times, now breaking into sobs of pity, and anon into shrieks of
hoarse laughter, terrible to hear. He, too, is bewildered, and he comes
among his fellows "determined to pluck out the heart of the
mystery"--the mystery alike of his own times and of general human life
and destiny.

The book is in a great measure autobiographical, and is drawn from deep
wells of experience, thought, and feeling. Inasmuch as its writer was a
very typical Scotsman, it also was in a sense a manifesto of the
national convictions which had made much of the noblest part of Scottish
history, and which have served to stiffen the new races with which
Scottish emigrants have blended, and to put iron into their blood. It is
a book of incalculable importance, and if it be the case that it finds
fewer readers in the rising generation than it did among their fathers,
it is time that we returned to it. It is for want of such strong meat as
this that the spirit of an age tends to grow feeble.

The object of the present lecture is neither to explain _Sartor
Resartus_ nor to summarise it. It certainly requires explanation, and it
is no wonder that it puzzled the publishers. Before it was finally
accepted by Fraser, its author had "carried it about for some two years
from one terrified owl to another." When it appeared, the criticisms
passed on it were amusing enough. Among those mentioned by Professor
Nichol are, "A heap of clotted nonsense," and "When is that stupid
series of articles by the crazy tailor going to end?" A book which could
call forth such abuse, even from the dullest of minds, is certainly in
need of elucidation. Yet here, more perhaps than in any other volume one
could name, the interpretation must come from within. The truth which it
has to declare will appeal to each reader in the light of his own
experience of life. And the endeavour of the present lecture will simply
be to give a clue to its main purpose. Every reader, following up that
clue for himself, may find the growing interest and the irresistible
fascination which the Victorians found in it. And when we add that
without some knowledge of _Sartor_ it is impossible to understand any
serious book that has been written since it appeared, we do not
exaggerate so much as might be supposed on the first hearing of so
extraordinary a statement.

The first and chief difficulty with most readers is a very obvious and
elementary one. What is it all about? As you read, you can entertain n