But I did not yield at once; I enjoyed the process of being argued with
too keenly to lose it by a prompt concession; besides, a little
hesitation rendered the concession itself more valuable. It was in the
course of conversations on this subject that I learned the more defined
religious opinions of the Erewhonians, that coexist with the Musical Bank
system, but are not recognised by those curious institutions. I will
describe them as briefly as possible in the following chapters before I
return to the personal adventures of Arowhena and myself.
They were idolaters, though of a comparatively enlightened kind; but
here, as in other things, there was a discrepancy between their professed
and actual belief, for they had a genuine and potent faith which existed
without recognition alongside of their idol worship.
The gods whom they worship openly are personifications of human
qualities, as justice, strength, hope, fear, love, &c., &c. The people
think that prototypes of these have a real objective existence in a
region far beyond the clouds, holding, as did the ancients, that they are
like men and women both in body and passion, except that they are even
comelier and more powerful, and also that they can render themselves
invisible to human eyesight.
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