w 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 endeavoured, from the enormous, amorphous Plum-pudding,
more like a Scottish Haggis, which Herr Teufelsdroeckh 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 Teufelsdroeckh 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 humours 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 Teufelsdroeckh'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