Page:Essays and studies; by members of the English Association, volume 1.djvu/197

 Resartus. And as well in the Essays as in Sartor the influence of Fichte is apparent. In the former, as Mazzini said, 'the standard of the Ideal is unfurled at least as boldly' as in the subsequent, and more ambitious, writings of the author; and to those who have any acquaintance with German philosophy, the standard under which Carlyle fights is manifestly that of Fichte. The same is true, still more obviously, of Sartor. The doctrine of 'the Everlasting Yea', of 'Natural Supernaturalism', of 'Organic Filaments', of the seen world as the 'time-vesture' of the unseen and eternal, all these are evidently Carlyle's version of the idealism of Fichte. And these are the doctrines which lie at the root of the whole 'Philosophy of Clothes'. And, however much they may have subsequently sunk beneath the surface, they are the doctrines which continued to lie at the root of Carlyle's teaching to the very end.

That they did sink beneath the surface, must at once be admitted. And that his conscience was not quite easy on the matter, that he reproached himself with the 'difficulty' he found 'in getting his poor message'—'things I imperatively need still to say'—'delivered to the world in this epoch,' is abundantly clear from an unfinished fragment, to which he gave the name of Spiritual Optics, written in 1852, and published in his Life.