Councillors of State sit plotting, and playing their high chess-game, whereof the pawns are Men.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian

Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 3 (1834)
    (Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 8, No. 47 (1833-11).