This looks an awful lot like the fragments from the “Nightmare of History” section in FABLES OF MAN, including the reference to the “shoemaker,” but my quick search didn’t yield the precise quotation. - MS

> On Aug 29, 2024, at 4:50 PM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> In MARK TWAIN IN ERUPTION Editor Bernard Devoto, in his Introduction, p.
> xxvii, refers to two unfinished "apocalyptic treatises" and offers what
> appears to be a direct quote from one (without quotation marks) reading in
> part:
> ~~~~~
> Every civilization carries the seeds of its own destruction, and the same
> cycle shows in them all. The Republic is born, flourishes, decays into
> plutocracy, and is captured by the shoemaker whom the mercenaries and
> millionaires make into a king. The people invent their oppressors, and the
> oppressors serve the function for which they are invented.
> 
> ~~~~~
> A link to the page from De Voto's book online at archive.org :
> 
> https://archive.org/details/marktwaininerupt0000mark_e0q1/page/n31/mode/2up?q=Shoemaker
> 
> Questions:  Is this a direct quote or a De Voto paraphrase?  Is there a
> title or titles for the unfinished  "apocalyptic treatises" ?
> 
> Barb