A Yankee in the Court of the Crimson King

I believe that many a person has examined man with a microscope in every age of the world; has found that he did not even resemble the creature he was pretending to be; has perceived that a civilization not a proper matter for derision has always been and must always remain impossible to him--and has put away his microscope and kept his mouth shut. - Samuel Clemens, a letter to Carl Thalbitzer