November 2, 2006: Dickens on the Whole Duty of Man (and digestive organs) - 0 Comments

-'You lead such a busy life?'
-'Yes, I always have some of'em to look up, or something to look after. But I like business,' said Pancks, getting on a little faster. 'What's a man made for?'
-'For nothing else?' said Clennam.
Pancks put the counter question, 'What else?' . . . 'Here am I,' said Pancks, pursuing his argument with the weekly tenant. 'What else do you suppose I am made for? Nothing. Rattle me out of bed early, set me going, give me as short a time as you like to bolt my meals in, and keep me at it. Keep me always at it, and I'll keep you always at it, you keep somebody else at it. There you are with the Whole Duty of Man in a commercial country.'"

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"If Young John had ever slackened in his truth in the less penetrable days of his boyhood, when youth is prone to wear its boots unlaced and is happily unconscious of digestive organs, he had soon strung it up again and screwed it tight."

- Dickens, Little Dorrit, 1856