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cial aspects of those material objects with which he came
most in contact. The expression on the faces of these peo-
ple was repellent; they did not, however, seem particularly
unhappy, for they none of them had the faintest idea that
they were in reality more dead than alive. No cure for this
disgusting fear- of-giving-themselves-away disease has yet
been discovered.
* * *
It was during my stay in City of the Colleges of Unrea-
son—a city whose Erewhonian name is so cacophonous
that I refrain from giving it—that I learned the particulars
of the revolution which had ended in the destruction of so
many of the mechanical inventions which were formerly in
common use.
Mr. Thims took me to the rooms of a gentleman who
had a great reputation for learning, but who was also, so Mr.
Thims told me, rather a dangerous person, inasmuch as he
had attempted to introduce an adverb into the hypothetical
language. He had heard of my watch and been exceedingly
anxious to see me, for he was accounted the most learned
antiquary in Erewhon on the subject of mechanical lore.
We fell to talking upon the subject, and when I left he gave
me a reprinted copy of the work which brought the revolu-
tion about.
It had taken place some five hundred years before my
arrival: people had long become thoroughly used to the
change, although at the time that it was made the country
was plunged into the deepest misery, and a reaction which
followed had very nearly proved successful. Civil war raged

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