But of
this more anon: what I would relate here is their manner of dealing with
those who do come.
It is a distinguishing peculiarity of the Erewhonians that when they
profess themselves to be quite certain about any matter, and avow it as a
base on which they are to build a system of practice, they seldom quite
believe in it. If they smell a rat about the precincts of a cherished
institution, they will always stop their noses to it if they can.
This is what most of them did in this matter of the unborn, for I cannot
(and never could) think that they seriously believed in their mythology
concerning pre-existence: they did and they did not; they did not know
themselves what they believed; all they did know was that it was a
disease not to believe as they did. The only thing of which they were
quite sure was that it was the pestering of the unborn which caused them
to be brought into this world, and that they would not have been here if
they would have only let peaceable people alone.
It would be hard to disprove this position, and they might have a good
case if they would only leave it as it stands. But this they will not
do; they must have assurance doubly sure; they must have the written word
of the child itself as soon as it is born, giving the parents indemnity
from all responsibility on the score of its birth, and asserting its own
pre-existence.
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