New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-10-12
Literary .Nese,s o7G Criticism

/ Erewhon. which lies hidden somewhere
/ in the Himalayas. the people decided
after a bitter civil war that all ma
chinery should be abolished and never
again be used in the state. All existing
machinery was destroyed, but frag-
ments were preserved in museums. as
we preserve the bones of fossils.
More curious still was the topsy-turvy
relation established in this country be-
tween the physical and the moral. Dis
ease was a crime: the person whose eye
sight became defective before his sixty
fifth year was imprisoned. 1t was as
rude TO inquire after a friends physical
health as it is with US to ask him if he
has recently committed theft. What
we call crime, on the other hand, was
treated as a disease, an ingenious antici-
patton. ii viii be seen. A member OF
the Stock Exchange who had begun to
make money by fraudulent representa-
tions. while recognizing the abnormal
symptoms in his mind, had neglected
his moral health, and gone on until he
contracted a bad case OF forgery, when
the moral physician, or ''straightener
severely reprimanded him for being SO
careless, and prescribed for him, after
having carefully gone into the moral
health Of his ancestors. IN Erewhon
there are colleges OF unreason, and &c
formatory institutions-in short, the
clever extravaganza often outstrips and
obscures the satire. The Englishman
who has wandered into this country.
and TO whom its ways and customs are
explained after the manner usual IN
such narratives--he, in his turn. explain
ing those of his own country, not for
getting its religion-escapes at last III a
balloon which he has succeeded in max
ing. with the secret conniVance OF the
king and the queen, who see danger III
his continued presence there.
In 'Erewhon Revisited Q90D the
Fnglishman-who. by the way, had
taken the royal princess with hlm-re-
turns. to find himself the miraculous
founder of a new religion Legend has
! transformed him into q supernatural
.'Sunchild." who had returned TO his
father after delivering his message. But
there is strife over the words he has
spoken. bitter disagreements even over
the miraculous manner of his going.
Butler satirizes here the quarrels. the
observation-disclosures, the hypocrisy of re-
ligious differences. but the book is not
pleasant reading. for in it there flames
forth in all its bitterness his own hatred
of religion.
Hatred That is. after all, the key
note Of these three books-much right
eous anger, but also a vast amount of
intolerance and uncharitableness. 1t is
already traceable 81 The Way of All
Flesh" with its unjust ignoring Of the
love, the devotion and sacrifice, the
honest if mistaken conception OF duty
of the parents OF an earlier social organ
ization. themselves caught in the net,
the safety Of whose meshes for their
children was an article Of faith with
them. There are traces of tolerant
irony here but nreasOning fury, remi-
niscent of the injustice, the wrongs, the
unhappiness suffered in his own child
hood at the hands of his elders, who
knew no other way, carries Butler ever
further as he goes along, until, in Ere
whom Revisited" he throws away all re-
straint. OF the three books, the first is
of greatest Importance, but chiefly for
the older generation, which, il some
small measure. remembers much of
what Butler condemns, and therefore
has the knowledge to restore the bal
ance Of good against the errors on which
alone he LAYS stress. Mr.. Shaw has
adapted much OF his satire in Ere
whom and its sequel to the present day
understanding. THE Way Of All Flesh
is eminently we'll worth reading as
picture Of the transition from the old
TO the new, but it must be read with
many reservations. The old, too. had its
APPOINTED place in our social evolution,
and the children OF periods of transition
must always suffer in body and mind.