In "The Minister's Black Veil," why do the villagers bury Mr. Hooper without removing the veil?

When the Reverend Mr. Clark sits by Father Hooper's deathbed, Mr. Clark asks Father Hooper to allow him to remove the veil from Father Hooper's face so that he can meet eternity without it. Father Hooper, however, is horrified by this idea, and he shrieks, "'Never! [...]. On earth, never!'" It is clear that Father Hooper wishes never to have the veil removed, and this may be one reason that his parishioners do not remove it.

Further, everyone gathered at Father Hooper's deathbed still seems to fear the mysterious veil. Mr. Clark even suggests that it signifies some terrible sin Father Hooper had committed. However, Father Hooper asks,

"Why do you tremble at me alone? [....] Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pity, and children screamed and fled, only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friend; the lover to his best beloved; when man does not vainly shrink from the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and, lo! on every visage a Black Veil!"

It seems to be, in part, this "mystery" that Father Hooper describes that so terrifies the people. They seem always to have had an obscure idea of what the veil symbolizes -- that each of us has secret sins that we attempt to hide from each other, ourselves, and even God -- but no one wants to admit that they might understand because that would be tantamount to admitting that one has these secret sins on one's soul, and what everyone wants the most is to hide this very fact. If, in truth, these people really do have even a vague understanding of the veil's meaning, then they would not want to remove it after Father Hooper has died because it is a meaningful and accurate symbol; if, on the other hand, they really don't have a concept of the veil's meaning, then they would not want to remove it because it is such a mystery, and we fear mysteries.

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

nouns - what do you call the person who passes the trophies to the prize giver/presenter?

The person who gives out the trophies to the winners are called award presenters. So what do u call the person who passes the trophies to the presenter? Thanks!

Is 'efficate' a word in English?

I routinely hear the word "efficate" being used. For example, "The most powerful way to efficate a change in the system is to participate." I do not find entries for this word in common English dictionaries, but I do not have an unabridged dictionary. I have checked the OED (I'm not sure if it is considered unabridged), and it has no entry for "efficate". It does have an entry for "efficiate", which is used in the same way. Wordnik has an entry for "efficate" with over 1800 hits, thus providing some evidence for the frequency of use. I personally like the word and find the meaning very clear and obvious when others use it. If it's not currently an "officially documented" word, perhaps its continued use will result in it being better documented.

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