Transcribed from the 1908 A. C. Fifield edition by DavidPrice,
by
SAMUEL BUTLER
authorof “erewhon,”“erewhon re-visited,”
“the way of all flesh,”etc.
editedby
R. A. STREATFEILD
LONDON
A. C. FIFIELD
1908
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson &Co
At the Ballantyne Press, Edinburgh.
Contents:
Introduction
Quis Desiderio?
Ramblings in Cheapside
The Aunt, The Nieces, and the Dog
How to make the best of life
The Sanctuary of Montrigone
A Medieval Girl School
Art in the Valley of Saas
Thought and Language
The Deadlock in Darwinism
It is hardly necessary to apologise for the miscellaneouscharacter of the following collection of essays. SamuelButler was a man of such unusual versatility, and his interestswere so many and so various that his literary remains were boundto cover a wide field. Nevertheless it will be found thatseveral of the subjects to which he devoted much time and labourare not represented in these pages. I have not thought itnecessary to reprint any of the numerous pamphlets and articleswhich he wrote upon the Iliad and Odyssey, since these were allmerged in “The Authoress of the Odyssey,” which giveshis matured views upon everything relating to the Homericpoems. For a similar reason I have not included an essay onthe evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which heprinted in 1865 for private circulation, since he subsequentlymade extensive use of it in “The Fair Haven.”
Two of the essays in this collection were originally deliveredas lectures; the remainder were published in The UniversalReview during 1888, 1889, and 1890.
I should perhaps explain why two other essays of his, whichalso appeared in The Universal Review, have beenomitted.
The first of these, entitled “L’AffaireHolbein-Rippel,” relates to a drawing of Holbein’s“Danse des Paysans,” in the Basle Museum, which isusually described as a copy, but which Butler believed to be thework of Holbein himself. This essay requires to beillustrated in so elaborate a manner that it was impossible toinclude it in a book of this size.
The second essay, which is a sketch of the career of thesculptor Tabachetti, was published as the first section of anarticle entitled “A Sculptor and a Shrine,” of whichthe second section is here given under the title, “TheSanctuary of Montrigone.” The section devoted to thesculptor represents all that Butler then knew about Tabachetti,but since it was written various documents have come to light,principally owing to the investigations of Cavaliere FrancescoNegri, of Casale Monferrato, which negative some ofButler’s most cherished conclusions. Had Butler livedhe would either have rewritten his essay in accordance withCavaliere Negri’s discoveries, of which he fully recognisedthe value, or incorporated them into the revised edition of“Ex Voto,” which he intended to publish. As itstands, the essay requires so much revision that I have decidedto omit it altogether, and to postpone giving English readers afull account of Tabachetti’s career until a second editionof “Ex Voto” is required. Meanwhile I havegiven a brief summary of the main facts of Tabachetti’slife in a note (page 154) to the essay on “Art in theValley of Saas.” Any one who wishes for furtherdetails of