Laudator Temporis Acti

Thanks to Eric Thomson for shedding yet more light on the phrase "swallowers of formulas."

He points out that the phrase "swallower(s) of formulas" occurs several times in Thomas Carlyle's essay "Memoirs of Mirabeau," London and Westminster Review, No. 8, January, 1837, reprinted as "Mirabeau" in his Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. V (London: Chapman & Hall, Limited, 1888), pp. 201-268.

P. 221:

Be this as it can, Col d'Argent came alive again, by 'miracle of surgery;' and, holding his head up by means of a silver stock, walked this earth many long days, with respectability, with fiery intrepidity and spleen; did many notable things: among others, produced, in dignified wedlock, Mirabeau the Friend of Men; who again produced Mirabeau the Swallower of Formulas; from which latter, and the wondrous blazing funeral-pyre he made for himself, there finally goes forth a light, whereby those old Riquetti destinies, and many a strange old hidden thing, become noticeable.

P. 239:

Once after a thousand years all nations were to see the great Conflagration and Self-combustion of a Nation, — and learn from it if they could. And now, for a Swallower of Formulas, was there a better schoolmaster in the world than this very Friend of Men; a better education conceivable than this which Alcides-Mirabeau had?

P. 245:

Rumour blows, — to Paris as else whither: for answer, on the 26th of June, 1774, there arrives a fresh Sealed Letter of more emphasis; there arrive with it grim catchpoles and their chaise: the Swallower of Formulas, snatched away from his wife, from his child then dying, from his last shadow of a home, even an exiled home, is trundling towards Marseilles; towards the Castle of If, which frowns-out among the waters in the roadstead there!

P. 262:

With 'a body of Noblesse more ignorant, greedier, more insolent than any I have ever seen,' the Swallower of Formulas was like to have rough work.

P. 266:

Supreme Usher De Brézé enters, with the King's renewed order to depart. "Messieurs," said De Breze, "you heard the King's order?" The Swallower of Formulas bellows-out these words, that have become memorable: "Yes, Monsieur, we heard what the King was advised to say; and you, who cannot be interpreter of his meaning to the States-General; you, who have neither vote, nor seat, nor right of speech here, you are not the man to remind us of it. Go, Monsieur, tell those who sent you, that we are here by will of the Nation; and that nothing but the force of bayonets can drive us hence!"

Variations on the phrase also occur in a couple of Carlyle's letters.

To his brother John (February 23, 1836):

Most so-called Christians (I believe I should except the worthy Mr. Dunn) treat me instead with jargon of metaphysic formulas, or perhaps shovel-hatted Coleridgean moonshine. I admire greatly that of old Marquis Mirabeau (though he means it not for admiration): Il a HUMÉ toutes les formules! A man should "swallow" innumerable "formulas" in these days; and endeavour above all things to look with eyes.

To Ralph Waldo Emerson (June 15, 1838):

But, on the whole, men ought in New England too to "swallow their formulas"; there is no freedom till then: yet hitherto I find only one man there who seems fairly on the way towards that, or arrived at that. Good Speed to him.