I forget when, but not very long after I had published “Erewhon”in 1872, it occurred to me to ask myself what course events in Erewhonwould probably take after Mr. Higgs, as I suppose I may now call him,had made his escape in the balloon with Arowhena. Given a peoplein the conditions supposed to exist in Erewhon, and given the apparentlymiraculous ascent of a remarkable stranger into the heavens with anearthly bride—what would be the effect on the people generally?
There was no use in trying to solve this problem before, say, twentyyears should have given time for Erewhonian developments to assume somethinglike permanent shape, and in 1892 I was too busy with books now publishedto be able to attend to Erewhon. It was not till the early winterof 1900, i.e. as nearly as may be thirty years after the date of Higgs’sescape, that I found time to deal with the question above stated, andto answer it, according to my lights, in the book which I now lay beforethe public.
I have concluded, I believe rightly, that the events described inChapter XXIV. of “Erewhon” would give rise to such a cataclysmicchange in the old Erewhonian opinions as would result in the developmentof a new religion. Now the development of all new religions followsmuch the same general course. In all cases the times are moreor less out of joint—older faiths are losing their hold upon themasses. At such times, let a personality appear, strong in itself,and made to seem still stronger by association with some supposed transcendentmiracle, and it will be easy to raise a Lo here! that will attract manyfollowers. If there be a single great, and apparently well-authenticated,miracle, others will accrete round it; then, in all religions that haveso originated, there will follow temples, priests, rites, sincere believers,and unscrupulous exploiters of public credulity. To chroniclethe events that followed Higgs’s balloon ascent without shewingthat they were much as they have been under like conditions in otherplaces, would be to hold the mirror up to something very wide of nature.
Analogy, however, between courses of events is one thing—historicparallelisms abound; analogy between the main actors in events is avery different one, and one, moreover, of which few examples can befound. The development of the new ideas in Erewhon is a familiarone, but there is no more likeness between Higgs and the founder ofany other religion, than there is between Jesus Christ and Mahomet. He is a typical middle-class Englishman, deeply tainted with priggishnessin his earlier years, but in great part freed from it by the sweet usesof adversity.
If I may be allowed for a moment to speak about myself, I would saythat I have never ceased to profess myself a member of the more advancedwing of the English Broad Church. What those who belong to thiswing believe, I believe. What they reject, I reject. Notwo people think absolutely alike on any subject, but when I conversewith advanced Broad Churchmen I find myself in substantial harmony withthem. I believe—and should be very sorry if I did not believe—that,mutatis mutandis, such men will find the advice given on pp. 277-281and 287-291 of this book much what, under the supposed circumstances,they would themselves give.
Lastly, I should express my great obligations to Mr. R. A. Streatfeildof the British Museum, who, in the absence from England of my friendMr. H. Festing Jones, has kindly supervised the corrections of my bookas it passed through the press.
SAMUEL BUTLER.
May 1, 1901.
Before telling the story of my father’s second visit to