Reading notes: 'Sartor Resartus'

Innumerable are the illusions and legerdemain tricks of Custom: but of all these perhaps the cleverest is her knack of persuading us that the Miraculous, by simple repetition, ceases to be Miraculous. [...] Am I to view the Stupendous with stupid indifference, because I have seen it twice, or two hundred, or two million times? Some notes on Sartor Resartus, Thomas Carlyle's "Satirical Extravaganza on Things in General:"1 I loved it and eagerly recommend it to anyone who might be on the fence. I can't imagine many people are on the fence, though. Most people probably think of Sartor Resartus as extremely famous (and are mostly done deliberating about reading it) or aren't familiar with it. I was in the latter group until recently. If you don't have a strong background in the intellectual culture Carlyle was working in, consider working from edition with extensive annotations. Early modern philosophy is particularly important. But Sartor Resartus is lively, fun, and fresh. Reading it…