)
L. Is it not so with the body as well as the soul?
(Looked notes of interrogation.)
L. A skull, for instance, is not a beautiful thing? (Grave faces,
signifying "Certainly not," and "What next?")
L. And if you all could see in each other, with clear eyes,
whatever God sees beneath those fair faces of yours, you would not
like it?
(Murmured No's.)
L. Nor would it be good for you?
(Silence.)
L. The probability being that what God does not allow you to see,
He does not wish you to see; nor even to think of?
(Silence prolonged.)
L. It would not at all be good for you, for instance, whenever you
were washing your faces, and braiding your hair, to be thinking of
the shapes of the jawbones, and of the cartilage of the nose, and
of the jagged sutures of the scalp?
(Resolutely whispered No's.)
L. Still less, to see through a clear glass the daily processes of
nourishment and decay?
(No.)
L. Still less if instead of merely inferior and preparatory
conditions of structure, as in the skeleton,--or inferior offices
of structure, as in operations of life and death,--there were
actual disease in the body, ghastly and dreadful. You would try to
cure it; but having taken such measures as were necessary, you
would not think the cure likely to be promoted by perpetually
watching the wounds, or thinking of them.
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