The strange part of the story, however, is that though they ascribe moral
defects to the effect of misfortune either in character or surroundings,
they will not listen to the plea of misfortune in cases that in England
meet with sympathy and commiseration only. Ill luck of any kind, or even
ill treatment at the hands of others, is considered an offence against
society, inasmuch as it makes people uncomfortable to hear of it. Loss
of fortune, therefore, or loss of some dear friend on whom another was
much dependent, is punished hardly less severely than physical
delinquency.
Foreign, indeed, as such ideas are to our own, traces of somewhat similar
opinions can be found even in nineteenth-century England. If a person
has an abscess, the medical man will say that it contains "peccant"
matter, and people say that they have a "bad" arm or finger, or that they
are very "bad" all over, when they only mean "diseased." Among foreign
nations Erewhonian opinions may be still more clearly noted. The
Mahommedans, for example, to this day, send their female prisoners to
hospitals, and the New Zealand Maories visit any misfortune with forcible
entry into the house of the offender, and the breaking up and burning of
all his goods.
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