Fragment of a Forthcoming Work [pp. 298-312]

FRA,4GMENT OF A FORTHCOMING WORK. [
volutionary cries of "Prisons and policemen for ever!" began to
be heard. It broke the Gaffer's heart. He had devoted himself to a great truth, and now, simply because the consequences
of following it were inconvenient, his disciples were beginning
to deny him and his people to turn against him. HIe died soon
after. The scene of his death was edifying. He kept the faith
to the last, and never wavered in the hope that Ananke would,
after all, determine those who had hitherto lived in foulness and
rapine to be henceforth good and useful citizens, kind fathers,
faithful to every social and domestic duty; "but," said he, " I
am not going to be such a fool as to exhort them, or pray God
for it."
Then Brown went on to relate how, after the death of Gaffer,
a secret society had been formed, called the Nogreni because its
members flatter themselves that there is no trace of chlorophyll
in their organ of vision. It consists of nearly all who have anything to lose, and their peculiarity is that they hang without
mercy for crimes against property. They insist that in doing
this they make no sacrifice of consistency, and that the great
principle of determinism remains untouched. When they are
going to hang a man they are always careful to assure him that
they have no intention of punishing him or of imputing to him
any blame for his crime, and that no disgrace will attach to him
for being hanged. All they desire, they say, is to connect in
men's brains the phantasm of the gallows with the act of stealing,
so as to produce a certain bias on the side of honesty. Predetermined said that, being obliged by his position to be all
things to all men, he did not care to pass judgment on the abstract question of logic between the Nogreni and the Gafferites;
but he admitted that the system of the former worked well, aiid
that the country was now rich and prosperous. Nevertheless
crimes of violence were only too common, and the Nogreni had
latterly taken them in hand also. He said they had at the present moment three murderers, whom they were going to execute
on the Monday following-namely, a butcher who had cut his
wife's throat and utilized her in his trade; a blacksmith, a lunatic, who had mistaken his keeper's head for an anvil; and a cow
that had gored a small boy to death. I was surprised that they
should make no distinction; but he said that logic demanded
that all should be treated alike, as the same necessity had impelled the deed of each; any animal that killed a man must die
in the presence of as many of its own species as could be collected. I asked him if the results had been satisfactory; and he
[Dec.,
3o0