so maybe it’s not quite Dickens…
“Tell me, Spirit. Will he live?”
“I see a vacant place at this table. I see a crutch without an owner, carefully preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the future the child will die.”
“No. No, say he will be spared.”
“If these shadows remain unaltered by the future none other of my species will find him here. But if he is to die, then let him die, and decrease the surplus population.”
“You use my own words against me.”
“Yes. So perhaps in the future you will hold your tongue until you have discovered what the surplus population is and where it is. It may well be, that in the sight of Heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man’s child.”
