bos, and in either
case be no more."

By what chains, or indeed infinitely complected tissues, of Meditation
this grand Theorem is here unfolded, and innumerable practical
Corollaries are drawn therefrom, it were perhaps a mad ambition to
attempt exhibiting. Our Professor's method is not, in any case, that of
common school Logic, where the truths all stand in a row, each holding
by the skirts of the other; but at best that of practical Reason'
proceeding by large Intuition over whole systematic groups and kingdoms;
whereby, we might say, a noble complexity, almost like that of Nature,
reigns in his Philosophy, or spiritual Picture of Nature: a mighty maze,
yet, as faith whispers, not without a plan. Nay we complained above,
that a certain ignoble complexity, what we must call mere confusion, was
also discernible. Often, also, we have to exclaim: Would to Heaven
those same Biographical Documents were come! For it seems as if the
demonstration lay much in the Author's individuality; as if it were not
Argument that had taught him, but Experience. At present it is only
in local glimpses, and by significant fragments, picked often at
wide-enough intervals from the original Volume, and carefully collated,
that we can hope to impart some outline or foreshadow of this Doctrine.
Readers of any intelligence are once more invited to favor us with their
most concentrated attention: let these, after intense consideration,
and not till then, pronounce, Whether on the utmost verge of our actual
horizon there is not a looming as of Land; a promise of new Fortunate
Islands, perhaps whole undiscovered Americas, for such as have canvas to
sail thither?--As exordium to the whole, stand here the following long
citation:--

"With men of a speculative turn," writes Teufelsdrockh, "there come
seasons, meditative, sweet, yet awful hours, when in wonder and fear you
ask yourself that unanswerable question: Who am I; the thing that can
say 'I' (_das Wesen das sich ICH nennt_)? The world, with its loud
trafficking, retires into the distance; and, through the paper-hangings,
and stonewalls, and thick-plied tissues of Commerce and Polity, and all
the living and lifeless integuments (of Society and a Body), wherewith
your Existence sits surrounded,--the sight reaches forth into the void
Deep, and you are alone with the Universe, and silently commune with it,
as one mysterious Presence with another.

"Who am I; what is this ME? A Voice, a Motion, a