Erewhon

S >> Samuel Butler >> Erewhon


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 woodshed, 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
river-bed, 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 organise a committee.




Footnotes


{1} The last part of Chapter XXIII in this Gutenberg eText.--DP.

{2} See Handel's compositions for the harpsichord, published by Litolf,
p. 78.

{3} 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.

{4} What a _safe_ word "relation" is; how little it predicates! yet it
has overgrown "kinsman."

{5} 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 what's what, and that's as high,
As metaphysic wit can fly."

{6} 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 recognised, 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 Professor's theory, but from the
interest of the subject.