on, where lies the Life-essence of Society,
has been smote at and perforated, needfully and needlessly; till now
it is quite rent into shreds; and Society, long pining, diabetic,
consumptive, can be regarded as defunct; for those spasmodic, galvanic
sprawlings are not life; neither indeed will they endure, galvanize as
you may, beyond two days."

"Call ye that a Society," cries he again, "where there is no longer any
Social Idea extant; not so much as the Idea of a common Home, but only
of a common over-crowded Lodging-house? Where each, isolated, regardless
of his neighbor, turned against his neighbor, clutches what he can get,
and cries 'Mine!' and calls it Peace, because, in the cut-purse and
cut-throat Scramble, no steel knives, but only a far cunninger sort,
can be employed? Where Friendship, Communion, has become an incredible
tradition; and your holiest Sacramental Supper is a smoking Tavern
Dinner, with Cook for Evangelist? Where your Priest has no tongue but
for plate-licking: and your high Guides and Governors cannot guide; but
on all hands hear it passionately proclaimed: _Laissez faire_; Leave us
alone of _your_ guidance, such light is darker than darkness; eat you
your wages, and sleep!

"Thus, too," continues he, "does an observant eye discern everywhere
that saddest spectacle: The Poor perishing, like neglected, foundered
Draught-Cattle, of Hunger and Overwork; the Rich, still more wretchedly,
of Idleness, Satiety, and Overgrowth. The Highest in rank, at length,
without honor from the Lowest; scarcely, with a little mouth-honor,
as from tavern-waiters who expect to put it in the bill. Once-sacred
Symbols fluttering as empty Pageants, whereof men grudge even the
expense; a World becoming dismantled: in one word, the STATE fallen
speechless, from obesity and apoplexy; the STATE shrunken into a
Police-Office, straitened to get its pay!"

We might ask, are there many "observant eyes," belonging to practical
men in England or elsewhere, which have descried these phenomena; or
is it only from the mystic elevation of a German _Wahngasse_ that
such wonders are visible? Teufelsdrockh contends that the aspect of a
"deceased or expiring Society" fronts us everywhere, so that whoso runs
may read. "What, for example," says he, "is the universally arrogated
Virtue, almost the sole remaining Catholic Virtue, of these days?
For some half-century, it has been the thing you name 'Independence.'
Suspicion of 'Servility,'