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should be allowed to go at large unpunished. Your presence
in the society of respectable people would lead the less able-
bodied to think more lightly of all forms of illness; neither
can it be permitted that you should have the chance of cor-
rupting unborn beings who might hereafter pester you. The
unborn must not be allowed to come near you: and this
not so much for their protection (for they are our natural
enemies), as for our own; for since they will not be utter-
ly gainsaid, it must be seen to that they shall be quartered
upon those who are least likely to corrupt them.
‘But independently of this consideration, and indepen-
dently of the physical guilt which attaches itself to a crime
so great as yours, there is yet another reason why we should
be unable to show you mercy, even if we were inclined to do
so. I refer to the existence of a class of men who lie hidden
among us, and who are called physicians. Were the severity
of the law or the current feeling of the country to be relaxed
never so slightly, these abandoned persons, who are now
compelled to practise secretly and who can be consulted
only at the greatest risk, would become frequent visitors in
every household; their organisation and their intimate ac-
quaintance with all family secrets would give them a power,
both social and political, which nothing could resist. The
head of the household would become subordinate to the
family doctor, who would interfere between man and wife,
between master and servant, until the doctors should be
the only depositaries of power in the nation, and have all
that we hold precious at their mercy. A time of universal de-
physicalisation would ensue; medicine-vendors of all kinds

11 Erewhon