Sentence:  Why do critics—some of them—make such short, smart work,—such cheerful, confident despatch, nowadays, of a story with religion in it, as if it were an <WSD>abnormity</WSD>,—a thing with sentence of death in itself, like a calf born with two heads,—that needs not their trouble, save to name it as it is? 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  (abnormality) (First attested in the mid 18th century.)<ref name=SOED>(page=6)</ref>