"Offscouring Of Scoundrels, Would Ye Live Forever?"
Context: Considering the role played by journalism in the overthrow of the monarchy, Carlyle mentions the handbills and posters, lasting scarcely a day, but evidence of man's desire to communicate, even though his words are not destined for immortality. Here he first phrases the idea later uttered in World War I and commemorated by Carl Sandburg in his poem "Losers" (1921), about
That sergeant at Belleau Woods
Walking into the drumfire, calling his men,
"Come on, you . . . Do you want to live forever?"
Speaking of the existence of a spirit in the word of man, as in man himself, Carlyle says:
. . . His immortality, indeed, and whether it shall last half a lifetime or a lifetime and a half; is not that a very considerable thing? Immortality, mortality:–there were certain runaways whom Fritz the Great [Frederick II of Prussia, 1712-1786] bullied back into line with a: "R–, wollt ihr ewig leben." Unprintable offscouring of scoundrels, would ye live forever?
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