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