say, there is not a red
Indian, hunting by Lake Winnipeg, can quarrel with his squaw, but the
whole world must smart for it: will not the price of beaver rise? It is
a mathematical fact that the casting of this pebble from my hand alters
the centre of gravity of the Universe.

"If now an existing generation of men stand so woven together, not less
indissolubly does generation with generation. Hast thou ever meditated
on that word, Tradition: how we inherit not Life only, but all the
garniture and form of Life; and work, and speak, and even think and
feel, as our Fathers, and primeval grandfathers, from the beginning,
have given it us?--Who printed thee, for example, this unpretending
Volume on the Philosophy of Clothes? Not the Herren Stillschweigen and
Company; but Cadmus of Thebes, Faust of Mentz, and innumerable others
whom thou knowest not. Had there been no Moesogothic Ulfila, there
had been no English Shakspeare, or a different one. Simpleton! It was
Tubal-cain that made thy very Tailor's needle, and sewed that court-suit
of thine.

"Yes, truly, if Nature is one, and a living indivisible whole, much more
is Mankind, the Image that reflects and creates Nature, without which
Nature were not. As palpable lifestreams in that wondrous Individual
Mankind, among so many life-streams that are not palpable, flow on those
main currents of what we call Opinion; as preserved in Institutions,
Polities, Churches, above all in Books. Beautiful it is to understand
and know that a Thought did never yet die; that as thou, the originator
thereof, hast gathered it and created it from the whole Past, so thou
wilt transmit it to the whole Future. It is thus that the heroic heart,
the seeing eye of the first times, still feels and sees in us of the
latest; that the Wise Man stands ever encompassed, and spiritually
embraced, by a cloud of witnesses and brothers; and there is a living,
literal _Communion of Saints_, wide as the World itself, and as the
History of the World.

"Noteworthy also, and serviceable for the progress of this same
Individual, wilt thou find his subdivision into Generations. Generations
are as the Days of toilsome Mankind: Death and Birth are the vesper and
the matin bells, that summon Mankind to sleep, and to rise refreshed for
new advancement. What the Father has made, the Son can make and enjoy;
but has also work of his own appointed him. Thus all things wax, and
roll onwards; Arts, Establishments, Opinions,