Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh
in German Universities than elsewhere; of whom, though you see them
alive, and feel certain enough that they must have a History, no History
seems to be discoverable; or only such as men give of mountain rocks and
antediluvian ruins: That they have been created by unknown agencies,
are in a state of gradual decay, and for the present reflect light
and resist pressure; that is, are visible and tangible objects in this
phantasm world, where so much other mystery is.
It was to be remarked that though, by title and diploma, _Professor der
Allerley-Wissenschaft_, or as we should say in English, "Professor of
Things in General," he had never delivered any Course; perhaps never
been incited thereto by any public furtherance or requisition. To all
appearance, the enlightened Government of Weissnichtwo, in founding
their New University, imagined they had done enough, if "in times like
ours," as the half-official Program expressed it, "when all things are,
rapidly or slowly, resolving themselves into Chaos, a Professorship of
this kind had been established; whereby, as occasion called, the task
of bodying somewhat forth again from such Chaos might be, even slightly,
facilitated." That actual Lectures should be held, and Public Classes
for the "Science of Things in General," they doubtless considered
premature; on which ground too they had only established the
Professorship, nowise endowed it; so that Teufelsdrockh, "recommended by
the highest Names," had been promoted thereby to a Name merely.
Great, among the more enlightened classes, was the admiration of this
new Professorship: how an enlightened Government had seen into the Want
of the Age (_Zeitbedurfniss_); how at length, instead of Denial
and Destruction, we were to have a science of Affirmation and
Reconstruction; and Germany and Weissnichtwo were where they should be,
in the vanguard of the world. Considerable also was the wonder at the
new Professor, dropt opportunely enough into the nascent University; so
able to lecture, should occasion call; so ready to hold his peace for
indefinite periods, should an enlightened Government consider that
occasion did not call. But such admiration and such wonder, being
followed by no act to keep them living, could last only nine days;
and, long before our visit to that scene, had quite died away. The more
cunning heads thought it was all an expiring clutch at popularity, on
the part of a Minister, whom domestic embarrassments, court intrigues,
old age, and dropsy soon afterwards finally drove from the helm.
As for Teufelsdrockh, except by his nightly appearances at the _Grune
Gans_, Weissnichtwo saw little of him, felt little of him. Here,
over his tumbler of Gukguk, he sat reading Journals; sometimes
contemplatively looking into the clouds of his tobacco-pipe, without
other visible employment: always, from his mild ways, an agreeable
phenomenon there; more especially when he opened his lips for speech; on
which occasions the whole Coffee-house would hush itself into silence,
as if sure to hear something noteworthy. Nay, perhaps to hear a whole
series and river of the most memorable utterances; such as, when once
thawed, he would for hours indulge in, with fit audience: and the more
memorable, as issuing from a head apparently not more interested in
them, not more conscious of them, than is the sculptured stone head of
some public fountain, which through its brass mouth-tube emits water to
the worthy and the unworthy; careless whether it be for cooking
victuals or quenching conflagrations; indeed, maintains the same earnest
assiduous look, whether any water be flowing or not.
To the Editor of these sheets, as to a young enthusiastic Englishman,
however unworthy, Teufelsdrockh opened himself perhaps more than to the
most. Pity only that we could not then half guess his importance, and
scrutinize him with due power of vision! We enjoyed, what not three
men Weissnichtwo could boast of, a certain degree of access to the
Professor's private domicile. It was the attic floor of the highest
house in the Wahngasse; and might truly be called the pinnacle
of Weissnichtwo, for it rose sheer up above the contiguous roofs,
themselves rising from elevated ground. Moreover, with its windows it
looked towards all the four _Orte_ or as the Scotch say, and we ought to
say, _Airts_: the sitting room itself commanded three; another came to
view in the _Schlafgemach_ (bedroom) at the opposite end; to say nothing
of the kitchen, which offered two, as it were, _duplicates_, showing
nothing new. So that it was in fact the speculum or watch-tower of
Teufelsdrockh; wherefrom, sitting at ease he might see the whole
life-circulation of that considerable City; the streets and lanes of
which, with all their doing and driving (_Thun und Treiben_), were for
the most part visible there.
"I look down into all that wasp-nest or bee-hive," we have heard him
say, "and witness their wax-laying and honey-making, and poison-brewing,
and choking by sulphur. From the Palace esplanade, where music plays
while Serene Highness is pleased to eat his victuals, down to the
low lane, where in her door-sill the aged widow, knitting for a thin
livelihood sits to feel the afternoon sun, I see it all; for, except
Schlosskirche weather-cock, no biped stands so high. Couriers arrive
bestrapped and bebooted, bearing Joy and Sorrow bagged up in pouches
of leather: there, top-laden, and with four swift horses, rolls in the
country Baron and his household; here, on timber-leg, the lamed Soldier
hops painfully along, begging alms: a thousand carriages, and wains,
cars, come tumbling in with Food, with young Rusticity, and other Raw
Produce, inanimate or animate, and go tumbling out again with produce
manufactured. That living flood, pouring through these streets, of all
qualities and ages, knowest thou whence it is coming, whither it is
going? _Aus der Ewigkeit, zu der Ewigkeit hin_: From Eternity, onwards
to Eternity! These are Apparitions: what else? Are they not Souls
rendered visible: in Bodies, that took shape and will lose it, melting
into air? Their solid Pavement is a Picture of the Sense; they walk
on the bosom of Nothing, blank Time is behind them and before them. Or
fanciest thou, the red and yellow Clothes-screen yonder, with spurs
on its heels and feather in its crown, is but of To-day, without a
Yesterday or a To-morrow; and had not rather its Ancestor alive when
Hengst and Horsa overran thy Island? Friend, thou seest here a living
link in that Tissue of History, which inweaves all Being: watch well, or
it will be past thee, and seen no more."
"_Ach, mein Lieber_!" said he once, at midnight, when we had returned
from the Coffee-house in rather earnest talk, "it is a true sublimity to
dwell here. These fringes of lamplight, struggling up through smoke and
thousand-fold exhalation, some fathoms into the ancient reign of Night,
what thinks Bootes of them, as he leads his Hunting-Dogs over the Zenith
in their leash of sidereal fire? That stifled hum of Midnight, when
Traffic has lain down to rest; and the chariot-wheels of Vanity, still
rolling here and there through distant streets, are bearing her to
Halls roofed in, and lighted to the due pitch for her; and only Vice
and Misery, to prowl or to moan like nightbirds, are abroad: that hum,
I say, like the stertorous, unquiet slumber of sick Life, is heard in
Heaven! Oh, under that hideous coverlet of vapors, and putrefactions,
and unimaginable gases, what a Fermenting-vat lies simmering and hid!
The joyful and the sorrowful are there; men are dying there, men are
being born; men are praying,--on the other side of a brick partition,
men are cursing; and around them all is the vast, void Night. The proud
Grandee still lingers in his perfumed saloons, or reposes within
damask curtains; Wretchedness cowers into buckle-beds, or shivers
hunger-stricken into its lair of straw: in obscure cellars,
_Rouge-et-Noir_ languidly emits its voice-of-destiny to haggard hungry
Villains; while Councillors of State sit plotting, and playing their
high chess-game, whereof the pawns are Men. The Lover whispers his
mistress that the coach is ready; and she, full of hope and fear, glides
down, to fly with him over the borders: the Thief, still more silently,
sets to his picklocks and crowbars, or lurks in wait till the watchmen
first snore in their boxes. Gay mansions, with supper-rooms and
dancing-rooms, are full of light and music and high-swelling hearts;
but, in the Condemned Cells, the pulse of life beats tremulous and
faint, and bloodshot eyes look out through the darkness, which is around
and within, for the light of a stern last morning. Six men are to be
hanged on the morrow: comes no hammering from the _Rabenstein_?--their
gallows must even now be o' building. Upwards of five hundred thousand
two-legged animals without feathers lie round us, in horizontal
position; their heads all in nightcaps, and full of the foolishest
dreams. Riot cries aloud, and staggers and swaggers in his rank dens of
shame; and the Mother, with streaming hair, kneels over her pallid dying
infant, whose cracked lips only her tears now moisten.--All these heaped
and huddled together, with nothing but a little carpentry and masonry
between them;--crammed in, like salted fish in their barrel;--or
weltering, shall I say, like an Egyptian pitcher of tamed vipers, each
struggling to get its _head above_ the others: _such_ work goes on under
that smoke-counterpane!--But I, _mein Werther_, sit above it all; I am
alone with the stars."
We looked in his face to see whether, in the utterance of such
extraordinary Night-thoughts, no feeling might be traced there; but with
the light we had, which indeed was only a single tallow-light, and far
enough from the window, nothing save that old calmness and fixedness was
visible.
These were the Professor's talking seasons: most commonly he spoke
in mere monosyllables, or sat altogether silent and smoked; while the
visitor had liberty either to say what he listed, receiving for answer
an occasional grunt; or to look round for a space, and then take himself
away. It was a strange apartment; full of books and tattered papers, and
miscellaneous shreds of all conceivable substances, "united in a common
element of dust." Books lay on tables, and below tables; here fluttered
a sheet of manuscript, there a torn handkerchief, or nightcap hastily
thrown aside; ink-bottles alternated with bread-crusts, coffee-pots,
tobacco-boxes, Periodical Literature, and Blucher Boots. Old Lieschen
(Lisekin, 'Liza), who was his bed-maker and stove-lighter, his washer
and wringer, cook, errand-maid, and general lion's-provider, and for the
rest a very orderly creature, had no sovereign authority in this last
citadel of Teufelsdrockh; only some once in the month she half-forcibly
made her way thither, with broom and duster, and (Teufelsdrockh hastily
saving his manuscripts) effected a partial clearance, a jail-delivery
of such lumber as was not Literary. These were her _Erdbeben_
(earthquakes), which Teufelsdrockh dreaded worse than the pestilence;
nevertheless, to such length he had been forced to comply. Glad would
he have been to sit here philosophizing forever, or till the litter, by
accumulation, drove him out of doors: but Lieschen was his right-arm,
and spoon, and necessary of life, and would not be flatly gainsayed. We
can still remember the ancient woman; so silent that some thought her
dumb; deaf also you would often have supposed her; for Teufelsdrockh,
and Teufelsdrockh only, would she serve or give heed to; and with him
she seemed to communicate chiefly by signs; if it were not rather by
some secret divination that she guessed all his wants, and supplied
them. Assiduous old dame! she scoured, and sorted, and swept, in her