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Damaged Goods 157
posed for a girl s hand to add to the other things for
which he is asked a medical statement of bodily fitness,
which would make it certain that he did not bring this
plague into the family with him. . . . Well, there is
one last argument which, since I must, I will put to you.
Are you yourself without sin, that you are so relentless
to others?
Locke. I have never had any shameful disease, sir.
Doctor. I was not asking you that. I was asking
you if you had never exposed yourself to catching one.
Ah, you see! Then it is not virtue that has saved you;
it is luck. Few things exasperate me more than that
term
"
shameful disease," which you used just now.
This disease is like all other diseases: it is one of our
afflictions. There is no shame in being wretched even
if one deserves to be so. Come, come, let us have a little
plain speaking! I should like to know how many of
these rigid moralists, who are so shocked with their mid
dle-class prudery, that they dare not mention the name
syphilis, or when they bring themselves to speak of it do
so with expressions of every sort of disgust, and treat its
victims as criminals, have never run the risk of contract
ing it themselves? It is those alone who have the right
to talk. How many do you think there are? Four out
of a thousand? Well, leave those four aside: between
all the rest and those who catch the disease there is no
difference but chance, and by heavens, those who escape
won t get much sympathy from me: the others at least
have paid their fine of suffering and remorse, while they
have gone scot free! Let s have done, if you please,
once for all with this sort of hypocrisy.
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