Prefatory Note
GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN
| CHAPTER I. | INTRODUCTION |
| CHAPTER II. | COMMON GROUND |
| CHAPTER III. | PANTHEISM. |
| CHAPTER IV. | PANTHEISM. |
| CHAPTER V. | ORTHODOX THEISM |
| CHAPTER VI. | THE TREE OF LIFE |
| CHAPTER VII. | THE LIKENESS OF GOD |
| CHAPTER VIII. | THE LIFE EVERLASTING |
| CHAPTER IX. | GOD THE UNKNOWN |
"GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form of a series of articles which were published in "The Examiner" in May, June, and July, 1879. Samuel Butler subsequently revised the text of his work, presumably with the intention of republishing it, though he never carried the intention into effect. In the present edition I have followed his revised version almost without deviation. I have, however, retained a few passages which Butler proposed to omit, partly because they appear to me to render the course of his argument clearer, and partly because they contain characteristic thoughts and expressions of which none of his admirers would wish to be deprived. In the list of Butler's works "God the Known and God the Unknown" follows "Life and Habit," which appeared in 1877, and "Evolution, Old and New," which was published in May, 1879. It is scarcely necessary to point out that the three works are closely akin in subject and treatment, and that "God the Known and God the Unknown" will gain in interest by being considered in relation to its predecessors.
MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters in the inverse ratio of their importance, so that the more closely a question is felt to touch the hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it is considered upon prudent people to profess that it does not exist, to frown it down, to tell it to hold its tongue, to maintain that it has long been finally settled, so that there is now no question concerning it.
So far, indeed, has