Rupak says that 45 percent of his clients undergo nonemergency, nonelective surgeries (such as knee, shoulder, back, and hip operations), while 30 percent have cosmetic procedures (tummy tucks, breast enlargements, and facelifts.)

Mr. Edwards had an appointment, he said—nothing good, you may be sure—they were a rake-helly set—saving your presence.

Shakespeare’s Lear, having first entered in Act I a berobed, besceptered, and crowned King, now stands, halfway through the play, in solitude in the midst of a relentless storm on an uncharted heath “unbonneted,” having given his crown away, and naked, having stripped himself of his “sophisticated lendings.”

The educational system and conduct of life is based upon a mythical assumption which has been endured all too long. This assumption is that mind is a facultized entity free of the body; that this mind is all-capacious and should be crammed and kept going as long as the owner can wriggle under the lash of whip, tongue or will.