my father had never omitted
to say grace during the whole of the last twenty years, but he said it
now, and unfortunately forgetting himself, he said it in the English
language, not loud, but nevertheless audibly.

My father was alarmed at what he had done, but there was no need, for the
stranger immediately said, "I hear, sir, that you have the gift of
tongues. The Sunchild often mentioned it to us, as having been
vouchsafed long since to certain of the people, to whom, for our
learning, he saw fit to feign that he belonged. He thus foreshadowed
prophetically its manifestation also among ourselves. All which,
however, you must know as well as I do. Can you interpret?"

My father was much shocked, but he remembered having frequently spoken of
the power of speaking in unknown tongues which was possessed by many of
the early Christians, and he also remembered that in times of high
religious enthusiasm this power had repeatedly been imparted, or supposed
to be imparted, to devout believers in the middle ages. It grated upon
him to deceive one who was so obviously sincere, but to avoid immediate
discomfiture he fell in with what the stranger had said.

"Alas! sir," said he, "that rarer and more precious gift has been
withheld from me; nor can I speak in an unknown tongue, unless as it is
borne in upon me at the moment. I could not even repeat the words that
have just fallen from me."

"That," replied the stranger, "is almost invariably the case. These
illuminations of the spirit are beyond human control. You spoke in so
low a tone that I cannot interpret what you have just said, but should
you receive a second inspiration later, I shall doubtless be able to
interpret it for you. I have been singularly gifted in this respect--more
so, perhaps, than any other interpreter in Erewhon."

My father mentally vowed that no second inspiration should be vouchsafed
to him, but presently remembering how anxious he was for information on
the points touched upon at the beginning of this chapter, and seeing that
fortune had sent him the kind of man who would be able to enlighten him,
he changed his mind; nothing, he reflected, would be more likely to make
the stranger talk freely with him, than the affording him an opportunity
for showing off his skill as an interpreter.

Something, therefore, he would say, but what? No one could talk more
freely when the train of his thoughts, or the conversation of others,
gave him his c