I did hear afterwards in confidence that
there had been reason to believe that his health had been not a little
affected by the straightener's treatment, but his friends did not choose
to be over curious upon the subject, and on his return to his affairs it
was by common consent passed over as hardly criminal in one who was
otherwise so much afflicted. For they regard bodily ailments as the more
venial in proportion as they have been produced by causes independent of
the constitution. Thus if a person ruin his health by excessive
indulgence at the table, or by drinking, they count it to be almost a
part of the mental disease which brought it about and so it goes for
little, but they have no mercy on such illnesses as fevers or catarrhs or
lung diseases, which to us appear to be beyond the control of the
individual. They are only more lenient towards the diseases of the
young--such as measles, which they think to be like sowing one's wild
oats--and look over them as pardonable indiscretions if they have not
been too serious, and if they are atoned for by complete subsequent
recovery.
AN EREWHONIAN TRIAL. (CHAPTER XI. OF EREWHON.)
I shall best convey to the reader an idea of the entire perversion of
thought which exists among this extraordinary people, by describing the
public trial of a man who was accused of pulmonary consumption--an
offence which was punished with death until quite recently.
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