Page 195 - erewhon

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 hav-
ing 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? Nev-
ertheless 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 affec-
tion 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 any one else; and that of their own inclination, be-
ing free to choose what company they would, they would
often choose that of their father and mother. The straight-

1 Erewhon