Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His SonButler, Samuel
Philosophy
Erewhon Revisited Twenty Years Later, Both by the Original Discoverer of the Country and by His Son
Butler, Samuel
Satire; Utopian fiction; Utopias -- Fiction
“On Monday morning the prisoner was brought up before the Mayor. We
cannot say whether it was the sobering effect of prison walls, or whether
he had been drinking before he entered the temple, and had now had time
enough to recover himself--at any rate for some reason or other he was
abjectly penitent when his case came on for hearing. The charge of
poaching was first gone into, but was immediately disposed of by the
evidence of the two Professors, who stated that the prisoner bore no
resemblance to the poacher they had seen, save that he was about the same
height and age, and was respectably dressed.
“The charge of disturbing the congregation by declaring himself the
Sunchild was then proceeded with, and unnecessary as it may appear to be,
it was thought advisable to prevent all possibility of the man’s
assertion being accepted by the ignorant as true, at some later date,
when those who could prove its falsehood were no longer living. The
prisoner, therefore, was removed to his cell, and there measured by the
Master of the Gaol, and the Ranger in the presence of the Mayor, who
attested the accuracy of the measurements. Not one single one of them
corresponded with those recorded of the Sunchild himself, and a few marks
such as moles, and permanent scars on the Sunchild’s body were not found
on the prisoner’s. Furthermore the prisoner was shaggy-breasted, with
much coarse jet black hair on the fore-arms and from the knees downwards,
whereas the Sunchild had little hair save on his head, and what little
there was, was fine, and very light in colour.
“Confronted with these discrepancies, the gentleman who had taught the
Sunchild our language was convinced of his mistake, though he still
maintained that there was some superficial likeness between his former
pupil and the prisoner. Here he was confirmed by the Master of the Gaol,
the Mayoress, Mrs. Humdrum, and Professors Hanky and Panky, who all of
them could see what the interpreter meant, but denied that the prisoner
could be mistaken for the Sunchild for more than a few seconds. No doubt
the prisoner’s unhappy delusion has been fostered, if not entirely
caused, by his having been repeatedly told that he was like the Sunchild.
The celebrated Dr. Downie, who well remembers the Sunchild, was also
examined, and gave his evidence with so much convincing detail as to make
it unnecessary to call further witnesses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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