It had been as though the subject were a forbidden one.

And how frequently is this the case! When those we love are dead, our friends dread to mention them, though to us who are bereaved no subject would be so pleasant as their names.

But we rarely understand how to treat our own sorrow or those of others.
There was once a people in some land--and they may be still there for what I know--who thought it sacrilegious to stay the course of a raging fire.

If a house were being burned, burn it must, even though there were facilities for saving it.

For who would dare to interfere with the course of the god?
Our idea of sorrow is much the same.