544
SUSAN SONTAG
Case ofCain and Abel;
and Jekyll, along with three staff members and a
handful of pupils in residence at the Institute, has been convened for
lunch. Utterson is in his usual chair. Toward the end of the meal, he
has been garrulously calculating the huge royalties the book is going
to earn and lamenting his debts. Jekyll is in one of the straight-backed
chairs lined up along the side of the table.
"My boy, I'm going to tell you something which, really, you are
not eligible to know. Only those who are more developed, who have
advanced further in the Work, know it." Two pupils still lingering at
the table are staring avidly at Utterson, enviously at Jekyll. Without
glancing at their side of the table, Utterson instructs one to wait for him
in the Study House and the other to mow the front lawns, and doesn\
continue until after they push back their chairs carefully, get up, and
leave. "I receive messages from the future ."
Even when frustrated by Utterson's habit of claiming anterior
knowledge of everything that others tell him, Jekyll can't be as skepti–
cal as he might like because Utterson has so often demonstrated cool
inexplicable powers of clairvoyance. But he has never heard Utterson
state his claim so impudently.
"Well?" says Utterson.
"I'm flattered .. . ."
"You think too much about the body, Henry," Utterson says impa–
tiently. "That feels natural to a doctor but it's one-sided. You've never
grasped a spiritual truth."
Jekyll bows his head at Utterson's reproach, while stubbornly
continuing to think it unjust. This position gives him a mild cramp in
his shoulder muscles, so he straightens up, "And the secret?" he says.
Utterson is sitting cross-legged on the raised platform in the
center of the circular Study House, addressing some pupils, "Do what
you will," he says, "and you'll find out how little you
can
will."
To English, which isn't his native language (as Utterson was not
his name), he imparts a solemn and musical intonation. "Only a tiny
part of your life is under your control," he declares. "As you are, you
have no will."
He also says : "Try to know what you're feeling." He explains:
"Observe yourself, yes. But as if you were a machine. You are nothing
but your behavior."
