Page 245 - erewhon

CHAPTER XXV: THE

MACHINES—concluded

ere followed a very long and untranslatable digression
Habout the different races and families of the then ex-
isting machines. The writer attempted to support his theory
by pointing out the similarities existing between many ma-
chines of a widely different character, which served to show
descent from a common ancestor. He divided machines
into their genera, subgenera, species, varieties, subvarieties,
and so forth. He proved the existence of connecting links
between machines that seemed to have very little in com-
mon, and showed that many more such links had existed,
but had now perished. He pointed out tendencies to rever-
sion, and the presence of rudimentary organs which existed
in many machines feebly developed and perfectly useless,
yet serving to mark descent from an ancestor to whom the
function was actually useful.
I left the translation of this part of the treatise, which,
by the way, was far longer than all that I have given here,
for a later opportunity. Unfortunately, I left Erewhon be-
fore I could return to the subject; and though I saved my
translation and other papers at the hazard of my life, I was
a obliged to sacrifice the original work. It went to my heart
to do so; but I thus gained ten minutes of invaluable time,

Erewhon