Samuel Butler
Erewhon or Over the Range
Preface to First Edition
The Author wishes it to be understood that Erewhon is pronounced as a word of
three syllables all short thus Erewhon
Preface to Second Edition
Having been enabled by the kindness of the public to get through an unusually
large edition of »Erewhon« in a very short time I have taken the opportunity of
a second edition to make some necessary corrections and to add a few passages
where it struck me that they would be appropriately introduced the passages are
few and it is my fixed intention never to touch the work again
I may perhaps be allowed to say a word or two here in reference to »The
Coming Race« to the success of which book »Erewhon« has been very generally set
down as due This is a mistake though a perfectly natural one The fact is that
»Erewhon« was finished with the exception of the last twenty pages and a
sentence or two inserted from time to time here and there throughout the book
before the first advertisement of »The Coming Race« appeared A friend having
called my attention to one of the first of these advertisements and suggesting
that it probably referred to a work of similar character to my own I took
»Erewhon« to a wellknown firm of publishers on the 1st of May 1871 and left it
in their hands for consideration I then went abroad and on learning that the
publishers alluded to declined the MS I let it alone for six or seven months
and being in an outoftheway part of Italy never saw a single review of »The
Coming Race« nor a copy of the work On my return I purposely avoided looking
into it until I had sent back my last revises to the printer Then I had much
pleasure in reading it but was indeed surprised at the many little points of
similarity between the two books in spite of their entire independence of one
another
I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the
chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr Darwins theory to an
absurdity Nothing could be further from my intention and few things would be
more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr Darwin but I must own
that I have myself to thank for the misconception for I felt sure that my
intention would be missed but preferred not to weaken the chapters by
explanation and knew very well that Mr Darwins theory would take no harm The
only question in my mind was how far I could afford to be misrepresented as
laughing at that for which I have the most profound admiration I am surprised
however that the book at which such an example of the specious misuse of
analogy would seem most naturally levelled should have occurred to no reviewer
neither shall I mention the name of the book here though I should fancy that
the hint given will suffice
I have been held by some whose opinions I respect to have denied mens
responsibility for their actions He who does this is an enemy who deserves no
quarter I should have imagined that I had been sufficiently explicit but have
made a few additions to the chapter on Malcontents which will I think serve
to render further mistake impossible
An anonymous correspondent by the handwriting presumably a clergyman tells
me that in quoting from the Latin grammar I should at any rate have done so
correctly and that I should have written agricolas instead of agricolae He
added something about any boy in the fourth form etc etc which I shall not
quote but which made me very uncomfortable It may be said that I must have
misquoted from design from ignorance or by a slip of the pen but surely in
these days it will be recognized as harsh to assign limits to the allembracing
boundlessness of truth and it will be more reasonably assumed that each of the
three possible causes of misquotation must have had its share in the apparent
blunder The art of writing things that shall sound right and yet be wrong has
made so many reputations and affords comfort to such a large number of readers
that I could not venture to neglect it the Latin grammar however is a subject
on which some of the younger members of the community feel strongly so I have
now written agricolas I have also parted with the word infortuniam though not
without regret but have not dared to meddle with other similar inaccuracies
For the inconsistencies in the book and I am aware that there are not a
few I must ask the indulgence of the reader The blame however lies chiefly
with the Erewhonians themselves for they were really a very difficult people to
understand The most glaring anomalies seemed to afford them no intellectual
inconvenience neither provided they did not actually see the money dropping
out of their pockets nor suffer immediate physical pain would they listen to
any arguments as to the waste of money and happiness which their folly caused
them But this had an effect of which I have little reason to complain for I
was allowed almost to call them lifelong selfdeceivers to their faces and
they said it was quite true but that it did not matter
I must not conclude without expressing my most sincere thanks to my critics
and to the public for the leniency and consideration with which they have
treated my adventures
June 9 1872
Preface to the Revised Edition
My publisher wishes me to say a few words about the genesis of the work a
revised and enlarged edition of which he is herewith laying before the public I
therefore place on record as much as I can remember on this head after a lapse
of more than thirty years
The first part of »Erewhon« written was an article headed »Darwin among the
Machines« and signed Cellarius It was written in the Upper Rangitata district
of the Canterbury Province as it then was of New Zealand and appeared at
Christchurch in the Press newspaper June 13 1863 A copy of this article is
indexed under my books in the British Museum catalogue In passing I may say
that the opening chapters of »Erewhon« were also drawn from the Upper Rangitata
district with such modifications as I found convenient
A second article on the same subject as the one just referred to appeared in
the Press shortly after the first but I have no copy It treated Machines from
a different point of view and was the basis of pp 266270 of the present
edition of »Erewhon« This view ultimately led me to the theory I put forward in
»Life and Habit« published in November 1877 I have put a bare outline of this
theory which I believe to be quite sound into the mouth of an Erewhonian
philosopher in chapter XXVII of this book
In 1865 I rewrote and enlarged »Darwin among the Machines« for the Reasoner
a paper published in London by Mr G J Holyoake It appeared July 1 1865
under the heading »The Mechanical Creation« and can be seen in the British
Museum I again rewrote and enlarged it till it assumed the form in which it
appeared in the first edition of »Erewhon«
The next part of »Erewhon« that I wrote was »The World of the Unborn« a
preliminary form of which was sent to Mr Holyoakes paper but as I cannot find
it among those copies of the Reasoner that are in the British Museum I conclude
that it was not accepted I have however rather a strong fancy that it
appeared in some London paper of the same character as the Reasoner not very
long after July 1 1865 but I have no copy
I also wrote about this time the substance of what ultimately became »The
Musical Banks« and the trial of a man for being in a consumption These four
detached papers were I believe all that was written of »Erewhon« before 1870
Between 1865 and 1870 I wrote hardly anything being hopeful of attaining that
success as a painter which it has not been vouchsafed me to attain but in the
autumn of 1870 just as I was beginning to get occasionally hung at Royal
Academy exhibitions my friend the late Sir F N then Mr Broome suggested
to me that I should add somewhat to the articles I had already written and
string them together into a book I was rather fired by the idea but as I only
worked at the MS on Sundays it was some months before I had completed it
I see from my second Preface that I took the book to Messrs Chapman amp
Hall May 1 1871 and on their rejection of it under the advice of one who has
attained the highest rank among living writers I let it sleep till I took it
to Mr Trübner early in 1872 As regards its rejection by Messrs Chapman amp
Hall I believe their reader advised them quite wisely They told me he reported
that it was a philosophical work little likely to be popular with a large
circle of readers I hope that if I had been their reader and the book had been
submitted to myself I should have advised them to the same effect
»Erewhon« appeared with the last day or two of March 1872 I attribute its
unlookedfor success mainly to two early favourable reviews the first in the
Pall Mall Gazette of April 12 and the second in the Spectator of April 20
There was also another cause I was complaining once to a friend that though
»Erewhon« had met with such a warm reception my subsequent books had been all
of them practically stillborn He said »You forget one charm that Erewhon had
but which none of your other books can have« I asked what and was answered
»The sound of a new voice and of an unknown voice«
The first edition of »Erewhon« sold in about three weeks I had not taken
moulds and as the demand was strong it was set up again immediately I made a
few unimportant alterations and additions and added a Preface of which I
cannot say that I am particularly proud but an inexperienced writer with a head
somewhat turned by unexpected success is not to be trusted with a preface I
made a few further very trifling alterations before moulds were taken but since
the summer of 1872 as new editions were from time to time wanted they have
been printed from stereos then made
Having now I fear at too great length done what I was asked to do I
should like to add a few words on my own account I am still fairly well
satisfied with those parts of »Erewhon« that were repeatedly rewritten but from
those that had only a single writing I would gladly cut out some forty or fifty
pages if I could
This however may not be for the copyright will probably expire in a
little over twelve years It was necessary therefore to revise the book
throughout for literary inelegancies of which I found many more than I had
expected and also to make such substantial additions as should secure a new
lease of life at any rate for the copyright If then instead of cutting out
say fifty pages I have been compelled to add about sixty invita Minerva the
blame rests neither with my publisher nor with me but with the copyright laws
Nevertheless I can assure the reader that though I have found it an irksome
task to take up work which I thought I had got rid of thirty years ago and much
of which I am ashamed of I have done my best to make the new matter savour so
much of the better portions of the old that none but the best critics shall
perceive at what places the gaps of between thirty and forty years occur
Lastly if my readers note a considerable difference between the literary
technique of »Erewhon« and that of »Erewhon Revisited« I would remind them
that as I have just shown »Erewhon« took something like ten years in writing
and even so was written with great difficulty while »Erewhon Revisited« was
written easily between November 1900 and the end of April 1901 There is no
central idea underlying »Erewhon« whereas the attempt to realize the effect of
a single supposed great miracle dominates the whole of its successor In
»Erewhon« there was hardly any story and little attempt to give life and
individuality to the characters I hope that in »Erewhon Revisited« both these
defects have been in great measure avoided »Erewhon« was not an organic whole
»Erewhon Revisited« may fairly claim to be Nevertheless though in literary
workmanship I do not doubt that this lastnamed book is an improvement on the
first I shall be agreeably surprised if I am not told that »Erewhon« with all
its faults is the better reading of the two
Samuel Butler
August 7 1901
Chapter One
Waste Lands
If the reader will excuse me I will say nothing or my antecedents nor of the
circumstances which led me to leave my native country the narrative would be
tedious to him and painful to myself Suffice it that when I left home it was
with the intention of going to some new colony and either finding or even
perhaps purchasing waste crown land suitable for cattle or sheep farming by
which means I thought that I could better my fortunes more rapidly than in
England
It will be seen that I did not succeed in my design and that however much I
may have met with that was new and strange I have been unable to reap any
pecuniary advantage
It is true I imagine myself to have made a discovery which if I can be the
first to profit by it will bring me a recompense beyond all money computation
and secure me a position such as has not been attained by more than some fifteen
or sixteen persons since the creation of the universe But to this end I must
possess myself of a considerable sum of money neither do I know how to get it
except by interesting the public in my story and inducing the charitable to
come forward and assist me With this hope I now publish my adventures but I do
so with great reluctance for I fear that my story will be doubted unless I tell
the whole of it and yet I dare not do so lest others with more means than mine
should get the start of me I prefer the risk of being doubted to that of being
anticipated and have therefore concealed my destination on leaving England as
also the point from which I began my more serious and difficult journey
My chief consolation lies in the fact that truth bears its own impress and
that my story will carry conviction by reason of the internal evidences for its
accuracy No one who is himself honest will doubt my being so
I reached my destination in one of the last months of 1868 but I dare not
mention the season lest the reader should gather in which hemisphere I was The
colony was one which had not been opened up even to the most adventurous
settlers for more than eight or nine years having been previously uninhabited
save by a few tribes of savages who frequented the seaboard The part known to
Europeans consisted of a coastline about eight hundred miles in length
affording three or four good harbours and a tract of country extending inland
for a space varying from two to three hundred miles until it reached the
offshoots of an exceedingly lofty range of mountains which could be seen from
far out upon the plains and were covered with perpetual snow The coast was
perfectly well known both north and south of the tract to which I have alluded
but in neither direction was there a single harbour for five hundred miles and
the mountains which descended almost into the sea were covered with thick
timber so that none would think of settling
With this bay of land however the case was different The harbours were
sufficient the country was timbered but not too heavily it was admirably
suited for agriculture it also contained millions on millions of acres of the
most beautifully grassed country in the world and of the best suited for all
manner of sheep and cattle The climate was temperate and very healthy there
were no wild animals nor were the natives dangerous being few in number and of
an intelligent tractable disposition
It may be readily understood that when once Europeans set foot upon this
territory they were not slow to take advantage of its capabilities Sheep and
cattle were introduced and bred with extreme rapidity men took up their 50000
or 100000 acres of country going inland one behind the other till in a few
years there was not an acre between the sea and the front ranges which was not
taken up and stations either for sheep or cattle were spotted aboulet at
intervals of some twenty or thirty miles over the who country The front ranges
stopped the tide of squatters for some little time it was thought that there
was too much snow upon them for too many months in the year that the sheep
would get lost the ground being too difficult for shepherding that the
expense of getting wool down to the ships side would eat up the farmers
profits and that the grass was too rough and sour for sheep to thrive upon
but one after another determined to try the experiment and it was wonderful how
successfully it turned out Men pushed farther and farther into the mountains
and found a very considerable tract inside the front range between it and
another which was loftier still though even this was not the highest the great
snowy one which could be seen from out upon the plains This second range
however seemed to mark the extreme limits of pastoral country and it was here
at a small and newly founded station that I was received as a cadet and soon
regularly employed I was then just twentytwo years old
I was delighted with the country and the manner of life It was my daily
business to go up to the top of a certain high mountain and down one of its
spurs on to the flat in order to make sure that no sheep had crossed their
boundaries I was to see the sheep not necessarily close at hand nor to get
them in a single mob but to see enough of them here and there to feel easy that
nothing had gone wrong this was no difficult matter for there were not above
eight hundred of them and being all breeding ewes they were pretty quiet
There were a good many sheep which I knew as two or three black ewes and a
black lamb or two and several others which had some distinguishing mark whereby
I could tell them I would try and see all these and if they were all there
and the mob looked large enough I might rest assured that all was well It is
surprising how soon the eye becomes accustomed to missing twenty sheep out of
two or three hundred I had a telescope and a dog and would take bread and meat
and tobacco with me Starting with early dawn it would be night before I could
complete my round for the mountain over which I had to go was very high In
winter it was covered with snow and the sheep needed no watching from above If
I were to see sheepdung or tracks going down on to the other side of the
mountain where there was a valley with a stream a mere culdesac I was to
follow them and look out for sheep but I never saw any the sheep always
descending on to their own side partly from habit and partly because there was
abundance of good sweet feed which had been burnt in the early spring just
before I came and was now deliciously green and rich while that on the other
side had never been burnt and was rank and coarse
It was a monotonous life but it was very healthy and one does not much
mind anything when one is well The country was the grandest that can be
imagined How often have I sat on the mountain side and watched the waving
downs with the two white specks of huts in the distance and the little square
of garden behind them the paddock with a patch of bright green oats above the
huts and the yards and woolsheds down on the flat below all seen as through
the wrong end of a telescope so clear and brilliant was the air or as upon a
colossal model or map spread out beneath me Beyond the downs was a plain going
down to a river of great size on the farther side of which there were other
high mountains with the winters snow still not quite melted up the river
which ran winding in many streams over a bed some two miles broad I looked upon
the second great chain and could see a narrow gorge where the river retired and
was lost I knew that there was a range still farther back but except from one
place near the very top of my own mountain no part of it was visible from this
point however I saw whenever there were no clouds a single snowclad peak
many miles away and I should think about as high as any mountain in the world
Never shall I forget the utter loneliness of the prospect only the little
faraway homestead giving sign of human handiwork the vastness of mountain
and plain of river and sky the marvellous atmospheric effects sometimes
black mountains against a white sky and then again after cold weather white
mountains against a black sky sometimes seen through breaks and swirls of
cloud and sometimes which was best of all I went up my mountain in a fog
and then got above the mist going higher and higher I would look down upon a
sea of whiteness through which would be thrust innumerable mountain tops that
looked like islands
I am there now as I write I fancy that I can see the downs the huts the
plain and the riverbed that torrent pathway of desolation with its distant
roar of waters Oh wonderful wonderful so lonely and so solemn with the sad
grey clouds above and no sound save a lost lamb bleating upon the mountain
side as though its little heart were breaking Then there comes some lean and
withered old ewe with deep gruff voice and unlovely aspect trotting back from
the seductive pasture now she examines this gully and now that and now she
stands listening with uplifted head that she may hear the distant wailing and
obey it Aha they see and rush towards each other Alas they are both
mistaken the ewe is not the lambs ewe they are neither kin nor kind to one
another and part in coldness Each must cry louder and wander farther yet may
luck be with them both that they may find their own at nightfall But this is
mere dreaming and I must proceed
I could not help speculating upon what might lie farther up the river and
behind the second range I had no money but if I could only find workable
country I might stock it with borrowed capital and consider myself a made man
True the range looked so vast that there seemed little chance of getting a
sufficient road through it or over it but no one had yet explored it and it is
wonderful how one finds that one can make a path into all sorts of places and
even get a road for packhorses which from a distance appear inaccessible the
river was so great that it must drain an inner tract at least I thought so
and though every one said it would be madness to attempt taking sheep farther
inland I knew that only three years ago the same cry had been raised against
the country which my masters flock was now overrunning I could not keep these
thoughts out of my head as I would rest myself upon the mountain side they
haunted me as I went my daily rounds and grew upon me from hour to hour till I
resolved that after shearing I would remain in doubt no longer but saddle my
horse take as much provision with me as I could and go and see for myself
But over and above these thoughts came that of the great range itself What
was beyond it Ah who could say There was no one in the whole world who had
the smallest idea save those who were themselves on the other side of it if
indeed there was any one at all Could I hope to cross it This would be the
highest triumph that I could wish for but it was too much to think of yet I
would try the nearer range and see how far I could go Even if I did not find
country might I not find gold or diamonds or copper or silver I would
sometimes lie flat down to drink out of a stream and could see little yellow
specks among the sand were these gold People said no but then people always
said there was no gold until it was found to be abundant there was plenty of
slate and granite which I had always understood to accompany gold and even
though it was not found in paying quantities here it might be abundant in the
main ranges These thoughts filled my head and I could not banish them
Chapter Two
In the WoolShed
At last shearing came and with the shearers there was an old native whom they
had nicknamed Chowbok though I believe his real name was Kahabuka He was a
sort of chief of the natives could speak a little English and was a great
favourite with the missionaries He did not do any regular work with the
shearers but pretended to help in the yards his real aim being to get the
grog which is always more freely circulated at shearingtime he did not get
much for he was apt to be dangerous when drunk and very little would make him
so still he did get it occasionally and if one wanted to get anything out of
him it was the best bribe to offer him I resolved to question him and get as
much information from him as I could I did so As long as I kept to questions
about the nearer ranges he was easy to get on with he had never been there
but there were traditions among his tribe to the effect that there was no
sheepcountry nothing in fact but stunted timber and a few riverbed flats
It was very difficult to reach still there were passes one of them up our own
river though not directly along the riverbed the gorge of which was not
practicable he had never seen any one who had been there was there not enough
on this side But when I came to the main range his manner changed at once He
became uneasy and began to prevaricate and shuffle In a very few minutes I
could see that of this too there existed traditions in his tribe but no
efforts or coaxing could get a word from him about them At last I hinted about
grog and presently he feigned consent I gave it him but as soon as he had
drunk it he began shamming intoxication and then went to sleep or pretended to
do so letting me kick him pretty hard and never budging
I was angry for I had to go without my own grog and had got nothing out of
him so the next day I determined that he should tell me before I gave him any
or get none at all
Accordingly when night came and the shearers had knocked off work and had
their supper I got my share of rum in a tin pannikin and made a sign to Chowbok
to follow me to the woolshed which he willingly did slipping out after me
and no one taking any notice of either of us When we got down to the woolshed
we lit a tallow candle and having stuck it in an old bottle we sat down upon
the wool bales and began to smoke A woolshed is a roomy place built somewhat
on the same plan as a cathedral with aisles on either side full of pens for the
sheep a great nave at the upper end of which the shearers work and a further
space for wool sorters and packers It always refreshed me with a semblance of
antiquity precious in a new country though I very well knew that the oldest
woolshed in the settlement was not more than seven years old while this was
only two Chowbok pretended to expect his grog at once though we both of us
knew very well what the other was after and that we were each playing against
the other the one for grog the other for information
We had a hard fight for more than two hours he had tried to put me off with
lies but had carried no conviction during the whole time we had been morally
wrestling with one another and had neither of us apparently gained the least
advantage At length however I had become sure that he would give in
ultimately and that with a little further patience I should get his story out
of him As upon a cold day in winter when one has churned as I had often had
to do and churned in vain and the butter makes no sign of coming at last one
tells by the sound that the cream has gone to sleep and then upon a sudden the
butter comes so I had churned at Chowbok until I perceived that he had arrived
as it were at the sleepy stage and that with a continuance of steady quiet
pressure the day was mine On a sudden without a word of warning he rolled two
bales of wool his strength was very great into the middle of the floor and on
the top of these he placed another crosswise he snatched up an empty woolpack
threw it like a mantle over his shoulders jumped upon the uppermost bale and
sat upon it In a moment his whole form was changed His high shoulders dropped
he set his feet close together heel to heel and toe to toe he laid his arms
and hands close alongside of his body the palms following his thighs he held
his head high but quite straight and his eyes stared right in front of him but
he frowned horribly and assumed an expression of face that was positively
fiendish At the best of times Chowbok was very ugly but he now exceeded all
conceivable limits of the hideous His mouth extended almost from ear to ear
grinning horribly and showing all his teeth his eyes glared though they
remained quite fixed and his forehead was contracted with a most malevolent
scowl
I am afraid my description will have conveyed only the ridiculous side of
his appearance but the ridiculous and the sublime are near and the grotesque
fiendishness of Chowboks face approached this last if it did not reach it I
tried to be amused but I felt a sort of creeping at the roots of my hair and
over my whole body as I looked and wondered what he could possibly be intending
to signify He continued thus for about a minute sitting bolt upright as stiff
as a stone and making this fearful face Then there came from his lips a low
moaning like the wind rising and falling by infinitely small gradations till it
became almost a shriek from which it descended and died away after that he
jumped down from the bale and held up the extended fingers of both his hands as
one who should say »Ten« though I did not then understand him
For myself I was openmouthed with astonishment Chowbok rolled the bales
rapidly into their place and stood before me shuddering as in great fear
horror was written upon his face this time quite involuntarily as though the
natural panic of one who had committed an awful crime against unknown and
superhuman agencies He nodded his head and gibbered and pointed repeatedly to
the mountains He would not touch the grog but after a few seconds he made a
run through the woolshed door into the moonlight nor did he reappear till next
day at dinnertime when he turned up looking very sheepish and abject in his
civility towards myself
Of his meaning I had no conception How could I All I could feel sure of
was that he had a meaning which was true and awful to himself It was enough
for me that I believed him to have given me the best he had and all he had This
kindled my imagination more than if he had told me intelligible stories by the
hour together I knew not what the great snowy ranges might conceal but I could
no longer doubt that it would be something well worth discovering
I kept aloof from Chowbok for the next few days and showed no desire to
question him further when I spoke to him I called him Kahabuka which gratified
him greatly he seemed to have become afraid of me and acted as one who was in
my power Having therefore made up my mind that I would begin exploring as soon
as shearing was over I thought it would be a good thing to take Chowbok with
me so I told him that I meant going to the nearer ranges for a few days
prospecting and that he was to come too I made him promises of nightly grog
and held out the chances of finding gold I said nothing about the main range
for I knew it would frighten him I would get him as far up our own river as I
could and trace it if possible to its source I would then either go on by
myself if I felt my courage equal to the attempt or return with Chowbok So
as soon as ever shearing was over and the wool sent off I asked leave of
absence and obtained it Also I bought an old packhorse and packsaddle so
that I might take plenty of provisions and blankets and a small tent I was to
ride and find fords over the river Chowbok was to follow and lead the
packhorse which would also carry him over the fords My master let me have tea
and sugar ships biscuits tobacco and salt mutton with two or three bottles
of good brandy for as the wool was now sent down abundance of provisions
would come up with the empty drays
Everything being now ready all the hands on the station turned out to see
us off and we started on our journey not very long after the summer solstice
of 1870
Chapter Three
Up the River
The first day we had an easy time following up the great flats by the
riverside which had already been twice burned so that there was no dense
undergrowth to check us though the ground was often rough and we had to go a
good deal upon the riverbed Towards nightfall we had made a matter of some
fiveandtwenty miles and camped at the point where the river entered upon the
gorge
The weather was delightfully warm considering that the valley in which we
were encamped must have been at least two thousand feet above the level of the
sea The riverbed was here about a mile and a half broad and entirely covered
with shingle over which the river ran in many winding channels looking when
seen from above like a tangled skein of ribbon and glistening in the sun We
knew that it was liable to very sudden and heavy freshets but even had we not
known it we could have seen it by the snags of trees which must have been
carried long distances and by the mass of vegetable and mineral débris which
was banked against their lower side showing that at times the whole riverbed
must be covered with a roaring torrent many feet in depth and of ungovernable
fury At present the river was low there being but five or six streams too
deep and rapid for even a strong man to ford on foot but to be crossed safely
on horseback On either side of it there were still a few acres of flat which
grew wider and wider down the river till they became the large plains on which
we looked from my masters hut Behind us rose the lowest spurs of the second
range leading abruptly to the range itself and at a distance of half a mile
began the gorge where the river narrowed and became boisterous and terrible
The beauty of the scene cannot be conveyed in language The one side of the
valley was blue with evening shadow through which loomed forest and precipice
hillside and mountain top and the other was still brilliant with the sunset
gold The wide and wasteful river with its ceaseless rushing the beautiful
waterbirds too which abounded upon the islets and were so tame that we could
come close up to them the ineffable purity of the air the solemn
peacefulness of the untrodden region could there be a more delightful and
exhilarating combination
We set about making our camp close to some large bush which came down from
the mountains on to the flat and tethered out our horses upon ground as free as
we could find it from anything round which they might wind the rope and get
themselves tied up We dared not let them run loose lest they might stray down
the river home again We then gathered wood and lit the fire We filled a tin
pannikin with water and set it against the hot ashes to boil When the water
boiled we threw in two or three large pinches of tea and let them brew
We had caught half a dozen young ducks in the course of the day an easy
matter for the old birds made such a fuss in attempting to decoy us away from
them pretending to be badly hurt as they say the plover does that we could
always find them by going about in the opposite direction to the old bird till
we heard the young ones crying then we ran them down for they could not fly
though they were nearly full grown Chowbok plucked them a little and singed
them a good deal Then we cut them up and boiled them in another pannikin and
this completed our preparations
When we had done supper it was quite dark The silence and freshness of the
night the occasional sharp cry of the woodhen the ruddy glow of the fire the
subdued rushing of the river the sombre forest and the immediate foreground of
our saddles packs and blankets made a picture worthy of a Salvator Rosa or a
Nicolas Poussin I call it to mind and delight in it now but I did not notice
it at the time We next to never know when we are well off but this cuts two
ways for if we did we should perhaps know better when we are ill off also
and I have sometimes thought that there are as many ignorant of the one as of
the other He who wrote »O fortunatos nimium sua si bona nôrint agricolas«
might have written quite as truly »O infortunatos nimium sua si mala norint«
and there are few of us who are not protected from the keenest pain by our
inability to see what it is that we have done what we are suffering and what
we truly are Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our
appearance only
We found as soft a piece of ground as we could though it was all stony
and having collected grass and so disposed of ourselves that we had a little
hollow for our hipbones we strapped our blankets around us and went to sleep
Waking in the night I saw the stars overhead and the moonlight bright upon the
mountains The river was ever rushing I heard one of our horses neigh to its
companion and was assured that they were still at hand I had no care of mind
or body save that I had doubtless many difficulties to overcome there came
upon me a delicious sense of peace a fullness of contentment which I do not
believe can be felt by any but those who have spent days consecutively on
horseback or at any rate in the open air
Next morning we found our last nights tealeaves frozen at the bottom of
the pannikins though it was not nearly the beginning of autumn we breakfasted
as we had supped and were on our way by six oclock In half an hour we had
entered the gorge and turning round a corner we bade farewell to the last sight
of my masters country
The gorge was narrow and precipitous the river was now only a few yards
wide and roared and thundered against rocks of many tons in weight the sound
was deafening for there was a great volume of water We were two hours in
making less than a mile and that with danger sometimes in the river and
sometimes on the rock There was that damp black smell of rocks covered with
slimy vegetation as near some huge waterfall where spray is ever rising The
air was clammy and cold I cannot conceive how our horses managed to keep their
footing especially the one with the pack and I dreaded the having to return
almost as much as going forward I suppose this lasted three miles but it was
well midday when the gorge got a little wider and a small stream came into it
from a tributary valley Farther progress up the main river was impossible for
the cliffs descended like walls so we went up the side stream Chowbok seeming
to think that here must be the pass of which reports existed among his people
We now incurred less of actual danger but more fatigue and it was only after
infinite trouble owing to the rocks and tangled vegetation that we got
ourselves and our horses upon the saddle from which this small stream descended
by that time clouds had descended upon us and it was raining heavily Moreover
it was six oclock and we were tired out having made perhaps six miles in
twelve hours
On the saddle there was some coarse grass which was in full seed and
therefore very nourishing for the horses also abundance of anise and
sowthistle of which they are extravagantly fond so we turned them loose and
prepared to camp Everything was soaking wet and we were halfperished with
cold indeed we were very uncomfortable There was brushwood about but we
could get no fire till we had shaved off the wet outside of some dead branches
and filled our pockets with the dry inside chips Having done this we managed to
start a fire nor did we allow it to go out when we had once started it we
pitched the tent and by nine oclock were comparatively warm and dry Next
morning it was fine we broke camp and after advancing a short distance we
found that by descending over ground less difficult than yesterdays we should
come again upon the riverbed which had opened out above the gorge but it was
plain at a glance that there was no available sheep country nothing but a few
flats covered with scrub on either side the river and mountains which were
perfectly worthless But we could see the main range There was no mistake about
this The glaciers were tumbling down the mountain sides like cataracts and
seemed actually to descend upon the riverbed there could be no serious
difficulty in reaching them by following up the river which was wide and open
but it seemed rather an objectless thing to do for the main range looked
hopeless and my curiosity about the nature of the country above the gorge was
now quite satisfied there was no money in it whatever unless there should be
minerals of which I saw no more signs than lower down
However I resolved that I would follow the river up and not return until I
was compelled to do so I would go up every branch as far as I could and wash
well for gold Chowbok liked seeing me do this but it never came to anything
for we did not even find the colour His dislike of the main range appeared to
have worn off and he made no objections to approaching it I think he thought
there was no danger of my trying to cross it and he was not afraid of anything
on this side besides we might find gold But the fact was that he had made up
his mind what to do if he saw me getting too near it
We passed three weeks in exploring and never did I find time go more
quickly The weather was fine though the nights got very cold We followed
every stream but one and always found it lead us to a glacier which was plainly
impassable at any rate without a larger party and ropes One stream remained
which I should have followed up already had not Chowbok said that he had risen
early one morning while I was yet asleep and after going up it for three or
four miles had seen that it was impossible to go farther I had long ago
discovered that he was a great liar so I was bent on going up myself in brief
I did so so far from being impossible it was quite easy travelling and after
five or six miles I saw a saddle at the end of it which though covered deep in
snow was not glaciered and which did verily appear to be part of the main
range itself No words can express the intensity of my delight My blood was all
on fire with hope and elation but on looking round for Chowbok who was behind
me I saw to my surprise and anger that he had turned back and was going down
the valley as hard as he could He had left me
Chapter Four
The Saddle
I cooeyed to him but he would not hear I ran after him but he had got too
good a start Then I sat down on a stone and thought the matter carefully over
It was plain that Chowbok had designedly attempted to keep me from going up this
valley yet he had shown no unwillingness to follow me anywhere else What could
this mean unless that I was now upon the route by which alone the mysteries of
the great ranges could be revealed What then should I do Go back at the very
moment when it had become plain that I was on the right scent Hardly yet to
proceed alone would be both difficult and dangerous It would be bad enough to
return to my masters run and pass through the rocky gorges with no chance of
help from another should I get into a difficulty but to advance for any
considerable distance without a companion would be next door to madness
Accidents which are slight when there is another at hand as the spraining of an
ankle or the falling into some place whence escape would be easy by means of an
outstretched hand and a bit of rope may be fatal to one who is alone The more
I pondered the less I liked it and yet the less could I make up my mind to
return when I looked at the saddle at the head of the valley and noted the
comparative ease with which its smooth sweep of snow might be surmounted I
seemed to see my way almost from my present position to the very top After much
thought I resolved to go forward until I should come to some place which was
really dangerous but then to return I should thus I hoped at any rate reach
the top of the saddle and satisfy myself as to what might be on the other side
I had no time to lose for it was now between ten and eleven in the morning
Fortunately I was well equipped for on leaving the camp and the horses at the
lower end of the valley I had provided myself according to my custom with
everything that I was likely to want for four or five days Chowbok had carried
half but had dropped his whole swag I suppose at the moment of his taking
flight for I came upon it when I ran after him I had therefore his
provisions as well as my own Accordingly I took as many biscuits as I thought
I could carry and also some tobacco tea and a few matches I rolled all these
things together with a flask nearly full of brandy which I had kept in my
pocket for fear lest Chowbok should get hold of it inside my blankets and
strapped them very tightly making the whole into a long roll of some seven feet
in length and six inches in diameter Then I tied the two ends together and put
the whole round my neck and over one shoulder This is the easiest way of
carrying a heavy swag for one can rest ones self by shifting the burden from
one shoulder to the other I strapped my pannikin and a small axe about my
waist and thus equipped began to ascend the valley angry at having been misled
by Chowbok but determined not to return till I was compelled to do so
I crossed and recrossed the stream several times without difficulty for
there were many good fords At one oclock I was at the foot of the saddle for
four hours I mounted the last two on the snow where the going was easier by
five I was within ten minutes of the top in a state of excitement greater I
think than I had ever known before Ten minutes more and the cold air from the
other side came rushing upon me
A glance I was not on the main range
Another glance There was an awful river muddy and horribly angry roaring
over an immense riverbed thousands of feet below me
It went round to the westward and I could see no farther up the valley
save that there were enormous glaciers which must extend round the source of the
river and from which it must spring
Another glance and then I remained motionless
There was an easy pass in the mountains directly opposite to me through
which I caught a glimpse of an immeasurable extent of blue and distant plains
Easy Yes perfectly easy grassed nearly to the summit which was as it
were an open path between two glaciers from which an inconsiderable stream
came tumbling down over rough but very possible hillsides till it got down to
the level of the great river and formed a flat where there was grass and a
small bush of stunted timber
Almost before I could believe my eyes a cloud had come up from the valley
on the other side and the plains were hidden What wonderful luck was mine Had
I arrived five minutes later the cloud would have been over the pass and I
should not have known of its existence Now that the cloud was there I began to
doubt my memory and to be uncertain whether it had been more than a blue line
of distant vapour that had filled up the opening I could only be certain of
this much namely that the river in the valley below must be the one next to
the northward of that which flowed past my masters station of this there could
be no doubt Could I however imagine that my luck should have led me up a
wrong river in search of a pass and yet brought me to the spot where I could
detect the one weak place in the fortifications of a more northern basin This
was too improbable But even as I doubted there came a rent in the cloud
opposite and a second time I saw blue lines of heaving downs growing gradually
fainter and retiring into a far space of plain It was substantial there had
been no mistake whatsoever I had hardly made myself perfectly sure of this ere
the rent in the clouds joined up again and I could see nothing more
What then should I do The night would be upon me shortly and I was
already chilled with standing still after the exertion of climbing To stay
where I was would be impossible I must either go backwards or forwards I found
a rock which gave me shelter from the evening wind and took a good pull at the
brandy flask which immediately warmed and encouraged me
I asked myself Could I descend upon the riverbed beneath me It was
impossible to say what precipices might prevent my doing so If I were on the
riverbed dare I cross the river I am an excellent swimmer yet once in that
frightful rush of waters I should be hurled whithersoever it willed absolutely
powerless Moreover there was my swag I should perish of cold and hunger if I
left it but I should certainly be drowned if I attempted to carry it across the
river These were serious considerations but the hope of finding an immense
tract of available sheep country which I was determined that I would monopolize
as far as I possibly could sufficed to outweigh them and in a few minutes I
felt resolved that having made so important a discovery as a pass into a
country which was probably as valuable as that on our own side of the ranges I
would follow it up and ascertain its value even though I should pay the penalty
of failure with life itself The more I thought the more determined I became
either to win fame and perhaps fortune by entering upon this unknown world or
give up life in the attempt In fact I felt that life would be no longer
valuable if I were to have seen so great a prize and refused to grasp at the
possible profits therefrom
I had still an hour of good daylight during which I might begin my descent
on to some suitable campingground but there was not a moment to be lost At
first I got along rapidly for I was on the snow and sank into it enough to
save me from falling though I went forward straight down the mountain side as
fast as I could but there was less snow on this side than on the other and I
had soon done with it getting on to a coomb of dangerous and very stony ground
where a slip might have given me a disastrous fall But I was careful with all
my speed and got safely to the bottom where there were patches of coarse
grass and an attempt here and there at brushwood what was below this I could
not see I advanced a few hundred yards farther and found that I was on the
brink of a frightful precipice which no one in his senses would attempt
descending I bethought me however to try the creek which drained the coomb
and see whether it might not have made itself a smoother way In a few minutes I
found myself at the upper end of a chasm in the rocks something like Twll Dhu
only on a greatly larger scale the creek had found its way into it and had
worn a deep channel through a material which appeared softer than that upon the
other side of the mountain I believe it must have been a different geological
formation though I regret to say that I cannot tell what it was
I looked at this rift in great doubt then I went a little way on either
side of it and found myself looking over the edge of horrible precipices on to
the river which roared some four or five thousand feet below me I dared not
think of getting down at all unless I committed myself to the rift of which I
was hopeful when I reflected that the rock was soft and that the water might
have worn its channel tolerably evenly through the whole extent The darkness
was increasing with every minute but I should have twilight for another
halfhour so I went into the chasm though by no means without fear and
resolved to return and camp and try some other path next day should I come to
any serious difficulty In about five minutes I had completely lost my head the
side of the rift became hundreds of feet in height and overhung so that I could
not see the sky It was full of rocks and I had many falls and bruises I was
wet through from falling into the water of which there was no great volume but
it had such force that I could do nothing against it once I had to leap down a
not inconsiderable waterfall into a deep pool below and my swag was so heavy
that I was very nearly drowned I had indeed a hairbreadth escape but as luck
would have it Providence was on my side Shortly afterwards I began to fancy
that the rift was getting wider and that there was more brushwood Presently I
found myself on an open grassy slope and feeling my way a little farther along
the stream I came upon a flat place with wood where I could camp comfortably
which was well for it was now quite dark
My first care was for my matches were they dry The outside of my swag had
got completely wet but on undoing the blankets I found things warm and dry
within How thankful I was I lit a fire and was grateful for its warmth and
company I made myself some tea and ate two of my biscuits my brandy I did not
touch for I had little left and might want it when my courage failed me All
that I did I did almost mechanically for I could not realize my situation to
myself beyond knowing that I was alone and that return through the chasm which
I had just descended would be impossible It is a dreadful feeling that of being
cut off from all ones kind I was still full of hope and built golden castles
for myself as soon as I was warmed with food and fire but I do not believe that
any man could long retain his reason in such solitude unless he had the
companionship of animals One begins doubting ones own identity
I remember deriving comfort even from the sight of my blankets and the
sound of my watch ticking things which seemed to link me to other people but
the screaming of the woodhens frightened me as also a chattering bird which I
had never heard before and which seemed to laugh at me though I soon got used
to it and before long could fancy that it was many years since I had first
heard it
I took off my clothes and wrapped my inside blanket about me till my
things were dry The night was very still and I made a roaring fire so I soon
got warm and at last could put my clothes on again Then I strapped my blanket
round me and went to sleep as near the fire as I could
I dreamed that there was an organ placed in my masters woolshed the
woolshed faded away and the organ seemed to grow and grow amid a blaze of
brilliant light till it became like a golden city upon the side of a mountain
with rows upon rows of pipes set in cliffs and precipices one above the other
and in mysterious caverns like that of Fingal within whose depths I could see
the burnished pillars gleaming In the front there was a flight of lofty
terraces at the top of which I could see a man with his head buried forward
towards a keyboard and his body swaying from side to side amid the storm of
huge arpeggioed harmonies that came crashing overhead and round Then there was
one who touched me on the shoulder and said »Do you not see it is Handel«
but I had hardly apprehended and was trying to scale the terraces and get near
him when I awoke dazzled with the vividness and distinctness of the dream
A piece of wood had burned through and the ends had fallen into the ashes
with a blaze this I supposed had both given me my dream and robbed me of it
I was bitterly disappointed and sitting up on my elbow came back to reality
and my strange surroundings as best I could
I was thoroughly aroused moreover I felt a foreshadowing as though my
attention were arrested by something more than the dream although no sense in
particular was as yet appealed to I held my breath and waited and then I heard
was it fancy Nay I listened again and again and I did hear a faint and
extremely distant sound of music like that of an Aeolian harp borne upon the
wind which was blowing fresh and chill from the opposite mountains
The roots of my hair thrilled I listened but the wind had died and
fancying that it must have been the wind itself no on a sudden I remembered
the noise which Chowbok had made in the woolshed Yes it was that
Thank Heaven whatever it was it was over now I reasoned with myself and
recovered my firmness I became convinced that I had only been dreaming more
vividly than usual Soon I began even to laugh and think what a fool I was to
be frightened at nothing reminding myself that even if I were to come to a bad
end it would be no such dreadful matter after all I said my prayers a duty
which I had too often neglected and in a little time fell into a really
refreshing sleep which lasted till broad daylight and restored me I rose and
searching among the embers of my fire I found a few live coals and soon had a
blaze again I got breakfast and was delighted to have the company of several
small birds which hopped about me and perched on my boots and hands I felt
comparatively happy but I can assure the reader that I had had a far worse time
of it than I have told him and I strongly recommend him to remain in Europe if
he can or at any rate in some country which has been explored and settled
rather than go into places where others have not been before him Exploring is
delightful to look forward to and back upon but it is not comfortable at the
time unless it be of such an easy nature as not to deserve the name
Chapter Five
The River and the Range
My next business was to descend upon the river I had lost sight of the pass
which I had seen from the saddle but had made such notes of it that I could not
fail to find it I was bruised and stiff and my boots had begun to give for I
had been going on rough ground for more than three weeks but as the day wore
on and I found myself descending without serious difficulty I became easier
In a couple of hours I got among pine forests where there was little
undergrowth and descended quickly till I reached the edge of another precipice
which gave me a great deal of trouble though I eventually managed to avoid it
By about three or four oclock I found myself on the riverbed
From calculations which I made as to the height of the valley on the other
side the saddle over which I had come I concluded that the saddle itself could
not be less than nine thousand feet high and I should think that the riverbed
on to which I now descended was three thousand feet above the sealevel The
water had a terrific current with a fall of not less than forty to fifty feet
per mile It was certainly the river next to the northward of that which flowed
past my masters run and would have to go through an impassable gorge as is
commonly the case with the rivers of that country before it came upon known
parts It was reckoned to be nearly two thousand feet above the sealevel where
it came out of the gorge on to the plains
As soon as I got to the riverside I liked it even less than I thought I
should It was muddy being near its parent glaciers The stream was wide
rapid and rough and I could hear the smaller stones knocking against each
other under the rage of the waters as upon a seashore Fording was out of the
question I could not swim and carry my swag and I dared not leave my swag
behind me My only chance was to make a small raft and that would be difficult
to make and not at all safe when it was made not for one man in such a
current
As it was too late to do much that afternoon I spent the rest of it in
going up and down the riverside and seeing where I should find the most
favourable crossing Then I camped early and had a quiet comfortable night with
no more music for which I was thankful as it had haunted me all day although
I perfectly well knew that it had been nothing but my own fancy brought on by
the reminiscence of what I had heard from Chowbok and by the overexcitement of
the preceding evening
Next day I began gathering the dry bloom stalks of a kind of flag or
irislooking plant which was abundant and whose leaves when torn into strips
were as strong as the strongest string I brought them to the waterside and
fell to making myself a kind of rough platform which should suffice for myself
and my swag if I could only stick to it The stalks were ten or twelve feet
long and very strong but light and hollow I made my raft entirely of them
binding bundles of them at right angles to each other neatly and strongly with
strips from the leaves of the same plant and tying other rods across It took
me all day till nearly four oclock to finish the raft but I had still enough
daylight for crossing and resolved on doing so at once
I had selected a place where the river was broad and comparatively still
some seventy or eighty yards above a furious rapid At this spot I had built my
raft I now launched it made my swag fast to the middle and got on to it
myself keeping in my hand one of the longest blossom stalks so that I might
punt myself across as long as the water was shallow enough to let me do so I
got on pretty well for twenty or thirty yards from the shore but even in this
short space I nearly upset my raft by shifting too rapidly from one side to the
other The water then became much deeper and I leaned over so far in order to
get the bloom rod to the bottom that I had to stay still leaning on the rod for
a few seconds Then when I lifted up the rod from the ground the current was
too much for me and I found myself being carried down the rapid Everything in a
second flew past me and I had no more control over the raft neither can I
remember anything except hurry and noise and waters which in the end upset me
But it all came right and I found myself near the shore not more than up to my
knees in water and pulling my raft to land fortunately upon the left bank of
the river which was the one I wanted When I had landed I found that I was
about a mile or perhaps a little less below the point from which I started My
swag was wet upon the outside and I was myself dripping but I had gained my
point and knew that my difficulties were for a time over I then lit my fire
and dried myself having done so I caught some of the young ducks and seagulls
which were abundant on and near the riverbed so that I had not only a good
meal of which I was in great want having had an insufficient diet from the
time that Chowbok left me but was also well provided for the morrow
I thought of Chowbok and felt how useful he had been to me and in how many
ways I was the loser by his absence having now to do all sorts of things for
myself which he had hitherto done for me and could do infinitely better than I
could Moreover I had set my heart upon making him a real convert to the
Christian religion which he had already embraced outwardly though I cannot
think that it had taken deep root in his impenetrably stupid nature I used to
catechize him by our camp fire and explain to him the mysteries of the Trinity
and of original sin with which I was myself familiar having been the grandson
of an archdeacon by my mothers side to say nothing of the fact that my father
was a clergyman of the English Church I was therefore sufficiently qualified
for the task and was the more inclined to it over and above my real desire to
save the unhappy creature from an eternity of torture by recollecting the
promise of St James that if anyone converted a sinner which Chowbok surely
was he should hide a multitude of sins I reflected therefore that the
conversion of Chowbok might in some degree compensate for irregularities and
shortcomings in my own previous life the remembrance of which had been more
than once unpleasant to me during my recent experiences
Indeed on one occasion I had even gone so far as to baptize him as well as
I could having ascertained that he had certainly not been both christened and
baptized and gathering from his telling me that he had received the name
William from the missionary that it was probably the firstmentioned rite to
which he had been subjected I thought it great carelessness on the part of the
missionary to have omitted the second and certainly more important ceremony
which I have always understood precedes christening both in the case of infants
and of adult converts and when I thought of the risks we were both incurring I
determined that there should be no further delay Fortunately it was not yet
twelve oclock so I baptized him at once from one of the pannikins the only
vessels I had reverently and I trust efficiently I then set myself to work
to instruct him in the deeper mysteries of our belief and to make him not only
in name but in heart a Christian
It is true that I might not have succeeded for Chowbok was very hard to
teach Indeed on the evening of the same day that I baptized him he tried for
the twentieth time to steal the brandy which made me rather unhappy as to
whether I could have baptized him rightly He had a prayerbook more than
twenty years old which had been given him by the missionaries but the only
thing in it which had taken any living hold upon him was the title of Adelaide
the Queen Dowager which he would repeat whenever strongly moved or touched and
which did really seem to have some deep spiritual significance to him though he
could never completely separate her individuality from that of Mary Magdalene
whose name had also fascinated him though in a less degree
He was indeed stony ground but by digging about him I might have at any
rate deprived him of all faith in the religion of his tribe which would have
been half way towards making him a sincere Christian and now all this was cut
off from me and I could neither be of further spiritual assistance to him nor
he of bodily profit to myself besides any company was better than being quite
alone
I got very melancholy as these reflections crossed me but when I had boiled
the ducks and eaten them I was much better I had a little tea left and about a
pound of tobacco which should last me for another fortnight with moderate
smoking I had also eight ships biscuits and most precious of all about six
ounces of brandy which I presently reduced to four for the night was cold
I rose with early dawn and in an hour I was on my way feeling strange not
to say weak from the burden of solitude but full of hope when I considered how
many dangers I had overcome and that this day should see me at the summit of
the dividing range
After a slow but steady climb of between three and four hours during which
I met with no serious hindrance I found myself upon a tableland and close to a
glacier which I recognized as marking the summit of the pass Above it towered a
succession of rugged precipices and snowy mountain sides The solitude was
greater than I could bear the mountain upon my masters sheeprun was a crowded
thoroughfare in comparison with this sombre sullen place The air moreover was
dark and heavy which made the loneliness even more oppressive There was an
inky gloom over all that was not covered with snow and ice Grass there was
none
Each moment I felt increasing upon me that dreadful doubt as to my own
identity as to the continuity of my past and present existence which is the
first sign of that distraction which comes on those who have lost themselves in
the bush I had fought against this feeling hitherto and had conquered it but
the intense silence and gloom of this rocky wilderness were too much for me and
I felt that my power of collecting myself was beginning to be impaired
I rested for a little while and then advanced over very rough ground until
I reached the lower end of the glacier Then I saw another glacier descending
from the eastern side into a small lake I passed along the western side of the
lake where the ground was easier and when I had got about halfway I expected
that I should see the plains which I had already seen from the opposite
mountains but it was not to be so for the clouds rolled up to the very summit
of the pass though they did not overlip it on to the side from which I had
come I therefore soon found myself enshrouded by a cold thin vapour which
prevented my seeing more than a very few yards in front of me Then I came upon
a large patch of old snow in which I could distinctly trace the halfmelted
tracks of goats and in one place as it seemed to me there had been a dog
following them Had I lighted upon a land of shepherds The ground where not
covered with snow was so poor and stony and there was so little herbage that
I could see no sign of a path or regular sheeptrack But I could not help
feeling rather uneasy as I wondered what sort of a reception I might meet with
if I were to come suddenly upon inhabitants I was thinking of this and
proceeding cautiously through the mist when I began to fancy that I saw some
objects darker than the cloud looming in front of me A few steps brought me
nearer and a shudder of unutterable horror ran through me when I saw a circle
of gigantic forms many times higher than myself upstanding grim and grey
through the veil of cloud before me
I suppose I must have fainted for I found myself some time afterwards
sitting upon the ground sick and deadly cold There were the figures quite
still and silent seen vaguely through the thick gloom but in human shape
indisputably
A sudden thought occurred to me which would have doubtless struck me at
once had I not been prepossessed with forebodings at the time that I first saw
the figures and had not the cloud concealed them from me I mean that they
were not living beings but statues I determined that I would count fifty
slowly and be sure that the objects were not alive if during that time I could
detect no sign of motion
How thankful was I when I came to the end of my fifty and there had been no
movement
I counted a second time but again all was still
I then advanced timidly forward and in another moment I saw that my surmise
was correct I had come upon a sort of Stonehenge of rude and barbaric figures
seated as Chowbok had sat when I questioned him in the woolshed and with the
same superhumanly malevolent expression upon their faces They had been all
seated but two had fallen They were barbarous neither Egyptian nor
Assyrian nor Japanese different from any of these and yet akin to all They
were six or seven times larger than life of great antiquity worn and lichen
grown They were ten in number There was snow upon their heads and wherever
snow could lodge Each statue had been built of four or five enormous blocks
but how these had been raised and put together is known to those alone who
raised them Each was terrible after a different kind One was raging furiously
as in pain and great despair another was lean and cadaverous with famine
another cruel and idiotic but with the silliest simper that can be conceived
this one had fallen and looked exquisitely ludicrous in his fall the mouths
of all were more or less open and as I looked at them from behind I saw that
their heads had been hollowed
I was sick and shivering with cold Solitude had unmanned me already and I
was utterly unfit to have come upon such an assembly of fiends in such a
dreadful wilderness and without preparation I would have given everything I had
in the world to have been back at my masters station but that was not to be
thought of my head was failing and I felt sure that I could never get back
alive
Then came a gust of howling wind accompanied with a moan from one of the
statues above me I clasped my hands in fear I felt like a rat caught in a
trap as though I would have turned and bitten at whatever thing was nearest me
The wildness of the wind increased the moans grew shriller coming from several
statues and swelling into a chorus I almost immediately knew what it was but
the sound was so unearthly that this was but little consolation The inhuman
beings into whose hearts the Evil One had put it to conceive these statues had
made their heads into a sort of organpipe so that their mouths should catch
the wind and sound with its blowing It was horrible However brave a man might
be he could never stand such a concert from such lips and in such a place I
heaped every invective upon them that my tongue could utter as I rushed away
from them into the mist and even after I had lost sight of them and turning my
head round could see nothing but the stormwraiths driving behind me I heard
their ghostly chanting and felt as though one of them would rush after me and
grip me in his hand and throttle me
I may say here that since my return to England I heard a friend playing
some chords upon the organ which put me very forcibly in mind of the Erewhonian
statues for Erewhon is the name of the country upon which I was now entering
They rose most vividly to my recollection the moment my friend began They are
as follows and are by the greatest of all musicians1
Chapter Six
Into Erewhon
And now I found myself on a narrow path which followed a small watercourse I
was too glad to have an easy track for my flight to lay hold of the full
significance of its existence The thought however soon presented itself to me
that I must be in an inhabited country but one which was yet unknown What
then was to be my fate at the hands of its inhabitants Should I be taken and
offered up as a burntoffering to those hideous guardians of the pass It might
be so I shuddered at the thought yet the horrors of solitude had now fairly
possessed me and so dazed was I and chilled and woebegone that I could lay
hold of no idea firmly amid the crowd of fancies that kept wandering in upon my
brain
I hurried onward down down down More streams came in then there was a
bridge a few pine logs thrown over the water but they gave me comfort for
savages do not make bridges Then I had a treat such as I can never convey on
paper a moment perhaps the most striking and unexpected in my whole life
the one I think that with some three or four exceptions I would most gladly
have again were I able to recall it I got below the level of the clouds into
a burst of brilliant evening sunshine I was facing the northwest and the sun
was full upon me Oh how its light cheered me But what I saw It was such an
expanse as was revealed to Moses when he stood upon the summit of Mount Sinai
and beheld that promised land which it was not to be his to enter The beautiful
sunset sky was crimson and gold blue silver and purple exquisite and
tranquillizing fading away therein were plains on which I could see many a
town and city with buildings that had lofty steeples and rounded domes Nearer
beneath me lay ridge behind ridge outline behind outline sunlight behind
shadow and shadow behind sunlight gully and serrated ravine I saw large pine
forests and the glitter of a noble river winding its way upon the plains also
many villages and hamlets some of them quite near at hand and it was on these
that I pondered most I sank upon the ground at the foot of a large tree and
thought what I had best do but I could not collect myself I was quite tired
out and presently feeling warmed by the sun and quieted I fell off into a
profound sleep
I was awoke by the sound of tinkling bells and looking up I saw four or
five goats feeding near me As soon as I moved the creatures turned their heads
towards me with an expression of infinite wonder They did not run away but
stood stockstill and looked at me from every side as I at them Then came the
sound of chattering and laughter and there approached two lovely girls of
about seventeen or eighteen years old dressed each in a sort of linen
gaberdine with a girdle round the waist They saw me I sat quite still and
looked at them dazzled with their extreme beauty For a moment they looked at
me and at each other in great amazement then they gave a little frightened cry
and ran off as hard as they could
»So thats that« said I to myself as I watched them scampering I knew
that I had better stay where I was and meet my fate whatever it was to be and
even if there were a better course I had no strength left to take it I must
come into contact with the inhabitants sooner or later and it might as well be
sooner Better not to seem afraid of them as I should do by running away and
being caught with a hue and cry tomorrow or next day So I remained quite still
and waited In about an hour I heard distant voices talking excitedly and in a
few minutes I saw the two girls bringing up a party of six or seven men well
armed with bows and arrows and pikes There was nothing for it so I remained
sitting quite still even after they had seen me until they came close up Then
we all had a good look at one another
Both the girls and the men were very dark in colour but not more so than
the South Italians or Spaniards The men wore no trousers but were dressed
nearly the same as the Arabs whom I have seen in Algeria They were of the most
magnificent presence being no less strong and handsome than the women were
beautiful and not only this but their expression was courteous and benign I
think they would have killed me at once if I had made the slightest show of
violence but they gave me no impression of their being likely to hurt me so
long as I was quiet I am not much given to liking anybody at first sight but
these people impressed me much more favourably than I should have thought
possible so that I could not fear them as I scanned their faces one after
another They were all powerful men I might have been a match for any one of
them singly for I have been told that I have more to glory in the flesh than in
any other respect being over six feet and proportionately strong but any two
could have soon mastered me even were I not so bereft of energy by my recent
adventures My colour seemed to surprise them most for I have light hair blue
eyes and a fresh complexion They could not understand how these things could
be my clothes also seemed quite beyond them Their eyes kept wandering all over
me and the more they looked the less they seemed able to make me out
At last I raised myself upon my feet and leaning upon my stick I spoke
whatever came into my head to the man who seemed foremost among them I spoke in
English though I was very sure that he would not understand I said that I had
no idea what country I was in that I had stumbled upon it almost by accident
after a series of hairbreadth escapes and that I trusted they would not allow
any evil to overtake me now that I was completely at their mercy All this I
said quietly and firmly with hardly any change of expression They could not
understand me but they looked approvingly to one another and seemed pleased
so I thought that I showed no fear nor acknowledgment of inferiority the
fact being that I was exhausted beyond the sense of fear Then one of them
pointed to the mountain in the direction of the statues and made a grimace in
imitation of one of them I laughed and shuddered expressively whereon they all
burst out laughing too and chattered hard to one another I could make out
nothing of what they said but I think they thought it rather a good joke that I
had come past the statues Then one among them came forward and motioned me to
follow which I did without hesitation for I dared not thwart them moreover I
liked them well enough and felt tolerably sure that they had no intention of
hurting me
In about a quarter of an hour we got to a small hamlet built on the side of
a hill with a narrow street and houses huddled up together The roofs were
large and overhanging Some few windows were glazed but not many Altogether
the village was exceedingly like one of those that one comes upon in descending
the less known passes over the Alps on to Lombardy I will pass over the
excitement which my arrival caused Suffice it that though there was abundance
of curiosity there was no rudeness I was taken to the principal house which
seemed to belong to the people who had captured me There I was hospitably
entertained and a supper of milk and goats flesh with a kind of oatcake was
set before me of which I ate heartily But all the time I was eating I could
not help turning my eyes upon the two beautiful girls whom I had first seen and
who seemed to consider me as their lawful prize which indeed I was for I
would have gone through fire and water for either of them
Then came the inevitable surprise at seeing me smoke which I will spare the
reader but I noticed that when they saw me strike a match there was a hubbub
of excitement which it struck me was not altogether unmixed with disapproval
why I could not guess Then the women retired and I was left alone with the
men who tried to talk to me in every conceivable way but we could come to no
understanding except that I was quite alone and had come from a long way over
the mountains In the course of time they grew tired and I very sleepy I made
signs as though I would sleep on the floor in my blankets but they gave me one
of their bunks with plenty of dried fern and grass on to which I had no sooner
laid myself than I fell fast asleep nor did I awake till well into the
following day when I found myself in the hut with two men keeping guard over me
and an old woman cooking When I woke the men seemed pleased and spoke to me as
though bidding me good morning in a pleasant tone
I went out of doors to wash in a creek which ran a few yards from the house
My hosts were as engrossed with me as ever they never took their eyes off me
following every action that I did no matter how trifling and each looking
towards the other for his opinion at every touch and turn They took great
interest in my ablutions for they seemed to have doubted whether I was in all
respects human like themselves They even laid hold of my arms and overhauled
them and expressed approval when they saw that they were strong and muscular
They now examined my legs and especially my feet When they desisted they nodded
approvingly to each other and when I had combed and brushed my hair and
generally made myself as neat and well arranged as circumstances would allow I
could see that their respect for me increased greatly and that they were by no
means sure that they had treated me with sufficient deference a matter on
which I am not competent to decide All I know is that they were very good to
me for which I thanked them heartily as it might well have been otherwise
For my own part I liked them and admired them for their quiet
selfpossession and dignified ease impressed me pleasurably at once Neither did
their manner make me feel as though I were personally distasteful to them only
that I was a thing utterly new and unlooked for which they could not
comprehend Their type was more that of the most robust Italians than any other
their manners also were eminently Italian in their entire unconsciousness of
self Having travelled a good deal in Italy I was struck with little gestures
of the hand and shoulders which constantly reminded me of that country My
feeling was that my wisest plan would be to go on as I had begun and be simply
myself for better or worse such as I was and take my chance accordingly
I thought of these things while they were waiting for me to have done
washing and on my way back Then they gave me breakfast hot bread and milk
and fried flesh of something between mutton and venison Their ways of cooking
and eating were European though they had only a skewer for a fork and a sort
of butchers knife to cut with The more I looked at everything in the house
the more I was struck with its quasiEuropean character and had the walls only
been pasted over with extracts from the Illustrated London News and Punch I
could have almost fancied myself in a shepherds hut upon my masters sheeprun
And yet everything was slightly different It was much the same with the birds
and flowers on the other side as compared with the English ones On my arrival
I had been pleased at noticing that nearly all the plants and birds were very
like common English ones thus there was a robin and a lark and a wren and
daisies and dandelions not quite the same as the English but still very like
them quite like enough to be called by the same name so now here the ways
of these two men and the things they had in the house were all very nearly the
same as in Europe It was not at all like going to China or Japan where
everything that one sees is strange I was indeed at once struck with the
primitive character of their appliances for they seemed to be some five or six
hundred years behind Europe in their inventions but this is the case in many an
Italian village
All the time that I was eating my breakfast I kept speculating as to what
family of mankind they could belong to and shortly there came an idea into my
head which brought the blood into my cheeks with excitement as I thought of it
Was it possible that they might be the lost ten tribes of Israel of whom I had
heard both my grandfather and my father make mention as existing in an unknown
country and awaiting a final return to Palestine Was it possible that I might
have been designed by Providence as the instrument of their conversion Oh what
a thought was this I laid down my skewer and gave them a hasty survey There
was nothing of a Jewish type about them their noses were distinctly Grecian
and their lips though full were not Jewish
How could I settle this question I knew neither Greek nor Hebrew and even
if I should get to understand the language here spoken I should be unable to
detect the roots of either of these tongues I had not been long enough among
them to ascertain their habits but they did not give me the impression of being
a religious people This too was natural the ten tribes had been always
lamentably irreligious But could I not make them change To restore the lost
ten tribes of Israel to a knowledge of the only truth here would be indeed an
immortal crown of glory My heart beat fast and furious as I entertained the
thought What a position would it not ensure me in the next world or perhaps
even in this What folly it would be to throw such a chance away I should rank
next to the Apostles if not as high as they certainly above the minor
prophets and possibly above any Old Testament writer except Moses and Isaiah
For such a future as this I would sacrifice all that I have without a moments
hesitation could I be reasonably assured of it I had always cordially approved
of missionary efforts and had at times contributed my mite towards their
support and extension but I had never hitherto felt drawn towards becoming a
missionary myself and indeed had always admired and envied and respected
them more than I had exactly liked them But if these people were the lost ten
tribes of Israel the case would be widely different the opening was too
excellent to be lost and I resolved that should I see indications which
appeared to confirm my impression that I had indeed come upon the missing
tribes I would certainly convert them
I may here mention that this discovery is the one to which I alluded in the
opening pages of my story Time strengthened the impression made upon me at
first and though I remained in doubt for several months I feel now no longer
uncertain
When I had done eating my hosts approached and pointed down the valley
leading to their own country as though wanting to show that I must go with
them at the same time they laid hold of my arms and made as though they would
take me but used no violence I laughed and motioned my hand across my throat
pointing down the valley as though I was afraid lest I should be killed when I
got there But they divined me at once and shook their heads with much
decision to show that I was in no danger Their manner quite reassured me and
in half an hour or so I had packed up my swag and was eager for the forward
journey feeling wonderfully strengthened and refreshed by good food and sleep
while my hope and curiosity were aroused to the very utmost by the extraordinary
position in which I found myself
But already my excitement had begun to cool and I reflected that these
people might not be the ten tribes after all in which case I could not but
regret that my hopes of making money which had led me into so much trouble and
danger were almost annihilated by the fact that the country was full to
overflowing with a people who had probably already developed its more available
resources Moreover how was I to get back For there was something about my
hosts which told me that they had got me and meant to keep me in spite of all
their goodness
Chapter Seven
First Impressions
We followed an Alpine path for some four miles now hundreds of feet above a
brawling stream which descended from the glaciers and now nearly alongside it
The morning was cold and somewhat foggy for the autumn had made great strides
latterly Sometimes we went through forests of pine or rather yew trees though
they looked like pine and I remember that now and again we passed a little
wayside shrine wherein there would be a statue of great beauty representing
some figure male or female in the very heyday of youth strength and beauty
or of the most dignified maturity and old age My hosts always bowed their heads
as they passed one of these shrines and it shocked me to see statues that had
no apparent object beyond the chronicling of some unusual individual excellence
or beauty receive so serious a homage However I showed no sign of wonder or
disapproval for I remembered that to be all things to all men was one of the
injunctions of the Gentile Apostle which for the present I should do well to
heed Shortly after passing one of these chapels we came suddenly upon a village
which started up out of the mist and I was alarmed lest I should be made an
object of curiosity or dislike But it was not so My guides spoke to many in
passing and those spoken to showed much amazement My guides however were
well known and the natural politeness of the people prevented them from putting
me to any inconvenience but they could not help eyeing me nor I them I may as
well say at once what my afterexperience taught me namely that with all
their faults and extraordinary obliquity of mental vision upon many subjects
they are the very bestbred people that I ever fell in with
The village was just like the one we had left only rather larger The
streets were narrow and unpaved but very fairly clean The vine grew outside
many of the houses and there were some with signboards on which was painted a
bottle and a glass that made me feel much at home Even on this ledge of human
society there was a stunted growth of shoplets which had taken root and
vegetated somehow though as in an air mercantile of the bleakest It was here
as hitherto all things were generically the same as in Europe the differences
being of species only and I was amused at seeing in a window some bottles with
barleysugar and sweetmeats for children as at home but the barleysugar was
in plates not in twisted sticks and was coloured blue Glass was plentiful in
the better houses
Lastly I should say that the people were of a physical beauty which was
simply amazing I never saw anything in the least comparable to them The women
were vigorous and had a most majestic gait their heads being set upon their
shoulders with a grace beyond all power of expression Each feature was
finished eyelids eyelashes and ears being almost invariably perfect Their
colour was equal to that of the finest Italian paintings being of the clearest
olive and yet ruddy with a glow of perfect health Their expression was divine
and as they glanced at me timidly but with parted lips in great bewilderment I
forgot all thoughts of their conversion in feelings that were far more earthly
I was dazzled as I saw one after the other of whom I could only feel that each
was the loveliest I had ever seen Even in middle age they were still comely
and the old greyhaired women at their cottage doors had a dignity not to say
majesty of their own
The men were as handsome as the women beautiful I have always delighted in
and reverenced beauty but I felt simply abashed in the presence of such a
splendid type a compound of all that is best in Egyptian Greek and Italian
The children were infinite in number and exceedingly merry I need hardly say
that they came in for their full share of the prevailing beauty I expressed by
signs my admiration and pleasure to my guides and they were greatly pleased I
should add that all seemed to take a pride in their personal appearance and
that even the poorest and none seemed rich were wellkempt and tidy I could
fill many pages with a description of their dress and the ornaments which they
wore and a hundred details which struck me with all the force of novelty but I
must not stay to do so
When we had got past the village the fog rose and revealed magnificent
views of the snowy mountains and their nearer abutments while in front I could
now and again catch glimpses of the great plains which I had surveyed on the
preceding evening The country was highly cultivated every ledge being planted
with chestnuts walnuts and appletrees from which the apples were now
gathering Goats were abundant also a kind of small black cattle in the
marshes near the river which was now fast widening and running between larger
flats from which the hills receded more and more I saw a few sheep with rounded
noses and enormous tails Dogs were there in plenty and very English but I saw
no cats nor indeed are these creatures known their place being supplied by a
sort of small terrier
In about four hours of walking from the time we started and after passing
two or three more villages we came upon a considerable town and my guides made
many attempts to make me understand something but I gathered no inkling of
their meaning except that I need be under no apprehension of danger I will
spare the reader any description of the town and would only bid him think of
Domodossola or Faido Suffice it that I found myself taken before the chief
magistrate and by his orders was placed in an apartment with two other people
who were the first I had seen looking anything but well and handsome In fact
one of them was plainly very much out of health and coughed violently from time
to time in spite of manifest efforts to suppress it The other looked pale and
ill but he was marvellously selfcontained and it was impossible to say what
was the matter with him Both of them appeared astonished at seeing one who was
evidently a stranger but they were too ill to come up to me and form
conclusions concerning me These two were first called out and in about a
quarter of an hour I was made to follow them which I did in some fear and with
much curiosity
The chief magistrate was a venerablelooking man with white hair and beard
and a face of great sagacity He looked me all over for about five minutes
letting his eyes wander from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet up
and down and down and up neither did his mind seem in the least clearer when
he had done looking than when he began He at length asked me a single short
question which I supposed meant »Who are you« I answered in English quite
composedly as though he would understand me and endeavoured to be my very most
natural self as well as I could He appeared more and more puzzled and then
retired returning with two others much like himself Then they took me into an
inner room and the two fresh arrivals stripped me while the chief looked on
They felt my pulse they looked at my tongue they listened at my chest they
felt all my muscles and at the end of each operation they looked at the chief
and nodded and said something in a tone quite pleasant as though I were all
right They even pulled down my eyelids and looked I suppose to see if they
were bloodshot but it was not so At length they gave up and I think that all
were satisfied of my being in the most perfect health and very robust to boot
At last the old magistrate made me a speech of about five minutes long which
the other two appeared to think greatly to the point but from which I gathered
nothing As soon as it was ended they proceeded to overhaul my swag and the
contents of my pockets This gave me little uneasiness for I had no money with
me nor anything which they were at all likely to want or which I cared about
losing At least I fancied so but I soon found my mistake
They got on comfortably at first though they were much puzzled with my
tobaccopipe and insisted on seeing me use it When I had shown them what I did
with it they were astonished but not displeased and seemed to like the smell
But by and by they came to my watch which I had hidden away in the inmost
pocket that I had and had forgotten when they began their search They seemed
concerned and uneasy as soon as they got hold of it They then made me open it
and show the works and when I had done so they gave signs of very grave
displeasure which disturbed me all the more because I could not conceive
wherein it could have offended them
I remember that when they first found it I had thought of Paley and how he
tells us that a savage on seeing a watch would at once conclude that it was
designed True these people were not savages but I none the less felt sure
that this was the conclusion they would arrive at and I was thinking what a
wonderfully wise man Archdeacon Paley must have been when I was aroused by a
look of horror and dismay upon the face of the magistrate a look which conveyed
to me the impression that he regarded my watch not as having been designed but
rather as the designer of himself and of the universe or as at any rate one of
the great first causes of all things
Then it struck me that this view was quite as likely to be taken as the
other by a people who had no experience of European civilization and I was a
little piqued with Paley for having led me so much astray but I soon discovered
that I had misinterpreted the expression on the magistrates face and that it
was one not of fear but hatred He spoke to me solemnly and sternly for two or
three minutes Then reflecting that this was of no use he caused me to be
conducted through several passages into a large room which I afterwards found
was the museum of the town and wherein I beheld a sight which astonished me
more than anything that I had yet seen
It was filled with cases containing all manner of curiosities such as
skeletons stuffed birds and animals carvings in stone whereof I saw several
that were like those on the saddle only smaller but the greater part of the
room was occupied by broken machinery of all descriptions The larger specimens
had a case to themselves and tickets with writing on them in a character which
I could not understand There were fragments of steam engines all broken and
rusted among them I saw a cylinder and piston a broken flywheel and part of
a crank which was laid on the ground by their side Again there was a very old
carriage whose wheels in spite of rust and decay I could see had been designed
originally for iron rails Indeed there were fragments of a great many of our
own most advanced inventions but they seemed all to be several hundred years
old and to be placed where they were not for instruction but curiosity As I
said before all were marred and broken
We passed many cases and at last came to one in which there were several
clocks and two or three old watches Here the magistrate stopped and opening
the case began comparing my watch with the others The design was different but
the thing was clearly the same On this he turned to me and made me a speech in
a severe and injured tone of voice pointing repeatedly to the watches in the
case, and to my own neither did he seem in the least appeased until I made
signs to him that he had better take my watch and put it with the others This
had some effect in calming him I said in English trusting to tone and manner
to convey my meaning that I was exceedingly sorry if I had been found to have
anything contraband in my possession that I had had no intention of evading the
ordinary tolls and that I would gladly forfeit the watch if my doing so would
atone for an unintentional violation of the law He began presently to relent
and spoke to me in a kinder manner I think he saw that I had offended without
knowledge but I believe the chief thing that brought him round was my not
seeming to be afraid of him although I was quite respectful this and my
having light hair and complexion on which he had remarked previously by signs
as every one else had done
I afterwards found that it was reckoned a very great merit to have fair
hair this being a thing of the rarest possible occurrence and greatly admired
and envied in all who were possessed of it However that might be my watch was
taken from me but our peace was made and I was conducted back to the room
where I had been examined The magistrate then made me another speech whereon I
was taken to a building hard by which I soon discovered to be the common prison
of the town but in which an apartment was assigned me separate from the other
prisoners The room contained a bed table and chairs also a fireplace and a
washingstand There was another door which opened on to a balcony with a
flight of steps descending into a walled garden of some size The man who
conducted me into this room made signs to me that I might go down and walk in
the garden whenever I pleased and intimated that I should shortly have
something brought me to eat I was allowed to retain my blankets and the few
things which I had wrapped inside them but it was plain that I was to consider
myself a prisoner for how long a period I could not by any means determine He
then left me alone
Chapter Eight
In Prison
And now for the first time my courage completely failed me It is enough to say
that I was penniless and a prisoner in a foreign country where I had no
friend nor any knowledge of the customs or language of the people I was at the
mercy of men with whom I had little in common And yet engrossed as I was with
my extremely difficult and doubtful position I could not help feeling deeply
interested in the people among whom I had fallen What was the meaning of that
room full of old machinery which I had just seen and of the displeasure with
which the magistrate had regarded my watch The people had very little machinery
now I had been struck with this over and over again though I had not been more
than fourandtwenty hours in the country They were about as far advanced as
Europeans of the twelfth or thirteenth century certainly not more so And yet
they must have had at one time the fullest knowledge of our own most recent
inventions How could it have happened that having been once so far in advance
they were now as much behind us It was evident that it was not from ignorance
They knew my watch as a watch when they saw it and the care with which the
broken machines were preserved and ticketed proved that they had not lost the
recollection of their former civilization The more I thought the less I could
understand it but at last I concluded that they must have worked out their
mines of coal and iron till either none were left or so few that the use of
these metals was restricted to the very highest nobility This was the only
solution I could think of and though I afterwards found how entirely mistaken
it was I felt quite sure then that it must be the right one
I had hardly arrived at this opinion for above four or five minutes when
the door opened and a young woman made her appearance with a tray and a very
appetizing smell of dinner I gazed upon her with admiration as she laid a cloth
and set a savourylooking dish upon the table As I beheld her I felt as though
my position was already much ameliorated for the very sight of her carried
great comfort She was not more than twenty rather above the middle height
active and strong but yet most delicately featured her lips were full and
sweet her eyes were of a deep hazel and fringed with long and springing
eyelashes her hair was neatly braided from off her forehead her complexion was
simply exquisite her figure as robust as was consistent with the most perfect
female beauty yet not more so her hands and feet might have served as models
to a sculptor Having set the stew upon the table she retired with a glance of
pity whereon remembering pitys kinsman I decided that she should pity me a
little more She returned with a bottle and a glass and found me sitting on the
bed with my hands over my face looking the very picture of abject misery and
like all pictures rather untruthful As I watched her through my fingers out
of the room again I felt sure that she was exceedingly sorry for me Her back
being turned I set to work and ate my dinner which was excellent
She returned in about an hour to take away and there came with her a man
who had a great bunch of keys at his waist and whose manner convinced me that
he was the jailer I afterwards found that he was father to the beautiful
creature who had brought me my dinner I am not a much greater hypocrite than
other people and do what I would I could not look so very miserable I had
already recovered from my dejection and felt in a most genial humour both with
my jailer and his daughter I thanked them for their attention towards me and
though they could not understand they looked at one another and laughed and
chattered till the old man said something or other which I suppose was a joke
for the girl laughed merrily and ran away leaving her father to take away the
dinner things Then I had another visitor who was not so prepossessing and who
seemed to have a great idea of himself and a small one of me He brought a book
with him and pens and paper all very English and yet neither paper nor
printing nor binding nor pen nor ink were quite the same as ours
He gave me to understand that he was to teach me the language and that we
were to begin at once This delighted me both because I should be more
comfortable when I could understand and make myself understood and because I
supposed that the authorities would hardly teach me the language if they
intended any cruel usage towards me afterwards We began at once and I learnt
the names of everything in the room and also the numerals and personal
pronouns I found to my sorrow that the resemblance to European things which I
had so frequently observed hitherto did not hold good in the matter of
language for I could detect no analogy whatever between this and any tongue of
which I have the slightest knowledge a thing which made me think it possible
that I might be learning Hebrew
I must detail no longer from this time my days were spent with a monotony
which would have been tedious but for the society of Yram the jailers
daughter who had taken a great fancy for me and treated me with the utmost
kindness The man came every day to teach me the language but my real
dictionary and grammar were Yram and I consulted them to such purpose that I
made the most extraordinary progress being able at the end of a month to
understand a great deal of the conversation which I overheard between Yram and
her father My teacher professed himself well satisfied and said he should make
a favourable report of me to the authorities I then questioned him as to what
would probably be done with me He told me that my arrival had caused great
excitement throughout the country and that I was to be detained a close
prisoner until the receipt of advices from the Government My having had a
watch he said was the only damaging feature in the case. And then in answer
to my asking why this should be so he gave me a long story of which with my
imperfect knowledge of the language I could make nothing whatever except that
it was a very heinous offence almost as bad at least so I thought I
understood him as having typhus fever But he said he thought my light hair
would save me
I was allowed to walk in the garden there was a high wall so that I managed
to play a sort of hand fives which prevented my feeling the bad effects of my
confinement though it was stupid work playing alone In the course of time
people from the town and neighbourhood began to pester the jailer to be allowed
to see me and on receiving handsome fees he let them do so The people were
good to me almost too good for they were inclined to make a lion of me which
I hated at least the women were only they had to beware of Yram who was a
young lady of a jealous temperament and kept a sharp eye both on me and on my
lady visitors However I felt so kindly towards her and was so entirely
dependent upon her for almost all that made my life a blessing and a comfort to
me that I took good care not to vex her and we remained excellent friends The
men were far less inquisitive and would not I believe have come near me of
their own accord but the women made them come as escorts I was delighted with
their handsome mien and pleasant genial manners
My food was plain but always varied and wholesome and the good red wine
was admirable I had found a sort of wort in the garden which I sweated in
heaps and then dried obtaining thus a substitute for tobacco so that what with
Yram the language visitors fives in the garden smoking and bed my time
slipped by more rapidly and pleasantly than might have been expected I also
made myself a small flute and being a tolerable player amused myself at times
with playing snatches from operas and airs such as »Oh where and oh where« and
»Home sweet home« This was of great advantage to me for the people of the
country were ignorant of the diatonic scale and could hardly believe their ears
on hearing some of our most common melodies Often too they would make me
sing and I could at any time make Yrams eyes swim with tears by singing
»Villikins and his Dinah« »Billy Taylor« »The Ratcatchers Daughter« or as
much of them as I could remember
I had one or two discussions with them because I never would sing on Sunday
of which I kept count in my pocketbook except chants and hymn tunes of
these I regret to say that I had forgotten the words so that I could only sing
the tune They appeared to have little or no religious feeling and to have
never so much as heard of the divine institution of the Sabbath so they
ascribed my observance of it to a fit of sulkiness which they remarked as
coming over me upon every seventh day But they were very tolerant and one of
them said to me quite kindly that she knew how impossible it was to help being
sulky at times only she thought I ought to see some one if it became more
serious a piece of advice which I then failed to understand though I
pretended to take it quite as a matter of course
Once only did Yram treat me in a way that was unkind and unreasonable at
least so I thought it at the time It happened thus I had been playing fives in
the garden and got much heated Although the day was cold for autumn was now
advancing and Cold Harbour as the name of the town in which my prison was
should be translated stood fully 3000 feet above the sea I had played without
my coat and waistcoat and took a sharp chill on resting myself too long in the
open air without protection The next day I had a severe cold and felt really
poorly Being little used even to the lightest ailments and thinking that it
would be rather nice to be petted and cossetted by Yram I certainly did not
make myself out to be any better than I was in fact I remember that I made the
worst of things and took it into my head to consider myself upon the sick list
When Yram brought me my breakfast I complained somewhat dolefully of my
indisposition expecting the sympathy and humouring which I should have received
from my mother and sisters at home Not a bit of it She fired up in an instant
and asked me what I meant by it and how I dared to presume to mention such a
thing especially when I considered in what place I was She had the best mind
to tell her father only that she was afraid the consequences would be so very
serious for me Her manner was so injured and decided and her anger so
evidently unfeigned that I forgot my cold upon the spot begging her by all
means to tell her father if she wished to do so and telling her that I had no
idea of being shielded by her from anything whatever presently mollifying
after having said as many biting things as I could I asked her what it was that
I had done amiss and promised amendment as soon as ever I became aware of it
She saw that I was really ignorant and had had no intention of being rude to
her whereon it came out that illness of any sort was considered in Erewhon to
be highly criminal and immoral and that I was liable even for catching cold
to be had up before the magistrates and imprisoned for a considerable period
an announcement which struck me dumb with astonishment
I followed up the conversation as well as my imperfect knowledge of the
language would allow and caught a glimmering of her position with regard to
illhealth but I did not even then fully comprehend it nor had I as yet any
idea of the other extraordinary perversions of thought which existed among the
Erewhonians but with which I was soon to become familiar I propose therefore
to make no mention of what passed between us on this occasion save that we were
reconciled and that she brought me surreptitiously a glass of hot spirits and
water before I went to bed as also a pile of extra blankets and that next
morning I was quite well I never remember to have lost a cold so rapidly
This little affair explained much which had hitherto puzzled me It seemed
that the two men who were examined before the magistrates on the day of my
arrival in the country had been given in charge on account of ill health and
were both condemned to a long term of imprisonment with hard labour they were
now expiating their offence in this very prison and their exercise ground was a
yard separated by my fives wall from the garden in which I walked This
accounted for the sounds of coughing and groaning which I had often noticed as
coming from the other side of the wall it was high and I had not dared to
climb it for fear the jailer should see me and think that I was trying to
escape but I had often wondered what sort of people they could be on the other
side and had resolved on asking the jailer but I seldom saw him and Yram and
I generally found other things to talk about
Another month flew by during which I made such progress in the language
that I could understand all that was said to me and express myself with
tolerable fluency My instructor professed to be astonished with the progress I
had made I was careful to attribute it to the pains he had taken with me and to
his admirable method of explaining my difficulties so we became excellent
friends
My visitors became more and more frequent Among them there were some both
men and women who delighted me entirely by their simplicity unconsciousness of
self kindly genial manners and last but not least by their exquisite beauty
there came others less wellbred but still comely and agreeable people while
some were snobs pure and simple
At the end of the third month the jailer and my instructor came together to
visit me and told me that communications had been received from the Government
to the effect that if I had behaved well and seemed generally reasonable and if
there could be no suspicion at all about my bodily health and vigour and if my
hair was really light and my eyes blue and complexion fresh I was to be sent
up at once to the metropolis in order that the King and Queen might see me and
converse with me but that when I arrived there I should be set at liberty and
a suitable allowance would be made me My teacher also told me that one of the
leading merchants had sent me an invitation to repair to his house and to
consider myself his guest for as long a time as I chose »He is a delightful
man« continued the interpreter »but has suffered terribly from« here there
came a long word which I could not quite catch only it was much longer than
kleptomania »and has but lately recovered from embezzling a large sum of money
under singularly distressing circumstances but he has quite got over it and
the straighteners say that he has made a really wonderful recovery you are sure
to like him«
Chapter Nine
To the Metropolis
With the above words the good man left the room before I had time to express my
astonishment at hearing such extraordinary language from the lips of one who
seemed to be a reputable member of society »Embezzle a large sum of money under
singularly distressing circumstances« I exclaimed to myself »and ask me to go
and stay with him I shall do nothing of the sort compromise myself at the
very outset in the eyes of all decent people and give the deathblow to my
chances of either converting them if they are the lost tribes of Israel or
making money out of them if they are not No I will do anything rather than
that« And when I next saw my teacher I told him that I did not at all like the
sound of what had been proposed for me and that I would have nothing to do with
it For by my education and the example of my own parents and I trust also in
some degree from inborn instinct I have a very genuine dislike for all
unhandsome dealings in money matters though none can have a greater regard for
money than I have if it be got fairly
The interpreter was much surprised by my answer and said that I should be
very foolish if I persisted in my refusal
»Mr Nosnibor« he continued »is a man of at least 500000 horsepower«
for their way of reckoning and classifying men is by the number of foot pounds
which they have money enough to raise or more roughly by their horsepower
»and keeps a capital table besides his two daughters are among the most
beautiful women in Erewhon«
When I heard all this I confess that I was much shaken and inquired
whether he was favourably considered in the best society
»Certainly« was the answer »no man in the country stands higher«
He then went on to say that one would have thought from my manner that my
proposed host had had jaundice or pleurisy or been generally unfortunate and
that I was in fear of infection
»I am not much afraid of infection« said I impatiently »but I have some
regard for my character and if I know a man to be an embezzler of other
peoples money be sure of it I will give him as wide a berth as I can If he
were ill or poor «
»Ill or poor« interrupted the interpreter with a face of great alarm »So
thats your notion of propriety You would consort with the basest criminals
and yet deem simple embezzlement a bar to friendly intercourse I cannot
understand you«
»But I am poor myself« cried I
»You were« said he »and you were liable to be severely punished for it
indeed at the council which was held concerning you this fact was very nearly
consigning you to what I should myself consider a welldeserved chastisement«
for he was getting angry and so was I »but the Queen was so inquisitive and
wanted so much to see you that she petitioned the King and made him give you
his pardon and assign you a pension in consideration of your meritorious
complexion It is lucky for you that he has not heard what you have been saying
now or he would be sure to cancel it«
As I heard these words my heart sank within me I felt the extreme
difficulty of my position and how wicked I should be in running counter to
established usage I remained silent for several minutes and then said that I
should be happy to accept the embezzlers invitation on which my instructor
brightened and said I was a sensible fellow But I felt very uncomfortable When
he had left the room I mused over the conversation which had just taken place
between us but I could make nothing out of it except that it argued an even
greater perversity of mental vision than I had been yet prepared for And this
made me wretched for I cannot bear having much to do with people who think
differently from myself All sorts of wandering thoughts kept coming into my
head I thought of my masters hut and my seat upon the mountain side where I
had first conceived the insane idea of exploring What years and years seemed to
have passed since I had begun my journey
I thought of my adventures in the gorge and on the journey hither and of
Chowbok I wondered what Chowbok told them about me when he got back he had
done well in going back Chowbok had He was not handsome nay he was hideous
and it would have gone hardly with him Twilight drew on and rain pattered
against the windows Never yet had I felt so unhappy except during three days
of seasickness at the beginning of my voyage from England I sat musing and in
great melancholy until Yram made her appearance with light and supper She too
poor girl was miserable for she had heard that I was to leave them She had
made up her mind that I was to remain always in the town even after my
imprisonment was over and I fancy had resolved to marry me though I had never
so much as hinted at her doing so So what with the distressingly strange
conversation with my teacher my own friendless condition and Yrams
melancholy I felt more unhappy than I can describe and remained so till I got
to bed and sleep sealed my eyelids
On awaking next morning I was much better It was settled that I was to make
my start in a conveyance which was to be in waiting for me at about eleven
oclock and the anticipation of change put me in good spirits which even the
tearful face of Yram could hardly altogether derange I kissed her again and
again assured her that we should meet hereafter and that in the meanwhile I
should be ever mindful of her kindness I gave her two of the buttons off my
coat and a lock of my hair as a keepsake taking a goodly curl from her own
beautiful head in return and so having said goodbye a hundred times till I
was fairly overcome with her great sweetness and her sorrow I tore myself away
from her and got downstairs to the calèche which was in waiting How thankful I
was when it was all over and I was driven away and out of sight Would that I
could have felt that it was out of mind also Pray heaven that it is so now and
that she is married happily among her own people and has forgotten me
And now began a long and tedious journey with which I should hardly trouble
the reader if I could He is safe however for the simple reason that I was
blindfolded during the greater part of the time A bandage was put upon my eyes
every morning and was only removed at night when I reached the inn at which we
were to pass the night We travelled slowly although the roads were good We
drove but one horse which took us our days journey from morning till evening
about six hours exclusive of two hours rest in the middle of the day I do not
suppose we made above thirty or thirtyfive miles on an average Each day we had
a fresh horse As I have said already I could see nothing of the country I
only know that it was level and that several times we had to cross large rivers
in ferryboats The inns were clean and comfortable In one or two of the larger
towns they were quite sumptuous and the food was good and well cooked The same
wonderful health and grace and beauty prevailed everywhere
I found myself an object of great interest so much so that the driver told
me he had to keep our route secret and at times to go to places that were not
directly on our road in order to avoid the press that would otherwise have
awaited us Every evening I had a reception and grew heartily tired of having
to say the same things over and over again in answer to the same questions but
it was impossible to be angry with people whose manners were so delightful They
never once asked after my health or even whether I was fatigued with my
journey but their first question was almost invariably an inquiry after my
temper the naïveté of which astonished me till I became used to it One day
being tired and cold and weary of saying the same thing over and over again I
turned a little brusquely on my questioner and said that I was exceedingly
cross and that I could hardly feel in a worse humour with myself and every one
else than at that moment To my surprise I was met with the kindest expressions
of condolence and heard it buzzed about the room that I was in an ill temper
whereon people began to give me nice things to smell and to eat which really
did seem to have some tempermending quality about them for I soon felt pleased
and was at once congratulated upon being better The next morning two or three
people sent their servants to the hotel with sweetmeats and inquiries whether I
had quite recovered from my ill humour On receiving the good things I felt in
half a mind to be illtempered every evening but I disliked the condolences and
the inquiries and found it most comfortable to keep my natural temper which is
smooth enough generally
Among those who came to visit me were some who had received a liberal
education at the Colleges of Unreason and taken the highest degrees in
hypothetics which are their principal study These gentlemen had now settled
down to various employments in the country as straighteners managers and
cashiers of the Musical Banks priests of religion or what not and carrying
their education with them they diffused a leaven of culture throughout the
country I naturally questioned them about many of the things which had puzzled
me since my arrival I inquired what was the object and meaning of the statues
which I had seen upon the plateau of the pass I was told that they dated from a
very remote period and that there were several other such groups in the
country but none so remarkable as the one which I had seen They had a
religious origin having been designed to propitiate the gods of deformity and
disease In former times it had been the custom to make expeditions over the
ranges and capture the ugliest of Chowboks ancestors whom they could find in
order to sacrifice them in the presence of these deities and thus avert
ugliness and disease from the Erewhonians themselves It had been whispered but
my informant assured me untruly that centuries ago they had even offered up
some of their own people who were ugly or out of health in order to make
examples of them these detestable customs however had been long discontinued
neither was there any present observance of the statues
I had the curiosity to inquire what would be done to any of Chowboks tribe
if they crossed over into Erewhon I was told that nobody knew inasmuch as such
a thing had not happened for ages They would be too ugly to be allowed to go at
large but not so much so as to be criminally liable Their offence in having
come would be a moral one but they would be beyond the straighteners art
Possibly they would be consigned to the Hospital for Incurable Bores and made
to work at being bored for so many hours a day by the Erewhonian inhabitants of
the hospital who are extremely impatient of one anothers boredom but would
soon die if they had no one whom they might bore in fact that they would be
kept as professional borees When I heard this it occurred to me that some
rumours of its substance might perhaps have become current among Chowboks
people for the agony of his fear had been too great to have been inspired by
the mere dread of being burnt alive before the statues
I also questioned them about the museum of old machines and the cause of
the apparent retrogression in all arts sciences and inventions I learnt that
about four hundred years previously the state of mechanical knowledge was far
beyond our own and was advancing with prodigious rapidity until one of the
most learned professors of hypothetics wrote an extraordinary book from which I
propose to give extracts later on proving that the machines were ultimately
destined to supplant the race of man and to become instinct with a vitality as
different from and superior to that of animals as animal to vegetable life
So convincing was his reasoning or unreasoning to this effect that he carried
the country with him and they made a clean sweep of all machinery that had not
been in use for more than two hundred and seventyone years which period was
arrived at after a series of compromises and strictly forbade all further
improvements and inventions under pain of being considered in the eye of the law
to be labouring under typhus fever which they regard as one of the worst of all
crimes
This is the only case in which they have confounded mental and physical
diseases and they do it even here as by an avowed legal fiction I became
uneasy when I remembered about my watch but they comforted me with the
assurance that transgression in this matter was now so unheard of that the law
could afford to be lenient towards an utter stranger especially towards one who
had such a good character they meant physique and such beautiful light hair
Moreover the watch was a real curiosity and would be a welcome addition to the
metropolitan collection so they did not think I need let it trouble me
seriously
I will write however more fully upon this subject when I deal with the
Colleges of Unreason and the Book of the Machines
In about a month from the time of our starting I was told that our journey
was nearly over The bandage was now dispensed with for it seemed impossible
that I should ever be able to find my way back without being captured Then we
rolled merrily along through the streets of a handsome town and got on to a
long broad and level road with poplar trees on either side The road was
raised slightly above the surrounding country and had formerly been a railway
the fields on either side were in the highest conceivable cultivation but the
harvest and also the vintage had been already gathered The weather had got
cooler more rapidly than could be quite accounted for by the progress of the
season so I rather thought that we must have been making away from the sun and
were some degrees farther from the equator than when we started Even here the
vegetation showed that the climate was a hot one yet there was no lack of
vigour among the people on the contrary they were a very hardy race and
capable of great endurance For the hundredth time I thought that take them all
round I had never seen their equals in respect of physique and they looked as
goodnatured as they were robust The flowers were for the most part over but
their absence was in some measure compensated for by a profusion of delicious
fruit closely resembling the figs peaches and pears of Italy and France I
saw no wild animals but birds were plentiful and much as in Europe but not
tame as they had been on the other side the ranges They were shot at with the
crossbow and with arrows gunpowder being unknown or at any rate not in use
We were now nearing the metropolis and I could see great towers and
fortifications and lofty buildings that looked like palaces I began to be
nervous as to my reception but I had got on very well so far and resolved to
continue upon the same plan as hitherto namely to behave just as though I
were in England until I saw that I was making a blunder and then to say nothing
till I could gather how the land lay We drew nearer and nearer The news of my
approach had got abroad and there was a great crowd collected on either side
the road who greeted me with marks of most respectful curiosity keeping me
bowing constantly in acknowledgment from side to side
When we were about a mile off we were met by the Mayor and several
Councillors among whom was a venerable old man who was introduced to me by the
Mayor for so I suppose I should call him as the gentleman who had invited me
to his house I bowed deeply and told him how grateful I felt to him and how
gladly I would accept his hospitality He forbade me to say more and pointing
to his carriage which was close at hand he motioned me to a seat therein I
again bowed profoundly to the Mayor and Councillors and drove off with my
entertainer whose name was Senoj Nosnibor After about half a mile the carriage
turned off the main road and we drove under the walls of the town till we
reached a palazzo on a slight eminence and just on the outskirts of the city
This was Senoj Nosnibors house and nothing can be imagined finer It was
situated near the magnificent and venerable ruins of the old railway station
which formed an imposing feature from the gardens of the house The grounds
some ten or a dozen acres in extent were laid out in terraced gardens one
above the other with flights of broad steps ascending and descending the
declivity of the garden On these steps there were statues of most exquisite
workmanship Besides the statues there were vases filled with various shrubs
that were new to me and on either side the flights of steps there were rows of
old cypresses and cedars with grassy alleys between them Then came choice
vineyards and orchards of fruittrees in full bearing
The house itself was approached by a courtyard and round it was a corridor
on to which rooms opened as at Pompeii In the middle of the court there was a
bath and a fountain Having passed the court we came to the main body of the
house which was two stories in height The rooms were large and lofty perhaps
at first they looked rather bare of furniture but in hot climates people
generally keep their rooms more bare than they do in colder ones I missed also
the sight of a grand piano or some similar instrument there being no means of
producing music in any of the rooms save the larger drawingroom where there
were half a dozen large bronze gongs which the ladies used occasionally to beat
about at random It was not pleasant to hear them but I have heard quite as
unpleasant music both before and since
Mr Nosnibor took me through several spacious rooms till we reached a
boudoir where were his wife and daughters of whom I had heard from the
interpreter Mrs Nosnibor was about forty years old and still handsome but
she had grown very stout her daughters were in the prime of youth and
exquisitely beautiful I gave the preference almost at once to the younger
whose name was Arowhena for the elder sister was haughty while the younger had
a very winning manner Mrs Nosnibor received me with the perfection of
courtesy so that I must have indeed been shy and nervous if I had not at once
felt welcome Scarcely was the ceremony of my introduction well completed before
a servant announced that dinner was ready in the next room I was exceedingly
hungry and the dinner was beyond all praise Can the reader wonder that I began
to consider myself in excellent quarters »That man embezzle money« thought I
to myself »impossible«
But I noticed that my host was uneasy during the whole meal and that he ate
nothing but a little bread and milk towards the end of dinner there came a tall
lean man with a black beard to whom Mr Nosnibor and the whole family paid
great attention he was the family straightener With this gentleman Mr
Nosnibor retired into another room from which there presently proceeded a sound
of weeping and wailing I could hardly believe my ears but in a few minutes I
got to know for a certainty that they came from Mr Nosnibor himself
»Poor papa« said Arowhena as she helped herself composedly to the salt
»how terribly he has suffered«
»Yes« answered her mother »but I think he is quite out of danger now«
Then they went on to explain to me the circumstances of the case and the
treatment which the straightener had prescribed and how successful he had been
all which I will reserve for another chapter and put rather in the form of a
general summary of the opinions current upon these subjects than in the exact
words in which the facts were delivered to me the reader however is earnestly
requested to believe that both in this next chapter and in those that follow it
I have endeavoured to adhere most conscientiously to the strictest accuracy and
that I have never willingly misrepresented though I may have sometimes failed
to understand all the bearings of an opinion or custom
Chapter Ten
Current Opinions
This is what I gathered That in that country if a man falls into ill health or
catches any disorder or fails bodily in any way before he is seventy years old
he is tried before a jury of his countrymen and if convicted is held up to
public scorn and sentenced more or less severely as the case may be There are
subdivisions of illnesses into crimes and misdemeanours as with offences amongst
ourselves a man being punished very heavily for serious illness while failure
of eyes or hearing in one over sixtyfive who has had good health hitherto is
dealt with by fine only or imprisonment in default of payment But if a man
forges a cheque or sets his house on fire or robs with violence from the
person or does any other such things as are criminal in our own country he is
either taken to a hospital and most carefully tended at the public expense or
if he is in good circumstances he lets it be known to all his friends that he
is suffering from a severe fit of immorality just as we do when we are ill and
they come and visit him with great solicitude and inquire with interest how it
all came about what symptoms first showed themselves and so forth questions
which he will answer with perfect unreserve for bad conduct though considered
no less deplorable than illness with ourselves and as unquestionably indicating
something seriously wrong with the individual who misbehaves is nevertheless
held to be the result of either prenatal or postnatal misfortune
The strange part of the story however is that though they ascribe moral
defects to the effect of misfortune either in character or surroundings they
will not listen to the plea of misfortune in cases that in England meet with
sympathy and commiseration only Ill luck of any kind or even ill treatment at
the hands of others is considered an offence against society inasmuch as it
makes people uncomfortable to hear of it Loss of fortune therefore or loss of
some dear friend on whom another was much dependent is punished hardly less
severely than physical delinquency
Foreign indeed as such ideas are to our own traces of somewhat similar
opinions can be found even in nineteenthcentury England If a person has an
abscess the medical man will say that it contains peccant matter and people
say that they have a bad arm or finger or that they are very bad all over when
they only mean diseased Among foreign nations Erewhonian opinions may be still
more clearly noted The Mohammedans for example to this day send their female
prisoners to hospitals and the New Zealand Maoris visit any misfortune with
forcible entry into the house of the offender and the breaking up and burning
of all his goods The Italians again use the same word for disgrace and
misfortune I once heard an Italian lady speak of a young friend whom she
described as endowed with every virtue under heaven »ma« she exclaimed
»povero disgraziato ha ammazzato suo zio« »Poor unfortunate fellow he has
murdered his uncle«
On mentioning this which I heard when taken to Italy as a boy by my father
the person to whom I told it showed no surprise He said that he had been driven
for two or three years in a certain city by a young Sicilian cabdriver of
prepossessing manners and appearance but then lost sight of him On asking what
had become of him he was told that he was in prison for having shot at his
father with intent to kill him happily without serious result Some years
later my informant again found himself warmly accosted by the prepossessing
young cabdriver »Ah caro signore« he exclaimed »sono cinque anni che non lo
vedo tre anni di militare e due anni di disgrazia« etc »My dear sir it is
five years since I saw you three years of military service and two of
misfortune« during which last the poor fellow had been in prison Of moral
sense he showed not so much as a trace He and his father were now on excellent
terms and were likely to remain so unless either of them should again have the
misfortune mortally to offend the other
In the following chapter I will give a few examples of the way in which what
we should call misfortune hardship or disease are dealt with by the
Erewhonians but for the moment will return to their treatment of cases that
with us are criminal As I have already said these though not judicially
punishable are recognized as requiring correction Accordingly there exists a
class of men trained in soulcraft whom they call straighteners as nearly as I
can translate a word which literally means one who bends back the crooked These
men practise much as medical men in England and receive a quasisurreptitious
fee on every visit They are treated with the same unreserve and obeyed as
readily as our own doctors that is to say on the whole sufficiently
because people know that it is their interest to get well as soon as they can
and that they will not be scouted as they would be if their bodies were out of
order even though they may have to undergo a very painful course of treatment
When I say that they will not be scouted I do not mean that an Erewhonian
will suffer no social inconvenience in consequence we will say of having
committed fraud Friends will fall away from him because of his being less
pleasant company just as we ourselves are disinclined to make companions of
those who are either poor or poorly No one with any sense of selfrespect will
place himself on an equality in the matter of affection with those who are less
lucky than himself in birth health money good looks capacity or anything
else Indeed that dislike and even disgust should be felt by the fortunate for
the unfortunate or at any rate for those who have been discovered to have met
with any of the more serious and less familiar misfortunes is not only natural
but desirable for any society whether of man or brute
The fact therefore that the Erewhonians attach none of that guilt to crime
which they do to physical ailments does not prevent the more selfish among them
from neglecting a friend who has robbed a bank for instance till he has fully
recovered but it does prevent them from even thinking of treating criminals
with that contemptuous tone which would seem to say »I if I were you should
be a better man than you are« a tone which is held quite reasonable in regard
to physical ailment Hence though they conceal ill health by every cunning and
hypocrisy and artifice which they can devise they are quite open about the most
flagrant mental diseases should they happen to exist which to do the people
justice is not often Indeed there are some who are so to speak spiritual
valetudinarians and who make themselves exceedingly ridiculous by their nervous
supposition that they are wicked while they are very tolerable people all the
time This however is exceptional and on the whole they use much the same
reserve or unreserve about the state of their moral welfare as we do about our
health
Hence all the ordinary greetings among ourselves such as How do you do
and the like are considered signs of gross illbreeding nor do the politer
classes tolerate even such a common complimentary remark as telling a man that
he is looking well They salute each other with »I hope you are good this
morning« or »I hope you have recovered from the snappishness from which you
were suffering when I last saw you« and if the person saluted has not been
good or is still snappish he says so at once and is condoled with accordingly
Indeed the straighteners have gone so far as to give names from the
hypothetical language as taught at the Colleges of Unreason to all known forms
of mental indisposition and to classify them according to a system of their
own which though I could not understand it seemed to work well in practice
for they are always able to tell a man what is the matter with him as soon as
they have heard his story and their familiarity with the long names assures him
that they thoroughly understand his case
The reader will have no difficulty in believing that the laws regarding ill
health were frequently evaded by the help of recognized fictions which every
one understood but which it would be considered gross illbreeding to even seem
to understand Thus a day or two after my arrival at the Nosnibors one of the
many ladies who called on me made excuses for her husbands only sending his
card on the ground that when going through the public marketplace that morning
he had stolen a pair of socks I had already been warned that I should never
show surprise so I merely expressed my sympathy and said that though I had
only been in the capital so short a time I had already had a very narrow escape
from stealing a clothesbrush and that though I had resisted temptation so far
I was sadly afraid that if I saw any object of special interest that was neither
too hot nor too heavy I should have to put myself in the straighteners hands
Mrs Nosnibor who had been keeping an ear on all that I had been saying
praised me when the lady had gone Nothing she said could have been more
polite according to Erewhonian etiquette She then explained that to have stolen
a pair of socks or to have the socks in more colloquial language was a
recognized way of saying that the person in question was slightly indisposed
In spite of all this they have a keen sense of the enjoyment consequent upon
what they call being well They admire mental health and love it in other
people and take all the pains they can consistently with their other duties
to secure it for themselves They have an extreme dislike to marrying into what
they consider unhealthy families They send for the straightener at once
whenever they have been guilty of anything seriously flagitious often even if
they think that they are on the point of committing it and though his remedies
are sometimes exceedingly painful involving close confinement for weeks and in
some cases the most cruel physical tortures I never heard of a reasonable
Erewhonian refusing to do what his straightener told him any more than of a
reasonable Englishman refusing to undergo even the most frightful operation if
his doctors told him it was necessary
We in England never shrink from telling our doctor what is the matter with
us merely through the fear that he will hurt us We let him do his worst upon
us and stand it without a murmur because we are not scouted for being ill and
because we know that the doctor is doing his best to cure us and that he can
judge of our case better than we can but we should conceal all illness if we
were treated as the Erewhonians are when they have anything the matter with
them we should do the same as with moral and intellectual diseases we should
feign health with the most consummate art till we were found out and should
hate a single flogging given in the way of mere punishment more than the
amputation of a limb if it were kindly and courteously performed from a wish to
help us out of our difficulty and with the full consciousness on the part of
the doctor that it was only by an accident of constitution that he was not in
the like plight himself So the Erewhonians take a flogging once a week and a
diet of bread and water for two or three months together whenever their
straightener recommends it
I do not suppose that even my host on having swindled a confiding widow out
of the whole of her property was put to more actual suffering than a man will
readily undergo at the hands of an English doctor And yet he must have had a
very bad time of it The sounds I heard were sufficient to show that his pain
was exquisite but he never shrank from undergoing it He was quite sure that it
did him good and I think he was right I cannot believe that that man will ever
embezzle money again He may but it will be a long time before he does so
During my confinement in prison and on my journey I had already discovered
a great deal of the above but it still seemed surpassingly strange and I was
in constant fear of committing some piece of rudeness through my inability to
look at things from the same standpoint as my neighbours but after a few weeks
stay with the Nosnibors I got to understand things better especially on having
heard all about my hosts illness of which he told me fully and repeatedly
It seemed that he had been on the Stock Exchange of the city for many years
and had amassed enormous wealth without exceeding the limits of what was
generally considered justifiable or at any rate permissible dealing but at
length on several occasions he had become aware of a desire to make money by
fraudulent representations and had actually dealt with two or three sums in a
way which had made him rather uncomfortable He had unfortunately made light of
it and poohpoohed the ailment until circumstances eventually presented
themselves which enabled him to cheat upon a very considerable scale he told
me what they were and they were about as bad as anything could be but I need
not detail them he seized the opportunity and became aware when it was too
late that he must be seriously out of order He had neglected himself too long
He drove home at once broke the news to his wife and daughters as gently as
he could and sent off for one of the most celebrated straighteners of the
kingdom to a consultation with the family practitioner for the case was plainly
serious On the arrival of the straightener he told his story and expressed his
fear that his morals must be permanently impaired
The eminent man reassured him with a few cheering words and then proceeded
to make a more careful diagnosis of the case He inquired concerning Mr
Nosnibors parents had their moral health been good He was answered that
there had not been anything seriously amiss with them but that his maternal
grandfather whom he was supposed to resemble somewhat in person had been a
consummate scoundrel and had ended his days in a hospital while a brother of
his fathers after having led a most flagitious life for many years had been
at last cured by a philosopher of a new school which as far as I could
understand it bore much the same relation to the old as homoeopathy to
allopathy The straightener shook his head at this and laughingly replied that
the cure must have been due to nature After a few more questions he wrote a
prescription and departed
I saw the prescription It ordered a fine to the State of double the money
embezzled no food but bread and milk for six months and a severe flogging once
a month for twelve I was surprised to see that no part of the fine was to be
paid to the poor woman whose money had been embezzled but on inquiry I learned
that she would have been prosecuted in the Misplaced Confidence Court if she
had not escaped its clutches by dying shortly after she had discovered her loss
As for Mr Nosnibor he had received his eleventh flogging on the day of my
arrival I saw him later on the same afternoon and he was still twinged but
there had been no escape from following out the straighteners prescription for
the socalled sanitary laws of Erewhon are very rigorous and unless the
straightener was satisfied that his orders had been obeyed the patient would
have been taken to a hospital as the poor are and would have been much worse
off Such at least is the law but it is never necessary to enforce it
On a subsequent occasion I was present at an interview between Mr Nosnibor
and the family straightener who was considered competent to watch the
completion of the cure I was struck with the delicacy with which he avoided
even the remotest semblance of inquiry after the physical wellbeing of his
patient though there was a certain yellowness about my hosts eyes which argued
a bilious habit of body To have taken notice of this would have been a gross
breach of professional etiquette I was told however that a straightener
sometimes thinks it right to glance at the possibility of some slight physical
disorder if he finds it important in order to assist him in his diagnosis but
the answers which he gets are generally untrue or evasive and he forms his own
conclusions upon the matter as well as he can Sensible men have been known to
say that the straightener should in strict confidence be told of every physical
ailment that is likely to bear upon the case but people are naturally shy of
doing this for they do not like lowering themselves in the opinion of the
straightener and his ignorance of medical science is supreme I heard of one
lady indeed who had the hardihood to confess that a furious outbreak of
illhumour and extravagant fancies for which she was seeking advice was possibly
the result of indisposition »You should resist that« said the straightener in
a kind but grave voice »we can do nothing for the bodies of our patients such
matters are beyond our province and I desire that I may hear no further
particulars« The lady burst into tears and promised faithfully that she would
never be unwell again
But to return to Mr Nosnibor As the afternoon wore on many carriages drove
up with callers to inquire how he had stood his flogging It had been very
severe but the kind inquiries upon every side gave him great pleasure and he
assured me that he felt almost tempted to do wrong again by the solicitude with
which his friends had treated him during his recovery in this I need hardly say
that he was not serious
During the remainder of my stay in the country Mr Nosnibor was constantly
attentive to his business and largely increased his already great possessions
but I never heard a whisper to the effect of his having been indisposed a second
time or made money by other than the most strictly honourable means I did hear
afterwards in confidence that there had been reason to believe that his health
had been not a little affected by the straighteners treatment but his friends
did not choose to be overcurious upon the subject and on his return to his
affairs it was by common consent passed over as hardly criminal in one who was
otherwise so much afflicted For they regard bodily ailments as the more venial
in proportion as they have been produced by causes independent of the
constitution Thus if a person ruin his health by excessive indulgence at the
table or by drinking they count it to be almost a part of the mental disease
which brought it about and so it goes for little but they have no mercy on
such illnesses as fevers or catarrhs or lung diseases which to us appear to be
beyond the control of the individual. They are only more lenient towards the
diseases of the young such as measles which they think to be like sowing
ones wild oats and look over them as pardonable indiscretions if they have
not been too serious and if they are atoned for by complete subsequent
recovery
It is hardly necessary to say that the office of straightener is one which
requires long and special training It stands to reason that he who would cure a
moral ailment must be practically acquainted with it in all its bearings The
student for the profession of straightener is required to set apart certain
seasons for the practise of each vice in turn as a religious duty These
seasons are called fasts and are continued by the student until he finds that
he really can subdue all the more usual vices in his own person and hence can
advise his patients from the results of his own experience
Those who intend to be specialists rather than general practitioners
devote themselves more particularly to the branch in which their practice will
mainly lie Some students have been obliged to continue their exercises during
their whole lives and some devoted men have actually died as martyrs to the
drink or gluttony or whatever branch of vice they may have chosen for their
especial study The greater number however take no harm by the excursions into
the various departments of vice which it is incumbent upon them to study
For the Erewhonians hold that unalloyed virtue is not a thing to be
immoderately indulged in I was shown more than one case in which the real or
supposed virtues of parents were visited upon the children to the third and
fourth generation The straighteners say that the most that can be truly said
for virtue is that there is a considerable balance in its favour and that it is
on the whole a good deal better to be on its side than against it but they urge
that there is much pseudovirtue going about which is apt to let people in very
badly before they find it out Those men they say are best who are not
remarkable either for vice or virtue I told them about Hogarths idle and
industrious apprentices but they did not seem to think that the industrious
apprentice was a very nice person
Chapter Eleven
Some Erewhonian Trials
In Erewhon as in other countries there are some courts of justice that deal with
special subjects Misfortune generally as I have above explained is considered
more or less criminal but it admits of classification and a court is assigned
to each of the main heads under which it can be supposed to fall Not very long
after I had reached the capital I strolled into the Personal Bereavement Court
and was much both interested and pained by listening to the trial of a man who
was accused of having just lost a wife to whom he had been tenderly attached
and who had left him with three little children of whom the eldest was only
three years old
The defence which the prisoners counsel endeavoured to establish was that
the prisoner had never really loved his wife but it broke down completely for
the public prosecutor called witness after witness who deposed to the fact that
the couple had been devoted to one another and the prisoner repeatedly wept as
incidents were put in evidence that reminded him of the irreparable nature of
the loss he had sustained The jury returned a verdict of guilty after very
little deliberation but recommended the prisoner to mercy on the ground that he
had but recently insured his wifes life for a considerable sum and might be
deemed lucky inasmuch as he had received the money without demur from the
insurance company though he had only paid two premiums
I have just said that the jury found the prisoner guilty When the judge
passed sentence I was struck with the way in which the prisoners counsel was
rebuked for having referred to a work in which the guilt of such misfortunes as
the prisoners was extenuated to a degree that roused the indignation of the
court
»We shall have« said the judge »these crude and subversionary books from
time to time until it is recognized as an axiom of morality that luck is the
only fit object of human veneration How far a man has any right to be more
lucky and hence more venerable than his neighbours is a point that always has
been and always will be settled proximately by a kind of higgling and haggling
of the market and ultimately by brute force but however this may be it stands
to reason that no man should be allowed to be unlucky to more than a very
moderate extent«
Then turning to the prisoner the judge continued »You have suffered a
great loss Nature attaches a severe penalty to such offences and human law
must emphasize the decrees of nature But for the recommendation of the jury I
should have given you six months hard labour I will however commute your
sentence to one of three months with the option of a fine of twentyfive per
cent of the money you have received from the insurance company«
The prisoner thanked the judge and said that as he had no one to look after
his children if he was sent to prison he would embrace the option mercifully
permitted him by his lordship and pay the sum he had named He was then removed
from the dock
The next case was that of a youth barely arrived at mans estate who was
charged with having been swindled out of large property during his minority by
his guardian who was also one of his nearest relations His father had been
long dead and it was for this reason that his offence came on for trial in the
Personal Bereavement Court The lad who was undefended pleaded that he was
young inexperienced greatly in awe of his guardian and without independent
professional advice »Young man« said the judge sternly »do not talk nonsense
People have no right to be young inexperienced greatly in awe of their
guardians and without independent professional advice If by such indiscretions
they outrage the moral sense of their friends they must expect to suffer
accordingly« He then ordered the prisoner to apologize to his guardian and to
receive twelve strokes with a catofninetails
But I shall perhaps best convey to the reader an idea of the entire
perversion of thought which exists among this extraordinary people by
describing the public trial of a man who was accused of pulmonary consumption
an offence which was punished with death until quite recently It did not occur
till I had been some months in the country and I am deviating from
chronological order in giving it here but I had perhaps better do so in order
that I may exhaust this subject before proceeding to others Moreover I should
never come to an end were I to keep to a strictly narrative form and detail the
infinite absurdities with which I daily came in contact
The prisoner was placed in the dock and the jury were sworn much as in
Europe almost all our own modes of procedure were reproduced even to the
requiring the prisoner to plead guilty or not guilty He pleaded not guilty and
the case proceeded The evidence for the prosecution was very strong but I must
do the court the justice to observe that the trial was absolutely impartial
Counsel for the prisoner was allowed to urge everything that could be said in
his defence the line taken was that the prisoner was simulating consumption in
order to defraud an insurance company from which he was about to buy an
annuity and that he hoped thus to obtain it on more advantageous terms If this
could have been shown to be the case he would have escaped a criminal
prosecution and been sent to a hospital as for a moral ailment The view
however was one which could not be reasonably sustained in spite of all the
ingenuity and eloquence of one of the most celebrated advocates of the country
The case was only too clear for the prisoner was almost at the point of death
and it was astonishing that he had not been tried and convicted long previously
His coughing was incessant during the whole trial and it was all that the two
jailers in charge of him could do to keep him on his legs until it was over
The summing up of the judge was admirable He dwelt upon every point that
could be construed in favour of the prisoner but as he proceeded it became
clear that the evidence was too convincing to admit of doubt and there was but
one opinion in the court as to the impending verdict when the jury retired from
the box They were absent for about ten minutes and on their return the foreman
pronounced the prisoner guilty There was a faint murmur of applause but it was
instantly repressed The judge then proceeded to pronounce sentence in words
which I can never forget and which I copied out into a notebook next day from
the report that was published in the leading newspaper I must condense it
somewhat and nothing which I could say would give more than a faint idea of the
solemn not to say majestic severity with which it was delivered The sentence
was as follows
»Prisoner at the bar you have been accused of the great crime of labouring
under pulmonary consumption and after an impartial trial before a jury of your
countrymen you have been found guilty Against the justice of the verdict I can
say nothing the evidence against you was conclusive and it only remains for me
to pass such a sentence upon you as shall satisfy the ends of the law That
sentence must be a very severe one It pains me much to see one who is yet so
young and whose prospects in life were otherwise so excellent brought to this
distressing condition by a constitution which I can only regard as radically
vicious but yours is no case for compassion this is not your first offence
you have led a career of crime and have only profited by the leniency shown you
upon past occasions to offend yet more seriously against the laws and
institutions of your country You were convicted of aggravated bronchitis last
year and I find that though you are now only twentythree years old you have
been imprisoned on no less than fourteen occasions for illnesses of a more or
less hateful character in fact it is not too much to say that you have spent
the greater part of your life in a jail
It is all very well for you to say that you came of unhealthy parents and
had a severe accident in your childhood which permanently undermined your
constitution excuses such as these are the ordinary refuge of the criminal but
they cannot for one moment be listened to by the ear of justice I am not here
to enter upon curious metaphysical questions as to the origin of this or that
questions to which there would be no end were their introduction once tolerated
and which would result in throwing the only guilt on the tissues of the
primordial cell or on the elementary gases There is no question of how you
came to be wicked but only this namely are you wicked or not This has been
decided in the affirmative neither can I hesitate for a single moment to say
that it has been decided justly You are a bad and dangerous person and stand
branded in the eyes of your fellowcountrymen with one of the most heinous known
offences
It is not my business to justify the law the law may in some cases have its
inevitable hardships and I may feel regret at times that I have not the option
of passing a less severe sentence than I am compelled to do But yours is no
such case on the contrary had not the capital punishment for consumption been
abolished I should certainly inflict it now
It is intolerable that an example of such terrible enormity should be
allowed to go at large unpunished Your presence in the society of respectable
people would lead the less ablebodied to think more lightly of all forms of
illness neither can it be permitted that you should have the chance of
corrupting unborn beings who might hereafter pester you The unborn must not be
allowed to come near you and this not so much for their protection for they
are our natural enemies as for our own for since they will not be utterly
gainsaid it must be seen to that they shall be quartered upon those who are
least likely to corrupt them
But independently of this consideration and independently of the physical
guilt which attaches itself to a crime so great as yours there is yet another
reason why we should be unable to show you mercy even if we were inclined to do
so I refer to the existence of a class of men who lie hidden among us and who
are called physicians Were the severity of the law or the current feeling of
the country to be relaxed never so slightly these abandoned persons who are
now compelled to practise secretly and who can be consulted only at the greatest
risk would become frequent visitors in every household their organization and
their intimate acquaintance with all family secrets would give them a power
both social and political which nothing could resist The head of the household
would become subordinate to the family doctor who would interfere between man
and wife between master and servant until the doctors should be the only
depositaries of power in the nation and have all that we hold precious at their
mercy A time of universal dephysicalization would ensue medicinevendors of
all kinds would abound in our streets and advertise in all our newspapers There
is one remedy for this and one only It is that which the laws of this country
have long received and acted upon and consists in the sternest repression of
all diseases whatsoever as soon as their existence is made manifest to the eye
of the law Would that that eye were far more piercing than it is
But I will enlarge no further upon things that are themselves so obvious
You may say that it is not your fault The answer is ready enough at hand and it
amounts to this that if you had been born of healthy and welltodo parents
and been well taken care of when you were a child you would never have offended
against the laws of your country nor found yourself in your present disgraceful
position If you tell me that you had no hand in your parentage and education
and that it is therefore unjust to lay these things to your charge I answer
that whether your being in a consumption is your fault or no it is a fault in
you and it is my duty to see that against such faults as this the commonwealth
shall be protected You may say that it is your misfortune to be criminal I
answer that it is your crime to be unfortunate
Lastly I should point out that even though the jury had acquitted you a
supposition that I cannot seriously entertain I should have felt it my duty to
inflict a sentence hardly less severe than that which I must pass at present
for the more you had been found guiltless of the crime imputed to you the more
you would have been found guilty of one hardly less heinous I mean the crime
of having been maligned unjustly
I do not hesitate therefore to sentence you to imprisonment with hard
labour for the rest of your miserable existence During that period I would
earnestly entreat you to repent of the wrongs you have done already and to
entirely reform the constitution of your whole body I entertain but little hope
that you will pay attention to my advice you are already far too abandoned Did
it rest with myself I should add nothing in mitigation of the sentence which I
have passed but it is the merciful provision of the law that even the most
hardened criminal shall be allowed some one of the three official remedies
which is to be prescribed at the time of his conviction I shall therefore order
that you receive two tablespoonfuls of castor oil daily until the pleasure of
the court be further known«
When the sentence was concluded the prisoner acknowledged in a few scarcely
audible words that he was justly punished and that he had had a fair trial He
was then removed to the prison from which he was never to return There was a
second attempt at applause when the judge had finished speaking but as before
it was at once repressed and though the feeling of the court was strongly
against the prisoner there was no show of any violence against him if one may
except a little hooting from the bystanders when he was being removed in the
prisoners van Indeed nothing struck me more during my whole sojourn in the
country than the general respect for law and order
Chapter Twelve
Malcontents
I confess that I felt rather unhappy when I got home and thought more closely
over the trial that I had just witnessed For the time I was carried away by the
opinion of those among whom I was They had no misgivings about what they were
doing There did not seem to be a person in the whole court who had the smallest
doubt but that all was exactly as it should be This universal unsuspecting
confidence was imparted by sympathy to myself in spite of all my training in
opinions so widely different So it is with most of us that which we observe to
be taken as a matter of course by those around us we take as a matter of course
ourselves And after all it is our duty to do this save upon grave occasion
But when I was alone and began to think the trial over it certainly did
strike me as betraying a strange and untenable position Had the judge said that
he acknowledged the probable truth namely that the prisoner was born of
unhealthy parents or had been starved in infancy or had met with some
accidents which had developed consumption and had he then gone on to say that
though he knew all this and bitterly regretted that the protection of society
obliged him to inflict additional pain on one who had suffered so much already
yet that there was no help for it I could have understood the position however
mistaken I might have thought it The judge was fully persuaded that the
infliction of pain upon the weak and sickly was the only means of preventing
weakness and sickliness from spreading and that ten times the suffering now
inflicted upon the accused was eventually warded off from others by the present
apparent severity I could therefore perfectly understand his inflicting
whatever pain he might consider necessary in order to prevent so bad an example
from spreading further and lowering the Erewhonian standard but it seemed
almost childish to tell the prisoner that he could have been in good health if
he had been more fortunate in his constitution and been exposed to less
hardships when he was a boy
I write with great diffidence but it seems to me that there is no
unfairness in punishing people for their misfortunes or rewarding them for
their sheer good luck it is the normal condition of human life that this should
be done and no rightminded person will complain of being subjected to the
common treatment There is no alternative open to us It is idle to say that men
are not responsible for their misfortunes What is responsibility Surely to be
responsible means to be liable to have to give an answer should it be demanded
and all things which live are responsible for their lives and actions should
society see fit to question them through the mouth of its authorized agent
What is the offence of a lamb that we should rear it and tend it and lull
it into security for the express purpose of killing it Its offence is the
misfortune of being something which society wants to eat and which cannot
defend itself This is ample Who shall limit the right of society except
society itself And what consideration for the individual is tolerable unless
society be the gainer thereby Wherefore should a man be so richly rewarded for
having been son to a millionaire were it not clearly provable that the common
welfare is thus better furthered We cannot seriously detract from a mans merit
in having been the son of a rich father without imperilling our own tenure of
things which we do not wish to jeopardize if this were otherwise we should not
let him keep his money for a single hour we would have it ourselves at once
For property is robbery but then we are all robbers or wouldbe robbers
together and have found it essential to organize our thieving as we have found
it necessary to organize our lust and our revenge Property marriage the law
as the bed to the river so rule and convention to the instinct and woe to him
who tampers with the banks while the flood is flowing
But to return Even in England a man on board a ship with yellow fever is
held responsible for his mischance no matter what his being kept in quarantine
may cost him He may catch the fever and die we cannot help it he must take
his chance as other people do but surely it would be desperate unkindness to
add contumely to our selfprotection unless indeed we believe that contumely
is one of our best means of selfprotection Again take the case of maniacs We
say that they are irresponsible for their actions but we take good care or
ought to take good care that they shall answer to us for their insanity and we
imprison them in what we call an asylum that modern sanctuary if we do not
like their answers This is a strange kind of irresponsibility What we ought to
say is that we can afford to be satisfied with a less satisfactory answer from a
lunatic than from one who is not mad because lunacy is less infectious than
crime
We kill a serpent if we go in danger by it simply for being such and such a
serpent in such and such a place but we never say that the serpent has only
itself to blame for not having been a harmless creature Its crime is that of
being the thing which it is; but this is a capital offence and we are right in
killing it out of the way unless we think it more danger to do so than to let
it escape nevertheless we pity the creature even though we kill it
But in the case of him whose trial I have described above it was impossible
that anyone in the court should not have known that it was but by an accident of
birth and circumstances that he was not himself also in a consumption and yet
none thought that it disgraced them to hear the judge give vent to the most
cruel truisms about him The judge himself was a kind and thoughtful person He
was a man of magnificent and benign presence He was evidently of an iron
constitution and his face wore an expression of the maturest wisdom and
experience yet for all this old and learned as he was he could not see things
which one would have thought would have been apparent even to a child He could
not emancipate himself from nay it did not even occur to him to feel the
bondage of the ideas in which he had been born and bred
So was it also with the jury and bystanders and most wonderful of all
so was it even with the prisoner Throughout he seemed fully impressed with the
notion that he was being dealt with justly he saw nothing wanton in his being
told by the judge that he was to be punished not so much as a necessary
protection to society although this was not entirely lost sight of as because
he had not been better born and bred than he was But this led me to hope that
he suffered less than he would have done if he had seen the matter in the same
light that I did And after all justice is relative
I may here mention that only a few years before my arrival in the country
the treatment of all convicted invalids had been much more barbarous than now
for no physical remedy was provided and prisoners were put to the severest
labour in all sorts of weather so that most of them soon succumbed to the
extreme hardships which they suffered this was supposed to be beneficial in
some ways inasmuch as it put the country to less expense for the maintenance of
its criminal class but the growth of luxury had induced a relaxation of the old
severity and a sensitive age would no longer tolerate what appeared to be an
excess of rigour even towards the most guilty moreover it was found that
juries were less willing to convict and justice was often cheated because there
was no alternative between virtually condemning a man to death and letting him
go free it was also held that the country paid in recommittals for its
overseverity for those who had been imprisoned even for trifling ailments were
often permanently disabled by their imprisonment and when a man had been once
convicted it was probable that he would seldom afterwards be off the hands of
the country
These evils had long been apparent and recognized yet people were too
indolent and too indifferent to suffering not their own to bestir themselves
about putting an end to them until at last a benevolent reformer devoted his
whole life to effecting the necessary changes He divided all illnesses into
three classes those affecting the head the trunk and the lower limbs and
obtained an enactment that all diseases of the head whether internal or
external should be treated with laudanum those of the body with castoroil
and those of the lower limbs with an embrocation of strong sulphuric acid and
water
It may be said that the classification was not sufficiently careful and
that the remedies were ill chosen but it is a hard thing to initiate any
reform and it was necessary to familiarize the public mind with the principle
by inserting the thin end of the wedge first it is not therefore to be
wondered at that among so practical a people there should still be some room for
improvement The mass of the nation are well pleased with existing arrangements
and believe that their treatment of criminals leaves little or nothing to be
desired but there is an energetic minority who hold what are considered to be
extreme opinions and who are not at all disposed to rest contented until the
principle lately admitted has been carried further
I was at some pains to discover the opinions of these men and their reasons
for entertaining them They are held in great odium by the generality of the
public and are considered as subverters of all morality whatever The
malcontents on the other hand assert that illness is the inevitable result of
certain antecedent causes which in the great majority of cases were beyond
the control of the individual, and that therefore a man is only guilty for being
in a consumption in the same way as rotten fruit is guilty for having gone
rotten True the fruit must be thrown on one side as unfit for mans use and
the man in a consumption must be put in prison for the protection of his
fellowcitizens but these radicals would not punish him further than by loss of
liberty and a strict surveillance So long as he was prevented from injuring
society they would allow him to make himself useful by supplying whatever of
societys wants he could supply If he succeeded in thus earning money they
would have him made as comfortable in prison as possible and would in no way
interfere with his liberty more than was necessary to prevent him from escaping
or from becoming more severely indisposed within the prison walls but they
would deduct from his earnings the expenses of his board lodging surveillance
and half those of his conviction If he was too ill to do anything for his
support in prison they would allow him nothing but bread and water and very
little of that
They say that society is foolish in refusing to allow itself to be benefited
by a man merely because he has done it harm hitherto and that objection to the
labour of the diseased classes is only protection in another form It is an
attempt to raise the natural price of a commodity by saying that such and such
persons who are able and willing to produce it shall not do so whereby every
one has to pay more for it
Besides so long as a man has not been actually killed he is our
fellowcreature though perhaps a very unpleasant one It is in a great degree
the doing of others that he is what he is or in other words, the society which
now condemns him is partly answerable concerning him They say that there is no
fear of any increase of disease under these circumstances for the loss of
liberty the surveillance the considerable and compulsory deduction from the
prisoners earnings the very sparing use of stimulants of which they would
allow but little to any and none to those who did not earn them the enforced
celibacy and above all the loss of reputation among friends are in their
opinion as ample safeguards to society against a general neglect of health as
those now resorted to A man therefore so they say should carry his
profession or trade into prison with him if possible if not he must earn his
living by the nearest thing to it that he can but if he be a gentleman born and
bred to no profession he must pick oakum or write art criticisms for a
newspaper
These people say further that the greater part of the illness which exists
in their country is brought about by the insane manner in which it is treated
They believe that illness is in many cases just as curable as the moral
diseases which they see daily cured around them but that a great reform is
impossible till men learn to take a juster view of what physical obliquity
proceeds from Men will hide their illnesses as long as they are scouted on its
becoming known that they are ill it is the scouting not the physic which
produces the concealment and if a man felt that the news of his being in
illhealth would be received by his neighbours as a deplorable fact but one as
much the result of necessary antecedent causes as though he had broken into a
jewellers shop and stolen a valuable diamond necklace as a fact which might
just as easily have happened to themselves only that they had the luck to be
better born or reared and if they also felt that they would not be made more
uncomfortable in the prison than the protection of society against infection and
the proper treatment of their own disease actually demanded men would give
themselves up to the police as readily on perceiving that they had taken
smallpox as they go now to the straightener when they feel that they are on the
point of forging a will or running away with somebody elses wife
But the main argument on which they rely is that of economy for they know
that they will sooner gain their end by appealing to mens pockets in which
they have generally something of their own than to their heads which contain
for the most part little but borrowed or stolen property and also they believe
it to be the readiest test and the one which has most to show for itself If a
course of conduct can be shown to cost a country less and this by no
dishonourable saving and with no indirectly increased expenditure in other ways
they hold that it requires a good deal to upset the arguments in favour of its
being adopted and whether rightly or wrongly I cannot pretend to say they
think that the more medicinal and humane treatment of the diseased of which they
are the advocates would in the long run be much cheaper to the country but I
did not gather that these reformers were opposed to meeting some of the more
violent forms of illness with the catofninetails or with death for they saw
no so effectual way of checking them they would therefore both flog and hang
but they would do so pitifully
I have perhaps dwelt too long upon opinions which can have no possible
bearing upon our own but I have not said the tenth part of what these wouldbe
reformers urged upon me I feel however that I have sufficiently trespassed
upon the attention of the reader
Chapter Thirteen
The Views of the Erewhonians
Concerning Death
The Erewhonians regard death with less abhorrence than disease If it is an
offence at all it is one beyond the reach of the law which is therefore silent
on the subject but they insist that the greater number of those who are
commonly said to die have never yet been born not at least into that unseen
world which is alone worthy of consideration As regards this unseen world I
understand them to say that some miscarry in respect to it before they have even
reached the seen and some after while few are ever truly born into it at all
the greater part of all the men and women over the whole country miscarrying
before they reach it And they say that this does not matter so much as we think
it does
As for what we call death they argue that too much has been made of it The
mere knowledge that we shall one day die does not make us very unhappy no one
thinks that he or she will escape so that none are disappointed We do not care
greatly even though we know that we have not long to live the only thing that
would seriously affect us would be the knowing or rather thinking that we know
the precise moment at which the blow will fall Happily no one can ever
certainly know this though many try to make themselves miserable by
endeavouring to find it out It seems as though there were some power somewhere
which mercifully stays us from putting that sting into the tail of death which
we would put there if we could and which ensures that though death must always
be a bugbear it shall never under any conceivable circumstances be more than a
bugbear
For even though a man is condemned to die in a weeks time and is shut up in
a prison from which it is certain that he cannot escape he will always hope
that a reprieve may come before the week is over Besides the prison may catch
fire and he may be suffocated not with a rope but with common ordinary smoke
or he may be struck dead by lightning while exercising in the prison yards When
the morning is come on which the poor wretch is to be hanged he may choke at
his breakfast or die from failure of the hearts action before the drop has
fallen and even though it has fallen he cannot be quite certain that he is
going to die for he cannot know this till his death has actually taken place
and it will be too late then for him to discover that he was going to die at the
appointed hour after all The Erewhonians therefore hold that death like
life is an affair of being more frightened than hurt
They burn their dead and the ashes are presently scattered over any piece
of ground which the deceased may himself have chosen No one is permitted to
refuse this hospitality to the dead people therefore generally choose some
garden or orchard which they may have known and been fond of when they were
young The superstitious hold that those whose ashes are scattered over any land
become its jealous guardians from that time forward and the living like to
think that they shall become identified with this or that locality where they
have once been happy
They do not put up monuments nor write epitaphs for their dead though in
former ages their practice was much as ours but they have a custom which comes
to much the same thing for the instinct of preserving the name alive after the
death of the body seems to be common to all mankind They have statues of
themselves made while they are still alive those that is who can afford it
and write inscriptions under them which are often quite as untruthful as are
our own epitaphs only in another way For they do not hesitate to describe
themselves as victims to ill temper jealousy covetousness and the like but
almost always lay claim to personal beauty whether they have it or not and
often to the possession of a large sum in the funded debt of the country If a
person is ugly he does not sit as a model for his own statue although it bears
his name He gets the handsomest of his friends to sit for him and one of the
ways of paying a compliment to another is to ask him to sit for such a statue
Women generally sit for their own statues from a natural disinclination to
admit the superior beauty of a friend but they expect to be idealized I
understood that the multitude of these statues was beginning to be felt as an
encumbrance in almost every family and that the custom would probably before
long fall into desuetude
Indeed this has already come about to the satisfaction of every one as
regards the statues of public men not more than three of which can be found in
the whole capital I expressed my surprise at this and was told that some five
hundred years before my visit the city had been so overrun with these pests
that there was no getting about and people were worried beyond endurance by
having their attention called at every touch and turn to something which when
they had attended to it they found not to concern them Most of these statues
were mere attempts to do for some man or woman what an animalstuffer does more
successfully for a dog or bird or pike They were generally foisted on the
public by some coterie that was trying to exalt itself in exalting some one
else and not unfrequently they had no other inception than desire on the part
of some member of the côterie to find a job for a young sculptor to whom his
daughter was engaged Statues so begotten could never be anything but
deformities and this is the way in which they are sure to be begotten as soon
as the art of making them at all has become widely practised
I know not why but all the noblest arts hold in perfection but for a very
little moment They soon reach a height from which they begin to decline and
when they have begun to decline it is a pity that they cannot be knocked on the
head for an art is like a living organism better dead than dying There is no
way of making an aged art young again it must be born anew and grow up from
infancy as a new thing working out its own salvation from effort to effort in
all fear and trembling
The Erewhonians five hundred years ago understood nothing of all this I
doubt whether they even do so now They wanted to get the nearest thing they
could to a stuffed man whose stuffing should not grow mouldy They should have
had some such an establishment as our Madame Tussauds where the figures wear
real clothes and are painted up to nature Such an institution might have been
made selfsupporting for people might have been made to pay before going in As
it was they had let their poor cold grimy colourless heroes and heroines loaf
about in squares and in corners of streets in all weathers without any attempt
at artistic sanitation for there was no provision for burying their dead works
of art out of their sight no drainage so to speak whereby statues that had
been sufficiently assimilated so as to form part of the residuary impression of
the country might be carried away out of the system Hence they put them up
with a light heart on the cackling of their coteries and they and their
children had to live often enough with some wordy windbag whose cowardice had
cost the country untold loss in blood and money
At last the evil reached such a pitch that the people rose and with
indiscriminate fury destroyed good and bad alike Most of what was destroyed was
bad but some few works were good and the sculptors of today wring their hands
over some of the fragments that have been preserved in museums up and down the
country For a couple of hundred years or so not a statue was made from one end
of the kingdom to the other but the instinct for having stuffed men and women
was so strong that people at length again began to try to make them Not
knowing how to make them and having no academies to mislead them the earliest
sculptors of this period thought things out for themselves and again produced
works that were full of interest so that in three or four generations they
reached a perfection hardly if at all inferior to that of several hundred years
earlier
On this the same evils recurred Sculptors obtained high prices the art
became a trade schools arose which professed to sell the holy spirit of art
for money pupils flocked from far and near to buy it in the hopes of selling
it later on and were struck purblind as a punishment for the sin of those who
sent them Before long a second iconoclastic fury would infallibly have
followed but for the prescience of a statesman who succeeded in passing an Act
to the effect that no statue of any public man or woman should be allowed to
remain unbroken for more than fifty years unless at the end of that time a jury
of twentyfour men taken at random from the street pronounced in favour of its
being allowed a second fifty years of life Every fifty years this
reconsideration was to be repeated and unless there was a majority of eighteen
in favour of the retention of the statue it was to be destroyed
Perhaps a simpler plan would have been to forbid the erection of a statue to
any public man or woman till he or she had been dead at least one hundred years
and even then to insist on reconsideration of the claims of the deceased and the
merit of the statue every fifty years but the working of the Act brought about
results that on the whole were satisfactory For in the first place many public
statues that would have been voted under the old system were not ordered when
it was known that they would be almost certainly broken up after fifty years
and in the second public sculptors knowing their work to be so ephemeral
scamped it to an extent that made it offensive even to the most uncultured eye
Hence before long subscribers took to paying the sculptor for the statute of
their dead statesmen on condition that he did not make it The tribute of
respect was thus paid to the deceased the public sculptors were not mulcted
and the rest of the public suffered no inconvenience
I was told however that an abuse of this custom is growing up inasmuch as
the competition for the commission not to make a statue is so keen that
sculptors have been known to return a considerable part of the purchase money to
the subscribers by an arrangement made with them beforehand Such transactions
however are always clandestine A small inscription is let into the pavement
where the public statue would have stood which informs the reader that such a
statue has been ordered for the person whoever he or she may be but that as
yet the sculptor has not been able to complete it There has been no Act to
repress statues that are intended for private consumption but as I have said
the custom is falling into desuetude
Returning to Erewhonian customs in connection with death there is one which
I can hardly pass over When anyone dies the friends of the family write no
letters of condolence neither do they attend the scattering nor wear mourning
but they send little boxes filled with artificial tears and with the name of
the sender painted neatly upon the outside of the lid The tears vary in number
from two to fifteen or sixteen according to degree of intimacy or relationship
and people sometimes find it a nice point of etiquette to know the exact number
which they ought to send Strange as it may appear this attention is highly
valued and its omission by those from whom it might be expected is keenly felt
These tears were formerly stuck with adhesive plaster to the cheeks of the
bereaved and were worn in public for a few months after the death of a
relative they were then banished to the hat or bonnet and are now no longer
worn
The birth of a child is looked upon as a painful subject on which it is
kinder not to touch the illness of the mother is carefully concealed until the
necessity for signing the birthformula of which hereafter renders further
secrecy impossible and for some months before the event the family live in
retirement seeing very little company When the offence is over and done with
it is condoned by the common want of logic for this merciful provision of
nature this buffer against collisions this friction which upsets our
calculations but without which existence would be intolerable this crowning
glory of human invention whereby we can be blind and see at one and the same
moment this blessed inconsistency exists here as elsewhere and though the
strictest writers on morality have maintained that it is wicked for a woman to
have children at all inasmuch as it is wrong to be out of health that good may
come yet the necessity of the case has caused a general feeling in favour of
passing over such events in silence and of assuming their nonexistence except
in such flagrant cases as force themselves on the public notice Against these
the condemnation of society is inexorable and if it is believed that the
illness has been dangerous and protracted it is almost impossible for a woman
to recover her former position in society
The above conventions struck me as arbitrary and cruel but they put a stop
to many fancied ailments for the situation so far from being considered
interesting is looked upon as savouring more or less distinctly of a very
reprehensible condition of things and the ladies take care to conceal it as
long as they can even from their own husbands in anticipation of a severe
scolding as soon as the misdemeanour is discovered Also the baby is kept out of
sight except on the day of signing the birthformula until it can walk and
talk Should the child unhappily die a coroners inquest is inevitable but in
order to avoid disgracing a family which may have been hitherto respected it is
almost invariably found that the child was over seventyfive years old and died
from the decay of nature
Chapter Fourteen
Mahaina
I continued my sojourn with the Nosnibors In a few days Mr Nosnibor had
recovered from his flogging and was looking forward with glee to the fact that
the next would be the last I did not think that there seemed any occasion even
for this but he said it was better to be on the safe side and he would make up
the dozen He now went to his business as usual and I understood that he was
never more prosperous in spite of his heavy fine He was unable to give me much
of his time during the day for he was one of those valuable men who are paid
not by the year month week or day but by the minute His wife and daughters
however made much of me and introduced me to their friends who came in shoals
to call upon me
One of these persons was a lady called Mahaina Zulora the elder of my
hosts daughters ran up to her and embraced her as soon as she entered the
room at the same time inquiring tenderly after her poor dipsomania Mahaina
answered that it was just as bad as ever she was a perfect martyr to it and
her excellent health was the only thing which consoled her under her affliction
Then the other ladies joined in with condolences and the neverfailing
suggestions which they had ready for every mental malady They recommended their
own straightener and disparaged Mahainas Mrs Nosnibor had a favourite
nostrum but I could catch little of its nature I heard the words »full
confidence that the desire to drink will cease when the formula has been
repeated this confidence is everything far from undervaluing a thorough
determination never to touch spirits again fail too often formula a
certain cure with great emphasis prescribed form full conviction« The
conversation then became more audible and was carried on at considerable
length I should perplex myself and the reader by endeavouring to follow the
ingenious perversity of all they said enough that in the course of time the
visit came to an end and Mahaina took her leave receiving affectionate embraces
from all the ladies I had remained in the background after the first ceremony
of introduction for I did not like the looks of Mahaina and the conversation
displeased me When she left the room I had some consolation in the remarks
called forth by her departure
At first they fell to praising her very demurely She was all this that and
the other till I disliked her more and more at every word and inquired how it
was that the straighteners had not been able to cure her as they had cured Mr
Nosnibor
There was a shade of significance on Mrs Nosnibors face as I said this
which seemed to imply that she did not consider Mahainas case to be quite one
for a straightener It flashed across me that perhaps the poor woman did not
drink at all I knew that I ought not to have inquired but I could not help it
and asked point blank whether she did or not
»We can none of us judge of the condition of other people« said Mrs
Nosnibor in a gravely charitable tone and with a look towards Zulora
»Oh mamma« answered Zulora pretending to be half angry but rejoiced at
being able to say out what she was already longing to insinuate »I dont
believe a word of it Its all indigestion I remember staying in the house with
her for a whole month last summer and I am sure she never once touched a drop
of wine or spirits The fact is Mahaina is a very weakly girl and she pretends
to get tipsy in order to win a forbearance from her friends to which she is not
entitled She is not strong enough for her calisthenic exercises and she knows
she would be made to do them unless her inability was referred to moral causes«
Here the younger sister who was ever sweet and kind remarked that she
thought Mahaina did tipple occasionally »I also think« she added »that she
sometimes takes poppy juice«
»Well then perhaps she does drink sometimes« said Zulora »but she would
make us all think that she does it much oftener in order to hide her weakness«
And so they went on for half an hour and more bandying about the question
as to how far their late visitors intemperance was real or no Every now and
then they would join in some charitable commonplace and would pretend to be all
of one mind that Mahaina was a person whose bodily health would be excellent if
it were not for her unfortunate inability to refrain from excessive drinking
but as soon as this appeared to be fairly settled they began to be uncomfortable
until they had undone their work and left some serious imputation upon her
constitution At last seeing that the debate had assumed the character of a
cyclone or circular storm going round and round and round and round till one
could never say where it began nor where it ended I made some apology for an
abrupt departure and retired to my own room
Here at least I was alone but I was very unhappy I had fallen upon a set
of people who in spite of their high civilization and many excellences had
been so warped by the mistaken views presented to them during childhood from
generation to generation that it was impossible to see how they could ever
clear themselves Was there nothing which I could say to make them feel that the
constitution of a persons body was a thing over which he or she had had at any
rate no initial control whatever while the mind was a perfectly different
thing and capable of being created anew and directed according to the pleasure
of its possessor Could I never bring them to see that while habits of mind and
character were entirely independent of initial mental force and early education
the body was so much a creature of parentage and circumstances that no
punishment for illhealth should be ever tolerated save as a protection from
contagion and that even where punishment was inevitable it should be attended
with compassion Surely if the unfortunate Mahaina were to feel that she could
avow her bodily weakness without fear of being despised for her infirmities and
if there were medical men to whom she could fairly state her case she would not
hesitate about doing so through the fear of taking nasty medicine It was
possible that her malady was incurable for I had heard enough to convince me
that her dipsomania was only a pretence and that she was temperate in all her
habits in that case she might perhaps be justly subject to annoyances or even
to restraint but who could say whether she was curable or not until she was
able to make a clean breast of her symptoms instead of concealing them In their
eagerness to stamp out disease these people overshot their mark for people had
become so clever at dissembling they painted their faces with such consummate
skill they repaired the decay of time and the effects of mischance with such
profound dissimulation that it was really impossible to say whether anyone was
well or ill till after an intimate acquaintance of months or years Even then
the shrewdest were constantly mistaken in their judgments and marriages were
often contracted with most deplorable results owing to the art with which
infirmity had been concealed
It appeared to me that the first step towards the cure of disease should be
the announcement of the fact to a persons near relations and friends If anyone
had a headache he ought to be permitted within reasonable limits to say so at
once and to retire to his own bedroom and take a pill without every ones
looking grave and tears being shed and all the rest of it As it was even upon
hearing it whispered that somebody else was subject to headaches a whole
company must look as though they had never had a headache in their lives It is
true they were not very prevalent for the people were the healthiest and most
comely imaginable owing to the severity with which ill health as treated
still even the best were liable to be out of sorts sometimes and there were
few families that had not a medicinechest in a cupboard somewhere
Chapter Fifteen
The Musical Banks
On my return to the drawingroom I found that the Mahaina current had expended
itself The ladies were just putting away their work and preparing to go out I
asked them where they were going They answered with a certain air of reserve
that they were going to the bank to get some money
Now I had already collected that the mercantile affairs of the Erewhonians
were conducted on a totally different system from our own I had however
gathered little hitherto except that they had two distinct commercial systems
of which the one appealed more strongly to the imagination than anything to
which we are accustomed in Europe inasmuch as the banks that were conducted
upon this system were decorated in the most profuse fashion and all mercantile
transactions were accompanied with music so that they were called Musical
Banks though the music was hideous to a European ear
As for the system itself I never understood it neither can I do so now
they have a code in connection with it which I have not the slightest doubt
that they understand but no foreigner can hope to do so One rule runs into
and against another as in a most complicated grammar or as in Chinese
pronunciation wherein I am told that the slightest change in accentuation or
tone of voice alters the meaning of a whole sentence Whatever is incoherent in
my description must be referred to the fact of my never having attained to a
full comprehension of the subject
So far however as I could collect anything certain I gathered that they
have two distinct currencies each under the control of its own banks and
mercantile codes One of these the one with the Musical Banks was supposed to
be the system and to give out the currency in which all monetary transactions
should be carried on and as far as I could see all who wished to be considered
respectable kept a larger or smaller balance at these banks On the other hand
if there is one thing of which I am more sure than another it is that the
amount so kept had no direct commercial value in the outside world I am sure
that the managers and cashiers of the Musical Banks were not paid in their own
currency Mr Nosnibor used to go to these banks or rather to the great mother
bank of the city sometimes but not very often He was a pillar of one of the
other kind of banks though he appeared to hold some minor office also in the
musical ones The ladies generally went alone as indeed was the case in most
families except on state occasions
I had long wanted to know more of this strange system and had the greatest
desire to accompany my hostess and her daughters I had seen them go out almost
every morning since my arrival and had noticed that they carried their purses in
their hands not exactly ostentatiously yet just so as that those who met them
should see whither they were going I had never however yet been asked to go
with them myself
It is not easy to convey a persons manner by words and I can hardly give
any idea of the peculiar feeling that came upon me when I saw the ladies on the
point of starting for the bank There was a something of regret a something as
though they would wish to take me with them but did not like to ask me and yet
as though I were hardly to ask to be taken I was determined however to bring
matters to an issue with my hostess about my going with them and after a little
parleying and many inquiries as to whether I was perfectly sure that I myself
wished to go it was decided that I might do so
We passed through several streets of more or less considerable houses and
at last turning round a corner we came upon a large piazza at the end of which
was a magnificent building of a strange but noble architecture and of great
antiquity It did not open directly on to the piazza there being a screen
through which was an archway between the piazza and the actual precincts of the
bank On passing under the archway we entered upon a green sward round which
there ran an arcade or cloister while in front of us uprose the majestic towers
of the bank and its venerable front which was divided into three deep recesses
and adorned with all sorts of marbles and many sculptures On either side there
were beautiful old trees wherein the birds were busy by the hundred and a
number of quaint but substantial houses of singularly comfortable appearance
they were situated in the midst of orchards and gardens and gave me an
impression of great peace and plenty
Indeed it had been no error to say that this building was one that appealed
to the imagination it did more it carried both imagination and judgment by
storm It was an epic in stone and marble and so powerful was the effect it
produced on me that as I beheld it I was charmed and melted I felt more
conscious of the existence of a remote past One knows of this always but the
knowledge is never so living as in the actual presence of some witness to the
life of bygone ages I felt how short a space of human life was the period of
our own existence I was more impressed with my own littleness and much more
inclinable to believe that the people whose sense of the fitness of things was
equal to the upraising of so serene a handiwork were hardly likely to be wrong
in the conclusions they might come to upon any subject My feeling certainly was
that the currency of this bank must be the right one
We crossed the sward and entered the building If the outside had been
impressive the inside was even more so It was very lofty and divided into
several parts by walls which rested upon massive pillars the windows were
filled with stained glass descriptive of the principal commercial incidents of
the bank for many ages In a remote part of the building there were men and boys
singing this was the only disturbing feature for as the gamut was still
unknown there was no music in the country which could be agreeable to a
European ear The singers seemed to have derived their inspirations from the
songs of birds and the wailing of the wind which last they tried to imitate in
melancholy cadences that at times degenerated into a howl To my thinking the
noise was hideous but it produced a great effect upon my companions who
professed themselves much moved As soon as the singing was over the ladies
requested me to stay where I was while they went inside the place from which it
had seemed to come
During their absence certain reflections forced themselves upon me
In the first place it struck me as strange that the building should be so
nearly empty I was almost alone and the few besides myself had been led by
curiosity and had no intention of doing business with the bank But there might
be more inside I stole up to the curtain and ventured to draw the extreme edge
of it on one side No there was hardly anyone there I saw a large number of
cashiers all at their desks ready to pay cheques and one or two who seemed to
be the managing partners I also saw my hostess and her daughters and two or
three other ladies also three or four old women and the boys from one of the
neighbouring Colleges of Unreason but there was no one else This did not look
as though the bank was doing a very large business and yet I had always been
told that every one in the city dealt with this establishment
I cannot describe all that took place in these inner precincts for a
sinisterlooking person in a black gown came and made unpleasant gestures at me
for peeping I happened to have in my pocket one of the Musical Bank pieces
which had been given me by Mrs Nosnibor so I tried to tip him with it but
having seen what it was he became so angry that I had to give him a piece of
the other kind of money to pacify him When I had done this he became civil
directly As soon as he was gone I ventured to take a second look and saw
Zulora in the very act of giving a piece of paper which looked like a cheque to
one of the cashiers He did not examine it but putting his hand into an antique
coffer hard by he pulled out a quantity of metal pieces apparently at random
and handed them over without counting them neither did Zulora count them but
put them into her purse and went back to her seat after dropping a few pieces of
the other coinage into an alms box that stood by the cashiers side Mrs
Nosnibor and Arowhena then did likewise but a little later they gave all so
far as I could see that they had received from the cashier back to a verger
who I have no doubt put it back into the coffer from which it had been taken
They then began making towards the curtain whereon I let it drop and retreated
to a reasonable distance
They soon joined me For some few minutes we all kept silence but at last I
ventured to remark that the bank was not so busy today as it probably often
was On this Mrs Nosnibor said that it was indeed melancholy to see what little
heed people paid to the most precious of all institutions I could say nothing
in reply but I have ever been of opinion that the greater part of mankind do
approximately know where they get that which does them good
Mrs Nosnibor went on to say that I must not think there was any want of
confidence in the bank because I had seen so few people there the heart of the
country was thoroughly devoted to these establishments and any sign of their
being in danger would bring in support from the most unexpected quarters It was
only because people knew them to be so very safe that in some cases as she
lamented to say in Mr Nosnibors they felt that their support was unnecessary
Moreover these institutions never departed from the safest and most approved
banking principles Thus they never allowed interest on deposit a thing now
frequently done by certain bubble companies which by doing an illegitimate
trade had drawn many customers away and even the shareholders were fewer than
formerly owing to the innovations of these unscrupulous persons for the
Musical Banks paid little or no dividend but divided their profits by way of
bonus on the original shares once in every thirty thousand years and as it was
now only two thousand years since there had been one of these distributions
people felt that they could not hope for another in their own time and preferred
investments whereby they got some more tangible return all which she said was
very melancholy to think of
Having made these last admissions she returned to her original statement
namely that every one in the country really supported these banks As to the
fewness of the people and the absence of the able she pointed out to me with
some justice that this was exactly what we ought to expect The men who were
most conversant about the stability of human institutions such as the lawyers
men of science doctors statesmen painters and the like were just those who
were most likely to be misled by their own fancied accomplishments and to be
made unduly suspicious by their licentious desire for greater present return
which was at the root of ninetenths of the opposition by their vanity which
would prompt them to affect superiority to the prejudices of the vulgar and by
the stings of their own conscience which was constantly upbraiding them in the
most cruel manner on account of their bodies which were generally diseased
Let a persons intellect she continued be never so sound unless his body
is in absolute health he can form no judgment worth having on matters of this
kind The body is everything it need not perhaps be such a strong body she
said this because she saw that I was thinking of the old and infirmlooking
folks whom I had seen in the bank but it must be in perfect health in this
case the less active strength it had the more free would be the working of the
intellect and therefore the sounder the conclusion The people then whom I
had seen at the bank were in reality the very ones whose opinions were most
worth having they declared its advantages to be incalculable and even
professed to consider the immediate return to be far larger than they were
entitled to and so she ran on nor did she leave off till we had got back to
the house
She might say what she pleased but her manner carried no conviction and
later on I saw signs of general indifference to these banks that were not to be
mistaken Their supporters often denied it but the denial was generally so
couched as to add another proof of its existence In commercial panics and in
times of general distress the people as a mass did not so much as even think of
turning to these banks A few might do so some from habit and early training
some from the instinct that prompts us to catch at any straw when we think
ourselves drowning but few from a genuine belief that the Musical Banks could
save them from financial ruin if they were unable to meet their engagements in
the other kind of currency
In conversation with one of the Musical Bank managers I ventured to hint
this as plainly as politeness would allow He said that it had been more or less
true till lately but that now they had put fresh stained glass windows into all
the banks in the country and repaired the buildings and enlarged the organs
the presidents moreover had taken to riding in omnibuses and talking nicely to
people in the streets and to remembering the ages of their children and giving
them things when they were naughty so that all would henceforth go smoothly
»But havent you done anything to the money itself« said I timidly
»It is not necessary« he rejoined »not in the least necessary I assure
you«
And yet anyone could see that the money given out at these banks was not
that with which people bought their bread meat and clothing It was like it at
a first glance and was stamped with designs that were often of great beauty it
was not again a spurious coinage made with the intention that it should be
mistaken for the money in actual use it was more like a toy money or the
counters used for certain games at cards for notwithstanding the beauty of the
designs the material on which they were stamped was as nearly valueless as
possible Some were covered with tinfoil but the greater part were frankly of a
cheap base metal the exact nature of which I was not able to determine Indeed
they were made of a great variety of metals or perhaps more accurately
alloys some of which were hard while others would bend easily and assume
almost any form which their possessor might desire at the moment
Of course everyone knew that their commercial value was nil but all those
who wished to be considered respectable thought it incumbent upon them to retain
a few coins in their possession and to let them be seen from time to time in
their hands and purses Not only this but they would stick to it that the
current coin of the realm was dross in comparison with the Musical Bank coinage
Perhaps however the strangest thing of all was that these very people would at
times make fun in small ways of the whole system indeed there was hardly any
insinuation against it which they would not tolerate and even applaud in their
daily newspapers if written anonymously while if the same thing were said
without ambiguity to their faces nominative case verb and accusative being
all in their right places and doubt impossible they would consider themselves
very seriously and justly outraged and accuse the speaker of being unwell
I never could understand neither can I quite do so now though I begin to
see better what they mean why a single currency should not suffice them it
would seem to me as though all their dealings would have been thus greatly
simplified but I was met with a look of horror if ever I dared to hint at it
Even those who to my certain knowledge kept only just enough money at the
Musical Banks to swear by would call the other banks where their securities
really lay cold deadening paralysing and the like
I noticed another thing moreover which struck me greatly I was taken to
the opening of one of these banks in a neighbouring town and saw a large
assemblage of cashiers and managers I sat opposite them and scanned their faces
attentively They did not please me they lacked with few exceptions the true
Erewhonian frankness and an equal number from any other class would have looked
happier and better men When I met them in the streets they did not seem like
other people but had as a general rule a cramped expression upon their faces
which pained and depressed me
Those who came from the country were better they seemed to have lived less
as a separate class and to be freer and healthier but in spite of my seeing
not a few whose looks were benign and noble I could not help asking myself
concerning the greater number of those whom I met whether Erewhon would be a
better country if their expression were to be transferred to the people in
general I answered myself emphatically no The expression on the faces of the
high Ydgrunites was that which one would wish to diffuse and not that of the
cashiers
A mans expression is his sacrament it is the outward and visible sign of
his inward and spiritual grace or want of grace and as I looked at the
majority of these men I could not help feeling that there must be a something
in their lives which had stunted their natural development and that they would
have been more healthily minded in any other profession I was always sorry for
them for in nine cases out of ten they were wellmeaning persons they were in
the main very poorly paid their constitutions were as a rule above suspicion
and there were recorded numberless instances of their selfsacrifice and
generosity but they had had the misfortune to have been betrayed into a false
position at an age for the most part when their judgment was not matured and
after having been kept in studied ignorance of the real difficulties of the
system But this did not make their position the less a false one and its bad
effects upon themselves were unmistakable
Few people would speak quite openly and freely before them which struck me
as a very bad sign When they were in the room every one would talk as though
all currency save that of the Musical Banks should be abolished and yet they
knew perfectly well that even the cashiers themselves hardly used the Musical
Bank money more than other people It was expected of them that they should
appear to do so but this was all The less thoughtful of them did not seem
particularly unhappy but many were plainly sick at heart though perhaps they
hardly knew it and would not have owned to being so Some few were opponents of
the whole system but these were liable to be dismissed from their employment at
any moment and this rendered them very careful for a man who had once been
cashier at a Musical Bank was out of the field for other employment and was
generally unfitted for it by reason of that course of treatment which was
commonly called his education In fact it was a career from which retreat was
virtually impossible and into which young men were generally induced to enter
before they could be reasonably expected considering their training to have
formed any opinions of their own Not unfrequently indeed they were induced
by what we in England should call undue influence concealment and fraud Few
indeed were those who had the courage to insist on seeing both sides of the
question before they committed themselves to what was practically a leap in the
dark One would have thought that caution in this respect was an elementary
principle one of the first things that an honourable man would teach his boy
to understand but in practice it was not so
I even saw cases in which parents bought the right of presenting to the
office of cashier at one of these banks with the fixed determination that some
one of their sons perhaps a mere child should fill it There was the lad
himself growing up with every promise of becoming a good and honourable man
but utterly without warning concerning the iron shoe which his natural protector
was providing for him Who could say that the whole thing would not end in a
lifelong lie and vain chafing to escape I confess that there were few things
in Erewhon which shocked me more than this
Yet we do something not so very different from this even in England and as
regards the dual commercial system all countries have and have had a law of
the land and also another law which though professedly more sacred has far
less effect on their daily life and actions It seems as though the need for
some law over and above and sometimes even conflicting with the law of the
land must spring from something that lies deep down in mans nature indeed it
is hard to think that man could ever have become man at all but for the gradual
evolution of a perception that though this world looms so large when we are in
it it may seem a little thing when we have got away from it
When man had grown to the perception that in the everlasting IsandIsNot
of nature the world and all that it contains including man is at the same
time both seen and unseen he felt the need of two rules of life one for the
seen and the other for the unseen side of things For the laws affecting the
seen world he claimed the sanction of seen powers for the unseen of which he
knows nothing save that it exists and is powerful he appealed to the unseen
power of which again he knows nothing save that it exists and is powerful to
which he gives the name of God
Some Erewhonian opinions concerning the intelligence of the unborn embryo
that I regret my space will not permit me to lay before the reader have led me
to conclude that the Erewhonian Musical Banks and perhaps the religious systems
of all countries are now more or less of an attempt to uphold the unfathomable
and unconscious instinctive wisdom of millions of past generations against the
comparatively shallow consciously reasoning and ephemeral conclusions drawn
from that of the last thirty or forty
The saving feature of the Erewhonian Musical Bank system as distinct from
the quasiidolatrous views which coexist with it and on which I will touch
later was that while it bore witness to the existence of a kingdom that is not
of this world it made no attempt to pierce the veil that hides it from human
eyes It is here that almost all religions go wrong Their priests try to make
us believe that they know more about the unseen world than those whose eyes are
still blinded by the seen can ever know forgetting that while to deny the
existence of an unseen kingdom is bad to pretend that we know more about it
than its bare existence is no better
This chapter is already longer than I intended but I should like to say
that in spite of the saving feature of which I have just spoken I cannot help
thinking that the Erewhonians are on the eve of some great change in their
religious opinions or at any rate in that part of them which finds expression
through their Musical Banks So far as I could see fully ninety per cent of
the population of the metropolis looked upon these banks with something not far
removed from contempt If this is so any such startling event as is sure to
arise sooner or later may serve as nucleus to a new order of things that will
be more in harmony with both the heads and hearts of the people
Chapter Sixteen
Arowhena
The reader will perhaps have learned by this time a thing which I had myself
suspected before I had been twentyfour hours in Mr Nosnibors house I mean
that though the Nosnibors showed me every attention I could not cordially like
them with the exception of Arowhena who was quite different from the rest They
were not fair samples of Erewhonians I saw many families with whom they were on
visiting terms whose manners charmed me more than I know how to say but I
never could get over my original prejudice against Mr Nosnibor for having
embezzled the money Mrs Nosnibor too was a very worldly woman yet to hear
her talk one would have thought that she was singularly the reverse neither
could I endure Zulora Arowhena however was perfection
She it was who ran all the little errands for her mother and Mr Nosnibor
and Zulora and gave those thousand proofs of sweetness and unselfishness which
some one member of a family is generally required to give All day long it was
Arowhena this and Arowhena that but she never seemed to know that she was being
put upon and was always bright and willing from morning till evening Zulora
certainly was very handsome but Arowhena was infinitely the more graceful of
the two and was the very ne plus ultra of youth and beauty I will not attempt
to describe her for anything that I could say would fall so far short of the
reality as only to mislead the reader Let him think of the very loveliest that
he can imagine and he will still be below the truth Having said this much I
need hardly say that I had fallen in love with her
She must have seen what I felt for her but I tried my hardest not to let it
appear even by the slightest sign I had many reasons for this I had no idea
what Mr and Mrs Nosnibor would say to it and I knew that Arowhena would not
look at me at any rate not yet if her father and mother disapproved which
they probably would considering that I had nothing except the pension of about
a pound a day of our money which the King had granted me I did not yet know of
a more serious obstacle
In the meantime I may say that I had been presented at court and was told
that my reception had been considered as singularly gracious indeed I had
several interviews both with the King and Queen at which from time to time the
Queen got everything from me that I had in the world clothes and all except
the two buttons I had given to Yram the loss of which seemed to annoy her a
good deal I was presented with a court suit and her Majesty had my old clothes
put upon a wooden dummy on which they probably remain unless they have been
removed in consequence of my subsequent downfall His Majestys manners were
those of a cultivated English gentleman He was much pleased at hearing that our
government was monarchical and that the mass of the people were resolute that
it should not be changed indeed I was so much encouraged by the evident
pleasure with which he heard me that I ventured to quote to him those beautiful
lines of Shakespeares
»Theres a divinity doth hedge a king
Rough hew him how we may«
but I was sorry I had done so afterwards for I do not think his Majesty admired
the lines as much as I could have wished
There is no occasion for me to dwell further upon my experience of the
court but I ought perhaps to allude to one of my conversations with the King
inasmuch as it was pregnant with the most important consequences
He had been asking me about my watch and inquiring whether such dangerous
inventions were tolerated in the country from which I came I owned with some
confusion that watches were not uncommon but observing the gravity which came
over his Majestys face I presumed to say that they were fast dying out and
that we had few if any other mechanical contrivances of which he was likely to
disapprove Upon his asking me to name some of our most advanced machines I did
not dare to tell him of our steamengines and railroads and electric telegraphs
and was puzzling my brains to think what I could say when of all things in the
world balloons suggested themselves and I gave him an account of a very
remarkable ascent which was made some years ago The King was too polite to
contradict but I felt sure that he did not believe me and from that day
forward though he always showed me the attention which was due to my genius for
in this light was my complexion regarded he never questioned me about the
manners and customs of my country
To return however to Arowhena I soon gathered that neither Mr nor Mrs
Nosnibor would have any objection to my marrying into the family a physical
excellence is considered in Erewhon as a setoff against almost any other
disqualification and my light hair was sufficient to make me an eligible match
But along with this welcome fact I gathered another which filled me with dismay
I was expected to marry Zulora for whom I had already conceived a great
aversion
At first I hardly noticed the little hints and the artifices which were
resorted to in order to bring us together but after a time they became too
plain Zulora whether she was in love with me or not was bent on marrying me
and I gathered in talking with a young gentleman of my acquaintance who
frequently visited the house and whom I greatly disliked that it was considered
a sacred and inviolable rule that whoever married into a family must marry the
eldest daughter at that time unmarried The young gentleman urged this upon me
so frequently that I at last saw he was in love with Arowhena himself and
wanted me to get Zulora out of the way but others told me the same story as to
the custom of the country and I saw there was a serious difficulty My only
comfort was that Arowhena snubbed my rival and would not look at him Neither
would she look at me nevertheless there was a difference in the manner of her
disregard this was all I could get from her
Not that she avoided me on the contrary I had many a têteàtête with her
for her mother and sister were anxious for me to deposit some part of my pension
in the Musical Banks this being in accordance with the dictates of their
goddess Ydgrun of whom both Mrs Nosnibor and Zulora were great devotees I was
not sure whether I had kept my secret from being perceived by Arowhena herself
but none of the others suspected me so she was set upon me to get me to open an
account at any rate pro forma with the Musical Banks and I need hardly say
that she succeeded But I did not yield at once I enjoyed the process of being
argued with too keenly to lose it by a prompt concession besides a little
hesitation rendered the concession itself more valuable It was in the course of
conversations on this subject that I learned the more defined religious opinions
of the Erewhonians that coexist with the Musical Bank system but are not
recognized by those curious institutions I will describe them as briefly as
possible in the following chapters before I return to the personal adventures of
Arowhena and myself
They were idolaters though of a comparatively enlightened kind but here
as in other things there was a discrepancy between their professed and actual
belief for they had a genuine and potent faith which existed without
recognition alongside of their idol worship
The gods whom they worship openly are personifications of human qualities
as justice strength hope fear love etc etc The people think that
prototypes of these have a real objective existence in a region far beyond the
clouds holding as did the ancients that they are like men and women both in
body and passion except that they are even comelier and more powerful and also
that they can render themselves invisible to human eyesight They are capable of
being propitiated by mankind and of coming to the assistance of those who ask
their aid Their interest in human affairs is keen and on the whole beneficent
but they become very angry if neglected and punish rather the first they come
upon than the actual person who has offended them their fury being blind when
it is raised though never raised without reason They will not punish with any
less severity when people sin against them from ignorance and without the
chance of having had knowledge they will take no excuses of this kind but are
even as the English law which assumes itself to be known to every one
Thus they have a law that two pieces of matter may not occupy the same space
at the same moment which law is presided over and administered by the gods of
time and space jointly so that if a flying stone and a mans head attempt to
outrage these gods by »arrogating a right which they do not possess« for so it
is written in one of their books and to occupy the same space simultaneously
a severe punishment sometimes even death itself is sure to follow without any
regard to whether the stone knew that the mans head was there or the head the
stone this at least is their view of the common accidents of life Moreover
they hold their deities to be quite regardless of motives With them it is the
thing done which is everything and the motive goes for nothing
Thus they hold it strictly forbidden for a man to go without common air in
his lungs for more than a very few minutes and if by any chance he gets into
the water the airgod is very angry and will not suffer it no matter whether
the man got into the water by accident or on purpose whether through the
attempt to save a child or through presumptuous contempt of the airgod the
airgod will kill him unless he keeps his head high enough out of the water
and thus gives the airgod his due
This with regard to the deities who manage physical affairs Over and above
these they personify hope fear love and so forth giving them temples and
priests and carving likenesses of them in stone which they verily believe to
be faithful representations of living beings who are only not human in being
more than human If anyone denies the objective existence of these divinities
and says that there is really no such being as a beautiful woman called Justice
with her eyes blinded and a pair of scales positively living and moving in a
remote and ethereal region but that justice is only the personified expression
of certain modes of human thought and action they say that he denies the
existence of justice in denying her personality and that he is a wanton
disturber of mens religious convictions They detest nothing so much as any
attempt to lead them to higher spiritual conceptions of the deities whom they
profess to worship Arowhena and I had a pitched battle on this point and
should have had many more but for my prudence in allowing her to get the better
of me
I am sure that in her heart she was suspicious of her own position for she
returned more than once to the subject »Can you not see« I had exclaimed
»that the fact of justice being admirable will not be affected by the absence of
a belief in her being also a living agent Can you really think that men will be
one whit less hopeful because they no longer believe that hope is an actual
person« She shook her head and said that with mens belief in the personality
all incentive to the reverence of the thing itself as justice or hope would
cease men from that hour would never be either just or hopeful again
I could not move her nor indeed did I seriously wish to do so She
deferred to me in most things but she never shrank from maintaining her
opinions if they were put in question nor does she to this day abate one jot of
her belief in the religion of her childhood though in compliance with my
repeated entreaties she has allowed herself to be baptized into the English
Church She has however made a gloss upon her original faith to the effect
that her baby and I are the only human beings exempt from the vengeance of the
deities for not believing in their personality She is quite clear that we are
exempted She should never have so strong a conviction of it otherwise How it
has come about she does not know neither does she wish to know there are
things which it is better not to know and this is one of them but when I tell
her that I believe in her deities as much as she does and that it is a
difference about words not things she becomes silent with a slight emphasis
I own that she very nearly conquered me once for she asked me what I should
think if she were to tell me that my God whose nature and attributes I had been
explaining to her was but the expression for mans highest conception of
goodness wisdom and power that in order to generate a more vivid conception
of so great and glorious a thought man had personified it and called it by a
name that it was an unworthy conception of the Deity to hold Him personal
inasmuch as escape from human contingencies became thus impossible that the
real thing men should worship was the Divine whereinsoever they could find it
that God was but mans way of expressing his sense of the Divine that as
justice hope wisdom etc were all parts of goodness so God was the
expression which embraced all goodness and all good power that people would no
more cease to love God on ceasing to believe in His objective personality than
they had ceased to love justice on discovering that she was not really personal
nay that they would never truly love Him till they saw Him thus
She said all this in her artless way and with none of the coherence with
which I have here written it her face kindled and she felt sure that she had
convinced me that I was wrong and that justice was a living person Indeed I
did wince a little but I recovered myself immediately and pointed out to her
that we had books whose genuineness was beyond all possibility of doubt as they
were certainly none of them less than 1800 years old that in these there were
the most authentic accounts of men who had been spoken to by the Deity Himself
and of one prophet who had been allowed to see the back parts of God through the
hand that was laid over his face
This was conclusive and I spoke with such solemnity that she was a little
frightened and only answered that they too had their books in which their
ancestors had seen the gods on which I saw that further argument was not at all
likely to convince her and fearing that she might tell her mother what I had
been saying and that I might lose the hold upon her affections which I was
beginning to feel pretty sure that I was obtaining I began to let her have her
own way and to convince me neither till after we were safely married did I
show the cloven hoof again
Nevertheless her remarks have haunted me and I have since met with many
very godly people who have had a great knowledge of divinity but no sense of
the divine and again I have seen a radiance upon the face of those who were
worshipping the divine either in art or nature in picture or statue in field
or cloud or sea in man woman or child which I have never seen kindled by
any talking about the nature and attributes of God Mention but the word
divinity and our sense of the divine is clouded
Chapter Seventeen
Ydgrun and the Ydgrunites
In spite of all the todo they make about their idols and the temples they
build and the priests and priestesses whom they support I could never think
that their professed religion was more than skindeep but they had another
which they carried with them into all their actions and although no one from
the outside of things would suspect it to have any existence at all it was in
reality their great guide the mariners compass of their lives so that there
were very few things which they ever either did or refrained from doing
without reference to its precepts
Now I suspected that their professed faith had no great hold upon them
firstly because I often heard the priests complain of the prevailing
indifference and they would hardly have done so without reason secondly
because of the show which was made for there was none of this about the worship
of the goddess Ydgrun in whom they really did believe thirdly because though
the priests were constantly abusing Ydgrun as being the great enemy of the gods
it was well known that she had no more devoted worshippers in the whole country
than these very persons who were often priests of Ydgrun rather than of their
own deities Neither am I by any means sure that these were not the best of the
priests
Ydgrun certainly occupied a very anomalous position she was held to be both
omnipresent and omnipotent but she was not an elevated conception and was
sometimes both cruel and absurd Even her most devoted worshippers were a little
ashamed of her and served her more with heart and in deed than with their
tongues Theirs was no lip service on the contrary even when worshipping her
most devoutly they would often deny her Take her all in all however she was
a beneficent and useful deity who did not care how much she was denied so long
as she was obeyed and feared and who kept hundreds of thousands in those paths
which make life tolerably happy who would never have been kept there otherwise
and over whom a higher and more spiritual ideal would have had no power
I greatly doubt whether the Erewhonians are yet prepared for any better
religion and though considering my gradually strengthened conviction that they
were the representatives of the lost tribes of Israel I would have set about
converting them at all hazards had I seen the remotest prospect of success I
could hardly contemplate the displacement of Ydgrun as the great central object
of their regard without admitting that it would be attended with frightful
consequences in fact were I a mere philosopher I should say that the gradual
raising of the popular conception of Ydgrun would be the greatest spiritual boon
which could be conferred upon them and that nothing could effect this except
example I generally found that those who complained most loudly that Ydgrun was
not high enough for them had hardly as yet come up to the Ydgrun standard and I
often met with a class of men whom I called to myself high Ydgrunites the rest
being Ydgrunites and low Ydgrunites who in the matter of human conduct and
the affairs of life appeared to me to have got about as far as it is in the
right nature of man to go
They were gentlemen in the full sense of the word and what has one not said
in saying this They seldom spoke of Ydgrun or even alluded to her but would
never run counter to her dictates without ample reason for doing so in such
cases they would override her with due selfreliance and the goddess seldom
punished them for they are brave and Ydgrun is not They had most of them a
smattering of the hypothetical language and some few more than this but only a
few I do not think that this language has had much hand in making them what
they are but rather that the fact of their being generally possessed of its
rudiments was one great reason for the reverence paid to the hypothetical
language itself
Being inured from youth to exercises and athletics of all sorts and living
fearlessly under the eye of their peers among whom there exists a high standard
of courage generosity honour and every good and manly quality what wonder
that they should have become so to speak a law unto themselves and while
taking an elevated view of the goddess Ydgrun they should have gradually lost
all faith in the recognized deities of the country These they do not openly
disregard for conformity until absolutely intolerable is a law of Ydgrun yet
they have no real belief in the objective existence of beings which so readily
explain themselves as abstractions and whose personality demands a
quasimaterialism which it baffles the imagination to realize They keep their
opinions however greatly to themselves inasmuch as most of their countrymen
feel strongly about the gods and they hold it wrong to give pain unless for
some greater good than seems likely to arise from their plain speaking
On the other hand surely those whose own minds are clear about any given
matter even though it be only that there is little certainty should go so far
towards imparting that clearness to others as to say openly what they think and
why they think it whenever they can properly do so for they may be sure that
they owe their own clearness almost entirely to the fact that others have done
this by them after all they may be mistaken and if so it is for their own
and the general wellbeing that they should let their error be seen as
distinctly as possible so that it may be more easily refuted I own therefore
that on this one point I disapproved of the practice even of the highest
Ydgrunites and objected to it all the more because I knew that I should find my
own future task more easy if the high Ydgrunites had already undermined the
belief which is supposed to prevail at present
In other respects they were more like the best class of Englishmen than any
whom I have seen in other countries I should have liked to have persuaded half
a dozen of them to come over to England and go upon the stage for they had most
of them a keen sense of humour and a taste for acting they would be of great
use to us The example of a real gentleman is if I may say so without
profanity the best of all gospels such a man upon the stage becomes a potent
humanizing influence an Ideal which all may look upon for a shilling
I always liked and admired these men and although I could not help deeply
regretting their certain ultimate perdition for they had no sense of a
hereafter and their only religion was that of selfrespect and consideration
for other people I never dared to take so great a liberty with them as to
attempt to put them in possession of my own religious convictions in spite of
my knowing that they were the only ones which could make them really good and
happy either here or hereafter I did try sometimes being impelled to do so by
a strong sense of duty and by my deep regret that so much that was admirable
should be doomed to ages if not eternity of torture but the words stuck in my
throat as soon as I began
Whether a professional missionary might have a better chance I know not
such persons must doubtless know more about the science of conversion for
myself I could only be thankful that I was in the right path and was obliged
to let others take their chance as yet If the plan fails by which I propose to
convert them myself I would gladly contribute my mite towards the sending two
or three trained missionaries who have been known as successful converters of
Jews and Mohammedans but such have seldom much to glory in the flesh and when
I think of the high Ydgrunites and of the figure which a missionary would
probably cut among them I cannot feel sanguine that much good would be arrived
at Still the attempt is worth making and the worst danger to the missionaries
themselves would be that of being sent to the hospital where Chowbok would have
been sent had he come with me into Erewhon
Taking then their religious opinions as a whole I must own that the
Erewhonians are superstitious on account of the views which they hold of their
professed gods and their entirely anomalous and inexplicable worship of Ydgrun
a worship at once the most powerful yet most devoid of formalism that I ever
met with but in practice things worked better than might have been expected
and the conflicting claims of Ydgrun and the gods were arranged by unwritten
compromises for the most part in Ydgruns favour which in ninetynine cases
out of a hundred were very well understood
I could not conceive why they should not openly acknowledge high Ydgrunism
and discard the objective personality of hope justice etc but whenever I so
much as hinted at this I found that I was on dangerous ground They would never
have it returning constantly to the assertion that ages ago the divinities were
frequently seen and that the moment their personality was disbelieved in men
would leave off practising even those ordinary virtues which the common
experience of mankind has agreed on as being the greatest secret of happiness
»Who ever heard« they asked indignantly »of such things as kindly training a
good example and an enlightened regard to ones own welfare being able to keep
men straight« In my hurry forgetting things which I ought to have remembered
I answered that if a person could not be kept straight by these things there
was nothing that could straighten him and that if he were not ruled by the love
and fear of men whom he had seen neither would he be so by that of the gods
whom he had not seen
At one time indeed I came upon a small but growing sect who believed after
a fashion in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection from the dead
they taught that those who had been born with feeble and diseased bodies and had
passed their lives in ailing would be tortured eternally hereafter but that
those who had been born strong and healthy and handsome would be rewarded for
ever and ever Of moral qualities or conduct they made no mention
Bad as this was it was a step in advance inasmuch as they did hold out a
future state of some sort and I was shocked to find that for the most part they
met with opposition on the score that their doctrine was based upon no sort of
foundation also that it was immoral in its tendency and not to be desired by
any reasonable beings
When I asked how it could be immoral I was answered that if firmly held
it would lead people to cheapen this present life making it appear to be an
affair of only secondary importance that it would thus distract mens minds
from the perfecting of this worlds economy and was an impatient cutting so to
speak of the Gordian knot of lifes problems whereby some people might gain
present satisfaction to themselves at the cost of infinite damage to others
that the doctrine tended to encourage the poor in their improvidence and in a
debasing acquiescence in ills which they might well remedy that the rewards
were illusory and the result after all of luck whose empire should be bounded
by the grave that its terrors were enervating and unjust and that even the
most blessed rising would be but the disturbing of a still more blessed slumber
To all which I could only say that the thing had been actually known to
happen and that there were several wellauthenticated instances of people
having died and come to life again instances which no man in his senses could
doubt
»If this be so« said my opponent »we must bear it as best we may«
I then translated for him as well as I could the noble speech of Hamlet in
which he says that it is the fear lest worse evils may befall us after death
which alone prevents us from rushing into deaths arms
»Nonsense« he answered »no man was ever yet stopped from cutting his
throat by any such fears as your poet ascribes to him and your poet probably
knew this perfectly well If a man cuts his throat he is at bay and thinks of
nothing but escape no matter whither provided he can shuffle off his present
No Men are kept at their posts not by the fear that if they quit them they may
quit a fryingpan for a fire but by the hope that if they hold on the fire may
burn less fiercely The respect to quote your poet that makes calamity of so
long a life is the consideration that though calamity may live long the
sufferer may live longer still«
On this seeing that there was little probability of our coming to an
agreement I let the argument drop and my opponent presently left me with as
much disapprobation as he could show without being overtly rude
Chapter Eighteen
Birth Formulae
I heard what follows not from Arowhena but from Mr Nosnibor and some of the
gentlemen who occasionally dined at the house they told me that the Erewhonians
believe in preexistence and not only this of which I will write more fully in
the next chapter but they believe that it is of their own free act and deed in
a previous state that they come to be born into this world at all They hold
that the unborn are perpetually plaguing and tormenting the married of both
sexes fluttering about them incessantly and giving them no peace either of
mind or body until they have consented to take them under their protection If
this were not so this at least is what they urge it would be a monstrous
freedom for one man to take with another to say that he should undergo the
chances and changes of this mortal life without any option in the matter No man
would have any right to get married at all inasmuch as he can never tell what
frightful misery his doing so may entail forcibly upon a being who cannot be
unhappy as long as he does not exist They feel this so strongly that they are
resolved to shift the blame on to other shoulders and have fashioned a long
mythology as to the world in which the unborn people live and what they do and
the arts and machinations to which they have recourse in order to get themselves
into our own world But of this more anon what I would relate here is their
manner of dealing with those who do come
It is a distinguishing peculiarity of the Erewhonians that when they profess
themselves to be quite certain about any matter and avow it as a base on which
they are to build a system of practice they seldom quite believe in it If they
smell a rat about the precincts of a cherished institution they will always
stop their noses to it if they can
This is what most of them did in this matter of the unborn for I cannot
and never could think that they seriously believed in their mythology
concerning preexistence they did and they did not they did not know themselves
what they believed all they did know was that it was a disease not to believe
as they did The only thing of which they were quite sure was that it was the
pestering of the unborn which caused them to be brought into this world and
that they would not have been here if they would have only let peaceable people
alone
It would be hard to disprove this position and they might have a good case
if they would only leave it as it stands But this they will not do they must
have assurance doubly sure they must have the written word of the child itself
as soon as it is born giving the parents indemnity from all responsibility on
the score of its birth and asserting its own preexistence They have therefore
devised something which they call a birth formula a document which varies in
words according to the caution of parents but is much the same practically in
all cases for it has been the business of the Erewhonian lawyers during many
ages to exercise their skill in perfecting it and providing for every
contingency
These formulae are printed on common paper at a moderate cost for the poor
but the rich have them written on parchment and handsomely bound so that the
getting up of a persons birth formula is a test of his social position They
commence by setting forth That whereas A B was a member of the kingdom of the
unborn where he was well provided for in every way and had no cause of
discontent etc etc he did of his own wanton depravity and restlessness
conceive a desire to enter into this present world that thereon having taken
the necessary steps as set forth in laws of the unborn kingdom he did with
malice aforethought set himself to plague and pester two unfortunate people who
had never wronged him and who were quite contented and happy until he conceived
this base design against their peace for which wrong he now humbly entreats
their pardon
He acknowledges that he is responsible for all physical blemishes and
deficiencies which may render him answerable to the laws of his country that
his parents have nothing whatever to do with any of these things and that they
have a right to kill him at once if they be so minded though he entreats them
to show their marvellous goodness and clemency by sparing his life If they will
do this he promises to be their most obedient and abject creature during his
earlier years and indeed all his life unless they should see fit in their
abundant generosity to remit some portion of his service hereafter And so the
formula continues going sometimes into very minute details according to the
fancies of family lawyers who will not make it any shorter than they can help
The deed being thus prepared on the third or fourth day after the birth of
the child or as they call it the final importunity the friends gather
together and there is a feast held where they are all very melancholy as a
general rule I believe quite truly so and make presents to the father and
mother of the child in order to console them for the injury which has just been
done them by the unborn
Byandby the child himself is brought down by his nurse and the company
begin to rail upon him upbraiding him for his impertinence and asking him what
amends he proposes to make for the wrong that he has committed and how he can
look for care and nourishment from those who have perhaps already been injured
by the unborn on some ten or twelve occasions for they say of people with large
families that they have suffered terrible injuries from the unborn till at
last when this has been carried far enough some one suggests the formula
which is brought out and solemnly read to the child by the family straightener
This gentleman is always invited on these occasions for the very fact of
intrusion into a peaceful family shows a depravity on the part of the child
which requires his professional services
On being teased by the reading and tweaked by the nurse the child will
commonly begin to cry which is reckoned a good sign as showing a consciousness
of guilt He is thereon asked Does he assent to the formula on which as he
still continues crying and can obviously make no answer some one of the friends
comes forward and undertakes to sign the document on his behalf feeling sure
so he says that the child would do it if he only knew how and that he will
release the present signer from his engagement on arriving at maturity The
friend then inscribes the signature of the child at the foot of the parchment
which is held to bind the child as much as though he had signed it himself
Even this however does not fully content them for they feel a little
uneasy until they have got the childs own signature after all So when he is
about fourteen these good people partly bribe him by promises of greater
liberty and good things and partly intimidate him through their great power of
making themselves actively unpleasant to him so that though there is a show of
freedom made there is really none they also use the offices of the teachers in
the Colleges of Unreason till at last in one way or another they take very
good care that he shall sign the paper by which he professes to have been a free
agent in coming into the world and to take all the responsibility of having
done so on to his own shoulders And yet though this document is obviously the
most important which anyone can sign in his whole life they will have him do so
at an age when neither they nor the law will for many a year allow anyone else
to bind him to the smallest obligation no matter how righteously he may owe it
because they hold him too young to know what he is about and do not consider it
fair that he should commit himself to anything that may prejudice him in after
years
I own that all this seemed rather hard and not of a piece with the many
admirable institutions existing among them I once ventured to say a part of
what I thought about it to one of the Professors of Unreason I did it very
tenderly but his justification of the system was quite out of my comprehension
I remember asking him whether he did not think it would do harm to a lads
principles by weakening his sense of the sanctity of his word and of truth
generally that he should be led into entering upon a solemn declaration as to
the truth of things about which all that he can certainly know is that he knows
nothing whether in fact the teachers who so led him or who taught anything
as a certainty of which they were themselves uncertain were not earning their
living by impairing the truthsense of their pupils a delicate organization
mostly and by vitiating one of their most sacred instincts
The Professor who was a delightful person seemed greatly surprised at the
view which I took but it had no influence with him whatsoever No one he
answered expected that the boy either would or could know all that he said he
knew but the world was full of compromises and there was hardly any
affirmation which would bear being interpreted literally Human language was too
gross a vehicle of thought thought being incapable of absolute translation He
added that as there can be no translation from one language into another which
shall not scant the meaning somewhat or enlarge upon it so there is no
language which can render thought without a jarring and a harshness somewhere
and so forth all of which seemed to come to this in the end that it was the
custom of the country and that the Erewhonians were a conservative people that
the boy would have to begin compromising sooner or later and this was part of
his education in the art It was perhaps to be regretted that compromise should
be as necessary as it was still it was necessary and the sooner the boy got to
understand it the better for himself But they never tell this to the boy
From the book of their mythology about the unborn I made the extracts which
will form the following chapter
Chapter Nineteen
The World of the Unborn
The Erewhonians say that we are drawn through life backwards or again that we
go onwards into the future as into a dark corridor Time walks beside us and
flings back shutters as we advance but the light thus given often dazzles us
and deepens the darkness which is in front We can see but little at a time and
heed that little far less than our apprehension of what we shall see next ever
peering curiously through the glare of the present into the gloom of the future
we presage the leading lines of that which is before us by faintly reflected
lights from dull mirrors that are behind and stumble on as we may till the
trapdoor opens beneath us and we are gone
They say at other times that the future and the past are as a panorama upon
two rollers that which is on the roller of the future unwraps itself on to the
roller of the past we cannot hasten it and we may not stay it we must see all
that is unfolded to us whether it be good or ill and what we have seen once we
may see again no more It is ever unwinding and being wound we catch it in
transition for a moment and call it present our flustered senses gather what
impression they can and we guess at what is coming by the tenor of that which
we have seen The same hand has painted the whole picture and the incidents
vary little rivers woods plains mountains towns and peoples love sorrow
and death yet the interest never flags and we look hopefully for some good
fortune or fearfully lest our own faces be shown us as figuring in something
terrible When the scene is past we think we know it though there is so much to
see and so little time to see it that our conceit of knowledge as regards the
past is for the most part poorly founded neither do we care about it greatly
save in so far as it may affect the future wherein our interest mainly lies
The Erewhonians say it was by chance only that the earth and stars and all
the heavenly worlds began to roll from east to west and not from west to east
and in like manner they say it is by chance that man is drawn through life with
his face to the past instead of to the future For the future is there as much
as the past only that we may not see it Is it not in the loins of the past
and must not the past alter before the future can do so
Sometimes again they say that there was a race of men tried upon the earth
once who knew the future better than the past but that they died in a
twelvemonth from the misery which their knowledge caused them and if any were
to be born too prescient now he would be culled out by natural selection
before he had time to transmit so peacedestroying a faculty to his descendants
Strange fate for man He must perish if he get that which he must perish if
he strive not after If he strive not after it he is no better than the brutes
if he get it he is more miserable than the devils
Having waded through many chapters like the above I came at last to the
unborn themselves and found that they were held to be souls pure and simple
having no actual bodies but living in a sort of gaseous yet more or less
anthropomorphic existence like that of a ghost they have thus neither flesh
nor blood nor warmth Nevertheless they are supposed to have local habitations
and cities wherein they dwell though these are as unsubstantial as their
inhabitants they are even thought to eat and drink some thin ambrosial
sustenance and generally to be capable of doing whatever mankind can do only
after a visionary ghostly fashion as in a dream On the other hand as long as
they remain where they are they never die the only form of death in the unborn
world being the leaving it for our own They are believed to be extremely
numerous far more so than mankind They arrive from unknown planets full
grown in large batches at a time but they can only leave the unborn world by
taking the steps necessary for their arrival here which is in fact by
suicide
They ought to be an exceedingly happy people for they have no extremes of
good or ill fortune never marrying but living in a state much like that fabled
by the poets as the primitive condition of mankind In spite of this however
they are incessantly complaining they know that we in this world have bodies
and indeed they know everything else about us for they move among us
whithersoever they will and can read our thoughts as well as survey our
actions at pleasure One would think that this should be enough for them and
most of them are indeed alive to the desperate risk which they will run by
indulging themselves in that body with sensible warm motion which they so much
desire nevertheless there are some to whom the ennui of a disembodied
existence is so intolerable that they will venture anything for a change so
they resolve to quit The conditions which they must accept are so uncertain
that none but the most foolish of the unborn will consent to them and it is
from these and these only that our own ranks are recruited
When they have finally made up their minds to leave they must go before the
magistrate of the nearest town and sign an affidavit of their desire to quit
their then existence On their having done this the magistrate reads them the
conditions which they must accept and which are so long that I can only extract
some of the principal points which are mainly the following
First they must take a potion which will destroy their memory and a sense
of identity they must go into the world helpless and without a will of their
own they must draw lots for their dispositions before they go and take them
such as they are for better or worse neither are they to be allowed any
choice in the matter of the body which they so much desire they are simply
allotted by chance and without appeal to two people whom it is their business
to find and pester until they adopt them Who these are to be whether rich or
poor kind or unkind healthy or diseased there is no knowing they have in
fact to entrust themselves for many years to the care of those for whose good
constitution and good sense they have no sort of guarantee
It is curious to read the lectures which the wiser heads give to those who
are meditating a change They talk with them as we talk with a spendthrift and
with about as much success
»To be born« they say »is a felony it is a capital crime for which
sentence may be executed at any moment after the commission of the offence You
may perhaps happen to live for some seventy or eighty years but what is that
compared with the eternity you now enjoy And even though the sentence were
commuted and you were allowed to live on for ever you would in time become so
terribly weary of life that execution would be the greatest mercy to you
Consider the infinite risk to be born of wicked parents and trained in
vice to be born of silly parents and trained to unrealities of parents who
regard you as a sort of chattel or property belonging more to them than to
yourself Again you may draw utterly unsympathetic parents who will never be
able to understand you and who will do their best to thwart you as a hen when
she has hatched a duckling and then call you ungrateful because you do not
love them or again you may draw parents who look upon you as a thing to be
cowed while it is still young lest it should give them trouble hereafter by
having wishes and feelings of its own.
In later life when you have been finally allowed to pass muster as a full
member of the world you will yourself become liable to the pesterings of the
unborn and a very happy life you may be led in consequence For we solicit so
strongly that a few only nor these the best can refuse us and yet not to
refuse is much the same as going into partnership with half a dozen different
people about whom one can know absolutely nothing beforehand not even whether
one is going into partnership with men or women nor with how many of either
Delude not your self with thinking that you will be wiser than your parents You
may be an age in advance of those whom you have pestered but unless you are one
of the great ones you will still be an age behind those who will in their turn
pester you
Imagine what it must be to have an unborn quartered upon you who is of an
entirely different temperament and disposition to your own nay half a dozen
such who will not love you though you have stinted yourself in a thousand ways
to provide for their comfort and wellbeing who will forget all your
selfsacrifice and of whom you may never be sure that they are not bearing a
grudge against you for errors of judgment into which you may have fallen though
you had hoped that such had been long since atoned for Ingratitude such as this
is not uncommon yet fancy what it must be to bear It is hard upon the duckling
to have been hatched by a hen but is it not also hard upon the hen to have
hatched the duckling
Consider it again we pray you not for our sake but for your own Your
initial character you must draw by lot but whatever it is it can only come to
a tolerably successful development after long training remember that over that
training you will have no control It is possible and even probable that
whatever you may get in after life which is of real pleasure and service to you
will have to be won in spite of rather than by the help of those whom you are
now about to pester and that you will only win your freedom after years of a
painful struggle in which it will be hard to say whether you have suffered most
injury or inflicted it
Remember also that if you go into the world you will have free will that
you will be obliged to have it that there is no escaping it that you will be
fettered to it during your whole life and must on every occasion do that which
on the whole seems best to you at any given time no matter whether you are
right or wrong in choosing it Your mind will be a balance for considerations
and your action will go with the heavier scale How it shall fall will depend
upon the kind of scales which you may have drawn at birth the bias which they
will have obtained by use and the weight of the immediate considerations If
the scales were good to start with and if they have not been outrageously
tampered with in childhood and if the combinations into which you enter are
average ones you may come off well but there are too many ifs in this and
with the failure of any one of them your misery is assured Reflect on this and
remember that should the ill come upon you you will have yourself to thank for
it is your own choice to be born and there is no compulsion in the matter
Not that we deny the existence of pleasures among mankind there is a
certain show of sundry phases of contentment which may even amount to very
considerable happiness but mark how they are distributed over a mans life
belonging all the keenest of them to the fore part and few indeed to the
after Can there be any pleasure worth purchasing with the miseries of a
decrepit age If you are good strong and handsome you have a fine fortune
indeed at twenty but how much of it will be left at sixty For you must live on
your capital there is no investing your powers so that you may get a small
annuity of life for ever you must eat up your principal bit by bit and be
tortured by seeing it grow continually smaller and smaller even though you
happen to escape being rudely robbed of it by crime or casualty
Remember too that there never yet was a man of forty who would not come
back into the world of the unborn if he could do so with decency and honour
Being in the world he will as a general rule stay till he is forced to go but
do you think that he would consent to be born again and relive his life if he
had the offer of doing so Do not think it If he could so alter the past as
that he should never have come into being at all do you not think that he would
do it very gladly
What was it that one of their own poets meant if it was not this when he
cried out upon the day in which he was born and the night in which it was said
there is a man child conceived For now he says I should have lain still and
been quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest with kings and
counsellors of the earth which built desolate places for themselves or with
princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver or as an hidden
untimely birth I had not been as infants which never saw light There the
wicked cease from troubling and there the weary are at rest Be very sure that
the guilt of being born carries this punishment at times to all men but how can
they ask for pity or complain of any mischief that may befall them having
entered openeyed into the snare
One word more and we have done If any faint remembrance as of a dream
flit in some puzzled moment across your brain and you shall feel that the
potion which is to be given you shall not have done its work and the memory of
this existence which you are leaving endeavours vainly to return we say in such
a moment when you clutch at the dream but it eludes your grasp and you watch
it as Orpheus watched Eurydice gliding back again into the twilight kingdom
fly fly if you can remember the advice to the haven of your present and
immediate duty taking shelter incessantly in the work which you have in hand
This much you may perhaps recall and this if you will imprint it deeply upon
your every faculty will be most likely to bring you safely and honourably home
through the trials that are before you«2
This is the fashion in which they reason with those who would be for leaving
them but it is seldom that they do much good for none but the unquiet and
unreasonable ever think of being born and those who are foolish enough to think
of it are generally foolish enough to do it Finding therefore that they can
do no more the friends follow weeping to the courthouse of the chief
magistrate where the one who wishes to be born declares solemnly and openly
that he accepts the conditions attached to his decision On this he is presented
with a potion which immediately destroys his memory and sense of identity and
dissipates the thin gaseous tenement which he has inhabited he becomes a bare
vital principle not to be perceived by human senses nor to be by any chemical
test appreciated He has but one instinct which is that he is to go to such and
such a place where he will find two persons whom he is to importune till they
consent to undertake him but whether he is to find these persons among the race
of Chowbok or the Erewhonians themselves is not for him to choose
Chapter Twenty
What They Mean by It
I have given the above mythology at some length but it is only a small part of
what they have upon the subject My first feeling on reading it was that any
amount of folly on the part of the unborn in coming here was justified by a
desire to escape from such intolerable prosing The mythology is obviously an
unfair and exaggerated representation of life and things and had its authors
been so minded they could have easily drawn a picture which would err as much on
the bright side as this does on the dark No Erewhonian believes that the world
is as black as it has been here painted but it is one of their peculiarities
that they very often do not believe or mean things which they profess to regard
as indisputable
In the present instance their professed views concerning the unborn have
arisen from their desire to prove that people have been presented with the
gloomiest possible picture of their own prospects before they came here
otherwise they could hardly say to one whom they are going to punish for an
affection of the heart or brain that it is all his own doing In practice they
modify their theory to a considerable extent and seldom refer to the birth
formula except in extreme cases for the force of habit or what not gives many
of them a kindly interest even in creatures who have so much wronged them as the
unborn have done and though a man generally hates the unwelcome little stranger
for the first twelve months he is apt to mollify according to his lights as
time goes on and sometimes he will become inordinately attached to the beings
whom he is pleased to call his children
Of course according to Erewhonian premises it would serve people right to
be punished and scouted for moral and intellectual diseases as much as for
physical and I cannot to this day understand why they should have stopped short
half way Neither again can I understand why their having done so should have
been as it certainly was a matter of so much concern to myself What could it
matter to me how many absurdities the Erewhonians might adopt Nevertheless I
longed to make them think as I did for the wish to spread those opinions that
we hold conducive to our own welfare is so deeply rooted in the English
character that few of us can escape its influence But let this pass
In spite of not a few modifications in practice of a theory which is itself
revolting the relations between children and parents in that country are less
happy than in Europe It was rarely that I saw cases of real hearty and intense
affection between the old people and the young ones Here and there I did so
and was quite sure that the children even at the age of twenty were fonder of
their parents than they were of anyone else and that of their own inclination
being free to choose what company they would they would often choose that of
their father and mother The straighteners carriage was rarely seen at the door
of those houses I saw two or three such cases during the time that I remained
in the country and cannot express the pleasure which I derived from a sight
suggestive of so much goodness and wisdom and forbearance so richly rewarded
yet I firmly believe that the same thing would happen in nine families out of
ten if the parents were merely to remember how they felt when they were young
and actually to behave towards their children as they would have had their own
parents behave towards themselves But this which would appear to be so simple
and obvious seems also to be a thing which not one in a hundred thousand is
able to put in practice It is only the very great and good who have any living
faith in the simplest axioms and there are few who are so holy as to feel that
19 and 13 make 32 as certainly as 2 and 2 make 4
I am quite sure that if this narrative should ever fall into Erewhonian
hands it will be said that what I have written about the relations between
parents and children being seldom satisfactory is an infamous perversion of
facts and that in truth there are few young people who do not feel happier in
the society of their nearest relations3 than in any other Mr Nosnibor would be
sure to say this Yet I cannot refrain from expressing an opinion that he would
be a good deal embarrassed if his deceased parents were to reappear and propose
to pay him a six months visit I doubt whether there are many things which he
would regard as a greater infliction They had died at a ripe old age some
twenty years before I came to know him so the case is an extreme one but
surely if they had treated him with what in his youth he had felt to be true
unselfishness his face would brighten when he thought of them to the end of his
life
In the one or two cases of true family affection which I met with I am sure
that the young people who were so genuinely fond of their fathers and mothers at
eighteen would at sixty be perfectly delighted were they to get the chance of
welcoming them as their guests There is nothing which could please them better
except perhaps to watch the happiness of their own children and grandchildren
This is how things should be It is not an impossible ideal it is one which
actually does exist in some few cases and might exist in almost all with a
little more patience and forbearance upon the parents part but it is rare at
present so rare that they have a proverb which I can only translate in a very
roundabout way but which says that the great happiness of some people in a
future state will consist in watching the distress of their parents on returning
to eternal companionship with their grandfathers and grandmothers whilst
compulsory affection is the idea which lies at the root of their word for the
deepest anguish
There is no talisman in the word parent which can generate miracles of
affection and I can well believe that my own child might find it less of
calamity to lose both Arowhena and myself when he is six years old than to find
us again when he is sixty a sentence which I would not pen did I not feel that
by doing so I was giving him something like a hostage or at any rate putting a
weapon into his hands against me should my selfishness exceed reasonable
limits
Money is at the bottom of all this to a great extent If the parents would
put their children in the way of earning a competence earlier than they do the
children would soon become selfsupporting and independent As it is under the
present system the young ones get old enough to have all manner of legitimate
wants that is if they have any go about them before they have learnt the
means of earning money to pay for them hence they must either do without them
or take more money than the parents can be expected to spare This is due
chiefly to the schools of Unreason where a boy is taught upon hypothetical
principles as I will explain hereafter spending years in being incapacitated
for doing this that or the other he hardly knows what during all which time
he ought to have been actually doing the thing itself beginning at the lowest
grades picking it up through actual practice and rising according to the
energy which is in him
These schools of Unreason surprised me much It would be easy to fall into
pseudoutilitarianism and I would fain believe that the system may be good for
the children of very rich parents or for those who show a natural instinct to
acquire hypothetical lore but the misery was that their Ydgrunworship required
all people with any pretence to respectability to send their children to some
one or other of these schools mulcting them of years of money It astonished me
to see what sacrifices the parents would make in order to render their children
as nearly useless as possible and it was hard to say whether the old suffered
most from the expense which they were thus put to or the young from being
deliberately swindled in some of the most important branches of human inquiry
and directed into false channels or left to drift in the great majority of
cases
I cannot think I am mistaken in believing that the growing tendency to limit
families by infanticide an evil which was causing general alarm throughout the
country was almost entirely due to the way in which education had become a
fetish from one end of Erewhon to the other Granted that provision should be
made whereby every child should be taught reading writing and arithmetic but
here compulsory stateaided education should end and the child should begin
with all due precautions to ensure that he is not overworked to acquire the
rudiments of that art whereby he is to earn his living
He cannot acquire these in what we in England call schools of technical
education such schools are cloister life as against the rough and tumble of the
world they unfit rather than fit for work in the open An art can only be
learned in the workshop of those who are winning their bread by it
Boys as a rule hate the artificial and delight in the actual give them
the chance of earning and they will soon earn When parents find that their
children instead of being made artificially burdensome will early begin to
contribute to the wellbeing of the family they will soon leave off killing
them and will seek to have that plenitude of offspring which they now avoid As
things are the state lays greater burdens on parents than flesh and blood can
bear and then wrings its hands over an evil for which it is itself mainly
responsible
With the less welldressed classes the harm was not so great for among
these at about ten years old the child has to begin doing something if he is
capable he makes his way up if he is not he is at any rate not made more
incapable by what his friends are pleased to call his education People find
their level as a rule and though they unfortunately sometimes miss it it is in
the main true that those who have valuable qualities are perceived to have them
and can sell them I think that the Erewhonians are beginning to become aware of
these things for there was much talk about putting a tax upon all parents whose
children were not earning a competence according to their degrees by the time
they were twenty years old I am sure that if they will have the courage to
carry it through they will never regret it for the parents will take care that
the children shall begin earning money which means doing good to society at an
early age then the children will be independent early and they will not press
on the parents nor the parents on them and they will like each other better
than they do now
This is the true philanthropy He who makes a colossal fortune in the
hosiery trade and by his energy has succeeded in reducing the price of woollen
goods by the thousandth part of a penny in the pound this man is worth ten
professional philanthropists So strongly are the Erewhonians impressed with
this that if a man has made a fortune of over £ 20000 a year they exempt him
from all taxation considering him as a work of art and too precious to be
meddled with they say »How very much he must have done for society before
society could have been prevailed upon to give him so much money« so
magnificent an organization overawes them they regard it as a thing dropped
from heaven
»Money« they say »is the symbol of duty it is the sacrament of having
done for mankind that which mankind wanted Mankind may not be a very good
judge but there is no better« This used to shock me at first when I
remembered that it had been said on high authority that they who have riches
shall enter hardly into the kingdom of heaven but the influence of Erewhon had
made me begin to see things in a new light and I could not help thinking that
they who have not riches shall enter more hardly still
People oppose money to culture and imply that if a man has spent his time
in making money he will not be cultivated fallacy of fallacies As though
there could be a greater aid to culture than the having earned an honourable
independence and as though any amount of culture will do much for the man who
is penniless except make him feel his position more deeply The young man who
was told to sell all his goods and give to the poor must have been an entirely
exceptional person if the advice was given wisely either for him or for the
poor how much more often does it happen that we perceive a man to have all
sorts of good qualities except money and feel that his real duty lies in
getting every halfpenny that he can persuade others to pay him for his services
and becoming rich It has been said that the love of money is the root of all
evil The want of money is so quite as truly
The above may sound irreverent but it is conceived in a spirit of the most
utter reverence for those things which do alone deserve it that is for the
things which are which mould us and fashion us be they what they may for the
things that have power to punish us and which will punish us if we do not heed
them for our masters therefore But I am drifting away from my story
They have another plan about which they are making a great noise and fuss
much as some are doing with womens rights in England A party of extreme
radicals have professed themselves unable to decide upon the superiority of age
or youth At present all goes on the supposition that it is desirable to make
the young old as soon as possible Some would have it that this is wrong and
that the object of education should be to keep the old young as long as
possible They say that each age should take it turn and turn about week by
week one week the old to be topsawyers and the other the young drawing the
line at thirtyfive years of age but they insist that the young should be
allowed to inflict corporal chastisement on the old without which the old would
be quite incorrigible In any European country this would be out of the
question but it is not so there for the straighteners are constantly ordering
people to be flogged so that they are familiar with the notion I do not
suppose that the idea will be ever acted upon but its having been even mooted
is enough to show the utter perversion of the Erewhonian mind
Chapter TwentyOne
The Colleges of Unreason
I had now been a visitor with the Nosnibors for some five or six months and
though I had frequently proposed to leave them and take apartments of my own
they would not hear of my doing so I suppose they thought I should be more
likely to fall in love with Zulora if I remained but it was my affection for
Arowhena that kept me
During all this time both Arowhena and myself had been dreaming and
drifting towards an avowed attachment but had not dared to face the real
difficulties of the position Gradually however matters came to a crisis in
spite of ourselves and we got to see the true state of the case all too
clearly
One evening we were sitting in the garden and I had been trying in every
stupid roundabout way to get her to say that she should be at any rate sorry for
a man if he really loved a woman who would not marry him I had been stammering
and blushing and been as silly as anyone could be and I suppose had pained her
by fishing for pity for myself in such a transparent way and saying nothing
about her own need of it at any rate she turned upon me with a sweet sad smile
and said »Sorry I am sorry for myself I am sorry for you and I am sorry for
every one« The words had no sooner crossed her lips than she bowed her head
gave me a look as though I were to make no answer and left me
The words were few and simple but the manner with which they were uttered
was ineffable the scales fell from my eyes and I felt that I had no right to
try and induce her to infringe one of the most inviolable customs of her
country as she needs must do if she were to marry me I sat for a long while
thinking and when I remembered the sin and shame and misery which an
unrighteous marriage for as such it would be held in Erewhon would entail I
became thoroughly ashamed of myself for having been so long selfblinded I
write coldly now but I suffered keenly at the time and should probably retain
a much more vivid recollection of what I felt had not all ended so happily
As for giving up the idea of marrying Arowhena it never so much as entered
my head to do so the solution must be found in some other direction than this
The idea of waiting till somebody married Zulora was to be no less summarily
dismissed To marry Arowhena at once in Erewhon this had already been
abandoned there remained therefore but one alternative and that was to run
away with her and get her with me to Europe where there would be no bar to our
union save my own impecuniosity a matter which gave me no uneasiness
To this obvious and simple plan I could see but two objections that deserved
the name the first that perhaps Arowhena would not come the second that it
was almost impossible for me to escape even alone for the king had himself told
me that I was to consider myself a prisoner on parole and that the first sign
of my endeavouring to escape would cause me to be sent to one of the hospitals
for incurables Besides I did not know the geography of the country and even
were I to try and find my way back I should be discovered long before I had
reached the pass over which I had come How then could I hope to be able to take
Arowhena with me For days and days I turned these difficulties over in my mind
and at last hit upon as wild a plan as was ever suggested by extremity This was
to meet the second difficulty the first gave me less uneasiness for when
Arowhena and I next met after our interview in the garden I could see that she
had suffered not less acutely than myself
I resolved that I would have another interview with her the last for the
present that I would then leave her and set to work upon maturing my plan as
fast as possible We got a chance of being alone together and then I gave
myself the loose rein and told her how passionately and devotedly I loved her
She said little in return but her tears which I could not refrain from
answering with my own and the little she did say were quite enough to show me
that I should meet with no obstacle from her Then I asked her whether she would
run a terrible risk which we should share in common if in case of success I
could take her to my own people to the home of my mother and sisters who would
welcome her very gladly At the same time I pointed out that the chances of
failure were far greater than those of success and that the probability was
that even though I could get so far as to carry my design into execution it
would end in death to us both
I was not mistaken in her she said that she believed I loved her as much as
she loved me and that she would brave anything if I could only assure her that
what I proposed would not be thought dishonourable in England she could not
live without me and would rather die with me than alone that death was perhaps
the best for us both that I must plan and that when the hour came I was to
send for her and trust her not to fail me and so after many tears and
embraces we tore ourselves away
I then left the Nosnibors took a lodging in the town and became melancholy
to my hearts content Arowhena and I used to see each other sometimes for I
had taken to going regularly to the Musical Banks but Mrs Nosnibor and Zulora
both treated me with considerable coldness I felt sure that they suspected me
Arowhena looked miserable and I saw that her purse was now always as full as
she could fill it with the Musical Bank money much fuller than of old Then
the horrible thought occurred to me that her health might break down and that
she might be subjected to a criminal prosecution Oh how I hated Erewhon at
that time
I was still received at court but my good looks were beginning to fail me
and I was not such an adept at concealing the effects of pain as the Erewhonians
are I could see that my friends began to look concerned about me and was
obliged to take a leaf out of Mahainas book and pretend to have developed a
taste for drinking I even consulted a straightener as though this were so and
submitted to much discomfort This made matters better for a time but I could
see that my friends thought less highly of my constitution as my flesh began to
fall away
I was told that the poor made an outcry about my pension and I saw a
stinging article in an antiministerial paper in which the writer went so far
as to say that my having light hair reflected little credit upon me inasmuch as
I had been reported to have said that it was a common thing in the country from
which I came I have reason to believe that Mr Nosnibor himself inspired this
article Presently it came round to me that the King had begun to dwell upon my
having been possessed of a watch and to say that I ought to be treated
medicinally for having told him a lie about the balloons I saw misfortune
gathering around me in every direction and felt that I should have need of all
my wits and a good many more if I was to steer myself and Arowhena to a good
conclusion
There were some who continued to show me kindness and strange to say I
received the most from the very persons from whom I should have least expected
it I mean from the cashiers of the Musical Banks I had made the acquaintance
of several of these persons and now that I frequented their bank they were
inclined to make a good deal of me One of them seeing that I was thoroughly
out of health though of course he pretended not to notice it suggested that I
should take a little change of air and go down with him to one of the principal
towns which was some two or three days journey from the metropolis and the
chief seat of the Colleges of Unreason he assured me that I should be delighted
with what I saw and that I should receive a most hospitable welcome I
determined therefore to accept the invitation
We started two or three days later and after a night on the road we
arrived at our destination towards evening It was now full spring and as
nearly as might be ten months since I had started with Chowbok on my expedition
but it seemed more like ten years The trees were in their freshest beauty and
the air had become warm without being oppressively hot After having lived so
many months in the metropolis the sight of the country and the country
villages through which we passed refreshed me greatly but I could not forget my
troubles The last five miles or so were the most beautiful part of the journey
for the country became more undulating and the woods were more extensive but
the first sight of the city of the colleges itself was the most delightful of
all I cannot imagine that there can be any fairer in the whole world and I
expressed my pleasure to my companion and thanked him for having brought me
We drove to an inn in the middle of the town and then while it was still
light my friend the cashier whose name was Thims took me for a stroll in the
streets and in the courtyards of the principal colleges Their beauty and
interest were extreme it was impossible to see them without being attracted
towards them and I thought to myself that he must be indeed an illgrained and
ungrateful person who can have been a member of one of these colleges without
retaining an affectionate feeling towards it for the rest of his life All my
misgivings gave way at once when I saw the beauty and venerable appearance of
this delightful city For half an hour I forgot both myself and Arowhena
After supper Mr Thims told me a good deal about the system of education
which is here practised I already knew a part of what I heard but much was new
to me and I obtained a better idea of the Erewhonian position than I had done
hitherto nevertheless there were parts of the scheme of which I could not
comprehend the fitness although I fully admit that this inability was probably
the result of my having been trained so very differently and to my being then
much out of sorts
The main feature in their system is the prominence which they give to a
study which I can only translate by the word hypothetics They argue thus that
to teach a boy merely the nature of the things which exist in the world around
him and about which he will have to be conversant during his whole life would
be giving him but a narrow and shallow conception of the universe which it is
urged might contain all manner of things which are not now to be found therein
To open his eyes to these possibilities and so to prepare him for all sorts of
emergencies is the object of this system of hypothetics To imagine a set of
utterly strange and impossible contingencies and require the youths to give
intelligent answers to the questions that arise therefrom is reckoned the
fittest conceivable way of preparing them for the actual conduct of their
affairs in after life
Thus they are taught what is called the hypothetical language for many of
their best years a language which was originally composed at a time when the
country was in a very different state of civilization to what it is at present
a state which has long since disappeared and been superseded Many valuable
maxims and noble thoughts which were at one time concealed in it have become
current in their modern literature and have been translated over and over again
into the language now spoken Surely then it would seem enough that the study of
the original language should be confined to the few whose instincts led them
naturally to pursue it
But the Erewhonians think differently the store they set by this
hypothetical language can hardly be believed they will even give anyone a
maintenance for life if he attains a considerable proficiency in the study of
it nay they will spend years in learning to translate some of their own good
poetry into the hypothetical language to do so with fluency being reckoned a
distinguishing mark of a scholar and a gentleman Heaven forbid that I should be
flippant but it appeared to me to be a wanton waste of good human energy that
men should spend years and years in the perfection of so barren an exercise
when their own civilization presented problems by the hundred which cried aloud
for solution and would have paid the solver handsomely but people know their
own affairs best If the youths chose it for themselves I should have wondered
less but they do not choose it they have it thrust upon them and for the most
part are disinclined towards it I can only say that all I heard in defence of
the system was insufficient to make me think very highly of its advantages
The arguments in favour of the deliberate development of the unreasoning
faculties were much more cogent But here they depart from the principles on
which they justify their study of hypothetics for they base the importance
which they assign to hypothetics upon the fact of their being a preparation for
the extraordinary while their study of Unreason rests upon its developing those
faculties which are required for the daily conduct of affairs Hence their
professorships of Inconsistency and Evasion in both of which studies the youths
are examined before being allowed to proceed to their degree in hypothetics The
more earnest and conscientious students attain to a proficiency in these
subjects which is quite surprising there is hardly any inconsistency so glaring
but they soon learn to defend it or injunction so clear that they cannot find
some pretext for disregarding it
Life they urge would be intolerable if men were to be guided in all they
did by reason and reason only Reason betrays men into the drawing of hard and
fast lines and to the defining by language language being like the sun which
rears and then scorches Extremes are alone logical but they are always absurd
the mean is illogical but an illogical mean is better than the sheer absurdity
of an extreme There are no follies and no unreasonablenesses so great as those
which can apparently be irrefragably defended by reason itself and there is
hardly an error into which men may not easily be led if they base their conduct
upon reason only
Reason might very possibly abolish the double currency it might even attack
the personality of Hope and Justice Besides people have such a strong natural
bias towards it that they will seek it for themselves and act upon it quite as
much as or more than is good for them there is no need of encouraging reason
With unreason the case is different She is the natural complement of reason
without whose existence reason itself were nonexistent
If then reason would be nonexistent were there no such thing as unreason
surely it follows that the more unreason there is the more reason there must be
also Hence the necessity for the development of unreason even in the interests
of reason herself The Professors of Unreason deny that they undervalue reason
none can be more convinced than they are that if the double currency cannot be
rigorously deduced as a necessary consequence of human reason the double
currency should cease forthwith but they say that it must be deduced from no
narrow and exclusive view of reason which should deprive that admirable faculty
of the onehalf of its own existence Unreason is a part of reason it must
therefore be allowed its full share in stating the initial conditions
Chapter TwentyTwo
The Colleges of Unreason continued
Of genius they make no account for they say that every one is a genius more or
less No one is so physically sound that no part of him will be even a little
unsound and no one is so diseased but that some part of him will be healthy
so no man is so mentally and morally sound but that he will be in part both mad
and wicked and no man is so mad and wicked but he will be sensible and
honourable in part In like manner there is no genius who is not also a fool
and no fool who is not also a genius
When I talked about originality and genius to some gentlemen whom I met at a
supper party given by Mr Thims in my honour and said that original thought
ought to be encouraged I had to eat my words at once Their view evidently was
that genius was like offences needs must that it come but woe unto that man
through whom it comes A mans business they hold is to think as his
neighbours do for Heaven help him if he thinks good what they count bad And
really it is hard to see how the Erewhonian theory differs from our own for the
word idiot only means a person who forms his opinions for himself
The venerable Professor of Worldly Wisdom a man verging on eighty but still
hale spoke to me very seriously on this subject in consequence of the few words
that I had imprudently let fall in defence of genius He was one of those who
carried most weight in the university and had the reputation of having done
more perhaps than any other living man to suppress any kind of originality
»It is not our business« he said »to help students to think for
themselves Surely this is the very last thing which one who wishes them well
should encourage them to do Our duty is to ensure that they shall think as we
do or at any rate as we hold it expedient to say we do« In some respects
however he was thought to hold somewhat radical opinions for he was President
of the Society for the Suppression of Useless Knowledge and for the Completer
Obliteration of the Past
As regards the tests that a youth must pass before he can get a degree I
found that they have no class lists and discourage anything like competition
among the students this indeed they regard as selfseeking and unneighbourly
The examinations are conducted by way of papers written by the candidate on set
subjects some of which are known to him beforehand while others are devised
with a view of testing his general capacity and savoir faire
My friend the Professor of Worldly Wisdom was the terror of the greater
number of students and so far as I could judge he very well might be for he
had taken his Professorship more seriously than any of the other Professors had
done I heard of his having plucked one poor fellow for want of sufficient
vagueness in his saving clauses paper Another was sent down for having written
an article on a scientific subject without having made free enough use of the
words carefully patiently and earnestly One man was refused a degree for
being too often and too seriously in the right while a few days before I came a
whole batch had been plucked for insufficient distrust of printed matter
About this there was just then rather a ferment for it seems that the
Professor had written an article in the leading university magazine which was
well known to be by him and which abounded in all sorts of plausible blunders
He then set a paper which afforded the examinees an opportunity of repeating
these blunders which believing the article to be by their own examiner they
of course did The Professor plucked every single one of them but his action
was considered to have been not quite handsome
I told them of Homers noble line to the effect that a man should strive
ever to be foremost and in all things to outvie his peers but they said that no
wonder the countries in which such a detestable maxim was held in admiration
were always flying at one anothers throats
»Why« asked one Professor »should a man want to be better than his
neighbours Let him be thankful if he is no worse«
I ventured feebly to say that I did not see how progress could be made in
any art or science or indeed in anything at all without more or less
selfseeking and hence unamiability
»Of course it cannot« said the Professor »and therefore we object to
progress«
After which there was no more to be said Later on however a young
Professor took me aside and said he did not think I quite understood their views
about progress
»We like progress« he said »but it must commend itself to the common sense
of the people If a man gets to know more than his neighbours he should keep his
knowledge to himself till he has sounded them and seen whether they agree or
are likely to agree with him« He said it was as immoral to be too far in front
of ones own age as to lag too far behind it »If a man can carry his
neighbours with him he may say what he likes but if not what insult can be
more gratuitous than the telling them what they do not want to know A man
should remember that intellectual over is one of the most insidious and
disgraceful forms that excess can take Granted that every one should exceed
more or less inasmuch as absolutely perfect sanity would drive any man mad the
moment he reached it but «
He was now warming to his subject and I was beginning to wonder how I should
get rid of him when the party broke up and though I promised to call on him
before I left I was unfortunately prevented from doing so
I have now said enough to give English readers some idea of the strange
views which the Erewhonians hold concerning unreason hypothetics and education
generally In many respects they were sensible enough but I could not get over
the hypothetics especially the turning their own good poetry into the
hypothetical language In the course of my stay I met one youth who told me that
for fourteen years the hypothetical language had been almost the only thing that
he had been taught although he had never to his credit as it seemed to me
shown the slightest proclivity towards it while he had been endowed with not
inconsiderable ability for several other branches of human learning He assured
me that he would never open another hypothetical book after he had taken his
degree but would follow out the bent of his own inclinations This was well
enough but who could give him his fourteen years back again
I sometimes wondered how it was that the mischief done was not more clearly
perceptible and that the young men and women grew up as sensible and goodly as
they did in spite of the attempts almost deliberately made to warp and stunt
their growth Some doubtless received damage from which they suffered to their
lifes end but many seemed little or none the worse and some almost the
better The reason would seem to be that the natural instinct of the lads in
most cases so absolutely rebelled against their training that do what the
teachers might they could never get them to pay serious heed to it The
consequence was that the boys only lost their time and not so much of this as
might have been expected for in their hours of leisure they were actively
engaged in exercises and sports which developed their physical nature and made
them at any rate strong and healthy
Moreover those who had any special tastes could not be restrained from
developing them they would learn what they wanted to learn and liked in spite
of obstacles which seemed rather to urge them on than to discourage them while
for those who had no special capacity the loss of time was of comparatively
little moment but in spite of these alleviations of the mischief I am sure
that much harm was done to the children of the subwealthy classes by the
system which passes current among the Erewhonians as education The poorest
children suffered least if destruction and death have heard the sound of
wisdom to a certain extent poverty has done so also
And yet perhaps after all it is better for a country that its seats of
learning should do more to suppress mental growth than to encourage it Were it
not for a certain priggishness which these places infuse into so great a number
of their alumni genuine work would become dangerously common It is essential
that by far the greater part of what is said or done in the world should be so
ephemeral as to take itself away quickly it should keep good for twentyfour
hours or even twice as long but it should not be good enough a week hence to
prevent people from going on to something else No doubt the marvellous
development of journalism in England as also the fact that our seats of
learning aim rather at fostering mediocrity than anything higher is due to our
subconscious recognition of the fact that it is even more necessary to check
exuberance of mental development than to encourage it There can be no doubt
that this is what our academic bodies do and they do it the more effectually
because they do it only subconsciously They think they are advancing healthy
mental assimilation and digestion whereas in reality they are little better
than cancer in the stomach
Let me return however to the Erewhonians Nothing surprised me more than
to see the occasional flashes of common sense with which one branch of study or
another was lit up while not a single ray fell upon so many others I was
particularly struck with this on strolling into the Art School of the
University Here I found that the course of study was divided into two branches
the practical and the commercial no student being permitted to continue his
studies in the actual practice of the art he had taken up unless he made equal
progress in its commercial history
Thus those who were studying painting were examined at frequent intervals in
the prices which all the leading pictures of the last fifty or a hundred years
had realized and in the fluctuations in their values when as often happened
they had been sold and resold three or four times The artist they contend is
a dealer in pictures and it is as important for him to learn how to adapt his
wares to the market and to know approximately what kind of a picture will fetch
how much as it is for him to be able to paint the picture This I suppose is
what the French mean by laying so much stress upon values
As regards the city itself the more I saw the more enchanted I became I
dare not trust myself with any description of the exquisite beauty of the
different colleges and their walks and gardens Truly in these things alone
there must be a hallowing and refining influence which is in itself half an
education and which no amount of error can wholly spoil I was introduced to
many of the Professors who showed me every hospitality and kindness
nevertheless I could hardly avoid a sort of suspicion that some of those whom I
was taken to see had been so long engrossed in their own study of hypothetics
that they had become the exact antitheses of the Athenians in the days of St
Paul for whereas the Athenians spent their lives in nothing save to see and to
hear some new thing there were some here who seemed to devote themselves to the
avoidance of every opinion with which they were not perfectly familiar and
regarded their own brains as a sort of sanctuary to which if an opinion had
once resorted none other was to attack it
I should warn the reader however that I was rarely sure what the men whom
I met while staying with Mr Thims really meant for there was no getting
anything out of them if they scented even a suspicion that they might be what
they call giving themselves away As there is hardly any subject on which this
suspicion cannot arise I found it difficult to get definite opinions from any
of them except on such subjects as the weather eating and drinking holiday
excursions or games of skill
If they cannot wriggle out of expressing an opinion of some sort they will
commonly retail those of some one who has already written upon the subject and
conclude by saying that though they quite admit that there is an element of
truth in what the writer has said there are many points on which they are
unable to agree with him Which these points were I invariably found myself
unable to determine indeed it seemed to be counted the perfection of
scholarship and good breeding among them not to have much less to express an
opinion on any subject on which it might prove later that they had been
mistaken The art of sitting gracefully on a fence has never I should think
been brought to greater perfection than at the Erewhonian Colleges of Unreason
Even when wriggle as they may they find themselves pinned down to some
expression of definite opinion as often as not they will argue in support of
what they perfectly well know to be untrue I repeatedly met with reviews and
articles even in their best journals between the lines of which I had little
difficulty in detecting a sense exactly contrary to the one ostensibly put
forward So well is this understood that a man must be a mere tyro in the arts
of Erewhonian polite society unless he instinctively suspects a hidden yea in
every nay that meets him Granted that it comes to much the same in the end for
it does not matter whether yea is called yea or nay so long as it is understood
which it is to be but our own more direct way of calling a spade a spade
rather than a rake with the intention that every one should understand it as a
spade seems more satisfactory On the other hand the Erewhonian system lends
itself better to the suppression of that downrightness which it seems the
express aim of Erewhonian philosophy to discountenance
However this may be the fearofgivingthemselvesaway disease was fatal to
the intelligence of those infected by it and almost every one at the Colleges
of Unreason had caught it to a greater or less degree After a few years atrophy
of the opinions invariably supervened and the sufferer became stone dead to
everything except the more superficial aspects of those material objects with
which he came most in contact The expression on the faces of these people was
repellent they did not however seem particularly unhappy for they none of
them had the faintest idea that they were in reality more dead than alive No
cure for this disgusting fearofgivingthemselvesaway disease has yet been
discovered
It was during my stay in the city of the Colleges of Unreason a city whose
Erewhonian name is so cacophonous that I refrain from giving it that I learned
the particulars of the revolution which had ended in the destruction of so many
of the mechanical inventions which were formerly in common use
Mr Thims took me to the rooms of a gentleman who had a great reputation for
learning but who was also so Mr Thims told me rather a dangerous person
inasmuch as he had attempted to introduce an adverb into the hypothetical
language He had heard of my watch and been exceedingly anxious to see me for
he was accounted the most learned antiquary in Erewhon on the subject of
mechanical lore We fell to talking upon the subject and when I left he gave me
a reprinted copy of the work which brought the revolution about
It had taken place some five hundred years before my arrival people had
long become thoroughly used to the change although at the time that it was made
the country was plunged into the deepest misery and a reaction which followed
had very nearly proved successful Civil war raged for many years and is said
to have reduced the number of the inhabitants by one half The parties were
styled the machinists and the antimachinists and in the end as I have said
already the latter got the victory treating their opponents with such
unparalleled severity that they extirpated every trace of opposition
The wonder was that they allowed any mechanical appliances to remain in the
kingdom neither do I believe that they would have done so had not the
Professors of Inconsistency and Evasion made a stand against the carrying of the
new principles to their legitimate conclusions These Professors moreover
insisted that during the struggle the antimachinists should use every known
improvement in the art of war and several new weapons offensive and defensive
were invented while it was in progress I was surprised at there remaining so
many mechanical specimens as are seen in the museums and at students having
rediscovered their past uses so completely for at the time of the revolution
the victors wrecked all the more complicated machines and burned all treatises
on mechanics and all engineers workshops thus so they thought cutting the
mischief out root and branch at an incalculable cost of blood and treasure
Certainly they had not spared their labour but work of this description can
never be perfectly achieved and when some two hundred years before my arrival
all passion upon the subject had cooled down and no one save a lunatic would
have dreamed of reintroducing forbidden inventions the subject came to be
regarded as a curious antiquarian study like that of some longforgotten
religious practices among ourselves Then came the careful search for whatever
fragments could be found and for any machines that might have been hidden away
and also numberless treatises were written showing what the functions of each
rediscovered machine had been all being done with no idea of using such
machinery again but with the feelings of an English antiquarian concerning
Druidical monuments or flint arrowheads
On my return to the metropolis during the remaining weeks or rather days
of my sojourn in Erewhon I made a resumé in English of the work which brought
about the already mentioned revolution My ignorance of technical terms has led
me doubtless into many errors and I have occasionally where I found
translation impossible substituted purely English names and ideas for the
original Erewhonian ones but the reader may rely on my general accuracy I have
thought it best to insert my translation here
Chapter TwentyThree
The Book of the Machines
The writer commences »There was a time when the earth was to all appearance
utterly destitute both of animal and vegetable life and when according to the
opinion of our best philosophers it was simply a hot round ball with a crust
gradually cooling Now if a human being had existed while the earth was in this
state and had been allowed to see it as though it were some other world with
which he had no concern and if at the same time he were entirely ignorant of
all physical science would he not have pronounced it impossible that creatures
possessed of anything like consciousness should be evolved from the seeming
cinder which he was beholding Would he not have denied that it contained any
potentiality of consciousness Yet in the course of time consciousness came Is
it not possible then that there may be even yet new channels dug out for
consciousness though we can detect no signs of them at present
Again Consciousness in anything like the present acceptation of the term
having been once a new thing a thing as far as we can see subsequent even to
an individual centre of action and to a reproductive system which we see
existing in plants without apparent consciousness why may not there arise
some new phase of mind which shall be as different from all present known phases
as the mind of animals is from that of vegetables
It would be absurd to attempt to define such a mental state or whatever it
may be called inasmuch as it must be something so foreign to man that his
experience can give him no help towards conceiving its nature but surely when
we reflect upon the manifold phases of life and consciousness which have been
evolved already it would be rash to say that no others can be developed and
that animal life is the end of all things There was a time when fire was the
end of all things another when rocks and water were so«
The writer after enlarging on the above for several pages proceeded to
inquire whether traces of the approach of such a new phase of life could be
perceived at present whether we could see any tenements preparing which might
in a remote futurity be adapted for it whether in fact the primordial cell of
such a kind of life could be now detected upon earth In the course of his work
he answered this question in the affirmative and pointed to the higher
machines
»There is no security« to quote his own words »against the ultimate
development of mechanical consciousness in the fact of machines possessing
little consciousness now A mollusc has not much consciousness Reflect upon the
extraordinary advance which machines have made during the last few hundred
years and note how slowly the animal and vegetable kingdoms are advancing The
more highly organized machines are creatures not so much of yesterday as of the
last five minutes so to speak in comparison with past time Assume for the
sake of argument that conscious beings have existed for some twenty million
years see what strides machines have made in the last thousand May not the
world last twenty million years longer If so what will they not in the end
become Is it not safer to nip the mischief in the bud and to forbid them
further progress
But who can say that the vapour engine has not a kind of consciousness
Where does consciousness begin and where end Who can draw the line Who can
draw any line Is not everything interwoven with everything Is not machinery
linked with animal life in an infinite variety of ways The shell of a hens egg
is made of a delicate white ware and is a machine as much as an eggcup is the
shell is a device for holding the egg as much as the eggcup for holding the
shell both are phases of the same function the hen makes the shell in her
inside but it is pure pottery She makes her nest outside of herself for
convenience sake but the nest is not more of a machine than the eggshell is
A machine is only a device«
Then returning to consciousness and endeavouring to detect its earliest
manifestations the writer continued
»There is a kind of plant that eats organic food with its flowers when a
fly settles upon the blossom the petals close upon it and hold it fast till the
plant has absorbed the insect into its system but they will close on nothing
but what is good to eat of a drop of rain or a piece of stick they will take no
notice Curious that so unconscious a thing should have such a keen eye to its
own interest If this is unconsciousness where is the use of consciousness
Shall we say that the plant does not know what it is doing merely because it
has no eyes or ears or brains If we say that it acts mechanically and
mechanically only shall we not be forced to admit that sundry other and
apparently very deliberate actions are also mechanical If it seems to us that
the plant kills and eats a fly mechanically may it not seem to the plant that a
man must kill and eat a sheep mechanically
But it may be said that the plant is void of reason because the growth of a
plant is an involuntary growth Given earth air and due temperature the plant
must grow it is like a clock which being once wound up will go till it is
stopped or run down it is like the wind blowing on the sails of a ship the
ship must go when the wind blows it But can a healthy boy help growing if he
have good meat and drink and clothing Can anything help going as long as it is
wound up or go on after it is run down Is there not a winding up process
everywhere
Even a potato4 in a dark cellar has a certain low cunning about him which
serves him in excellent stead He knows perfectly well what he wants and how to
get it He sees the light coming from the cellar window and sends his shoots
crawling straight thereto they will crawl along the floor and up the wall and
out at the cellar window if there be a little earth anywhere on the journey he
will find it and use it for his own ends What deliberation he may exercise in
the matter of his roots when he is planted in the earth is a thing unknown to
us but we can imagine him saying I will have a tuber here and a tuber there
and I will suck whatsoever advantage I can from all my surroundings This
neighbour I will overshadow and that I will undermine and what I can do shall
be the limit of what I will do He that is stronger and better placed than I
shall overcome me and him that is weaker I will overcome
The potato says these things by doing them which is the best of languages
What is consciousness if this is not consciousness We find it difficult to
sympathize with the emotions of a potato so we do with those of an oyster
Neither of these things makes a noise on being boiled or opened and noise
appeals to us more strongly than anything else because we make so much about our
own sufferings Since then they do not annoy us by any expression of pain we
call them emotionless and so qua mankind they are but mankind is not
everybody
If it be urged that the action of the potato is chemical and mechanical
only and that it is due to the chemical and mechanical effects of light and
heat the answer would seem to lie in an inquiry whether every sensation is not
chemical and mechanical in its operation whether those things which we deem
most purely spiritual are anything but disturbances of equilibrium in an
infinite series of levers beginning with those that are too small for
microscopic detection and going up to the human arm and the appliances which it
makes use of whether there be not a molecular action of thought whence a
dynamical theory of the passions shall be deducible Whether strictly speaking
we should not ask what kind of levers a man is made of rather than what is his
temperament How are they balanced How much of such and such will it take to
weigh them down so as to make him do so and so«
The writer went on to say that he anticipated a time when it would be
possible by examining a single hair with a powerful microscope to know whether
its owner could be insulted with impunity He then became more and more obscure
so that I was obliged to give up all attempt at translation neither did I
follow the drift of his argument On coming to the next part which I could
construe I found that he had changed his ground
»Either« he proceeds »a great deal of action that has been called purely
mechanical and unconscious must be admitted to contain more elements of
consciousness than has been allowed hitherto and in this case germs of
consciousness will be found in many actions of the higher machines or
assuming the theory of evolution but at the same time denying the consciousness
of vegetable and crystalline action the race of man has descended from things
which had no consciousness at all In this case there is no a priori
improbability in the descent of conscious and more than conscious machines
from those which now exist except that which is suggested by the apparent
absence of anything like a reproductive system in the mechanical kingdom This
absence however is only apparent as I shall presently show
Do not let me be misunderstood as living in fear of any actually existing
machine there is probably no known machine which is more than a prototype of
future mechanical life The present machines are to the future as the early
Saurians to man The largest of them will probably greatly diminish in size
Some of the lowest vertebrata attained a much greater bulk than has descended to
their more highly organized living representatives and in like manner a
diminution in the size of machines has often attended their development and
progress
Take the watch for example examine its beautiful structure observe the
intelligent play of the minute members which compose it yet this little
creature is but a development of the cumbrous clocks that preceded it it is no
deterioration from them A day may come when clocks which certainly at the
present time are not diminishing in bulk will be superseded owing to the
universal use of watches in which case they will become as extinct as
ichthyosauri while the watch whose tendency has for some years been to
decrease in size rather than the contrary will remain the only existing type of
an extinct race
But returning to the argument I would repeat that I fear none of the
existing machines what I fear is the extraordinary rapidity with which they are
becoming something very different to what they are at present No class of
beings have in any time past made so rapid a movement forward Should not that
movement be jealously watched and checked while we can still check it And is
it not necessary for this end to destroy the more advanced of the machines which
are in use at present though it is admitted that they are in themselves
harmless
As yet the machines receive their impressions through the agency of mans
senses one travelling machine calls to another in a shrill accent of alarm and
the other instantly retires but it is through the ears of the driver that the
voice of the one has acted upon the other Had there been no driver the callee
would have been deaf to the caller There was a time when it must have seemed
highly improbable that machines should learn to make their wants known by sound
even through the ears of man may we not conceive then that a day will come
when those ears will be no longer needed and the hearing will be done by the
delicacy of the machines own construction when its language shall have been
developed from the cry of animals to a speech as intricate as our own
It is possible that by that time children will learn the differential
calculus as they learn now to speak from their mothers and nurses or that
they may talk in the hypothetical language and work rule of three sums as soon
as they are born but this is not probable we cannot calculate on any
corresponding advance in mans intellectual or physical powers which shall be a
setoff against the far greater development which seems in store for the
machines Some people may say that mans moral influence will suffice to rule
them but I cannot think it will ever be safe to repose much trust in the moral
sense of any machine
Again might not the glory of the machines consist in their being without
this same boasted gift of language Silence it has been said by one writer is
a virtue which renders us agreeable to our fellowcreatures«
Chapter TwentyFour
The Book of the Machines continued
»But other questions come upon us What is a mans eye but a machine for the
little creature that sits behind in his brain to look through A dead eye is
nearly as good as a living one for some time after the man is dead It is not
the eye that cannot see but the restless one that cannot see through it Is it
mans eyes or is it the big seeingengine which has revealed to us the
existence of worlds beyond worlds into infinity What has made man familiar with
the scenery of the moon the spots on the sun or the geography of the planets
He is at the mercy of the seeingengine for these things and is powerless
unless he tack it on to his own identity and make it part and parcel of
himself Or again is it the eye or the little seeengine which has shown us
the existence of infinitely minute organisms which swarm unsuspected around us
And take mans vaunted power of calculation Have we not engines which can
do all manner of sums more quickly and correctly than we can What prizeman in
hypothetics at any of our Colleges of Unreason can compare with some of these
machines in their own line In fact wherever precision is required man flies to
the machine at once as far preferable to himself Our sumengines never drop a
figure nor our looms a stitch the machine is brisk and active when the man is
weary it is clearheaded and collected when the man is stupid and dull it
needs no slumber when man must sleep or drop ever at its post ever ready for
work its alacrity never flags its patience never gives in its might is
stronger than combined hundreds and swifter than the flight of birds it can
burrow beneath the earth and walk upon the largest rivers and sink not This is
the green tree what then shall be done in the dry
Who shall say that a man does see or hear He is such a hive and swarm of
parasites that it is doubtful whether his body is not more theirs than his and
whether he is anything but another kind of antheap after all May not man
himself become a sort of parasite upon the machines An affectionate
machinetickling aphid
It is said by some that our blood is composed of infinite living agents
which go up and down the highways and byways of our bodies as people in the
streets of a city When we look down from a high place upon crowded
thoroughfares is it possible not to think of corpuscles of blood travelling
through veins and nourishing the heart of the town No mention shall be made of
sewers nor of the hidden nerves which serve to communicate sensations from one
part of the towns body to another nor of the yawning jaws of the railway
stations whereby the circulation is carried directly into the heart which
receive the venous lines and disgorge the arterial with an eternal pulse of
people And the sleep of the town how lifelike with its change in the
circulation«
Here the writer became again so hopelessly obscure that I was obliged to
miss several pages He resumed
»It can be answered that even though machines should hear never so well and
speak never so wisely they will still always do the one or the other for our
advantage not their own that man will be the ruling spirit and the machine the
servant that as soon as a machine fails to discharge the service which man
expects from it it is doomed to extinction that the machines stand to man
simply in the relation of lower animals the vapourengine itself being only a
more economical kind of horse so that instead of being likely to be developed
into a higher kind of life than mans they owe their very existence and
progress to their power of ministering to human wants and must therefore both
now and ever be mans inferiors
This is all very well But the servant glides by imperceptible approaches
into the master and we have come to such a pass that even now man must suffer
terribly on ceasing to benefit the machines If all machines were to be
annihilated at one moment so that not a knife nor lever nor rag of clothing nor
anything whatsoever were left to man but his bare body alone that he was born
with and if all knowledge of mechanical laws were taken from him so that he
could make no more machines and all machinemade food destroyed so that the
race of man should be left as it were naked upon a desert island we should
become extinct in six weeks A few miserable individuals might linger but even
these in a year or two would become worse than monkeys Mans very soul is due
to the machines it is a machinemade thing he thinks as he thinks and feels
as he feels through the work that machines have wrought upon him and their
existence is quite as much a sine quâ non for his as his for theirs This fact
precludes us from proposing the complete annihilation of machinery but surely
it indicates that we should destroy as many of them as we can possibly dispense
with lest they should tyrannize over us even more completely
True from a low materialistic point of view it would seem that those
thrive best who use machinery wherever its use is possible with profit but this
is the art of the machines they serve that they may rule They bear no malice
towards man for destroying a whole race of them provided he creates a better
instead on the contrary they reward him liberally for having hastened their
development It is for neglecting them that he incurs their wrath or for using
inferior machines or for not making sufficient exertions to invent new ones or
for destroying them without replacing them yet these are the very things we
ought to do and do quickly for though our rebellion against their infant power
will cause infinite suffering what will not things come to if that rebellion
is delayed
They have preyed upon mans grovelling preference for his material over his
spiritual interests and have betrayed him into supplying that element of
struggle and warfare without which no race can advance The lower animals
progress because they struggle with one another the weaker die the stronger
breed and transmit their strength The machines being of themselves unable to
struggle have got man to do their struggling for them as long as he fulfils
this function duly all goes well with him at least he thinks so but the
moment he fails to do his best for the advancement of machinery by encouraging
the good and destroying the bad he is left behind in the race of competition
and this means that he will be made uncomfortable in a variety of ways and
perhaps die
So that even now the machines will only serve on condition of being served
and that too upon their own terms the moment their terms are not complied with
they jib and either smash both themselves and all whom they can reach or turn
churlish and refuse to work at all How many men at this hour are living in a
state of bondage to the machines How many spend their whole lives from the
cradle to the grave in tending them by night and day Is it not plain that the
machines are gaining ground upon us when we reflect on the increasing number of
those who are bound down to them as slaves and of those who devote their whole
souls to the advancement of the mechanical kingdom
The vapourengine must be fed with food and consume it by fire even as man
consumes it it supports its combustion by air as man supports it it has a
pulse and circulation as man has It may be granted that mans body is as yet
the more versatile of the two but then mans body is an older thing give the
vapourengine but half the time that man has had give it also a continuance of
our present infatuation and what may it not ere long attain to
There are certain functions indeed of the vapourengine which will probably
remain unchanged for myriads of years which in fact will perhaps survive when
the use of vapour has been superseded the piston and cylinder the beam the
flywheel and other parts of the machine will probably be permanent just as we
see that man and many of the lower animals share like modes of eating drinking
and sleeping thus they have hearts which beat as ours veins and arteries
eyes ears and noses they sigh even in their sleep and weep and yawn they
are affected by their children they feel pleasure and pain hope fear anger
shame they have memory and prescience they know that if certain things happen
to them they will die and they fear death as much as we do they communicate
their thoughts to one another and some of them deliberately act in concert The
comparison of similarities is endless I only make it because some may say that
since the vapourengine is not likely to be improved in the main particulars it
is unlikely to be henceforward extensively modified at all This is too good to
be true it will be modified and suited for an infinite variety of purposes as
much as man has been modified so as to exceed the brutes in skill
In the meantime the stoker is almost as much a cook for his engine as our
own cooks for ourselves Consider also the colliers and pitmen and coal
merchants and coal trains and the men who drive them and the ships that carry
coals what an army of servants do the machines thus employ Are there not
probably more men engaged in tending machinery than in tending men Do not
machines eat as it were by mannery Are we not ourselves creating our successors
in the supremacy of the earth daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of their
organization daily giving them greater skill and supplying more and more of
that selfregulating selfacting power which will be better than any intellect
What a new thing it is for a machine to feed at all The plough the spade
and the cart must eat through mans stomach the fuel that sets them going must
burn in the furnace of a man or of horses Man must consume bread and meat or he
cannot dig the bread and meat are the fuel which drive the spade If a plough
be drawn by horses the power is supplied by grass or beans or oats which being
burnt in the belly of the cattle give the power of working without this fuel
the work would cease as an engine would stop if its furnaces were to go out
A man of science has demonstrated that no animal has the power of
originating mechanical energy but that all the work done in its life by any
animal and all the heat that has been emitted from it and the heat which would
be obtained by burning the combustible matter which has been lost from its body
during life and by burning its body after death make up altogether an exact
equivalent to the heat which would be obtained by burning as much food as it has
used during its life and an amount of fuel which would generate as much heat as
its body if burned immediately after death I do not know how he has found this
out but he is a man of science how then can it be objected against the future
vitality of the machines that they are in their present infancy at the beck
and call of beings who are themselves incapable of originating mechanical
energy
The main point however to be observed as affording cause for alarm is
that whereas animals were formerly the only stomachs of the machines there are
now many which have stomachs of their own and consume their food themselves
This is a great step towards their becoming if not animate yet something so
near akin to it as not to differ more widely from our own life than animals do
from vegetables And though man should remain in some respects the higher
creature is not this in accordance with the practice of nature which allows
superiority in some things to animals which have on the whole been long
surpassed Has she not allowed the ant and the bee to retain superiority over
man in the organization of their communities and social arrangements the bird
in traversing the air the fish in swimming the horse in strength and
fleetness and the dog in selfsacrifice
It is said by some with whom I have conversed upon this subject that the
machines can never be developed into animate or quasianimate existences
inasmuch as they have no reproductive system nor seem ever likely to possess
one If this be taken to mean that they cannot marry and that we are never
likely to see a fertile union between two vapourengines with the young ones
playing about the door of the shed however greatly we might desire to do so I
will readily grant it But the objection is not a very profound one No one
expects that all the features of the now existing organizations will be
absolutely repeated in an entirely new class of life The reproductive system of
animals differs widely from that of plants but both are reproductive systems
Has nature exhausted her phases of this power
Surely if a machine is able to reproduce another machine systematically we
may say that it has a reproductive system What is a reproductive system if it
be not a system for reproduction And how few of the machines are there which
have not been produced systematically by other machines But it is man that
makes them do so Yes but is it not insects that make many of the plants
reproductive and would not whole families of plants die out if their
fertilization was not effected by a class of agents utterly foreign to
themselves Does anyone say that the red clover has no reproductive system
because the humble bee and the humble bee only must aid and abet it before it
can reproduce No one The humble bee is a part of the reproductive system of
the clover Each one of ourselves has sprung from minute animalcules whose
entity was entirely distinct from our own and which acted after their kind with
no thought or heed of what we might think about it These little creatures are
part of our own reproductive system then why not we part of that of the
machines
But the machines which reproduce machinery do not reproduce machines after
their own kind A thimble may be made by machinery but it was not made by
neither will it ever make a thimble Here again if we turn to nature we shall
find abundance of analogies which will teach us that a reproductive system may
be in full force without the thing produced being of the same kind as that which
produced it Very few creatures reproduce after their own kind they reproduce
something which has the potentiality of becoming that which their parents were
Thus the butterfly lays an egg which egg can become a caterpillar which
caterpillar can become a chrysalis which chrysalis can become a butterfly and
though I freely grant that the machines cannot be said to have more than the
germ of a true reproductive system at present have we not just seen that they
have only recently obtained the germs of a mouth and stomach And may not some
stride be made in the direction of true reproduction which shall be as great as
that which has been recently taken in the direction of true feeding
It is possible that the system when developed may be in many cases a
vicarious thing Certain classes of machines may be alone fertile while the
rest discharge other functions in the mechanical system just as the great
majority of ants and bees have nothing to do with the continuation of their
species but get food and store it without thought of breeding One cannot
expect the parallel to be complete or nearly so certainly not now and probably
never but is there not enough analogy existing at the present moment to make
us feel seriously uneasy about the future and to render it our duty to check
the evil while we can still do so Machines can within certain limits beget
machines of any class no matter how different to themselves Every class of
machines will probably have its special mechanical breeders and all the higher
ones will owe their existence to a large number of parents and not to two only
We are misled by considering any complicated machine as a single thing in
truth it is a city or society each member of which was bred truly after its
kind We see a machine as a whole we call it by a name and individualize it we
look at our own limbs and know that the combination forms an individual which
springs from a single centre of reproductive action we therefore assume that
there can be no reproductive action which does not arise from a single centre
but this assumption is unscientific and the bare fact that no vapourengine was
ever made entirely by another or two others of its own kind is not sufficient
to warrant us in saying that vapourengines have no reproductive system The
truth is that each part of every vapourengine is bred by its own special
breeders whose function it is to breed that part and that only while the
combination of the parts into a whole forms another department of the mechanical
reproductive system which is at present exceedingly complex and difficult to
see in its entirety
Complex now but how much simpler and more intelligibly organized may it not
become in another hundred thousand years or in twenty thousand For man at
present believes that his interest lies in that direction he spends an
incalculable amount of labour and time and thought in making machines breed
always better and better he has already succeeded in effecting much that at one
time appeared impossible and there seem no limits to the results of accumulated
improvements if they are allowed to descend with modification from generation to
generation It must always be remembered that mans body is what it is through
having been moulded into its present shape by the chances and changes of many
millions of years but that his organization never advanced with anything like
the rapidity with which that of the machines is advancing This is the most
alarming feature in the case, and I must be pardoned for insisting on it so
frequently«
Chapter TwentyFive
The Book of the Machines concluded
Here followed a very long and untranslatable digression about the different
races and families of the then existing machines The writer attempted to
support his theory by pointing out the similarities existing between many
machines of a widely different character which served to show descent from a
common ancestor He divided machines into their genera subgenera species
varieties subvarieties and so forth He proved the existence of connecting
links between machines that seemed to have very little in common and showed
that many more such links had existed but had now perished He pointed out
tendencies to reversion and the presence of rudimentary organs which existed in
many machines feebly developed and perfectly useless yet serving to mark
descent from an ancestor to whom the function was actually useful
I left the translation of this part of the treatise which by the way was
far longer than all that I have given here for a later opportunity
Unfortunately I left Erewhon before I could return to the subject and though I
saved my translation and other papers at the hazard of my life I was obliged to
sacrifice the original work It went to my heart to do so but I thus gained ten
minutes of invaluable time without which both Arowhena and myself must have
certainly perished
I remember one incident which bears upon this part of the treatise The
gentleman who gave it to me had asked to see my tobaccopipe he examined it
carefully and when he came to the little protuberance at the bottom of the bowl
he seemed much delighted and exclaimed that it must be rudimentary I asked him
what he meant
»Sir« he answered »this organ is identical with the rim at the bottom of a
cup it is but another form of the same function Its purpose must have been to
keep the heat of the pipe from marking the table upon which it rested You would
find if you were to look up the history of tobaccopipes that in early
specimens this protuberance was of a different shape to what it is now It will
have been broad at the bottom and flat so that while the pipe was being smoked
the bowl might rest upon the table without marking it Use and disuse must have
come into play and reduced the function to its present rudimentary condition I
should not be surprised sir« he continued »if in the course of time it were
to become modified still farther and to assume the form of an ornamental leaf
or scroll or even a butterfly while in some cases it will become extinct«
On my return to England I looked up the point and found that my friend was
right
Returning however to the treatise my translation recommences as follows
»May we not fancy that if in the remotest geological period some early
form of vegetable life had been endowed with the power of reflecting upon the
dawning life of animals which was coming into existence alongside of its own, it
would have thought itself exceedingly acute if it had surmised that animals
would one day become real vegetables Yet would this be more mistaken than it
would be on our part to imagine that because the life of machines is a very
different one to our own there is therefore no higher possible development of
life than ours or that because mechanical life is a very different thing from
ours therefore that it is not life at all
But I have heard it said granted that this is so and that the
vapourengine has a strength of its own, surely no one will say that it has a
will of its own? Alas if we look more closely we shall find that this does not
make against the supposition that the vapourengine is one of the germs of a new
phase of life What is there in this whole world or in the worlds beyond it
which has a will of its own? The Unknown and Unknowable only
A man is the resultant and exponent of all the forces that have been brought
to bear upon him whether before his birth or afterwards His action at any
moment depends solely upon his constitution and on the intensity and direction
of the various agencies to which he is and has been subjected Some of these
will counteract each other but as he is by nature and as he has been acted on
and is now acted on from without so will he do as certainly and regularly as
though he were a machine
We do not generally admit this because we do not know the whole nature of
anyone nor the whole of the forces that act upon him We see but a part and
being thus unable to generalize human conduct except very roughly we deny that
it is subject to any fixed laws at all and ascribe much both of a mans
character and actions to chance or luck or fortune but these are only words
whereby we escape the admission of our own ignorance and a little reflection
will teach us that the most daring flight of the imagination or the most subtle
exercise of the reason is as much the thing that must arise and the only thing
that can by any possibility arise at the moment of its arising as the falling
of a dead leaf when the wind shakes it from the tree
For the future depends upon the present and the present whose existence is
only one of those minor compromises of which human life is full for it lives
only on sufferance of the past and future depends upon the past and the past
is unalterable The only reason why we cannot see the future as plainly as the
past is because we know too little of the actual past and actual present these
things are too great for us otherwise the future in its minutest details
would lie spread out before our eyes and we should lose our sense of time
present by reason of the clearness with which we should see the past and future
perhaps we should not be even able to distinguish time at all but that is
foreign What we do know is that the more the past and present are known the
more the future can be predicted and that no one dreams of doubting the fixity
of the future in cases where he is fully cognisant of both past and present and
has had experience of the consequences that followed from such a past and such a
present on previous occasions He perfectly well knows what will happen and
will stake his whole fortune thereon
And this is a great blessing for it is the foundation on which morality and
science are built The assurance that the future is no arbitrary and changeable
thing but that like futures will invariably follow like presents is the
groundwork on which we lay all our plans the faith on which we do every
conscious action of our lives If this were not so we should be without a guide
we should have no confidence in acting and hence we should never act for there
would be no knowing that the results which will follow now will be the same as
those which followed before
Who would plough or sow if he disbelieved in the fixity of the future Who
would throw water on a blazing house if the action of water upon fire were
uncertain Men will only do their utmost when they feel certain that the future
will discover itself against them if their utmost has not been done The feeling
of such a certainty is a constituent part of the sum of the forces at work upon
them and will act most powerfully on the best and most moral men Those who are
most firmly persuaded that the future is immutably bound up with the present in
which their work is lying will best husband their present and till it with the
greatest care The future must be a lottery to those who think that the same
combinations can sometimes precede one set of results and sometimes another If
their belief is sincere they will speculate instead of working these ought to
be the immoral men the others have the strongest spur to exertion and morality
if their belief is a living one
The bearing of all this upon the machines is not immediately apparent but
will become so presently In the meantime I must deal with friends who tell me
that though the future is fixed as regards inorganic matter and in some
respects with regard to man yet that there are many ways in which it cannot be
considered as fixed Thus they say that fire applied to dry shavings and well
fed with oxygen gas will always produce a blaze but that a coward brought into
contact with a terrifying object will not always result in a man running away
Nevertheless if there be two cowards perfectly similar in every respect and if
they be subjected in a perfectly similar way to two terrifying agents which are
themselves perfectly similar there are few who will not expect a perfect
similarity in the running away even though a thousand years intervene between
the original combination and its being repeated
The apparently greater regularity in the results of chemical than of human
combinations arises from our inability to perceive the subtle differences in
human combinations combinations which are never identically repeated Fire we
know and shavings we know but no two men ever were or ever will be exactly
alike and the smallest difference may change the whole conditions of the
problem Our registry of results must be infinite before we could arrive at a
full forecast of future combinations the wonder is that there is as much
certainty concerning human action as there is and assuredly the older we grow
the more certain we feel as to what such and such a kind of person will do in
given circumstances but this could never be the case unless human conduct were
under the influence of laws with the working of which we become more and more
familiar through experience
If the above is sound it follows that the regularity with which machinery
acts is no proof of the absence of vitality or at least of germs which may be
developed into a new phase of life At first sight it would indeed appear that a
vapourengine cannot help going when set upon a line of rails with the steam up
and the machinery in full play whereas the man whose business it is to drive it
can help doing so at any moment that he pleases so that the first has no
spontaneity and is not possessed of any sort of free will while the second has
and is
This is true up to a certain point the driver can stop the engine at any
moment that he pleases but he can only please to do so at certain points which
have been fixed for him by others or in the case of unexpected obstructions
which force him to please to do so His pleasure is not spontaneous there is an
unseen choir of influences around him which make it impossible for him to act
in any other way than one It is known beforehand how much strength must be
given to these influences just as it is known beforehand how much coal and
water are necessary for the vapourengine itself and curiously enough it will
be found that the influences brought to bear upon the driver are of the same
kind as those brought to bear upon the engine that is to say food and warmth
The driver is obedient to his masters because he gets food and warmth from
them and if these are withheld or given in insufficient quantities he will
cease to drive in like manner the engine will cease to work if it is
insufficiently fed The only difference is that the man is conscious about his
wants and the engine beyond refusing to work does not seem to be so but this
is temporary and has been dealt with above
Accordingly the requisite strength being given to the motives that are to
drive the driver there has never or hardly ever been an instance of a man
stopping his engine through wantonness But such a case might occur yes and it
might occur that the engine should break down but if the train is stopped from
some trivial motive it will be found either that the strength of the necessary
influences has been miscalculated or that the man has been miscalculated in
the same way as an engine may break down from an unsuspected flaw but even in
such a case there will have been no spontaneity the action will have had its
true parental causes spontaneity is only a term for mans ignorance of the
gods
Is there then no spontaneity on the part of those who drive the driver«
Here followed an obscure argument upon this subject which I have thought it
best to omit The writer resumes »After all then it comes to this that the
difference between the life of a man and that of a machine is one rather of
degree than of kind though differences in kind are not wanting An animal has
more provision for emergency than a machine The machine is less versatile its
range of action is narrow its strength and accuracy in its own sphere are
superhuman but it shows badly in a dilemma sometimes when its normal action is
disturbed it will lose its head and go from bad to worse like a lunatic in a
raging frenzy but here again we are met by the same consideration as before
namely that the machines are still in their infancy they are mere skeletons
without muscles and flesh
For how many emergencies is an oyster adapted For as many as are likely to
happen to it and no more So are the machines and so is man himself The list
of casualties that daily occur to man through his want of adaptability is
probably as great as that occurring to the machines and every day gives them
some greater provision for the unforeseen Let anyone examine the wonderful
selfregulating and self contrivances which are now incorporated with the
vapourengine let him watch the way in which it supplies itself with oil in
which it indicates its wants to those who tend it in which by the governor it
regulates its application of its own strength let him look at that storehouse
of inertia and momentum the flywheel or at the buffers on a railway carriage
let him see how those improvements are being selected for perpetuity which
contain provision against the emergencies that may arise to harass the machines
and then let him think of a hundred thousand years and the accumulated progress
which they will bring unless man can be awakened to a sense of his situation
and of the doom which he is preparing for himself5
The misery is that man has been blind so long already In his reliance upon
the use of steam he has been betrayed into increasing and multiplying To
withdraw steam power suddenly will not have the effect of reducing us to the
state in which we were before its introduction there will be a general breakup
and time of anarchy such as has never been known it will be as though our
population were suddenly doubled with no additional means of feeding the
increased number The air we breathe is hardly more necessary for our animal
life than the use of any machine on the strength of which we have increased our
numbers is to our civilization it is the machines which act upon man and make
him man as much as man who has acted upon and made the machines but we must
choose between the alternative of undergoing much present suffering or seeing
ourselves gradually superseded by our own creatures till we rank no higher in
comparison with them than the beasts of the field with ourselves
Herein lies our danger For many seem inclined to acquiesce in so
dishonourable a future They say that although man should become to the machines
what the horse and dog are to us yet that he will continue to exist and will
probably be better off in a state of domestication under the beneficent rule of
the machines than in his present wild condition We treat our domestic animals
with much kindness We give them whatever we believe to be the best for them
and there can be no doubt that our use of meat has increased their happiness
rather than detracted from it In like manner there is reason to hope that the
machines will use us kindly for their existence will be in a great measure
dependent upon ours they will rule us with a rod of iron but they will not eat
us they will not only require our services in the reproduction and education of
their young but also in waiting upon them as servants in gathering food for
them and feeding them in restoring them to health when they are sick and in
either burying their dead or working up their deceased members into new forms of
mechanical existence
The very nature of the motive power which works the advancement of the
machines precludes the possibility of mans life being rendered miserable as
well as enslaved Slaves are tolerably happy if they have good masters and the
revolution will not occur in our time nor hardly in ten thousand years or ten
times that Is it wise to be uneasy about a contingency which is so remote Man
is not a sentimental animal where his material interests are concerned and
though here and there some ardent soul may look upon himself and curse his fate
that he was not born a vapourengine yet the mass of mankind will acquiesce in
any arrangement which gives them better food and clothing at a cheaper rate and
will refrain from yielding to unreasonable jealousy merely because there are
other destinies more glorious than their own
The power of custom is enormous and so gradual will be the change that
mans sense of what is due to himself will be at no time rudely shocked our
bondage will steal upon us noiselessly and by imperceptible approaches nor will
there ever be such a clashing of desires between man and the machines as will
lead to an encounter between them Among themselves the machines will war
eternally but they will still require man as the being through whose agency the
struggle will be principally conducted In point of fact there is no occasion
for anxiety about the future happiness of man so long as he continues to be in
any way profitable to the machines he may become the inferior race but he will
be infinitely better off than he is now Is it not then both absurd and
unreasonable to be envious of our benefactors And should we not be guilty of
consummate folly if we were to reject advantages which we cannot obtain
otherwise merely because they involve a greater gain to others than to
ourselves
With those who can argue in this way I have nothing in common I shrink with
as much horror from believing that my race can ever be superseded or surpassed
as I should do from believing that even at the remotest period my ancestors were
other than human beings Could I believe that ten hundred thousand years ago a
single one of my ancestors was another kind of being to myself I should lose
all selfrespect and take no further pleasure or interest in life I have the
same feeling with regard to my descendants and believe it to be one that will
be felt so generally that the country will resolve upon putting an immediate
stop to all further mechanical progress and upon destroying all improvements
that have been made for the last three hundred years I would not urge more than
this We may trust ourselves to deal with those that remain and though I should
prefer to have seen the destruction include another two hundred years I am
aware of the necessity for compromising and would so far sacrifice my own
individual convictions as to be content with three hundred Less than this will
be insufficient«
This was the conclusion of the attack which led to the destruction of
machinery throughout Erewhon There was only one serious attempt to answer it
Its author said that machines were to be regarded as a part of mans own
physical nature being really nothing but extracorporeal limbs Man he said
was a machinate mammal The lower animals keep all their limbs at home in their
own bodies but many of mans are loose and lie about detached now here and
now there in various parts of the world some being kept always handy for
contingent use and others being occasionally hundreds of miles away A machine
is merely a supplementary limb this is the be all and end all of machinery We
do not use our own limbs other than as machines and a leg is only a much better
wooden leg than anyone can manufacture
»Observe a man digging with a spade his right forearm has become
artificially lengthened and his hand has become a joint The handle of the
spade is like the knob at the end of the humerus the shaft is the additional
bone and the oblong iron plate is the new form of the hand which enables its
possessor to disturb the earth in a way to which his original hand was unequal
Having thus modified himself not as other animals are modified by
circumstances over which they have had not even the appearance of control but
having as it were taken forethought and added a cubit to his stature
civilization began to dawn upon the race the social good offices the genial
companionship of friends the art of unreason and all those habits of mind
which most elevate man above the lower animals in the course of time ensued
Thus civilization and mechanical progress advanced hand in hand each
developing and being developed by the other the earliest accidental use of the
stick having set the ball rolling and the prospect of advantage keeping it in
motion In fact machines are to be regarded as the mode of development by which
human organism is now especially advancing every past invention being an
addition to the resources of the human body Even community of limbs is thus
rendered possible to those who have so much community of soul as to own money
enough to pay a railway fare for a train is only a sevenleagued foot that five
hundred may own at once«
The one serious danger which this writer apprehended was that the machines
would so equalize mens powers and so lessen the severity of competition that
many persons of inferior physique would escape detection and transmit their
inferiority to their descendants He feared that the removal of the present
pressure might cause a degeneracy of the human race and indeed that the whole
body might become purely rudimentary the man himself being nothing but soul and
mechanism an intelligent but passionless principle of mechanical action
»How greatly« he wrote »do we not now live with our external limbs We
vary our physique with the seasons with age with advancing or decreasing
wealth If it is wet we are furnished with an organ commonly called an umbrella
and which is designed for the purpose of protecting our clothes or our skins
from the injurious effects of rain Man has now many extracorporeal members
which are of more importance to him than a good deal of his hair or at any rate
than his whiskers His memory goes in his pocketbook He becomes more and more
complex as he grows older he will then be seen with seeengines or perhaps
with artificial teeth and hair if he be a really welldeveloped specimen of his
race he will be furnished with a large box upon wheels two horses and a
coachman«
It was this writer who originated the custom of classifying men by their
horsepower and who divided them into genera species varieties and
subvarieties giving them names from the hypothetical language which expressed
the number of limbs which they could command at any moment He showed that men
became more highly and delicately organized the more nearly they approached the
summit of opulence and that none but millionaires possessed the full complement
of limbs with which mankind could become incorporate
»Those mighty organisms« he continued »our leading bankers and merchants
speak to their congeners through the length and breadth of the land in a second
of time their rich and subtle souls can defy all material impediment whereas
the souls of the poor are clogged and hampered by matter which sticks fast
about them as treacle to the wings of a fly or as one struggling in a
quicksand their dull ears must take days or weeks to hear what another would
tell them from a distance instead of hearing it in a second as is done by the
more highly organized classes Who shall deny that one who can tack on a special
train to his identity and go wheresoever he will whensoever he pleases is more
highly organized than he who should he wish for the same power might wish for
the wings of a bird with an equal chance of getting them and whose legs are his
only means of locomotion That old philosophic enemy matter the inherently and
essentially evil still hangs about the neck of the poor and strangles him but
to the rich matter is immaterial the elaborate organization of his
extracorporeal system has freed his soul
This is the secret of the homage which we see rich men receive from those
who are poorer than themselves it would be a grave error to suppose that this
deference proceeds from motives which we need be ashamed of it is the natural
respect which all living creatures pay to those whom they recognize as higher
than themselves in the scale of animal life and is analogous to the veneration
which a dog feels for man Among savage races it is deemed highly honourable to
be the possessor of a gun and throughout all known time there has been a
feeling that those who are worth most are the worthiest«
And so he went on at considerable length attempting to show what changes in
the distribution of animal and vegetable life throughout the kingdom had been
caused by this and that of mans inventions and in what way each was connected
with the moral and intellectual development of the human species he even
allotted to some the share which they had had in the creation and modification
of mans body and that which they would hereafter have in its destruction but
the other writer was considered to have the best of it and in the end succeeded
in destroying all the inventions that had been discovered for the preceding 271
years a period which was agreed upon by all parties after several years of
wrangling as to whether a certain kind of mangle which was much in use among
washerwomen should be saved or no It was at last ruled to be dangerous and was
just excluded by the limit of 271 years Then came the reactionary civil wars
which nearly ruined the country but which it would be beyond my present scope
to describe
Chapter TwentySix
The Views of an Erewhonian Prophet
Concerning the Rights of Animals
It will be seen from the foregoing chapters that the Erewhonians are a meek and
longsuffering people easily led by the nose and quick to offer up common
sense at the shrine of logic when a philosopher arises among them who carries
them away through his reputation for especial learning or by convincing them
that their existing institutions are not based on the strictest principles of
morality
The series of revolutions on which I shall now briefly touch shows this even
more plainly than the way already dealt with in which at a later date they cut
their throats in the matter of machinery for if the second of the two reformers
of whom I am about to speak had had his way or rather the way that he
professed to have the whole race would have died of starvation within a
twelvemonth Happily common sense though she is by nature the gentlest
creature living when she feels the knife at her throat is apt to develop
unexpected powers of resistance and to send doctrinaires flying even when they
have bound her down and think they have her at their mercy What happened so
far as I could collect it from the best authorities was as follows
Some two thousand five hundred years ago the Erewhonians were still
uncivilized and lived by hunting fishing a rude system of agriculture and
plundering such few other nations as they had not yet completely conquered They
had no schools or systems of philosophy but by a kind of dogknowledge did that
which was right in their own eyes and in those of their neighbours the common
sense therefore of the public being as yet unvitiated crime and disease were
looked upon much as they are in other countries
But with the gradual advance of civilization and increase in material
prosperity people began to ask questions about things that they had hitherto
taken as matters of course and one old gentleman who had great influence over
them by reason of the sanctity of his life and his supposed inspiration by an
unseen power whose existence was now beginning to be felt took it into his
head to disquiet himself about the rights of animals a question that so far
had disturbed nobody
All prophets are more or less fussy and this old gentleman seems to have
been one of the more fussy ones Being maintained at the public expense he had
ample leisure and not content with limiting his attention to the rights of
animals he wanted to reduce right and wrong to rules to consider the
foundations of duty and of good and evil and otherwise to put all sorts of
matters on a logical basis which people whose time is money are content to
accept on no basis at all
As a matter of course the basis on which he decided that duty could alone
rest was one that afforded no standingroom for many of the oldestablished
habits of the people These he assured them were all wrong and whenever
anyone ventured to differ from him he referred the matter to the unseen power
with which he alone was in direct communication and the unseen power invariably
assured him that he was right As regards the rights of animals he taught as
follows
»You know« he said »how wicked it is of you to kill one another Once upon
a time your forefathers made no scruple about not only killing but also eating
their relations No one would now go back to such detestable practices for it
is notorious that we have lived much more happily since they were abandoned
From this increased prosperity we may confidently deduce the maxim that we
should not kill and eat our fellowcreatures I have consulted the higher power
by whom you know that I am inspired and he has assured me that this conclusion
is irrefragable
Now it cannot be denied that sheep cattle deer birds and fishes are our
fellowcreatures They differ from us in some respects but those in which they
differ are few and secondary while those that they have in common with us are
many and essential My friends if it was wrong of you to kill and eat your
fellowmen it is wrong also to kill and eat fish flesh and fowl Birds
beasts and fishes have as full a right to live as long as they can unmolested
by man as man has to live unmolested by his neighbours These words let me
again assure you are not mine but those of the higher power which inspires me
I grant« he continued »that animals molest one another and that some of
them go so far as to molest man but I have yet to learn that we should model
our conduct on that of the lower animals We should endeavour rather to
instruct them and bring them to a better mind To kill a tiger for example
who has lived on the flesh of men and women whom he has killed is to reduce
ourselves to the level of the tiger and is unworthy of people who seek to be
guided by the highest principles in all both their thoughts and actions
The unseen power who has revealed himself to me alone among you has told me
to tell you that you ought by this time to have outgrown the barbarous habits of
your ancestors If as you believe you know better than they you should do
better He commands you therefore to refrain from killing any living being for
the sake of eating it The only animal food that you may eat is the flesh of
any birds beasts or fishes that you may come upon as having died a natural
death or any that may have been born prematurely or so deformed that it is a
mercy to put them out of their pain you may also eat all such animals as have
committed suicide As regards vegetables you may eat all those that will let you
eat them with impunity«
So wisely and so well did the old prophet argue and so terrible were the
threats he hurled at those who should disobey him that in the end he carried
the more highly educated part of the people with him and presently the poorer
classes followed suit or professed to do so Having seen the triumph of his
principles he was gathered to his fathers and no doubt entered at once into
full communion with that unseen power whose favour he had already so
preeminently enjoyed
He had not however been dead very long before some of his more ardent
disciples took it upon them to better the instruction of their master The old
prophet had allowed the use of eggs and milk but his disciples decided that to
eat a fresh egg was to destroy a potential chicken and that this came to much
the same as murdering a live one Stale eggs if it was quite certain that they
were too far gone to be able to be hatched were grudgingly permitted but all
eggs offered for sale had to be submitted to an inspector who on being
satisfied that they were addled would label them »Laid not less than three
months« from the date whatever it might happen to be These eggs I need hardly
say were only used in puddings and as a medicine in certain cases where an
emetic was urgently required Milk was forbidden inasmuch as it could not be
obtained without robbing some calf of its natural sustenance and thus
endangering its life
It will be easily believed that at first there were many who gave the new
rules outward observance but embraced every opportunity of indulging secretly
in those fleshpots to which they had been accustomed It was found that animals
were continually dying natural deaths under more or less suspicious
circumstances Suicidal mania again which had hitherto been confined
exclusively to donkeys became alarmingly prevalent even among such for the most
part selfrespecting creatures as sheep and cattle It was astonishing how some
of these unfortunate animals would scent out a butchers knife if there was one
within a mile of them and run right up against it if the butcher did not get it
out of their way in time
Dogs again that had been quite lawabiding as regards domestic poultry
tame rabbits sucking pigs or sheep and lambs suddenly took to breaking beyond
the control of their masters and killing anything that they were told not to
touch It was held that any animal killed by a dog had died a natural death for
it was the dogs nature to kill things and he had only refrained from molesting
farmyard creatures hitherto because his nature had been tampered with
Unfortunately the more these unruly tendencies became developed the more the
common people seemed to delight in breeding the very animals that would put
temptation in the dogs way There is little doubt in fact that they were
deliberately evading the law but whether this was so or no they sold or ate
everything their dogs had killed
Evasion was more difficult in the case of the larger animals for the
magistrates could not wink at all the pretended suicides of pigs sheep and
cattle that were brought before them Sometimes they had to convict and a few
convictions had a very terrorizing effect whereas in the case of animals
killed by a dog the marks of the dogs teeth could be seen and it was
practically impossible to prove malice on the part of the owner of the dog
Another fertile source of disobedience to the law was furnished by a
decision of one of the judges that raised a great outcry among the more fervent
disciples of the old prophet The judge held that it was lawful to kill any
animal in selfdefence and that such conduct was so natural on the part of a
man who found himself attacked that the attacking creature should be held to
have died a natural death The High Vegetarians had indeed good reason to be
alarmed for hardly had this decision become generally known before a number of
animals hitherto harmless took to attacking their owners with such ferocity
that it became necessary to put them to a natural death Again it was quite
common at that time to see the carcase of a calf lamb or kid exposed for sale
with a label from the inspector certifying that it had been killed in
selfdefence Sometimes even the carcase of a lamb or calf was exposed as
warranted stillborn when it presented every appearance of having enjoyed at
least a month of life
As for the flesh of animals that had bona fide died a natural death the
permission to eat it was nugatory for it was generally eaten by some other
animal before man got hold of it or failing this it was often poisonous so
that practically people were forced to evade the law by some of the means above
spoken of or to become vegetarians This last alternative was so little to the
taste of the Erewhonians that the laws against killing animals were falling
into desuetude and would very likely have been repealed but for the breaking
out of a pestilence which was ascribed by the priests and prophets of the day
to the lawlessness of the people in the matter of eating forbidden flesh On
this there was a reaction stringent laws were passed forbidding the use of
meat in any form or shape and permitting no food but grain fruits and
vegetables to be sold in shops and markets These laws were enacted about two
hundred years after the death of the old prophet who had first unsettled
peoples minds about the rights of animals but they had hardly been passed
before people again began to break them
I was told that the most painful consequence of all this folly did not lie
in the fact that lawabiding people had to go without animal food many nations
do this and seem none the worse and even in flesheating countries such as
Italy Spain and Greece the poor seldom see meat from years end to yearns
end The mischief lay in the jar which undue prohibition gave to the consciences
of all but those who were strong enough to know that though conscience as a rule
boons it can also bane The awakened conscience of an individual will often
lead him to do things in haste that he had better have left undone but the
conscience of a nation awakened by a respectable old gentleman who has an unseen
power up his sleeve will pave hell with a vengeance
Young people were told that it was a sin to do what their fathers had done
unhurt for centuries those moreover who preached to them about the enormity
of eating meat were an unattractive academic folk and though they overawed all
but the bolder youths there were few who did not in their hearts dislike them
However much the young person might be shielded he soon got to know that men
and women of the world often far nicer people than the prophets who preached
abstention continually spoke sneeringly of the new doctrinaire laws and were
believed to set them aside in secret though they dared not do so openly Small
wonder then that the more human among the student classes were provoked by the
touchnot tastenot handlenot precepts of their rulers into questioning much
that they would otherwise have unhesitatingly accepted
One sad story is on record about a young man of promising amiable
disposition but cursed with more conscience than brains who had been told by
his doctor for as I have above said disease was not yet held to be criminal
that he ought to eat meat law or no law He was much shocked and for some time
refused to comply with what he deemed the unrighteous advice given him by his
doctor at last however finding that he grew weaker and weaker he stole
secretly on a dark night into one of those dens in which meat was
surreptitiously sold and bought a pound of prime steak He took it home cooked
it in his bedroom when every one in the house had gone to rest ate it and
though he could hardly sleep for remorse and shame felt so much better next
morning that he hardly knew himself
Three or four days later he again found himself irresistibly drawn to this
same den Again he bought a pound of steak again he cooked and ate it and
again in spite of much mental torture on the following morning felt himself a
different man To cut the story short though he never went beyond the bounds of
moderation it preyed upon his mind that he should be drifting as he certainly
was into the ranks of the habitual lawbreakers
All the time his health kept on improving and though he felt sure that he
owed this to the beefsteaks the better he became in body the more his
conscience gave him no rest two voices were for ever ringing in his ears the
one saying »I am Common Sense and Nature heed me and I will reward you as I
rewarded your fathers before you« But the other voice said »Let not that
plausible spirit lure you to your ruin I am Duty heed me and I will reward
you as I rewarded your fathers before you«
Sometimes he even seemed to see the faces of the speakers Common Sense
looked so easy genial and serene so frank and fearless that do what he might
he could not mistrust her but as he was on the point of following her he would
be checked by the austere face of Duty so grave but yet so kindly and it cut
him to the heart that from time to time he should see her turn pitying away from
him as he followed after her rival
The poor boy continually thought of the better class of his fellowstudents
and tried to model his conduct on what he thought was theirs »They« he said to
himself »eat a beefsteak Never« But they most of them ate one now and again
unless it was a mutton chop that tempted them And they used him for a model
much as he did them »He« they would say to themselves »eat a mutton chop
Never« One night however he was followed by one of the authorities who was
always prowling about in search of lawbreakers and was caught coming out of
the den with half a shoulder of mutton concealed about his person On this even
though he had not been put in prison he would have been sent away with his
prospects in life irretrievably ruined he therefore hanged himself as soon as
he got home
Chapter TwentySeven
The Views of an Erewhonian Philosopher
Concerning the Rights of Vegetables
Let me leave this unhappy story and return to the course of events among the
Erewhonians at large No matter how many laws they passed increasing the
severity of the punishments inflicted on those who ate meat in secret the
people found means of setting them aside as fast as they were made At times
indeed they would become almost obsolete but when they were on the point of
being repealed some national disaster or the preaching of some fanatic would
reawaken the conscience of the nation and people were imprisoned by the
thousand for illicitly selling and buying animal food
About six or seven hundred years however after the death of the old
prophet a philosopher appeared who though he did not claim to have any
communication with an unseen power laid down the law with as much confidence as
if such a power had inspired him Many think that this philosopher did not
believe his own teaching and being in secret a great meateater had no other
end in view than reducing the prohibition against eating animal food to an
absurdity greater even than an Erewhonian Puritan would be able to stand
Those who take this view hold that he knew how impossible it would be to get
the nation to accept legislation that it held to be sinful he knew also how
hopeless it would be to convince people that it was not wicked to kill a sheep
and eat it unless he could show them that they must either sin to a certain
extent or die He therefore it is believed made the monstrous proposals of
which I will now speak
He began by paying a tribute of profound respect to the old prophet whose
advocacy of the rights of animals he admitted had done much to soften the
national character and enlarge its views about the sanctity of life in general
But he urged that times had now changed the lesson of which the country had
stood in need had been sufficiently learnt while as regards vegetables much had
become known that was not even suspected formerly and which if the nation was
to persevere in that strict adherence to the highest moral principles which had
been the secret of its prosperity hitherto must necessitate a radical change in
its attitude towards them
It was indeed true that much was now known that had not been suspected
formerly for the people had had no foreign enemies and being both quick
witted and inquisitive into the mysteries of nature had made extraordinary
progress in all the many branches of art and science In the chief Erewhonian
museum I was shown a microscope of considerable power that was ascribed by the
authorities to a date much about that of the philosopher of whom I am now
speaking and was even supposed by some to have been the instrument with which
he had actually worked
This philosopher was Professor of Botany in the chief seat of learning then
in Erewhon and whether with the help of the microscope still preserved or with
another had arrived at a conclusion now universally accepted among ourselves
I mean that all both animals and plants have had a common ancestry and that
hence the second should be deemed as much alive as the first He contended
therefore that animals and plants were cousins and would have been seen to be
so all along if people had not made an arbitrary and unreasonable division
between what they chose to call the animal and vegetable kingdoms
He declared and demonstrated to the satisfaction of all those who were able
to form an opinion upon the subject that there is no difference appreciable
either by the eye or by any other test between a germ that will develop into
an oak a vine a rose and one that given its accustomed surroundings will
become a mouse an elephant or a man
He contended that the course of any germs development was dictated by the
habits of the germs from which it was descended and of whose identity it had
once formed part If a germ found itself placed as the germs in the line of its
ancestry were placed it would do as its ancestors had done and grow up into
the same kind of organism as theirs If it found the circumstances only a little
different it would make shift successfully or unsuccessfully to modify its
development accordingly if the circumstances were widely different it would
die probably without an effort at selfadaptation This he argued applied
equally to the germs of plants and of animals
He therefore connected all both animal and vegetable development with
intelligence either spent and now unconscious or still unspent and conscious
and in support of his view as regards vegetable life he pointed to the way in
which all plants have adapted themselves to their habitual environment Granting
that vegetable intelligence at first sight appears to differ materially from
animal yet he urged it is like it in the one essential fact that though it
has evidently busied itself about matters that are vital to the wellbeing of
the organism that possesses it it has never shown the slightest tendency to
occupy itself with anything else This he insisted is as great a proof of
intelligence as any living being can give
»Plants« said he »show no sign of interesting themselves in human affairs
We shall never get a rose to understand that five times seven are thirtyfive
and there is no use in talking to an oak about fluctuations in the price of
stocks Hence we say that the oak and the rose are unintelligent and on finding
that they do not understand our business conclude that they do not understand
their own But what can a creature who talks in this way know about
intelligence Which shows greater signs of intelligence He or the rose and
oak
And when we call plants stupid for not understanding our business how
capable do we show ourselves of understanding theirs Can we form even the
faintest conception of the way in which a seed from a rosetree turns earth
air warmth and water into a rose fullblown Where does it get its colour from
From the earth air etc Yes but how Those petals of such ineffable texture
that hue that outvies the cheek of a child that scent again Look at earth
air and water these are all the raw material that the rose has got to work
with does it show any sign of want of intelligence in the alchemy with which it
turns mud into roseleaves What chemist can do anything comparable Why does no
one try Simply because every one knows that no human intelligence is equal to
the task We give it up It is the roses department let the rose attend to it
and be dubbed unintelligent because it baffles us by the miracles it works
and the unconcerned businesslike way in which it works them
See what pains again plants take to protect themselves against their
enemies They scratch cut sting make bad smells secrete the most dreadful
poisons which Heaven only knows how they contrive to make cover their
precious seeds with spines like those of a hedgehog frighten insects with
delicate nervous systems by assuming portentous shapes hide themselves grow in
inaccessible places and tell lies so plausibly as to deceive even their
subtlest foes
They lay traps smeared with birdlime to catch insects and persuade them
to drown themselves in pitchers which they have made of their leaves and fill
with water others make themselves as it were into living rattraps which
close with a spring on any insect that settles upon them others make their
flowers into the shape of a certain fly that is a great pillager of honey so
that when the real fly comes it thinks that the flowers are bespoke and goes on
elsewhere Some are so clever as even to overreach themselves like the
horseradish which gets pulled up and eaten for the sake of that pungency with
which it protects itself against underground enemies If on the other hand
they think that any insect can be of service to them see how pretty they make
themselves
What is to be intelligent if to know how to do what one wants to do and to
do it repeatedly is not to be intelligent Some say that the roseseed does not
want to grow into a rosebush Why then in the name of all that is reasonable
does it grow Likely enough it is unaware of the want that is spurring it on to
action We have no reason to suppose that a human embryo knows that it wants to
grow into a baby or a baby into a man Nothing ever shows signs of knowing what
it is either wanting or doing when its convictions both as to what it wants
and how to get it have been settled beyond further power of question The less
signs living creatures give of knowing what they do provided they do it and do
it repeatedly and well the greater proof they give that in reality they know
how to do it and have done it already on an infinite number of past occasions
Some one may say« he continued »What do you mean by talking about an
infinite number of past occasions When did a roseseed make itself into a
rosebush on any past occasion
I answer this question with another Did the roseseed ever form part of the
identity of the rosebush on which it grew Who can say that it did not Again I
ask Was this rosebush ever linked by all those links that we commonly consider
as constituting personal identity with the seed from which it in its turn grew
Who can say that it was not
Then if roseseed number two is a continuation of the personality of its
parent rosebush and if that rosebush is a continuation of the personality of
the roseseed from which it sprang roseseed number two must also be a
continuation of the personality of the earlier roseseed And this roseseed
must be a continuation of the personality of the preceding roseseed and so
back and back ad infinitum Hence it is impossible to deny continued personality
between any existing roseseed and the earliest seed that can be called a
roseseed at all
The answer then to our objector is not far to seek The roseseed did what
it now does in the persons of its ancestors to whom it has been so linked as
to be able to remember what those ancestors did when they were placed as the
roseseed now is Each stage of development brings back the recollection of the
course taken in the preceding stage and the development has been so often
repeated that all doubt and with all doubt all consciousness of action is
suspended
But an objector may still say Granted that the linking between all
successive generations has been so close and unbroken that each one of them may
be conceived as able to remember what it did in the persons of its ancestors
how do you show that it actually did remember
The answer is By the action which each generation takes an action which
repeats all the phenomena that we commonly associate with memory which is
explicable on the supposition that it has been guided by memory and which has
neither been explained nor seems ever likely to be explained on any other
theory than the supposition that there is an abiding memory between successive
generations
Will anyone bring an example of any living creature whose action we can
understand performing an ineffably difficult and intricate action time after
time with invariable success and yet not knowing how to do it and never
having done it before Show me the example and I will say no more but until it
is shown me I shall credit action where I cannot watch it with being
controlled by the same laws as when it is within our ken It will become
unconscious as soon as the skill that directs it has become perfected Neither
roseseed therefore nor embryo should be expected to show signs of knowing
that they know what they know if they showed such signs the fact of their
knowing what they want and how to get it might more reasonably be doubted«
Some of the passages already given in chapter xxiii were obviously inspired
by the one just quoted As I read it in a reprint shown me by a Professor who
had edited much of the early literature on the subject I could not but remember
the one in which our Lord tells His disciples to consider the lilies of the
field who neither toil nor spin but whose raiment surpasses even that of
Solomon in all his glory
»They toil not neither do they spin« Is that so »Toil not« Perhaps not
now that the method of procedure is so well known as to admit of no further
question but it is not likely that lilies came to make themselves so
beautifully without having ever taken any pains about the matter »Neither do
they spin« Not with a spinningwheel but is there no textile fabric in a leaf
What would the lilies of the field say if they heard one of us declaring
that they neither toil nor spin They would say I take it much what we should
if we were to hear of their preaching humility on the text of Solomons and
saying »Consider the Solomons in all their glory they toil not neither do they
spin« We should say that the lilies were talking about things that they did not
understand and that though the Solomons do not toil nor spin yet there had
been no lack of either toiling or spinning before they came to be arrayed so
gorgeously
Let me now return to the Professor I have said enough to show the general
drift of the arguments on which he relied in order to show that vegetables are
only animals under another name but have not stated his case in anything like
the fullness with which he laid it before the public The conclusion he drew or
pretended to draw was that if it was sinful to kill and eat animals it was not
less sinful to do the like by vegetables or their seeds None such he said
should be eaten save what had died a natural death such as fruit that was
lying on the ground and about to rot or cabbageleaves that had turned yellow
in late autumn These and other like garbage he declared to be the only food
that might be eaten with a clear conscience Even so the eater must plant the
pips of any apples or pears that he may have eaten or any plumstones
cherrystones and the like or he would come near to incurring the guilt of
infanticide The grain of cereals according to him was out of the question
for every such grain had a living soul as much as man had and had as good a
right as man to possess that soul in peace
Having thus driven his fellowcountrymen into a corner at the point of a
logical bayonet from which they felt that there was no escape he proposed that
the question what was to be done should be referred to an oracle in which the
whole country had the greatest confidence and to which recourse was always had
in times of special perplexity It was whispered that a near relation of the
philosophers was ladys to the priestess who delivered the oracle and the
Puritan party declared that the strangely unequivocal answer of the oracle was
obtained by backstairs influence but whether this was so or no the response as
nearly as I can translate it was as follows
»He who sins aught
Sins more than he ought
But he who sins nought
Has much to be taught
Beat or be beaten
Eat or be eaten
Be killed or kill
Choose which you will«
It was clear that this response sanctioned at any rate the destruction of
vegetable life when wanted as food by man and so forcibly had the philosopher
shown that what was sauce for vegetables was so also for animals that though
the Puritan party made a furious outcry the acts forbidding the use of meat
were repealed by a considerable majority Thus after several hundred years of
wandering in the wilderness of philosophy the country reached the conclusions
that common sense had long since arrived at Even the Puritans after a vain
attempt to subsist on a kind of jam made of apples and yellow cabbageleaves
succumbed to the inevitable and resigned themselves to a diet of roast beef and
mutton with all the usual adjuncts of a modern dinnertable
One would have thought that the dance they had been led by the old prophet
and that still madder dance which the Professor of Botany had gravely but as I
believe insidiously proposed to lead them would have made the Erewhonians for
a long time suspicious of prophets whether they professed to have communications
with an unseen power or no but so engrained in the human heart is the desire to
believe that some people really do know what they say they know and can thus
save them from the trouble of thinking for themselves that in a short time
wouldbe philosophers and faddists became more powerful than ever and gradually
led their countrymen to accept all those absurd views of life some account of
which I have given in my earlier chapters Indeed I can see no hope for the
Erewhonians till they have got to understand that reason uncorrected by
instinct is as bad as instinct uncorrected by reason
Chapter TwentyEight
Escape
Though busily engaged in translating the extracts given in the last five
chapters I was also laying matters in train for my escape with Arowhena And
indeed it was high time for I received an intimation from one of the cashiers
of the Musical Banks that I was to be prosecuted in a criminal court ostensibly
for measles but really for having owned a watch and attempted the
reintroduction of machinery
I asked why measles and was told that there was a fear lest extenuating
circumstances should prevent a jury from convicting me if I were indicted for
typhus or smallpox but that a verdict would probably be obtained for measles a
disease which could be sufficiently punished in a person of my age I was given
to understand that unless some unexpected change should come over the mind of
his Majesty I might expect the blow to be struck within a very few days
My plan was this that Arowhena and I should escape in a balloon together
I fear that the reader will disbelieve this part of my story yet in no other
have I endeavoured to adhere more conscientiously to facts and can only throw
myself upon his charity
I had already gained the ear of the Queen and had so worked upon her
curiosity that she promised to get leave for me to have a balloon made and
inflated I pointed out to her that no complicated machinery would be wanted
nothing in fact but a large quantity of oiled silk a car a few ropes etc
etc and some light kind of gas such as the antiquarians who were acquainted
with the means employed by the ancients for the production of the lighter gases
could easily instruct her workmen how to provide Her eagerness to see so
strange a sight as the ascent of a human being into the sky overcame any
scruples of conscience that she might have otherwise felt and she set the
antiquarians about showing her workmen how to make the gas and sent her maids
to buy and oil a very large quantity of silk for I was determined that the
balloon should be a big one even before she began to try and gain the Kings
permission this however she now set herself to do for I had sent her word
that my prosecution was imminent
As for myself I need hardly say that I knew nothing about balloons nor did
I see my way to smuggling Arowhena into the car nevertheless knowing that we
had no other chance of getting away from Erewhon I drew inspiration from the
extremity in which we were placed and made a pattern from which the Queens
workmen were able to work successfully Meanwhile the Queens carriagebuilders
set about making the car and it was with the attachments of this to the balloon
that I had the greatest difficulty I doubt indeed whether I should have
succeeded here but for the great intelligence of a foreman who threw himself
heart and soul into the matter and often both foresaw requirements the
necessity for which had escaped me and suggested the means of providing for
them
It happened that there had been a long drought during the latter part of
which prayers had been vainly offered up in all the temples of the air god When
I first told her Majesty that I wanted a balloon I said my intention was to go
up into the sky and prevail upon the air god by means of a personal interview I
own that this proposition bordered on the idolatrous but I have long since
repented of it and am little likely ever to repeat the offence Moreover the
deceit serious though it was will probably lead to the conversion of the whole
country
When the Queen told his Majesty of my proposal he at first not only
ridiculed it but was inclined to veto it Being however a very uxorious
husband he at length consented as he eventually always did to everything on
which the Queen had set her heart He yielded all the more readily now because
he did not believe in the possibility of my ascent he was convinced that even
though the balloon should mount a few feet into the air it would collapse
immediately whereon I should fall and break my neck and he should be rid of
me He demonstrated this to her so convincingly that she was alarmed and tried
to talk me into giving up the idea but on finding that I persisted in my wish
to have the balloon made she produced an order from the King to the effect that
all facilities I might require should be afforded me
At the same time her Majesty told me that my attempted ascent would be made
an article of impeachment against me in case I did not succeed in prevailing on
the air god to stop the drought Neither King nor Queen had any idea that I
meant going right away if I could get the wind to take me nor had they any
conception of the existence of a certain steady upper current of air which was
always setting in one direction as could be seen by the shape of the higher
clouds which pointed invariably from southeast to northwest I had myself
long noticed this peculiarity in the climate and attributed it I believe
justly to a tradewind which was constant at a few thousand feet above the
earth but was disturbed by local influences at lower elevations
My next business was to break the plan to Arowhena and to devise the means
for getting her into the car I felt sure that she would come with me but had
made up my mind that if her courage failed her the whole thing should come to
nothing Arowhena and I had been in constant communication through her maid but
I had thought it best not to tell her the details of my scheme till everything
was settled The time had now arrived and I arranged with the maid that I
should be admitted by a private door into Mr Nosnibors garden at about dusk on
the following evening
I came at the appointed time the girl let me into the garden and bade me
wait in a secluded alley until Arowhena should come It was now early summer
and the leaves were so thick upon the trees that even though some one else had
entered the garden I could have easily hidden myself The night was one of
extreme beauty the sun had long set but there was still a rosy gleam in the
sky over the ruins of the railway station below me was the city already
twinkling with lights while beyond it stretched the plains for many a league
until they blended with the sky I just noted these things but I could not heed
them I could heed nothing till as I peered into the darkness of the alley I
perceived a white figure gliding swiftly towards me I bounded towards it and
ere thought could either prompt or check I had caught Arowhena to my heart and
covered her unresisting cheek with kisses
So overjoyed were we that we knew not how to speak indeed I do not know
when we should have found words and come to our senses if the maid had not gone
off into a fit of hysterics and awakened us to the necessity of selfcontrol
then briefly and plainly I unfolded what I proposed I showed her the darkest
side for I felt sure that the darker the prospect the more likely she was to
come I told her that my plan would probably end in death for both of us and
that I dared not press it that at a word from her it should be abandoned
still that there was just a possibility of our escaping together to some part of
the world where there would be no bar to our getting married and that I could
see no other hope
She made no resistance not a sign or hint of doubt or hesitation She would
do all I told her and come whenever I was ready so I bade her send her maid to
meet me nightly told her that she must put a good face on look as bright and
happy as she could so as to make her father and mother and Zulora think that
she was forgetting me and be ready at a moments notice to come to the Queens
workshops and be concealed among the ballast and under rugs in the car of the
balloon and so we parted
I hurried my preparations forward for I feared rain and also that the King
might change his mind but the weather continued dry and in another week the
Queens workmen had finished the balloon and car while the gas was ready to be
turned on into the balloon at any moment All being now prepared I was to ascend
on the following morning I had stipulated for being allowed to take abundance
of rugs and wrappings as protection from the cold of the upper atmosphere and
also ten or a dozen goodsized bags of ballast
I had nearly a quarters pension in hand and with this I feed Arowhenas
maid and bribed the Queens foreman who would I believe have given me
assistance even without a bribe He helped me to secrete food and wine in the
bags of ballast and on the morning of my ascent he kept the other workmen out
of the way while I got Arowhena into the car She came with early dawn muffled
up and in her maids dress She was supposed to be gone to an early performance
at one of the Musical Banks and told me that she should not be missed till
breakfast but that her absence must then be discovered I arranged the ballast
about her so that it should conceal her as she lay at the bottom of the car and
covered her with wrappings Although it still wanted some hours of the time
fixed for my ascent I could not trust myself one moment from the car so I got
into it at once and watched the gradual inflation of the balloon Luggage I had
none save the provisions hidden in the ballast bags the books of mythology
and the treatises on the machines with my own manuscript diaries and
translations
I sat quietly and awaited the hour fixed for my departure quiet
outwardly but inwardly I was in an agony of suspense lest Arowhenas absence
should be discovered before the arrival of the King and Queen who were to
witness my ascent They were not due yet for another two hours and during this
time a hundred things might happen any one of which would undo me
At last the balloon was full the pipe which had filled it was removed the
escape of the gas having been first carefully precluded Nothing remained to
hinder the balloon from ascending but the hands and weight of those who were
holding on to it with ropes I strained my eyes for the coming of the King and
Queen but could see no sign of their approach I looked in the direction of Mr
Nosnibors house there was nothing to indicate disturbance but it was not yet
breakfast time The crowd began to gather they were aware that I was under the
displeasure of the court but I could detect no signs of my being unpopular On
the contrary I received many kindly expressions of regard and encouragement
with good wishes as to the result of my journey
I was speaking to one gentleman of my acquaintance and telling him the
substance of what I intended to do when I had got into the presence of the air
god what he thought of me I cannot guess for I am sure that he did not believe
in the objective existence of the air god nor that I myself believed in it
when I became aware of a small crowd of people running as fast as they could
from Mr Nosnibors house towards the Queens workshops For the moment my pulse
ceased beating and then knowing that the time had come when I must either do
or die I called vehemently to those who were holding the ropes some thirty
men to let go at once and made gestures signifying danger and that there
would be mischief if they held on longer Many obeyed the rest were too weak to
hold on to the ropes and were forced to let them go On this the balloon
bounded suddenly upwards but my own feeling was that the earth had dropped off
from me and was sinking fast into the open space beneath
This happened at the very moment that the attention of the crowd was
divided the one half paying heed to the eager gestures of those coming from Mr
Nosnibors house and the other to the exclamations from myself A minute more
and Arowhena would doubtless have been discovered but before that minute was
over I was at such a height above the city that nothing could harm me and
every second both the town and the crowd became smaller and more confused In an
incredibly short time I could see little but a vast wall of blue plains rising
up against me towards whichever side I looked
At first the balloon mounted vertically upwards but after about five
minutes when we had already attained a very great elevation I fancied that the
objects on the plain beneath began to move from under me I did not feel so much
as a breath of wind and could not suppose that the balloon itself was
travelling I was therefore wondering what this strange movement of fixed
objects could mean when it struck me that people in a balloon do not feel the
wind inasmuch as they travel with it and offer it no resistance Then I was
happy in thinking that I must now have reached the invariable trade wind of the
upper air and that I should be very possibly wafted for hundreds or even
thousands of miles far from Erewhon and the Erewhonians
Already I had removed the wrappings and freed Arowhena but I soon covered
her up with them again for it was already very cold and she was half stupefied
with the strangeness of her position
And now began a time dreamlike and delirious of which I do not suppose
that I shall ever recover a distinct recollection Some things I can recall as
that we were ere long enveloped in vapour which froze upon my moustache and
whiskers then comes a memory of sitting for hours and hours in a thick fog
hearing no sound but my own breathing and Arowhenas for we hardly spoke and
seeing no sight but the car beneath us and beside us and the dark balloon
above
Perhaps the most painful feeling when the earth was hidden was that the
balloon was motionless though our only hope lay in our going forward with an
extreme of speed From time to time through a rift in the clouds I caught a
glimpse of earth and was thankful to perceive that we must be flying forward
faster than in an express train but no sooner was the rift closed than the old
conviction of our being stationary returned in full force and was not to be
reasoned with there was another feeling also which was nearly as bad for as a
child that fears it has gone blind in a long tunnel if there is no light so ere
the earth had been many minutes hidden I became half frightened lest we might
not have broken away from it clean and for ever Now and again I ate and gave
food to Arowhena but by guesswork as regards time Then came darkness a
dreadful dreary time without even the moon to cheer us
With dawn the scene was changed the clouds were gone and morning stars were
shining the rising of the splendid sun remains still impressed upon me as the
most glorious that I have ever seen beneath us there was an embossed chain of
mountains with snow fresh fallen upon them but we were far above them we both
of us felt our breathing seriously affected but I would not allow the balloon
to descend a single inch not knowing for how long we might not need all the
buoyancy which we could command indeed I was thankful to find that after
nearly fourandtwenty hours we were still at so great a height above the
earth
In a couple of hours we had passed the ranges which must have been some
hundred and fifty miles across and again I saw a tract of level plain extending
far away to the horizon I knew not where we were and dared not descend lest I
should waste the power of the balloon but I was half hopeful that we might be
above the country from which I had originally started I looked anxiously for
any sign by which I could recognize it but could see nothing and feared that
we might be above some distant part of Erewhon or a country inhabited by
savages While I was still in doubt the balloon was again wrapped in clouds
and we were left to blank space and to conjectures
The weary time dragged on How I longed for my unhappy watch I felt as
though not even time was moving so dumb and spellbound were our surroundings
Sometimes I would feel my pulse and count its beats for half an hour together
anything to mark the time to prove that it was there and to assure myself
that we were within the blessed range of its influence and not gone adrift into
the timelessness of eternity
I had been doing this for the twentieth or thirtieth time and had fallen
into a light sleep I dreamed wildly of a journey in an express train and of
arriving at a railway station where the air was full of the sound of locomotive
engines blowing off steam with a horrible and tremendous hissing I woke
frightened and uneasy but the hissing and crashing noises pursued me now that I
was awake and forced me to own that they were real What they were I knew not
but they grew gradually fainter and fainter and after a time were lost In a
few hours the clouds broke and I saw beneath me that which made the chilled
blood run colder in my veins I saw the sea and nothing but the sea in the
main black but flecked with white heads of stormtossed angry waves
Arowhena was sleeping quietly at the bottom of the car and as I looked at
her sweet and saintly beauty I groaned and cursed myself for the misery into
which I had brought her but there was nothing for it now
I sat and waited for the worst and presently I saw signs as though that
worst were soon to be at hand for the balloon had begun to sink On first
seeing the sea I had been impressed with the idea that we must have been
falling but now there could be no mistake we were sinking and that fast I
threw out a bag of ballast and for a time we rose again but in the course of a
few hours the sinking recommenced and I threw out another bag
Then the battle commenced in earnest It lasted all that afternoon and
through the night until the following evening I had seen never a sail nor a
sign of a sail though I had half blinded myself with straining my eyes
incessantly in every direction we had parted with everything but the clothes
which we had upon our backs food and water were gone all thrown out to the
wheeling albatrosses in order to save us a few hours or even minutes from the
sea I did not throw away the books till we were within a few feet of the water
and clung to my manuscripts to the very last Hope there seemed none whatever
yet strangely enough we were neither of us utterly hopeless and even when the
evil that we dreaded was upon us and that which we greatly feared had come we
sat in the car of the balloon with the waters up to our middle and still smiled
with a ghastly hopefulness to one another
He who has crossed the St Gothard will remember that below Andermatt there is
one of those Alpine gorges which reach the very utmost limits of the sublime and
terrible The feelings of the traveller have become more and more highly wrought
at every step until at last the naked and overhanging precipices seem to close
above his head as he crosses a bridge hung in midair over a roaring waterfall
and enters on the darkness of a tunnel hewn out of the rock
What can be in store for him on emerging Surely something even wilder and
more desolate than that which he has seen already yet his imagination is
paralysed and can suggest no fancy or vision of anything to surpass the reality
which he has just witnessed Awed and breathless he advances when lo the light
of the afternoon sun welcomes him as he leaves the tunnel and behold a smiling
valley a babbling brook a village with tall belfries and meadows of
brilliant green these are the things which greet him and he smiles to himself
as the terror passes away and in another moment is forgotten
So fared it now with ourselves We had been in the water some two or three
hours and the night had come upon us We had said farewell for the hundredth
time and had resigned ourselves to meet the end indeed I was myself battling
with a drowsiness from which it was only too probable that I should never wake
when suddenly Arowhena touched me on the shoulder and pointed to a light and
to a dark mass which was bearing right upon us A cry for help loud and clear
and shrill broke forth from both of us at once and in another five minutes we
were carried by kind and tender hands on to the deck of an Italian vessel
Chapter TwentyNine
Conclusion
The ship was the Principe Umberto bound from Callao to Genoa she had carried a
number of emigrants to Rio had gone thence to Callao where she had taken in a
cargo of guano and was now on her way home The captain was a certain Giovanni
Gianni a native of Sestri he has kindly allowed me to refer to him in case the
truth of my story should be disputed but I grieve to say that I suffered him to
mislead himself in some important particulars I should add that when we were
picked up we were a thousand miles from land
As soon as we were on board the captain began questioning us about the
siege of Paris from which city he had assumed that we must have come
notwithstanding our immense distance from Europe As may be supposed I had not
heard a syllable about the war between France and Germany and was too ill to do
more than assent to all that he chose to put into my mouth My knowledge of
Italian is very imperfect and I gathered little from anything that he said but
I was glad to conceal the true point of our departure and resolved to take any
cue that he chose to give me
The line that thus suggested itself was that there had been ten or twelve
others in the balloon that I was an English Milord and Arowhena a Russian
Countess that all the others had been drowned and that the despatches which we
had carried were lost I came afterwards to learn that this story would not have
been credible had not the captain been for some weeks at sea for I found that
when we were picked up the Germans had already long been masters of Paris As
it was the captain settled the whole story for me and I was well content
In a few days we sighted an English vessel bound from Melbourne to London
with wool At my earnest request in spite of stormy weather which rendered it
dangerous for a boat to take us from one ship to the other the captain
consented to signal the English vessel and we were received on board but we
were transferred with such difficulty that no communication took place as to the
manner of our being found I did indeed hear the Italian mate who was in charge
of the boat shout out something in French to the effect that we had been picked
up from a balloon but the noise of the wind was so great and the captain
understood so little French that he caught nothing of the truth and it was
assumed that we were two persons who had been saved from shipwreck When the
captain asked me in what ship I had been wrecked I said that a party of us had
been carried out to sea in a pleasureboat by a strong current and that
Arowhena whom I described as a Peruvian lady and I were alone saved
There were several passengers whose goodness towards us we can never repay
I grieve to think that they cannot fail to discover that we did not take them
fully into our confidence but had we told them all they would not have
believed us and I was determined that no one should hear of Erewhon or have
the chance of getting there before me as long as I could prevent it Indeed
the recollection of the many falsehoods which I was then obliged to tell would
render my life miserable were I not sustained by the consolations of my
religion Among the passengers there was a most estimable clergyman by whom
Arowhena and I were married within a very few days of our coming on board
After a prosperous voyage of about two months we sighted the Lands End
and in another week we were landed at London A liberal subscription was made
for us on board the ship so that we found ourselves in no immediate difficulty
about money I accordingly took Arowhena down into Somersetshire where my
mother and sisters had resided when I last heard of them To my great sorrow I
found that my mother was dead and that her death had been accelerated by the
report of my having been killed which had been brought to my employers station
by Chowbok It appeared that he must have waited for a few days to see whether I
returned that he then considered it safe to assume that I should never do so
and had accordingly made up a story about my having fallen into a whirlpool of
seething waters while coming down the gorge homeward Search was made for my
body but the rascal had chosen to drown me in a place where there would be no
chance of its ever being recovered
My sisters were both married but neither of their husbands was rich No one
seemed overjoyed on my return and I soon discovered that when a mans relations
have once mourned for him as dead they seldom like the prospect of having to
mourn for him a second time
Accordingly I returned to London with my wife and through the assistance of
an old friend supported myself by writing good little stories for the magazines
and for a tract society I was well paid and I trust that I may not be
considered presumptuous in saying that some of the most popular of the brochures
which are distributed in the streets and which are to be found in the
waitingrooms of the railway stations have proceeded from my pen During the
time that I could spare I arranged my notes and diary till they assumed their
present shape There remains nothing for me to add save to unfold the scheme
which I propose for the conversion of Erewhon
That scheme has only been quite recently decided upon as the one which seems
most likely to be successful
It will be seen at once that it would be madness for me to go with ten or a
dozen subordinate missionaries by the same way as that which led me to discover
Erewhon I should be imprisoned for typhus besides being handed over to the
straighteners for having run away with Arowhena an even darker fate to which I
dare hardly again allude would be reserved for my devoted fellowlabourers It
is plain therefore that some other way must be found for getting at the
Erewhonians and I am thankful to say that such another way is not wanting One
of the rivers which descends from the Snowy Mountains and passes through
Erewhon is known to be navigable for several hundred miles from its mouth Its
upper waters have never yet been explored but I feel little doubt that it will
be found possible to take a light gunboat for we must protect ourselves to the
outskirts of the Erewhonian country
I propose therefore that one of those associations should be formed in
which the risk of each of the members is confined to the amount of his stake in
the concern The first step would be to draw up a prospectus In this I would
advise that no mention should be made of the fact that the Erewhonians are the
lost tribes The discovery is one of absorbing interest to myself but it is of
a sentimental rather than commercial value and business is business The
capital to be raised should not be less than fifty thousand pounds and might be
either in five or ten pound shares as hereafter determined This should be amply
sufficient for the expenses of an experimental voyage
When the money had been subscribed it would be our duty to charter a
steamer of some twelve or fourteen hundred tons burden and with accommodation
for a cargo of steerage passengers She should carry two or three guns in case
of her being attacked by savages at the mouth of the river Boats of
considerable size should be also provided and I think it would be desirable
that these also should carry two or three sixpounders The ship should be taken
up the river as far as was considered safe and a picked party should then
ascend in the boats The presence both of Arowhena and myself would be necessary
at this stage inasmuch as our knowledge of the language would disarm suspicion
and facilitate negotiations
We should begin by representing the advantages afforded to labour in the
colony of Queensland and point out to the Erewhonians that by emigrating
thither they would be able to amass each and all of them enormous fortunes
a fact which would be easily provable by a reference to statistics I have no
doubt that a very great number might be thus induced to come back with us in the
larger boats and that we could fill our vessel with emigrants in three or four
journeys
Should we be attacked our course would be even simpler for the Erewhonians
have no gunpowder and would be so surprised with its effects that we should be
able to capture as many as we chose in this case we should feel able to engage
them on more advantageous terms for they would be prisoners of war But even
though we were to meet with no violence I doubt not that a cargo of seven or
eight hundred Erewhonians could be induced when they were once on board the
vessel to sign an agreement which should be mutually advantageous both to us
and them
We should then proceed to Queensland and dispose of our engagement with the
Erewhonians to the sugargrowers of that settlement who are in great want of
labour it is believed that the money thus realized would enable us to declare a
handsome dividend and leave a considerable balance which might be spent in
repeating our operations and bringing over other cargoes of Erewhonians with
fresh consequent profits In fact we could go backwards and forwards as long as
there was a demand for labour in Queensland or indeed in any other Christian
colony for the supply of Erewhonians would be unlimited and they could be
packed closely and fed at a very reasonable cost
It would be my duty and Arowhenas to see that our emigrants should be
boarded and lodged in the households of religious sugargrowers these persons
would give them the benefit of that instruction whereof they stand so greatly in
need Each day as soon as they could be spared from their work in the
plantations they would be assembled for praise and be thoroughly grounded in
the Church Catechism while the whole of every Sabbath should be devoted to
singing psalms and churchgoing
This must be insisted upon both in order to put a stop to any uneasy
feeling which might show itself either in Queensland or in the mother country as
to the means whereby the Erewhonians had been obtained and also because it
would give our own shareholders the comfort of reflecting that they were saving
souls and filling their own pockets at one and the same moment By the time the
emigrants had got too old for work they would have become thoroughly instructed
in religion they could then be shipped back to Erewhon and carry the good seed
with them
I can see no hitch nor difficulty about the matter and trust that this book
will sufficiently advertise the scheme to insure the subscription of the
necessary capital as soon as this is forthcoming I will guarantee that I
convert the Erewhonians not only into good Christians but into a source of
considerable profit to the shareholders
I should add that I cannot claim the credit for having originated the above
scheme I had been for months at my wits end forming plan after plan for the
evangelization of Erewhon when by one of those special interpositions which
should be a sufficient answer to the sceptic and make even the most confirmed
rationalist irrational my eye was directed to the following paragraph in the
Times newspaper of one of the first days in January 1872
»POLYNESIANS IN QUEENSLAND The Marquis of Normanby the new Governor
of Queensland has completed his inspection of the northern districts of
the colony It is stated that at Mackay one of the best sugargrowing
districts his Excellency saw a good deal of the Polynesians In the
course of a speech to those who entertained him there the Marquis said
I have been told that the means by which Polynesians were obtained were
not legitimate but I have failed to perceive this in so far at least
as Queensland is concerned and if one can judge by the countenances
and manners of the Polynesians they experience no regret at their
position But his Excellency pointed out the advantage of giving them
religious instruction It would tend to set at rest an uneasy feeling
which at present existed in the country to know that they were inclined
to retain the Polynesians and teach them religion«
I feel that comment is unnecessary and will therefore conclude with one word of
thanks to the reader who may have had the patience to follow me through my
adventures without losing his temper but with two for any who may write at
once to the Secretary of the Erewhon Evangelization Company Limited at the
address which shall hereafter be advertised and request to have his name put
down as a shareholder
PS I had just received and corrected the last proof of the foregoing volume
and was walking down the Strand from Temple Bar to Charing Cross when on
passing Exeter Hall I saw a number of devoutlooking people crowding into the
building with faces full of interested and complacent anticipation I stopped
and saw an announcement that a missionary meeting was to be held forthwith and
that the native missionary the Rev William Habakkuk from the colony from
which I had started on my adventures would be introduced and make a short
address After some little difficulty I obtained admission and heard two or
three speeches which were prefatory to the introduction of Mr Habakkuk One of
these struck me as perhaps the most presumptuous that I had ever heard The
speaker said that the races of whom Mr Habakkuk was a specimen were in all
probability the lost ten tribes of Israel I dared not contradict him then but
I felt angry and injured at hearing the speaker jump to so preposterous a
conclusion upon such insufficient grounds The discovery of the ten tribes was
mine and mine only I was still in the very height of indignation when there
was a murmur of expectation in the hall and Mr Habakkuk was brought forward
The reader may judge of my surprise at finding that he was none other than my
old friend Chowbok
My jaw dropped and my eyes almost started out of my head with astonishment
The poor fellow was dreadfully frightened and the storm of applause which
greeted his introduction seemed only to add to his confusion I dare not trust
myself to report his speech indeed I could hardly listen to it for I was
nearly choked with trying to suppress my feelings I am sure that I caught the
words Adelaide the Queen Dowager and I thought that I heard Mary Magdalene
shortly afterwards but I had then to leave the hall for fear of being turned
out While on the staircase I heard another burst of prolonged and rapturous
applause so I suppose the audience were satisfied
The feelings that came uppermost in my mind were hardly of a very solemn
character but I thought of my first acquaintance with Chowbok of the scene in
the woolshed of the innumerable lies he had told me of his repeated attempts
upon the brandy and of many an incident which I have not thought it worth while
to dwell upon and I could not but derive some satisfaction from the hope that
my own efforts might have contributed to the change which had been doubtless
wrought upon him and that the rite which I had performed however
unprofessionally on that wild upland riverbed had not been wholly without
effect I trust that what I have written about him in the earlier part of my
book may not be libellous and that it may do him no harm with his employers He
was then unregenerate I must certainly find him out and have a talk with him
but before I shall have time to do so these pages will be in the hands of the
public
At the last moment I see a probability of a complication which causes me
much uneasiness Please subscribe quickly Address to the Mansion House care of
the Lord Mayor whom I will instruct to receive names and subscriptions for me
until I can organize a committee
Notes
1 See Handels compositions for the harpsichord published by Litolf p 78
2 The myth above alluded to exists in Erewhon with changed names and
considerable modifications I have taken the liberty of referring to the story
as familiar to ourselves
3 What a safe word relation is how little it predicates yet it has overgrown
kinsman
4 The root alluded to is not the potato of our own gardens but a plant so near
akin to it that I have ventured to translate it thus Apropos of its
intelligence had the writer known Butler he would probably have said
»He knows whats what and thats as high
As metaphysic wit can fly«
5 Since my return to England I have been told that those who are conversant
about machines use many terms concerning them which show that their vitality is
here recognized and that a collection of expressions in use among those who
attend on steam engines would be no less startling than instructive I am also
informed that almost all machines have their own tricks and idiosyncrasies
that they know their drivers and keepers and that they will play pranks upon a
stranger It is my intention on a future occasion to bring together examples
both of the expressions in common use among mechanicians and of any
extraordinary exhibitions of mechanical sagacity and eccentricity that I can
meet with not as believing in the Erewhonian Professors theory but from the
interest of the subject