第 51 节
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这就是结局 更新:2023-05-17 13:24 字数:9322
nly with Wool but with Dignity and a Mystic Dominion;is not the fair fabric of Society itself; with all its royal mantles and pontifical stoles; whereby; from nakedness and dismemberment; we are organized into Polities; into nations; and a whole co…operating Mankind; the creation; as has here been often irrefragably evinced; of the Tailor alone?What too are all Poets and moral Teachers; but a species of Metaphorical Tailors? Touching which high Guild the greatest living Guild…brother has triumphantly asked us: 'Nay if thou wilt have it; who but the Poet first made Gods for men; brought them down to us; and raised us up to them?'
〃And this is he; whom sitting downcast; on the hard basis of his Shopboard; the world treats with contumely; as the ninth part of a man! Look up; thou much…injured one; look up with the kindling eye of hope; and prophetic bodings of a noble better time。 Too long hast thou sat there; on crossed legs; wearing thy ankle…joints to horn; like some sacred Anchorite; or Catholic Fakir; doing penance; drawing down Heaven's richest blessings; for a world that scoffed at thee。 Be of hope! Already streaks of blue peer through our clouds; the thick gloom of Ignorance is rolling asunder; and it will be Day。 Mankind will repay with interest their long…accumulated debt: the Anchorite that was scoffed at will be worshipped; the Fraction will become not an Integer only; but a Square and Cube。 With astonishment the world will recognize that the Tailor is its Hierophant and Hierarch; or even its God。
〃As I stood in the Mosque of St。 Sophia; and looked upon these Four…and…Twenty Tailors; sewing and embroidering that rich Cloth; which the Sultan sends yearly for the Caaba of Mecca; I thought within myself: How many other Unholies has your covering Art made holy; besides this Arabian Whinstone!
〃Still more touching was it when; turning the corner of a lane; in the Scottish Town of Edinburgh; I came upon a Signpost; whereon stood written that such and such a one was 'Breeches…Maker to his Majesty;' and stood painted the Effigies of a Pair of Leather Breeches; and between the knees these memorable words; SIC ITUR AD ASTRA。 Was not this the martyr prison…speech of a Tailor sighing indeed in bonds; yet sighing towards deliverance; and prophetically appealing to a better day? A day of justice; when the worth of Breeches would be revealed to man; and the Scissors become forever venerable。
〃Neither; perhaps; may I now say; has his appeal been altogether in vain。 It was in this high moment; when the soul; rent; as it were; and shed asunder; is open to inspiring influence; that I first conceived this Work on Clothes: the greatest I can ever hope to do; which has already; after long retardations; occupied; and will yet occupy; so large a section of my Life; and of which the Primary and simpler Portion may here find its conclusion。〃
CHAPTER XII。 FAREWELL。
So have we endeavored; from the enormous; amorphous Plum…pudding; more like a Scottish Haggis; which Herr Teufelsdrockh had kneaded for his fellow…mortals; to pick out the choicest Plums; and present them separately on a cover of our own。 A laborious; perhaps a thankless enterprise; in which; however; something of hope has occasionally cheered us; and of which we can now wash our hands not altogether without satisfaction。 If hereby; though in barbaric wise; some morsel of spiritual nourishment have been added to the scanty ration of our beloved British world; what nobler recompense could the Editor desire? If it prove otherwise; why should he murmur? Was not this a Task which Destiny; in any case; had appointed him; which having now done with; he sees his general Day's…work so much the lighter; so much the shorter?
Of Professor Teufelsdrockh; it seems impossible to take leave without a mingled feeling of astonishment; gratitude; and disapproval。 Who will not regret that talents; which might have profited in the higher walks of Philosophy; or in Art itself; have been so much devoted to a rummaging among lumber…rooms; nay too often to a scraping in kennels; where lost rings and diamond…necklaces are nowise the sole conquests? Regret is unavoidable; yet censure were loss of time。 To cure him of his mad humors British Criticism would essay in vain: enough for her if she can; by vigilance; prevent the spreading of such among ourselves。 What a result; should this piebald; entangled; hyper…metaphorical style of writing; not to say of thinking; become general among our Literary men! As it might so easily do。 Thus has not the Editor himself; working over Teufelsdrockh's German; lost much of his own English purity? Even as the smaller whirlpool is sucked into the larger; and made to whirl along with it; so has the lesser mind; in this instance; been forced to become portion of the greater; and; like it; see all things figuratively: which habit time and assiduous effort will be needed to eradicate。
Nevertheless; wayward as our Professor shows himself; is there any reader that can part with him in declared enmity? Let us confess; there is that in the wild; much…suffering; much…inflicting man; which almost attaches us。 His attitude; we will hope and believe; is that of a man who had said to Cant; Begone; and to Dilettantism; Here thou canst not be; and to Truth; Be thou in place of all to me: a man who had manfully defied the 〃Time…Prince;〃 or Devil; to his face; nay perhaps; Hannibal…like; was mysteriously consecrated from birth to that warfare; and now stood minded to wage the same; by all weapons; in all places; at all times。 In such a cause; any soldier; were he but a Polack Scythe…man; shall be welcome。
Still the question returns on us: How could a man occasionally of keen insight; not without keen sense of propriety; who had real Thoughts to communicate; resolve to emit them in a shape bordering so closely on the absurd? Which question he were wiser than the present Editor who should satisfactorily answer。 Our conjecture has sometimes been; that perhaps Necessity as well as Choice was concerned in it。 Seems it not conceivable that; in a Life like our Professor's; where so much bountifully given by Nature had in Practice failed and misgone; Literature also would never rightly prosper: that striving with his characteristic vehemence to paint this and the other Picture; and ever without success; he at last desperately dashes his sponge; full of all colors; against the canvas; to try whether it will paint Foam? With all his stillness; there were perhaps in Teufelsdrockh desperation enough for this。
A second conjecture we hazard with even less warranty。 It is; that Teufelsdrockh; is not without some touch of the universal feeling; a wish to proselytize。 How often already have we paused; uncertain whether the basis of this so enigmatic nature were really Stoicism and Despair; or Love and Hope only seared into the figure of these! Remarkable; moreover; is this saying of his: 〃How were Friendship possible? In mutual devotedness to the Good and True: otherwise impossible; except as Armed Neutrality; or hollow Commercial League。 A man; be the Heavens ever praised; is sufficient for himself; yet were ten men; united in Love; capable of being and of doing what ten thousand singly would fail in。 Infinite is the help man can yield to man。〃 And now in conjunction therewith consider this other: 〃It is the Night of the World; and still long till it be Day: we wander amid the glimmer of smoking ruins; and the Sun and the Stars of Heaven are as if blotted out for a season; and two immeasurable Phantoms; HYPOCRISY and ATHEISM; with the Ghoul; SENSUALITY; stalk abroad over the Earth; and call it theirs: well at ease are the Sleepers for whom Existence is a shallow Dream。〃
But what of the awe…struck Wakeful who find it a Reality? Should not these unite; since even an authentic Spectre is not visible to Two?In which case were this Enormous Clothes…Volume properly an enormous Pitch…pan; which our Teufelsdrockh in his lone watch…tower had kindled; that it might flame far and wide through the Night; and many a disconsolately wandering spirit be guided thither to a Brother's bosom!We say as before; with all his malign Indifference; who knows what mad Hopes this man may harbor?
Meanwhile there is one fact to be stated here; which harmonizes ill with such conjecture; and; indeed; were Teufelsdrockh made like other men; might as good as altogether subvert it。 Namely; that while the Beacon…fire blazed its brightest; the Watchman had quitted it; that no pilgrim could now ask him: Watchman; what of the Night? Professor Teufelsdrockh; be it known; is no longer visibly present at Weissnichtwo; but again to all appearance lost in space! Some time ago; the Hofrath Heuschrecke was pleased to favor us with another copious Epistle; wherein much is said about the 〃Population…Institute;〃 much repeated in praise of the Paper…bag Documents; the hieroglyphic nature of which our Hofrath still seems not to have surmised; and; lastly; the strangest occurrence communicated; to us for the first time; in the following paragraph:
〃_Ew。 Wohlgeboren_ will have seen from the Public Prints; with what affectionate and hitherto fruitless solicitude Weissnichtwo regar