# Natural Supernaturalism explained — Sartor Resartus

> Chapter companion for Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle.

## What happens

In this chapter, the Professor achieves a transcendental vision by piercing through the illusions of Time and Space, revealing the universe as a spiritual phenomenon where miracles are natural and all existence is a divine apparition.

## Themes in this chapter

### Spiritual Crisis and Faith

Teufelsdröckh's struggle with Time and Space represents a spiritual crisis resolved through transcendental faith in the eternal Now.

### Critique of Society and Materialism

The chapter critiques the materialist view of nature as a machine, arguing for a deeper spiritual reality beyond scientific laws.

### The Role of the Artist and Thinker

The Professor's visionary insight exemplifies the thinker's role in piercing illusions and revealing transcendent truths.

## Character check-ins

### Diogenes Teufelsdröckh

The Professor becomes a Seer, grappling with and overcoming the phantasms of Time and Space to attain Transcendentalism.

### The Editor

The Editor presents and interprets Teufelsdröckh's section, guiding the reader through the philosophical exposition.

### Napoleon

Mentioned as a spectre whose campaigns have vanished like a ghostly hunt.

### Luther

Referenced in the context of the reality of his vision of the Devil, questioning the nature of madness and reality.

## Key lines

> Sweep away the illusion of Time; compress the threescore years into three minutes: what else was he, what else are we? Are we not Spirits, that are shaped into a body, into an Appearance; and that fade-away again into air and Invisibility?

If we discard the illusion of time and compress a lifetime into moments, we see that we are spirits taking bodily form, appearing and then vanishing into invisibility.

_Teufelsdröckh argues that time is an illusion and that human existence is a spiritual apparition._

> Thus, like a God-created, fire-breathing Spirit-host, we emerge from the Inane; haste stormfully across the astonished Earth; then plunge again into the Inane.

Humanity appears from nothingness, rushes tumultuously through life, and then returns to nothingness.

_The passage emphasizes the transient and spiritual nature of human life._

> That Time and Space are not God, but creations of God: that with God as it is a universal Here, so is it an everlasting Now.

Time and space are divine creations, not God Himself; for God, all places are here and all times are now.

_Teufelsdröckh asserts the transcendence of God over the limitations of space and time._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/sartor_resartus_se/chapters/viii-natural-supernaturalism
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/sartor_resartus_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/sartor_resartus_se/chapters