Page 202 - erewhon

spirit of the most utter reverence for those things which do
alone deserve it—that is, for the things which are, which
mould us and fashion us, be they what they may; for the
things that have power to punish us, and which will punish
us if we do not heed them; for our masters therefore. But I
am drifting away from my story.
They have another plan about which they are making a
great noise and fuss, much as some are doing with women’s
rights in England. A party of extreme radicals have pro-
fessed themselves unable to decide upon the superiority of
age or youth. At present all goes on the supposition that
it is desirable to make the young old as soon as possible.
Some would have it that this is wrong, and that the object of
education should be to keep the old young as long as possi-
ble. They say that each age should take it turn in turn about,
week by week, one week the old to be topsawyers, and the
other the young, drawing the line at thirty-five years of age;
but they insist that the young should be allowed to inflict
corporal chastisement on the old, without which the old
would be quite incorrigible. In any European country this
would be out of the question; but it is not so there, for the
straighteners are constantly ordering people to be flogged,
so that they are familiar with the notion. I do not suppose
that the idea will be ever acted upon; but its having been
even mooted is enough to show the utter perversion of the
Erewhonian mind.

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