It was twenty years next Sunday since he and my
mother had eloped. That was the meaning of XIX. xii. 29. They had made
a new era, dating from the day of his return to the palace of the sun
with a bride who was doubtless to unite the Erewhonian nature with that
of the sun. The New Year, then, would date from Sunday, December 7,
which would therefore become XX. i. 1. The Thursday, now nearly if not
quite over, being only two days distant from the end of a month of thirty-
one days, which was also the last of the year, would be XIX. xii. 29, as
on the Professors' permit.
I should like to explain here what will appear more clearly on a later
page--I mean, that the Erewhonians, according to their new system, do not
believe the sun to be a god except as regards this world and his other
planets. My father had told them a little about astronomy, and had
assured them that all the fixed stars were suns like our own, with
planets revolving round them, which were probably tenanted by intelligent
living beings, however unlike they might be to ourselves. From this they
evolved the theory that the sun was the ruler of this planetary system,
and that he must be personified, as they had personified the air-god, the
gods of time and space, hope, justice, and the other deities mentioned in
my father's book.
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