“As Montesquieu wrote a Spirit of Laws,” observes our Professor, “so could I write a Spirit of Clothes; thus, with an Esprit des Lois, properly an Esprit de Coutumes, we should have an Esprit de Costumes.  For neither in tailoring nor in legislating does man proceed by mere Accident, but the hand is ever guided on by mysterious operations of the mind.  In all his Modes, and habilatory endeavors, an Architectural Idea will be found lurking; his Body and the Cloth are the site and materials whereon and whereby his beautified edifice, of a Person, is to be built.  Whether he flow gracefully out in folded mantles, based on light sandals; tower up in high headgear, from amid peaks, spangles and bell-girdles; swell out in starched ruffs, buckram stuffings, and monstrous tuberosities; or girth himself into separate sections, and front the world an Agglomeration of four limbs,—­will depend on the nature of such Architectural Idea:  whether Grecian, Gothic, Later Gothic, or altogether Modern, and Parisian or Anglo-Dandiacal.  Again, what meaning lies in Color!  From the soberest drab to the high-flaming scarlet, spiritual idiosyncrasies unfold themselves in choice of Color:  if the Cut betoken Intellect and Talent, so does the Color betoken Temper and Heart.  In all which, among nations as among individuals, there is an incessant, indubitable, though infinitely complex working of Cause and Effect:  every snip of the Scissors has been regulated and prescribed by ever-active Influences, which doubtless to Intelligences of a superior order are neither invisible nor illegible.

“For such superior Intelligences a Cause-and-Effect Philosophy of Clothes, as of Laws, were probably a comfortable winter-evening entertainment:  nevertheless, for inferior Intelligences, like men, such Philosophies have always seemed to me uninstructive enough.  Nay, what is your Montesquieu himself but a clever infant spelling Letters from a hieroglyphical prophetic Book, the lexicon of which lies in Eternity, in Heaven?—­Let any Cause-and-Effect Philosopher explain, not why I wear such and such a Garment, obey such and such a Law; but even why I am here, to wear and obey anything!—­ Much, therefore, if not the whole, of that same Spirit of Clothes I shall suppress, as hypothetical, ineffectual, and even impertinent:  naked Facts, and Deductions drawn therefrom in quite another than that omniscient style, are my humbler and proper province.”

Acting on which prudent restriction, Teufelsdrockh, has nevertheless contrived to take in a well-nigh boundless extent of field; at least, the boundaries too often lie quite beyond our horizon.  Selection being indispensable, we shall here glance over his First Part only in the most cursory manner.  This First Part is, no doubt, distinguished by omnivorous learning, and utmost patience and fairness:  at the same time, in its results and delineations, it is much more likely to interest the Compilers of some Library of General, Entertaining, Useful, or even Useless Knowledge than the miscellaneous readers of these pages.  Was it this Part of the Book which Heuschrecke had in view, when he recommended us to that joint-stock vehicle of publication, “at present the glory of British Literature”?  If so, the Library Editors are welcome to dig in it for their own behoof.