"Contented saturnine human figures, a dozen or so of them, sitting around a large long table...Perfect equality is to be the rule; no rising or notice taken when anybody enters or leaves. Let the entering man take his place and pipe, without obligatory remarks; if he cannot smoke...let him at least affect to do so, and not ruffle the established stream of things."

Source: Thomas Carlyle, Henry Duff Traill (1903). “The Works of Thomas Carlyle: History of Friedrich II of Prussia, called Frederick the Great”