Page:Dr Stiggins, His Views and Principles.pdf/133

 spilled salt, and I always avoid going under a ladder. But I do not blazon these infirmities in the open day; I do not, perhaps, starve my "wild beast" as thoroughly as I could wish, but I try to keep him unseen and lonely in his den. I will not take money to make a show of him; I decline to put him on exhibition either for praise or pudding. Each of us must confess that within our souls these obscene terrors exist, and that if we cared we might publish the ghastly and horrible visions that at times come to all of us. I dare say we all know that we could, if we liked, make a very decent (and most indecent) living out of the monster that dwells within us; but for my part I decline to set the Beast on view for the gratification of a prurient vanity.

But what are we to say of a man who seems to have deliberately set himself to make a living by the ostentatious reproduction and exhibition of all that sane and decent people are willing and desiriousdesirous [sic] to forget, who, week by week, is willing to