That reality is Religion. Here, too, we must
distinguish clothes from that which they cover--forms of religion from
religion itself. Church-clothes, indeed, are as necessary as any other
clothes, and they will harm no one who remembers that they are but
clothes, and distinguishes between faith and form. The old forms are
already being discarded, yet Religion is so vital that it will always
find new forms for itself, suited to the new age. For religion, in one
form or in another, is absolutely essential to society; and, being a
grand reality, will continue to keep society from collapse.
4. From this we pass naturally to the great and final doctrine in which
the philosophy of clothes is expounded. That doctrine, condensed into a
single sentence, is that "the whole Universe is the Garment of God."
This brings us back to the song of the _Erdgeist_ in Goethe's _Faust_:--
"In Being's floods, in Action's storm,
I walk and work, above, beneath,
Work and weave in endless motion!
Birth and Death,
An infinite ocean;
A seizing and giving
The fire of Living:
'Tis thus at the roaring Loom of Time I ply,
And weave for God the Garment thou seest Him by.
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