r seldom with his
whole heart, for the water nowise suits his palate; discouragements,
entanglements, aberrations are discoverable or supposable. Nor perhaps
are even pecuniary distresses wanting; for "the good Gretchen, who in
spite of advices from not disinterested relatives has sent him
hither, must after a time withdraw her willing but too feeble hand."
Nevertheless in an atmosphere of Poverty and manifold Chagrin, the Humor
of that young Soul, what character is in him, first decisively reveals
itself; and, like strong sunshine in weeping skies, gives out variety of
colors, some of which are prismatic. Thus, with the aid of Time and of
what Time brings, has the stripling Diogenes Teufelsdrockh waxed into
manly stature; and into so questionable an aspect, that we ask with new
eagerness, How he specially came by it, and regret anew that there is
no more explicit answer. Certain of the intelligible and partially
significant fragments, which are few in number, shall be extracted from
that Limbo of a Paper-bag, and presented with the usual preparation.

As if, in the Bag _Scorpio_, Teufelsdrockh had not already expectorated
his antipedagogic spleen; as if, from the name _Sagittarius_, he had
thought himself called upon to shoot arrows, we here again fall in with
such matter as this: "The University where I was educated still stands
vivid enough in my remembrance, and I know its name well; which name,
however, I, from tenderness to existing interests and persons, shall in
nowise divulge. It is my painful duty to say that, out of England and
Spain, ours was the worst of all hitherto discovered Universities.
This is indeed a time when right Education is, as nearly as may be,
impossible: however, in degrees of wrongness there is no limit: nay,
I can conceive a worse system than that of the Nameless itself; as
poisoned victual may be worse than absolute hunger.

"It is written, When the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the
ditch: wherefore, in such circumstances, may it not sometimes be safer,
if both leader and led simply--sit still? Had you, anywhere in Crim
Tartary, walled in a square enclosure; furnished it with a small,
ill-chosen Library; and then turned loose into it eleven hundred
Christian striplings, to tumble about as they listed, from three to
seven years: certain persons, under the title of Professors, being
stationed at the gates, to declare aloud that it was a University, and
exact considerable admis