One very important section of the denizens of Darkest England are the criminals and the semi-criminals. They are more or less predatory, and are at present shepherded by the police and punished by the gaoler.

[…] the burning threads Of woven cloud unravel in pale air:

It is a position-taking which must avoid the other extreme: the Musilesque situation, in which man founders on the unlivable ideal of an exact, scientific practice of life, which ideal cannot guide practice (E. Heintel, K.-O. Apel).

to set a broken bone