Why, look upon the shrewd and pampered folk, How safely they have hemmed themselves about With walls of law against the noisy mob Of hungry, overburthened sons of toil! Woe to the wretch who recklessly breaks through Those sacred walls! For him there lie in wait Judges and hangmen, gibbets, yards of hemp, Ready for service. Yet how few there be Who see the truth!

— HEINRICH HEINE, William Ratcliff (1822), Scene 6. (Lines spoken by Ratcliff.)