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 he as unflinching as the gods 

 themselves. Satan may he 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; Avhat 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 



