Erewhon

S >> Samuel Butler >> Erewhon


Then the other ladies joined in with condolences and the never-failing
suggestions which they had ready for every mental malady. They
recommended their own straightener and disparaged Mahaina's. 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. Nosnibor's face as I said this,
which seemed to imply that she did not consider Mahaina's 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 don't
believe a word of it. It's 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 visitor's 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 civilisation 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 person's 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 ill-health 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
any one was well or ill till after an intimate acquaintance of months or
years. Even then the shrewdest were constantly mistaken in their
judgements, 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 person's near relations and friends.
If any one 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 one's 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 was treated; still, even the
best were liable to be out of sorts sometimes, and there were few
families that had not a medicine-chest in a cupboard somewhere.




CHAPTER XV: THE MUSICAL BANKS


On my return to the drawing-room, 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 person's 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
judgement 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 any one
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
sinister-looking 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 cashier's 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 to-day 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. Nosnibor's) 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-bodied, 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 nine-tenths 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 person's intellect (she continued) be never so sound, unless his
body is in absolute health, he can form no judgement 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 infirm-looking 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 haven't 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 any one 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 tin foil, 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 every one 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 man's 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 a 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 well-meaning 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 self-sacrifice 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 judgement 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.