It is hardly necessary to say that the office of straightener is one
which requires long and special training. It stands to reason that he
who would cure a moral ailment must be practically acquainted with it in
all its bearings. The student for the profession of straightener is
required to set apart certain seasons for the practice of each vice in
turn, as a religious duty. These seasons are called "fasts," and are
continued by the student until he finds that he really can subdue all the
more usual vices in his own person, and hence can advise his patients
from the results of his own experience.
Those who intend to be specialists, rather than general practitioners,
devote themselves more particularly to the branch in which their practice
will mainly lie. Some students have been obliged to continue their
exercises during their whole lives, and some devoted men have actually
died as martyrs to the drink, or gluttony, or whatever branch of vice
they may have chosen for their especial study. The greater number,
however, take no harm by the excursions into the various departments of
vice which it is incumbent upon them to study.
For the Erewhonians hold that unalloyed virtue is not a thing to be
immoderately indulged in.
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