racted and attached from
without, were to serve as the handsomest fringing. It was to the
_Gnaedigen Frau_ (her Ladyship) that this latter improvement was due:
assiduously she gathered, dextrously she fitted-on, what fringing was
to be had; lace or cobweb, as the place yielded.' Was Teufelsdroeckh
also a fringe, of lace or cobweb; or promising to be such? 'With his
_Excellenz_ (the Count),' continues he, 'I have more than once had the
honour to converse; chiefly on general affairs, and the aspect of the
world, which he, though now past middle life, viewed in no
unfavourable light; finding indeed, except the Outrooting of
Journalism (_die auszurottende Journalistik_), little to desiderate
therein. On some points, as his _Excellenz_ was not uncholeric, I
found it more pleasant to keep silence. Besides, his occupation being
that of Owning Land, there might be faculties enough, which, as
superfluous for such use, were little developed in him.'

That to Teufelsdroeckh the aspect of the world was nowise so faultless,
and many things besides 'the Outrooting of Journalism' might have
seemed improvements, we can readily conjecture. With nothing but a
barren Auscultatorship from without, and so many mutinous thoughts and
wishes from within, his position was no easy one. 'The Universe,' he
says, 'was as a mighty Sphinx-riddle, which I knew so little of, yet
must rede, or be devoured. In red streaks of unspeakable grandeur, yet
also in the blackness of darkness, was Life, to my too-unfurnished
Thought, unfolding itself. A strange contradiction lay in me; and I as
yet knew not the solution of it; knew not that spiritual music can
spring only from discords set in harmony; that but for Evil there were
no Good, as victory is only possible by battle.'

'I have heard affirmed (surely in jest),' observes he elsewhere, 'by
not unphilanthropic persons, that it were a real increase of human
happiness, could all young men from the age of nineteen be covered
under barrels, or rendered otherwise invisible; and there left to
follow their lawful studies and callings, till they emerged, sadder
and wiser, at the age of twenty-five. With which suggestion, at least
as considered in the light of a practical scheme, I need scarcely say
that I nowise coincide. Nevertheless it is plausibly urged that, as
young ladies (_Maedchen_) are, to mankind, precisely the most
delightful in those years; so young gentlemen (_Buebchen_) do then
attain their maximum