be mended in many a point, till it grow quite firm, passable
even for the halt?

Meanwhile, of the innumerable multitude that started with us, joyous
and full of hope, where now is the innumerable remainder, whom we see no
longer by our side? The most have recoiled, and stand gazing afar
off, in unsympathetic astonishment, at our career: not a few, pressing
forward with more courage, have missed footing, or leaped short; and now
swim weltering in the Chaos-flood, some towards this shore, some towards
that. To these also a helping hand should be held out; at least some
word of encouragement be said.

Or, to speak without metaphor, with which mode of utterance
Teufelsdrockh unhappily has somewhat infected us,--can it be hidden from
the Editor that many a British Reader sits reading quite bewildered in
head, and afflicted rather than instructed by the present Work?
Yes, long ago has many a British Reader been, as now, demanding with
something like a snarl: Whereto does all this lead; or what use is in
it?

In the way of replenishing thy purse, or otherwise aiding thy digestive
faculty, O British Reader, it leads to nothing, and there is no use in
it; but rather the reverse, for it costs thee somewhat. Nevertheless,
if through this unpromising Horn-gate, Teufelsdrockh, and we by means
of him, have led thee into the true Land of Dreams; and through the
Clothes-Screen, as through a magical _Pierre-Pertuis_, thou lookest,
even for moments, into the region of the Wonderful, and seest and
feelest that thy daily life is girt with Wonder, and based on Wonder,
and thy very blankets and breeches are Miracles,--then art thou profited
beyond money's worth; and hast a thankfulness towards our Professor;
nay, perhaps in many a literary Tea-circle wilt open thy kind lips, and
audibly express that same.

Nay farther, art not thou too perhaps by this time made aware that all
Symbols are properly Clothes; that all Forms whereby Spirit manifests
itself to sense, whether outwardly or in the imagination, are Clothes;
and thus not only the parchment Magna Charta, which a Tailor was nigh
cutting into measures, but the Pomp and Authority of Law, the sacredness
of Majesty, and all inferior Worships (Worth-ships) are properly
a Vesture and Raiment; and the Thirty-nine Articles themselves are
articles of wearing-apparel (for the Religious Idea)? In which case,
must it not also be admitted that this Science of Clothes is a high one,
and may with