Thomas Carlyle
Books and Quotes Collection
Past and Present
1843
When the poor man’s integuments, no longer nourished from within, become dead skin, mere adscititious leather and callosity, wearing thicker and thicker, uglier and uglier; […] — yes then, you may say, his usefulness once more is quite obstructed; […] it is time that he take to bed, and prepare for departure, which cannot now be distant!
And Quack and Dupe, as we must ever keep in mind, are upper-side and under of the self-same substance; convertible personages: turn up your dupe into the proper fostering element, and he himself can become a quack; […]
He is become a mere enchanted simulacrum of a Duke; bewitched under worse than Thessalian spells; without faculty of willing, except as she wills; his People and he the plaything of this Circe or Hecate, that has got hold of him.
It is one among their many greater advantages from this surprisal of the enemy, and sudden topsy-turvying of his plans.