consumed there. Still also have we to fear that incautious
beards will get singed.

'For the rest, in what year of grace such Phoenix-cremation will be
completed, you need not ask. The law of Perseverance is among the
deepest in man: by nature he hates change; seldom will he quit his old
house till it has actually fallen about his ears. Thus have I seen
Solemnities linger as Ceremonies, sacred Symbols as idle-Pageants, to
the extent of three-hundred years and more after all life and
sacredness had evaporated out of them. And then, finally, what time
the Phoenix Death-Birth itself will require, depends on unseen
contingencies.--Meanwhile, would Destiny offer Mankind, that after,
say two centuries of convulsion and conflagration, more or less vivid,
the fire-creation should be accomplished, and we too find ourselves
again in a Living Society, and no longer fighting but working,--were
it not perhaps prudent in Mankind to strike the bargain?'

Thus is Teufelsdroeckh content that old sick Society should be
deliberately burnt (alas! with quite other fuel than spicewood); in
the faith that she is a Phoenix; and that a new heaven-born young one
will rise out of her ashes! We ourselves, restricted to the duty of
Indicator, shall forbear commentary. Meanwhile, will not the judicious
reader shake his head, and reproachfully, yet more in sorrow than in
anger, say or think: From a _Doctor utriusque Juris_, titular
Professor in a University, and man to whom hitherto, for his services,
Society, bad as she is, has given not only food and raiment (of a
kind), but books, tobacco and gukguk, we expected more gratitude to
his benefactress; and less of a blind trust in the future, which
resembles that rather of a philosophical Fatalist and Enthusiast, than
of a solid householder paying scot-and-lot in a Christian country.

CHAPTER VI

OLD CLOTHES

As mentioned above, Teufelsdroeckh, though a sansculottist, is in
practice probably the politest man extant: his whole heart and life
are penetrated and informed with the spirit of politeness; a noble
natural Courtesy shines through him, beautifying his vagaries; like
sunlight, making a rosy-fingered, rainbow-dyed Aurora out of mere
aqueous clouds; nay brightening London-smoke itself into gold vapour,
as from the crucible of an alchemist. Hear in what earnest though
fantastic wise he expresses himself on this head:

'Shall Courtesy be done only to the rich, and only by the rich? In