318 The Philosophy of Thomas Carlyle . [June, 
sun which illumines all. Looking yet deeper, we find that 
the waves of air or of ether with which we started were 
themselves mere intellectual representations of the unknown, 
fabricated in the cerebral hemispheres, and having no better 
claim to objective existence than the visible and tangible 
pageant. We must and do assume that there is “ some- 
thing ” which exists independently of perception ; but of its 
essence we can know nothing. If then “ God, heaven, or 
hell, are none of them annihilated for us,” they can only 
have their being on the same conditions as these “ material 
woods and houses.” The ideas are true so long as they 
claim none but ideal worth ; but false when they arrogate 
the status of objective realities. So far from possessing any 
peculiar certitude, they lack even that authenticity which 
belongs to simple sensations, experienced by all mankind. 
Compounded from those impressions which are most vivid 
to the individual mind, inspiring the greatest terror, ecstasy, 
or hope, these transcendentalisms do not furnish any rationale 
of the subjective world as a whole. Other stimuli, not less 
real, though at present less keenly felt or less willingly 
remembered, are left out of the calculation. 
Underlying Carlyle’s fiery protestations of belief there 
was, as we have seen, a deep and constant scepticism. He 
admitted to J. S. Mill that his doCtrines were incapable of 
logical proof, and shrank from conversing with Emerson 
upon the immortality of the soul. But, revolting against 
the philosophy of compromise and convention which charac- 
terises a sophisticated and transitional state of society, he 
confounded moral earnestness with religious faith, and sup- 
posed that the two were bound together in organic union. 
Had he carried the Clothes philosophy a step farther, he 
might have seen that “ God ” and “the Soul” are but 
symbols or “ garments ” of conscience, and that the thing 
typified can exist very well without its hieroglyph. Spiritual 
creeds are based not on too lofty, but on too low, a concep- 
tion of Man and Nature. It is imagined that the visible 
and tangible is necessarily vile, unless animated by the 
Invisible, Intangible, and Unknowable. Omne ignotum pro 
magnifico. The vital interest of the known is held to lie in 
the idea that it is the mere vestibule of the unknown. Trees 
and flowers, beasts and birds, with all their beauty and 
complexity of structure, are either the living vestments of 
God or must be classed together as “ dirt.” The thoughts 
of man, however sublime or fruitful they may be, are priced 
as of little worth except as manifestations of an indwelling 
Spirit. The value of all is extrinsic, not intrinsic. Yet a 
