While all humans make up humankind, each also exists as an individual. The physical body separates men from their natural unity. This duality is unsatisfactory, with the result that man attempts to unite with his peers. This unity of wills can then be seen as the foundation of society. Society, in Sartor, is founded upon cloth.
Humans are naked animals.
It is through clothes, both metaphorical and real, that we exhibit and hide ourselves. Societies work because we are willing to accept flags, uniforms, and institutions as equivalent to power. The cloth of which Carlyle speaks is the agent of spiritual force, culture, and life. To the Transcendentalist all of these terms are one. Culture at this point becomes life.