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The Country Doctor-Part4_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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what those peasants have just said. Ten years ago I was very nearly

stoned to death in this village. It is empty to-day, but thirty



families lived in it then."

Genestas' face and gesture so plainly expressed an inquiry, that, as



they went along, the doctor told him the story promised by this

beginning.



"When I first settled here, sir, I found a dozen cretins in this part

of the canton," and the doctor turned round to point out the ruined



cottages for the officer's benefit. "All the favorable conditions for

spreading the hideous disease are there; the air is stagnant, the



hamlet lies in the valley bottom, close beside a torrent supplied with

water by the melted snows, and the sunlight only falls on the



mountain-top, so that the valley itself gets no good of the sun.

Marriages among these unfortunate creatures are not forbidden by law,



and in this district they are protected by superstitious notions, of

whose power I had no conception--superstitions which I blamed at



first, and afterwards came to admire. So cretinism was in a fair way

to spread all over the valley from this spot. Was it not doing the



country a great service to put a stop to this mental and physical

contagion? But imperatively as the salutary changes were required,



they might cost the life of any man who endeavored to bring them

about. Here, as in other social spheres, if any good is to be done, we



come into collision not merely with vested interests, but with

something far more dangerous to meddle with--religious ideas



crystallized into superstitions, the most permanent form taken by

human thought. I feared nothing.



"In the first place, I sought for the position of mayor in the canton,

and in this I succeeded. Then, after obtaining a verbalsanction from



the prefect, and by paying down the money, I had several of these

unfortunate creatures transported over to Aiguebelle, in Savoy, by



night. There are a great many of them there, and they were certain to

be very kindly treated. When this act of humanity came to be known,



the whole countryside looked upon me as a monster. The cure preached

against me. In spite of all the pains I took to explain to all the



shrewder heads of the little place the immense importance of being rid

of the idiots, and in spite of the fact that I gave my services



gratuitously to the sick people of the district, a shot was fired at

me from the corner of a wood.



"I went to the Bishop of Grenoble and asked him to change the cure.

Monseigneur was good enough to allow me to choose a priest who would



share in my labors, and it was my happy fortune to meet with one of

those rare natures that seemed to have dropped down from heaven. Then



I went on with my enterprise. After preparing people's minds, I made

another transportation by night, and six more cretins were taken away.



In this second attempt I had the support of several people to whom I

had rendered some service, and I was backed by the members of the



Communal Council, for I had appealed to their parsimonious instincts,

showing them how much it cost to support the poor wretches, and



pointing out how largely they might gain by converting their plots of

ground (to which the idiots had no proper title) into allotments which



were needed in the township.

"All the rich were on my side; but the poor, the old women, the



children, and a few pig-headed people were violently opposed to me.

Unluckily it so fell out that my last removal had not been completely



carried out. The cretin whom you have just seen, not having returned

to his house, had not been taken away, so that the next morning he was



the sole remaining example of his species in the village. There were

several families still living there; but though they were little



better than idiots, they were, at any rate, free from the taint of




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