Thomas Carlyle

"This is the eternal law of Nature for a man, my beneficent Exeter-Hall friends; this, that he shall be permitted, encouraged, and if need be, compelled to do what work the Maker of him has intended by the making of him for this world! Not that he should eat pumpkin with never such felicity in the West India Islands is, or can be, the blessedness of our Black friend; but that he should do useful work there, according as the gifts have been bestowed on him for that."

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Source: Occasional Discourse on the Nigger Question. Reprinted, with additions, from Fraser's Magazine,

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Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Essayist, Historian, Novelist

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish philosopher and historian known for his influential works on history and heroism, particularly 'On Heroes and Hero Worship.'

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