paste. Seas are his smooth highway, winds and fire his unwearying steeds. 4. "Nowhere do you find him without tools. Without tools he is nothing, with tools he is all." 5. Here may we not, for a moment, interrupt the stream of oratory with a remark that this definition of the tool-using animal appears to us, of all that animalsort, considerably the precisest and best. 6. Man is called a laughing animal; but do not the apes also laugh, or attempt to do it? and is the manliest man the greatest and oftenest laugher? The professor himself, as we said, laughed only once. 7. Still less do we make of that other French definition of the cooking animal; which, indeed, for rigorous scientific purposes is as good as useless. 8. Can a Tartar be said to cook, when he only readies his steak by riding on it? Again, what cookery does the Greenlander use, beyond stowing up his whale-blubber, as a marmot in the like case might do? Or how would Monsieur Ude prosper among those Orinoco Indians who, according to Humboldt, lodge in crow-nests on the branches of trees, and for half the year have no victuals but pipe-clay, the whole country being under water? 9. But, on the other hand, show us the human being, of any period or climate, without his tools. Those very Caledonians, as we saw, had their flint-ball, and thong to it, such as no brute has or can have. 10. "Man is a tool-using animal," concludes the professor, in his abrupt way; "of which truth clothes are but one example. And surely, if we consider the interval between the first wooden dibble fashioned by man and those Liverpool steam-carriages, or the British House of Commons, we shall note what progress he has made. 11. "He digs up certain black stones from the bosom of the earth, and says to them, 'Transport me and this luggage at the rate of five-and-thirty miles an hour!' and they do it. He collects, apparently by lot, six hundred and fifty-eight miscellaneous individuals, and says to them, 'Make this nation toil for us, bleed for us, hunger and sorrow and sin for us!' and they do it." Thomas Carlyle. FOR PREPARATION.-I. From the close of Chapter V. of "Sartor Resartus, or the History of Clothes," a work which humorously treats of the origin and significance of man's institutions, customs, and habits, under the figure of clothing (spiritual clothing, as opposed to bodily clothing). It is full of profound thoughts, and written in elegant though difficult language— many passages being of transcendent sublimity. II. Kneads (nēdz), i'-ron (ï'-urn), sçi-en-tif'-ie, vict'-ualş (vit'ız). III. The words which oftenest change their forms to express distinctions or relations are the most important ones to learn thoroughly in order to prevent mistakes in the use of language. The eleven variations of the verb to be are therefore very important. More important are the words used as substitutes to prevent repetition of name-words (called "pronouns "); they are: I (with its forms: my, mine, me, we, our, ours, us), thou (thy, thine, thee, ye, you, your, yours), he (his, him, they, their, theirs, them), she (her, hers, they, etc.), it (its, they, etc.). Of each of these pronouns tell what distinctions it expresses: (a) person speaking, or spoken to or of; (b) subject, or possessor, or object of relation or action; (c) sex. IV. Stature, insecurely, bipeds, devise, thong, interval, miscellaneous, apparently. V. "The eloquent professor" (Teufelsdroeck). Make a list of man's physical weaknesses as given (1 and 2)-(e. g., little strength, small size, stands on two small feet instead of four, can lift only three hundred-weight, etc.). Make a list, also, of what he can do with tools (3 and 4). "May we interrupt the stream of oratory" (Carlyle humorously pretends to quote remarks from an imagined professor, and then comments upon the quotations, like an editor; in this way he can in part help to explain the thoughts to the reader). Make a list of the definitions of man named, and of the reasons for adopting "tool-using animal" as the best. (Remember that a definition should express the likeness of the object to other beings-as, 'animal" does—and also the difference which distinguishes it from all others-as 66 tool-using" does.) 'Monsieur Ude" (the French cook who defined man as a cooking animal). "Caledonians" (of prehistoric times, who hunted their prey in the swamps, and killed it with a flint stone fastened to a leather thong). "Of which truth clothes are but an example (10)-(for clothes are tools invented to keep in the bodily heat). "Dibble" (a sharpened stick used by prehistoric man to make holes in the ground for the seed planted). (The "steam-carriage" -a material tool-and the "House of Commons "-an institution, a tool of a spiritual nature invented for the purpose of securing justice to men-are both called tools by Carlyle.) "Black stones" (11) (coal). "Transport me" (in a steam-carriage-the whole power being furnished by the coal). "He collects . . by lot" (apparently, for the ballot does not seem to be always wise in its elections). "Six hundred and fifty-eight individuals" (i. e., members of the House of Commons), "and says to them," Govern the nation, "and they do it." (What a wonderful machine man has invented in the Legislature!) Compare this piece with CXIII., on "Inventions." CXLIII.-ODE ON THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 1. Bury the Great Duke With an empire's lamentation! Let us bury the Great Duke To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation, Mourning when their leaders fall, Warriors carry the warrior's pall, And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall. 2. Where shall we lay the man whom we deplore? Echo round his bones for evermore. 3. Lead out the pageant: sad and slow, As fits an universal woe, Let the long, long procession go, And let the sorrowing crowd about it grow, 4. Mourn, for to us he seems the last, 5. Mourn for the man of amplest influence, 6. O good gray head which all men knew, O voice from which their omens all men drew, O iron nerve to true occasion true, O fallen at length that tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew! Such was he whom we deplore. The long self-sacrifice of life is o'er: The great world-victor's victor will be seen no more. 7. Peace! his triumph will be sung By some yet unmoulded tongue, Far on in summers that we shall not see. For one about whose patriarchal knee O peace! it is a day of pain For one upon whose hand and heart and brain 8. More than is of man's degree Must be with us, watching here From talk of battles loud and vain, As befits a solemn fane: 9. We revere, and while we hear Uplifted high in heart and hope are we, And victor he must ever be. 10. For though the Giant Ages heave the hill And break the shore, and evermore Make and break, and work their will; Though world on world in myriad myriads roll Round us, each with different powers, And other forms of life than ours, What know we greater than the soul? |