Page 192 - erewhon

punishment at times to all men; but how can they ask for
pity, or complain of any mischief that may befall them, hav-
ing entered open-eyed into the snare?
‘One word more and we have done. If any faint remem-
brance, 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 Or-
pheus 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 deep-
ly upon your every faculty, will be most likely to bring you
safely and honourably home through the trials that are be-
fore you.’ {3}
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. Find-
ing, 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 open-
ly 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

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