hem in the streets they did not seem like other people, but had, as
a general rule, a cramped expression upon their faces which pained and
depressed me.

Those who came from the country were better; they seemed to have lived
less as a separate class, and to be freer and healthier; but in spite of
my seeing not a few whose looks were benign and noble, I could not help
asking myself concerning the greater number of those whom I met, whether
Erewhon would be a better country if their expression were to be
transferred to the people in general. I answered myself emphatically,
no. The expression on the faces of the high Ydgrunites was that which
one would wish to diffuse, and not that of the cashiers.

A man's expression is his sacrament; it is the outward and visible sign
of his inward and spiritual grace, or want of grace; and as I looked at
the a majority of these men, I could not help feeling that there must be
a something in their lives which had stunted their natural development,
and that they would have been more healthily minded in any other
profession. I was always sorry for them, for in nine cases out of ten
they were well-meaning persons; they were in the main very poorly paid;
their constitutions were as a rule above suspicion; and there were
recorded numberless instances of their self-sacrifice and generosity; but
they had had the misfortune to have been betrayed into a false position
at an age for the most part when their judgement was not matured, and
after having been kept in studied ignorance of the real difficulties of
the system. But this did not make their position the less a false one,
and its bad effects upon themselves were unmistakable.

Few people would speak quite openly and freely before them, which struck
me as a very bad sign. When they were in the room every one would talk
as though all currency save that of the Musical Banks should be
abolished; and yet they knew perfectly well that even the cashiers
themselves hardly used the Musical Bank money more than other people. It
was expected of them that they should appear to do so, but this was all.
The less thoughtful of them did not seem particularly unhappy, but many
were plainly sick at heart, though perhaps they hardly knew it, and would
not have owned to being so. Some few were opponents of the whole system;
but these were liable to be dismissed from their employment at any
moment, and this rendered them very careful, for a man who had o