 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 court-yards 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 ill-grained 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
