256 FRESH FIELDS 



will work. The way to get rid of wretchedness is 

 to despise it; the way to conquer the devil is to 

 defy him; the way to gain heaven is to turn your 

 back upon it, and be as unflinching as the gods 

 themselves. Satan may be roasted in his own 

 flames; Tophet may be exploded with its own sul- 

 phur. "Despicable biped! " (Teufelsdrokh is ad- 

 dressing himself.) "What is the sum total of the 

 worst that lies before thee ? Death ? Well, death ; 

 and say the pangs of Tophet, too, and all that the 

 devil and man may, will, or can do against thee! 

 Hast thou not a heart? Canst thou not suffer 

 what so it be, and as a child of freedom, though 

 outcast, trample Tophet itself under thy feet while 

 it consumes thee*? Let it come, then; I will meet 

 it and defy it." This is the "Everlasting No" 

 of Teufelsdrokh, the annihilation of self. Having 

 thus routed Satan with his own weapons, the 

 "Everlasting Yea" is to people his domain with 

 fairer forms; to find your ideal in the world about 

 you. "Thy condition is but the stuff thou art to 

 shape that same ideal out of; what matters whether 

 such stuff be of this sort or of that, so the form 

 thou give it be heroic, be poetic? " Carlyle's 

 watchword through life, as I have said, was the 

 German word Entsagen^ or renunciation. The 

 perfect flower of religion opens in the soul only 

 when all self-seeking is abandoned. The divine, 

 the heroic attitude is: "I ask not Heaven, I fear 

 not Hell; I crave the truth alone, withersoever it 

 may lead." "Truth! I cried, though the heavens 



