It is the merit of the Circles that they have effectually
suppressed those ancient heresies which led men to waste energy
and sympathy in the vain belief that conduct depends upon will, effort,
training, encouragement, praise, or anything else but Configuration.
It was Pantocyclus--the illustrious Circle mentioned above, as the
queller of the Colour Revolt--who first convinced mankind that
Configuration makes the man; that if, for example, you are born
an Isosceles with two uneven sides, you will assuredly go wrong
unless you have them made even--for which purpose you must go
to the Isosceles Hospital; similarly, if you are a Triangle,
or Square, or even a Polygon, born with any Irregularity,
you must be taken to one of the Regular Hospitals to
have your disease cured; otherwise you will end your days
in the State Prison or by the angle of the State Executioner.
All faults or defects, from the slightest misconduct to the
most flagitious crime, Pantocyclus attributed to some deviation
from perfect Regularity in the bodily figure, caused perhaps
(if not congenital) by some collision in a crowd; by neglect
to take exercise, or by taking too much of it; or even by
a sudden change of temperature, resulting in a shrinkage
or expansion in some too susceptible part of the frame.
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