How idiotic civilization is! Why be given a body if you have to keep it shut up in a case like a rare, rare fiddle?

The line rails against social “civilization” as a system of restraint that treats the body as something to be preserved, hidden, and controlled rather than lived in. The simile of a “rare fiddle” kept in its case suggests a beautiful instrument rendered useless by overprotection: value is measured by intactness and propriety, not by use, pleasure, or expression. Mansfield’s phrasing implies impatience with prudishness and with the fear of physicality—an argument that embodiment is purposive and that denying it is a kind of absurdity. The exasperated tone (“How idiotic…!”) makes the critique visceral rather than abstract, aligning bodily freedom with authenticity and vitality.