verb
and accusative being all in their right places, and doubt impossible--they
would consider themselves very seriously and justly outraged, and accuse
the speaker of being unwell.

I never could understand, neither can I do so now, why a single currency
should not suffice them; it would seem to me as though all their dealings
would have been thus greatly simplified; but I was met with a look of
horror if ever I dared to hint at it. Even those who to my certain
knowledge kept only just enough money at the musical banks to swear by,
would call the other banks (where their securities really lay) cold,
deadening, paralysing, and the like. I noticed another thing moreover
which struck me greatly. I was taken to the opening of one of these
banks in a neighbouring town, and saw a large assemblage of cashiers and
managers. I sat opposite them and scanned their faces attentively. They
did not please me; they lacked, with a few exceptions, the true
Erewhonian frankness; and an equal number from any other class would have
looked happier and better men. When I met them 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. 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 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 judgment was not matured, and after having
been k