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to produce it, shall not do so, whereby every one has to pay
more for it.
Besides, so long as a man has not been actually killed
he is our fellow-creature, though perhaps a very unpleas-
ant one. It is in a great degree the doing of others that he is
what he is, or in other words, the society which now con-
demns him is partly answerable concerning him. They say
that there is no fear of any increase of disease under these
circumstances; for the loss of liberty, the surveillance, the
considerable and compulsory deduction from the prisoner’s
earnings, the very sparing use of stimulants (of which they
would allow but little to any, and none to those who did not
earn them), the enforced celibacy, and above all, the loss
of reputation among friends, are in their opinion as am-
ple safeguards to society against a general neglect of health
as those now resorted to. A man, therefore, (so they say)
should carry his profession or trade into prison with him if
possible; if not, he must earn his living by the nearest thing
to it that he can; but if he be a gentleman born and bred to
no profession, he must pick oakum, or write art criticisms
for a newspaper.
These people say further, that the greater part of the ill-
ness which exists in their country is brought about by the
insane manner in which it is treated.
They believe that illness is in many cases just as curable
as the moral diseases which they see daily cured around
them, but that a great reform is impossible till men learn to
take a juster view of what physical obliquity proceeds from.
Men will hide their illnesses as long as they are scouted on

1 Erewhon