Friends will fall away from him because
of his being less pleasant company, just as we ourselves are disinclined
to make companions of those who are either poor or poorly. No one with
any sense of self-respect will place himself on an equality in the matter
of affection with those who are less lucky than himself in birth, health,
money, good looks, capacity, or anything else. Indeed, that dislike and
even disgust should be felt by the fortunate for the unfortunate, or at
any rate for those who have been discovered to have met with any of the
more serious and less familiar misfortunes, is not only natural, but
desirable for any society, whether of man or brute.
The fact, therefore, that the Erewhonians attach none of that guilt to
crime which they do to physical ailments, does not prevent the more
selfish among them from neglecting a friend who has robbed a bank, for
instance, till he has fully recovered; but it does prevent them from even
thinking of treating criminals with that contemptuous tone which would
seem to say, "I, if I were you, should be a better man than you are," a
tone which is held quite reasonable in regard to physical ailment. Hence,
though they conceal ill health by every cunning and hypocrisy and
artifice which they can devise, they are quite open about the most
flagrant mental diseases, should they happen to exist, which to do the
people justice is not often.
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