have been able to pro'cure may fitly stand here.

'It is true, certain of the English Journalists, men generally 'without sense for the Religious Principle, or judgment for its 'manifestations, speak, in their brief enigmatic notices, as if this were perhaps rather a Secular Sect, and not a Religious one: 'nevertheless, to the psychologic eye its devotional and even 'sacrificial character plainly enough reveals itself. Whether it 'belongs to the class of Fetish-worships, or of Hero-worships or 'Polytheisms, or to what other class, may in the present state of 'our intelligence remain undecided (schweben). A certain touch 'of Manicheism, not indeed in the Gnostic shape, is discernible 'enough also (for human Error walks in a cycle, and reappears 'at intervals) a not inconsiderable resemblance to that Supersti'tion of the Athos Monks, who by fasting from all nourishment, ' and looking intensely for a length of time into their own navels, came to discern therein the true Apocalypse of Nature, and 'Heaven Unveiled. To my own surmise, it appears as if this 'Dandiacal Sect were but a new modification, adapted to the new 'time, of that primeval Superstition, Self-Worship; which Zer'dusht, Quangfoutchee, Mohamed, and others, strove rather to 'subordinate and restrain than to eradicate; and which only in 'the purer forms of Religion has been altogether rejected. 'Wherefore, if any one chooses to name it revived Ahrimanism,

'or a new figure of Demon-Worship, I have, so far as is yet visi'ble, no objection.

'For the rest, these people, animated with the zeal of a new Sect, display courage and perseverance, and what force there is ' in man's nature, though never so enslaved. They affect great 'purity and separatism; distinguish themselves by a particular 'costume (whereof some notices were given in the earlier part of 'this Volume); likewise, so far as possible, by a particular speech '(apparently some broken Lingua-franca, or English-French); and, on the whole, strive to maintain a true Nazarene deport'ment, and keep themselves unspotted from the world.

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'They have their Temples, whereof the chief, as the Jewish Temple did, stands in their metropolis; and is named Almack's, 'a word of uncertain etymology. They worship principally by night; and have their Highpriests and Highpriestesses, who, 'however, do not continue for life. The rites, by some supposed 'to be of the Menadic sort, or perhaps with an Eleusinian or 'Cabiric character, are held strictly secret. Nor are Sacred 'Books wanting to the Sect; these they call Fashionable Novels : 'however, the Canon is not completed, and some are canonical ' and others not.

Of such Sacred Books I, not without expense, procured my'self some samples; and in hope of true insight, and with the 'zeal which beseems an Inquirer into Clothes, set to interpret ' and study them. But wholly to no purpose: that tough faculty 'of reading, for which the world will not refuse me credit, was 'here for the first time foiled and set at naught. In vain that I 'summoned my whole energies (mich weidlich anstrengte), and did my very utmost; at the end of some short space, I was uni'formly seized with not so much what I can call a drumming in my ears, as a kind of infinite, unsufferable Jew's-harping and 'scrannel-piping there; to which the frightfulest species of Mag'netic Sleep soon supervened. And if I strove to shake this 'away, and absolutely would not yield, came a hitherto unfelt 'sensation, as of Delirium Tremens, and a melting into total deli'quium till at last, by order of the Doctor, dreading ruin to my 'whole intellectual and bodily faculties, and a general breakingup of the constitution, I reluctantly but determinedly forbore.

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