piece he found that the table above which it was placed had nothing in
common with the altar in a Christian church. It was a mere table, on
which were placed two bowls full of Musical Bank coins; two cashiers, who
sat on either side of it, dispensed a few of these to all comers, while
there was a box in front of it wherein people deposited coin of the realm
according to their will or ability. The idea of sacrifice was not
contemplated, and the position of the table, as well as the name given to
it, was an instance of the way in which the Erewhonians had caught names
and practices from my father, without understanding what they either were
or meant. So, again, when Professor Hanky had spoken of canonries, he
had none but the vaguest idea of what a canonry is.

I may add further that as a boy my father had had his Bible well drilled
into him, and never forgot it. Hence biblical passages and expressions
had been often in his mouth, as the effect of mere unconscious
cerebration. The Erewhonians had caught many of these, sometimes
corrupting them so that they were hardly recognizable. Things that he
remembered having said were continually meeting him during the few days
of his second visit, and it shocked him deeply to meet some gross
travesty of his own words, or of words more sacred than his own, and yet
to be unable to correct it. "I wonder," he said to me, "that no one has
ever hit on this as a punishment for the damned in Hades."

Let me now return to Professor Hanky, whom I fear that I have left too
long.

"And of course," he continued, "I shall say all sorts of pretty things
about the Mayoress--for I suppose we must not even think of her as Yram
now."