he Elective
Franchise; at least so we interpret the following: 'Satisfy
yourselves,' he says, 'by universal, indubitable experiment, even as
ye are now doing or will do, whether FREEDOM, heavenborn and leading
heavenward, and so vitally essential for us all, cannot peradventure
be mechanically hatched and brought to light in that same Ballot-Box
of yours; or at worst, in some other discoverable or devisable Box,
Edifice, or Steam-mechanism. It were a mighty convenience; and beyond
all feats of manufacture witnessed hitherto.' Is Teufelsdroeckh
acquainted with the British Constitution, even slightly?--He says,
under another figure: 'But after all, were the problem, as indeed it
now everywhere is, To rebuild your old House from the top downwards
(since you must live in it the while), what better, what other, than
the Representative Machine will serve your turn? Meanwhile, however,
mock me not with the name of Free, "when you have but knit-up my
chains into ornamental festoons."'--Or what will any member of the
Peace Society make of such an assertion as this: 'The lower people
everywhere desire War. Not so unwisely; there is then a demand for
lower people--to be shot!'

Gladly, therefore, do we emerge from those soul-confusing labyrinths
of speculative Radicalism, into somewhat clearer regions. Here,
looking round, as was our hest, for 'organic filaments,' we ask, may
not this, touching 'Hero-worship,' be of the number? It seems of a
cheerful character; yet so quaint, so mystical, one knows not what, or
how little, may lie under it. Our readers shall look with their own
eyes:

'True is it that, in these days, man can do almost all things, only
not obey. True likewise that whoso cannot obey cannot be free, still
less bear rule; he that is the inferior of nothing, can be the
superior of nothing, the equal of nothing. Nevertheless, believe not
that man has lost his faculty of Reverence; that if it slumber in him,
it has gone dead. Painful for man is that same rebellious
Independence, when it has become inevitable; only in loving
companionship with his fellows does he feel safe; only in reverently
bowing down before the Higher does he feel himself exalted.

'Or what if the character of our so troublous Era lay even in this:
that man had forever cast away Fear, which is the lower; but not yet
risen into perennial Reverence, which is the higher and highest?

'Meanwhile, observe with joy, so cunningly has Nature ordered it,