CHAPTER XI. TAILORS.
Thus, however, has our first Practical Inference from theClothes-Philosophy, that which respects Dandies, been sufficientlydrawn; and we come now to the second, concerning Tailors. On this latterour opinion happily quite coincides with that of Teufelsdrockh himself,as expressed in the concluding page of his Volume, to whom, therefore,we willingly give place. Let him speak his own last words, in his ownway:--
"Upwards of a century," says he, "must elapse, and still the bleedingfight of Freedom be fought, whoso is noblest perishing in the van,and thrones be hurled on altars like Pelion on Ossa, and the Molochof Iniquity have his victims, and the Michael of Justice his martyrs,before Tailors can be admitted to their true prerogatives of manhood,and this last wound of suffering Humanity be closed.
"If aught in the history of the world's blindness could surprise us,here might we indeed pause and wonder. An idea has gone abroad, andfixed itself down into a wide-spreading rooted error, that Tailors are adistinct species in Physiology, not Men, but fractional Parts of aMan. Call any one a _Schneider_ (Cutter, Tailor), is it not, in ourdislocated, hoodwinked, and indeed delirious condition of Society,equivalent to defying his perpetual fellest enmity? The epithet_schneidermassig_ (tailor-like) betokens an otherwise unapproachabledegree of pusillanimity; we introduce a _Tailor's-Melancholy_, moreopprobrious than any Leprosy, into our Books of Medicine; and fable Iknow not what of his generating it by living on Cabbage. Why should Ispeak of Hans Sachs (himself a Shoemaker, or kind of Leather-Tailor),with his _Schneider mit dem Panier_? Why of Shakspeare, in his _Tamingof the Shrew_, and elsewhere? Does it not stand on record that theEnglish Queen Elizabeth, receiving a deputation of Eighteen Tailors,addressed them with a 'Good morning, gentlemen both!' Did not the samevirago boast that she had a Cavalry Regiment, whereof neither horse norman could be injured; her Regiment, namely, of Tailors on Mares? Thuseverywhere is the falsehood taken for granted, and acted on as anindisputable fact.
"Nevertheless, need I put the question to any Physiologist, whether itis disputable or not? Seems it not at least presumable, that, under hisClothes, the Tailor has bones and viscera, and other muscles than thesartorius? Which function of manhood is the Tailor not conjecturedto perform? Can he not arrest for debt? Is he not in most countries ataxpaying animal?
"To no reader of this Volume can it be doubtful which conviction ismine. Nay if the fruit of these long vigils, and almost preternaturalInquiries, is not to perish utterly, the world will have approximatedtowards a higher Truth; and the doctrine, which Swift, with the keenforecast of genius, dimly anticipated, will stand revealed in clearlight: that the Tailor is not only a Man, but something of a Creator orDivinity. Of Franklin it was said, that 'he snatched the Thunder fromHeaven and the Sceptre from Kings:' but which is greater, I would ask,he that lends, or he that snatches? For, looking away from individualcases, and how a Man is by the Tailor new-created into a Nobleman, andclothed not only with Wool but with Dignity and a Mystic Dominion,--isnot the fair fabric of Society itself, with all its royal mantles andpontifical stoles, whereby, from nakedness and dismemberment, we areorganized into Polities, into nations, and a whole co-operating Mankind,the creation, as has here been often irrefragably evinced, of the Tailoralone?--What too are all Poets and moral Teachers, but a species ofMetaphorical Tailors? Touching which high Guild the greatest livingGuild-brother has triumphantly asked us: 'Nay if thou wilt have it,who but the Poet first made Gods for men; brought them down to us; andraised us up to them?'
"And this is he, whom sitting downcast, on the hard basis of hisShopboard, the world treats with contumely, as the ninth part of a man!Look up, thou much-injured one, look up with the kindling eye of hope,and prophetic bodings of a noble better time. Too long hast thou satthere, on crossed legs, wearing thy ankle-joints to horn; like somesacred Anchorite, or Catholic Fakir, doing penance, drawing downHeaven's richest blessings, for a world that scoffed at thee. Be ofhope! Already streaks of blue peer through our clouds; the thick gloomof Ignorance is rolling asunder, and it will be Day. Mankind willrepay with interest their long-accumulated debt: the Anchorite that wasscoffed at will be worshipped; the Fraction will become not an Integeronly, but a Square and Cube. With astonishment the world will recognizethat the Tailor is its Hierophant and Hierarch, or even its God.
"As I stood in the Mosque of St. Sophia, and looked upon theseFour-and-Twenty Tailors, sewing and embroidering that rich Cloth, whichthe Sultan sends yearly for the Caaba of Mecca, I thought within myself:How many other Unholies has your covering Art made holy, besides thisArabian Whinstone!
"Still more touching was it when, turning the corner of a lane, inthe Scottish Town of Edinburgh, I came upon a Signpost, whereon stoodwritten that such and such a one was 'Breeches-Maker to his Majesty;'and stood painted the Effigies of a Pair of Leather Breeches, andbetween the knees these memorable words, SIC ITUR AD ASTRA. Was notthis the martyr prison-speech of a Tailor sighing indeed in bonds, yetsighing towards deliverance, and prophetically appealing to a betterday? A day of justice, when the worth of Breeches would be revealed toman, and the Scissors become forever venerable.
"Neither, perhaps, may I now say, has his appeal been altogether invain. It was in this high moment, when the soul, rent, as it were, andshed asunder, is open to inspiring influence, that I first conceivedthis Work on Clothes: the greatest I can ever hope to do; which hasalready, after long retardations, occupied, and will yet occupy, solarge a section of my Life; and of which the Primary and simpler Portionmay here find its conclusion."
Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh Page 31