"No. They are the antidote for a poison which does exist—medicine for a mind diseased."
"It's—it's like taking advantage of a child."
"So it is, exactly. I suppose you have never taken advantage of a child, for the child's good?"
"Certainly not."
"Never told one, gave one to understand, so to speak, that a kiss will cure a bumped head?"
"That's different!"
"Never told your school class during a thunderstorm that lightning never hurts good children?"
"That's very different."
"And yet all the time you know that lightning falls upon the just and unjust equally."
Esther was silent. The doctor laughed.