of
the whole. The appearances of men and things are but the fantastic
clothes with which they cover their nakedness. They take these clothes
of theirs to be themselves, and the first duty and only hope of a man is
to divest himself of all such coverings, and discover what manner of man
he really is.

This process of divesting, however, may yield either of two results. A
man may take, for the reality of himself, either the low view of human
nature, in which man is but "a forked straddling animal with bandy
legs," or the high view, in which he is a spirit, and unutterable
Mystery of Mysteries. It is the latter view which Thomas Carlyle
champions, through this and many other volumes, against the
materialistic thought of his time.

The chapter on Dandies is a most extraordinary attack on the keeping up
of appearances. The Dandy is he who not only keeps up appearances but
actually worships them. He is their advocate and special pleader. His
very office and function is to wear clothes. Here we have the illusion
stripped from much that we have taken for reality. Sectarianism is a
prominent example of it, the reading of fashionable novels is another.
In the former two are seen the robes of eternity flung over one very
vulgar form of self-worship, and in the latter the robe of fashionable
society is flung over another. The reality of man's intercourse with
Eternity and with his fellow-men has died within these vestures, but the
eyes of the public are satisfied, and never guess the corpse within.
Sectarianism and Vanity Fair are but common forms of self-worship, in
which every one is keeping up appearances, and is so intent upon that
exercise that all thought of reality has vanished.

A shallower philosopher would have been content with exposing these and
other shams; and consequently his philosophy would have led nowhere.
Carlyle is a greater thinker, and one who takes a wider view. He is no
enemy of clothes, although fools have put them to wrong uses and made
them the instruments of deception. His choice is not between worshipping
and abandoning the world and its appearances. He will frankly confess
the value of it and of its vesture, and so we have the chapter on
Adamitism, in defence of clothes, which acknowledges in great and
ingenious detail the many uses of the existing order of institutions.
But still, through all such acknowledgment, we are reminded constantly
of the main truth. All appearance is for the sake of real