This sank into him and pained him. He was nearly thirty-five, and
hitherto all had been admiration, vague aspiration and despair; he
had produced in painting nothing but a few sketches and studies, and
in literature only a few ephemeral articles, a collection of
youthful letters and a pamphlet on the Resurrection; moreover, to
none of his work had anyone paid the slightest attention. This was
a poor return for all the money which had been spent upon his
education, as Theobald would have said in The Way of All Flesh. He
returned home dejected, but resolved that things should be different
in the future. While in this frame of mind he received a visit from
one of his New Zealand friends, the late Sir F. Napier Broome,
afterwards Governor of Western Australia, who incidentally suggested
his rewriting his New Zealand articles. The idea pleased him; it
might not be creating, but at least it would be doing something. So
he set to work on Sundays and in the evenings, as relaxation from
his profession of painting, and, taking his New Zealand article,
"Darwin among the Machines," and another, "The World of the Unborn,"
as a starting point and helping himself with a few sentences from A
First Year in Canterbury Settlement, he gradually formed Erewhon.
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