SOME OLD CLOKES.

Evening Star, Issue 15554, 25 July 1914, Page 2

SOME OLD CLOKES.

We wtmd«r if any of the yonnges* generation read 'Sartor Resortae' aw. Once it. was a celebrity. Carlyte hawked it about London seeking * publisher. But they all were afliy of tlda strange, unwutih thing. One of the critics described it as " a heap of clotted nonsense." That critic surely then, certainly to-day, achieved the wish of one at least of Shakespeare's characters. It was the aspiration of Dogberry: "Oh, " that ho were here to write me down an "aes!" The critic who described 'Sartor Resarfcus' afl a heap of dotted noneense does not need any assistance in that direction. He has don© it himself. For it has long since been recognised that Carlyle never accomplished a better bit of work than this of 'Sartor Rasartas.' A imlly understanding critic describes it as "th"greatest counterblast that has been blown "against materialism in. this generation." It surely is. But it ia not Hkely to have 'the sains interest now tfhat it had half a century ago. The positions that Oarlylo contended for-have all been conceded. Tho mechanical conception of Nature which ho riddle* with logic and ridicule has boon quite abandoned now by all repntablo thinkers. We are coming up to Carlyk's idea of it, which is briefly that "Nature, including man, is Spirit," and that clothes are the visible expression of this. But wo bavo no intention ju*t now of discussing Oarlyfei's philosophy. It is with his reference to clothes that we are immediately concerned. He has a suggestive chapf-v on " Old Clothes." Bfe expresses wis reverence for lef>of! garments, those shells and outer husks of the body. ."What still " dignity dwells in a suit of C&et-off "Gothes! How meek it looks! tho coat " arm stretched out, but not to strike, the "waistcoat covering no ovil passions, tlu "breeches in modest simplicity hanging at "ease."

Then he goes on to tell bow lie has often turned into an old dloth.es market 'end gazed with awestruck 'heart at its empty suite as at- a Sa-nhedrin of stainless ghosts. Silent are they, but expressive in their «i lence, the past and i nstruraents of Wo© ana Joy, "of Passions, Virtues, Crimes, and «H the fathomless tumult of Good and Evil in the Prison men call Lift. Friends! trust not the heart of that man for whom Old Clothes are not venerable. # " # * « * * * Backed by this high authority we a*k out readers' attention to soma old clokos, or perhaps we may phrase it better if \.'o describe out subject as the Pathos cf Plaids. PLids are sruppo&ed to bo Scotch in their origin, or, at any Tate, in th-ir w; but the Scotch plaid i« only th. survival from earlier srcs. But wc- may begin with an eminent Scotsman an.l hi-. plaid. Not very long a,go a paragraph went the rounds of all the papers regarding the plaid always worn by the late Professor Blackie. Everybody now knows Blackie's explanation of why he wore it—of the charm it had for him. Tt had this because it was a gift from his wife, at a. time when money was not so plentiful with him as in later days. But this pathos of plaids i« not confined to Blackie. Readers of Ani'iel's fascinating Journal' will remember a reference to the same subject. He writes:

1 have been measuring and making trial of my new grey plaid, which is to take the place of my old mountain shawl. The old servant' . . . recalls to me so many memories, pleases me better than its brilliant successor. Can anything take the place of the past? Have not even the inanimate witnesses of our life voice and language for us? . . . The shawl is the only chivalrous article of dress which is ?till left to the modern traveller, the only thing about him which may he useful to others than himself.

What a, clinging we ail have to old clothes ! The new suit looks well, but somehow we do not take to it a» we do to the on* that we are about to discard. The old one seems to fit in to all our idiosyncrasies: it had adapted itself to tho angles and oddities of our figure. The new one has not yet learnt to do this, and we fool n bit uncomfortable in it. But there are. othcr reaeons- for the superior attractiveness of the old. It has been with us through ail sorts of experiences, and bears the marks and memories of these. Trr.is Amiel recalls the walk?, the rests, the lents in hie plaid, and they revive t;nd.'r a&socicti >ns. This tear was made by a hazel tree under Jaman, that by the buckle- of a strap on the Frohnalp, that again by a bramtb ..t Chornex, and so on. -And fairy Lcedlcs have repaired the injuries. Thai how excellent a, friend it has been in sufteritr; in good and ill. fortune. "It reminds me of •'the Centaur's tunic, which could not 1- " torn off without tearing a.way the il.vh ''and blood of the wearer." And nov.* wo insy tako an illustration from a. hardly loss distinguished man of our own race—the late Cardinal Newman. We find him moved by the sa.me feelings as those of the celebrated Genevan professor. Newman tolls us, in 1840, how he kept an old Hue cloke which he got seven teen yea re kefflre. He says:

J had an affection for it. oceans;; it had nursed me through my illncsc. I have it still. I have brought it up hereto Littlemore, and on eome cold nisjite 1 have it on my bed. I have so fev

things to sympathise with me. thet I take to clokes. Those who know hk history will nncWetand tho pathos of these la ft w< r<l*. When he wrote them he wa<> burning- the bridges behind him and walking lonely and sad Homewards. * ***** * It. J3 hardly possible-to Tead these references, and especially Newman's, without recalling another even more pathetic than any of them. -'The cloke " which I loft at Troa-s . . . bring wit'i "you." So wrote the groat Apostle of the Gentiles to hie young friend Timothy. The old worn man was in prison, anl prisons in these days were no joke. No Howard or Fry had arisen to mitigate their honors. The humanitarian sentiment which ia transforming their rigors in our time had not yet been born. its birth and inspiration have been lordly due to this very man who sends this touching request to his spiritual sen. Winter was at hand, and however pleasant a Roman spring <W summer may ho, a R_man winter can be piercingly cold. P.teiic#, Paul wm an old man now. In the hurry of hi? arrest and depaitvire from Tro*s -he had left behin| him his cloke. ■ IV-, wardrobe was not extensive. It w~. ths only cloke he had- But doubtless it hjtl oti*r charms than its use, It, too, like Ami_l'a, had its dear awwiatjons. A historian sug-. geet-s that he may have made it himself out of the hlaek g!»W hair of hit catty* |»*- vine*. Doubtless, too, like it w*» an old eonipaaieiv wetted m»»rv a t»W? In the winter torpente of Asia, wfrh t-Se duet of -Roman i" >» drained tri% tin \r.r» of sm> when M icvm <m*r !*k p'lg them into '*■ Ha. may lust «Lj&- ■» its warm JhJtar > »» «fr Ja Is, «nd i "3 • t :;i:py of s. i v« wl ' >:*'' J :d j» ¥->"?* limbs in * 'ar, 'in \ m* trinsrc:.U it 5* .1 t Jr bu rrw tj-at «Cp .QC*;\ _:«tr*x ■ ■£» ■*->iir~-infl in the te»*v #" v . ; :'.% L.'.J

the w&ri*r Jffights are coming' on, he h*-, thinfcft him ©I the old cloke he tod f-T\ gotten i» the rt»h of his arrest, od h* begs Timothy to bring it. with, him, ****** # i '

" I hav» eo lew things to me that I take to clobe*," writ 3 Kew» man. Was that the Teason, or one of t[*> reasons, why Paul wanted his? VtVi likely. We knew as" a matter of fact tJCi he was alone, that friend after friend hi.J gono and left him. "The cloka ta».t t left at TYoas bring with thee.'* HCV pathetic is the request, and j }."'~w uij of cheer and heroism! It is p." .It-'o to think of this aged and won. r'il^io - , ' . greatest man of his tim...>, or p?ot.~ " <.f any subsequent time—the pcoesaor o. v.xt* "., one old worn goats' hair coat, m kin .7 ' -i after ages everlastingly ri.h, y_> d;ir»"i himself in coldness and lonclixsj ' j poverty. But, it is more than p'"i;:i;— it is cheering as well. It proclaim'; 11* that the highest Ufa is indep.nd ;xt ', if» environment. "LiL may bo lire! n ■* !y, oven in a palace," smjp Matthe'7 /"nIL. But so also it may be in 0 hut ,• a dungeon. Paul might have bocn tho b.itdressed m-.n of his timi. He mi V hja v , had a dozoi clokas of the warmest m~t tia' and most fashionable c;it hzd he eo ehosT'j. He had brains enough to have put h'"2 in the front rank of the financier of hk day. He might have cat in a chair or built up a business thrt wcuU have enabled him to acqr'xe th~ v.yi luxurious of homes. Biij he elected otl.sn wise. He was content t„-1 , p33r, coi.t i\! to bw homokf«, hunted from city to v.ii. . Yes, without cheer of wetcr cr of L» tor, Yes, without £tav of father or of cor.. lijne on tho L.ncf, and on th:. water, Tass I, in patience, till r.r- vor!: is don,. And what a work it was! There ore to:jiv reputable critic: who think that P*rul wis the real Creator of Christianity. We nocd not go so far as that. But wo certainly may venture this much; that, strange a< it may .sourdj it is yet demonetrcbly certain'that we and the world ' to-day are the "richer and happier and better clad lx.cauro this great old man wan catMed to be poor tnd forsaken—satisfied to shiver [under an old threadbare goal»* hair cloks in the Mammertine Prison,of Rome 19 centuries ago. When we whimper trout i our small discorrforts, let zs net forget our j many luxuries and how they hive \oca