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SELECTIONS FROM PREVIOUS WORKS
SELECTIONS FROM PREVIOUS WORKS
WITH REMARKS ON MR. G. J. ROMANES’ “ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS ” and A PSALM OF MONTREAL by SAMUEL BUTLER “The course of true science, like that of true love, never did run smooth.” Professor Tyndall , Pall Mall Gazette , Oct 30, 1883. ( Op. 7) LONDON TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL 1884 [ All rights reserved ] Ballantyne Press ballantyne, hanson and co. edinburgh and london...
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
I delayed these pages some weeks in order to give Mr. Romanes an opportunity of explaining his statement that Canon Kingsley wrote about instinct and inherited memory in Nature , Jan. 18, 1867. [iii] I wrote to the Athenæum (Jan. 26, 1884) and pointed out that Nature did not begin to appear till nearly three years after the date given by Mr. Romanes, and that there was nothing from Canon Kingsley on the subject of instinct and inherited memory in any number of Nature up to the date of Canon Ki
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CURRENT OPINIONS. (chapter x. of erewhon.)
CURRENT OPINIONS. (chapter x. of erewhon.)
This is what I gathered. That in that country if a man falls into ill health, or catches any disorder, or fails bodily in any way before he is seventy years old, he is tried before a jury of his countrymen, and if convicted is held up to public scorn and sentenced more or less severely as the case may be. There are subdivisions of illnesses into crimes and misdemeanours as with offences amongst ourselves—a man being punished very heavily for serious illness, while failure of eyes or hearing in
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AN EREWHONIAN TRIAL. (chapter xi. of erewhon.)
AN EREWHONIAN TRIAL. (chapter xi. of erewhon.)
I shall best convey to the reader an idea of the entire perversion of thought which exists among this extraordinary people, by describing the public trial of a man who was accused of pulmonary consumption—an offence which was punished with death until quite recently. The trial did not take place till I had been some months in the country, and I am deviating from chronological order in giving an account of it here; but I had perhaps better do so in order to exhaust this subject before proceeding
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THE MUSICAL BANKS. (chapter xiv. of erewhon.)
THE MUSICAL BANKS. (chapter xiv. of erewhon.)
On my return to the drawing-room, I found the ladies were just putting away their work and preparing to go out. I asked them where they were going. They answered with a certain air of reserve that they were going to the bank to get some money. Now I had already collected that the mercantile affairs of the Erewhonians were conducted on a totally different system from our own; I had however gathered little hitherto, except that they had two distinct commercial systems, of which the one appealed
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BIRTH FORMULÆ. (chapter xvii. of erewhon.)
BIRTH FORMULÆ. (chapter xvii. of erewhon.)
I heard what follows not from Arowhena, but from Mr. Nosnibor and some of the gentlemen who occasionally dined at the house: they told me that the Erewhonians believe in pre-existence; and not only this (of which I will write more fully in the next chapter), but they believe that it is of their own free act and deed in a previous state that people come to be born into this world at all. They hold that the unborn are perpetually plaguing and tormenting the married (and sometimes even the unmarrie
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THE WORLD OF THE UNBORN. (part of chapter xvii. of erewhon.)
THE WORLD OF THE UNBORN. (part of chapter xvii. of erewhon.)
The Erewhonians say it was by chance only that the earth and stars and all the heavenly worlds began to roll from east to west, and not from west to east, and in like manner they say it is by chance that man is drawn through life with his face to the past instead of to the future. For the future is there as much as the past, only that we may not see it. Is it not in the loins of the past, and must not the past alter before the future can do so? They have a fable that there was a race of men tr
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MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN PICKARD OWEN. (chapter i. of the fair haven.) [48]
MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN PICKARD OWEN. (chapter i. of the fair haven.) [48]
The subject of this memoir, and author of the work which follows it, was born in Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road, London, on the 5th of February 1832. He was my elder brother by about eighteen months. Our father and mother had once been rich, but through a succession of unavoidable misfortunes they were left with but a slender income when my brother and myself were about three and four years old. My father died some five or six years afterwards, and we only recollected him as a singularly
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ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS. (from chapter i. of life and habit.) [68]
ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS. (from chapter i. of life and habit.) [68]
It will be our business in the following chapters to consider whether the unconsciousness, or quasi-unconsciousness, with which we perform certain acquired actions, throws any light upon Embryology and inherited instincts, and otherwise to follow the train of thought which the class of actions above mentioned may suggest. More especially I propose to consider them in so far as they bear upon the origin of species and the continuation of life by successive generations, whether in the animal or v
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CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS THE LAW AND GRACE. (from chapter ii. of life and habit.)
CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS THE LAW AND GRACE. (from chapter ii. of life and habit.)
Certain it is that we know best what we are least conscious of knowing, or at any rate least able to prove; as, for example, our own existence, or that there is a country England. If any one asks us for proof on matters of this sort, we have none ready, and are justly annoyed at being called to consider what we regard as settled questions. Again, there is hardly anything which so much affects our actions as the centre of the earth (unless, perhaps, it be that still hotter and more unprofitable
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APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS TO CERTAIN HABITS ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH WHICH ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED INSTINCTIVE. (chapter iii. of life and habit.)
APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS TO CERTAIN HABITS ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH WHICH ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED INSTINCTIVE. (chapter iii. of life and habit.)
What is true of knowing is also true of willing. The more intensely we will, the less is our will deliberate and capable of being recognised as will at all. So that it is common to hear men declare under certain circumstances that they had no will, but were forced into their own action under stress of passion or temptation. But in the more ordinary actions of life, we observe, as in walking or breathing, that we do not will anything utterly and without remnant of hesitation, till we have lost
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PERSONAL IDENTITY. (chapter v. of life and habit.)
PERSONAL IDENTITY. (chapter v. of life and habit.)
“Strange difficulties have been raised by some,” says Bishop Butler, “concerning personal identity, or the sameness of living agents as implied in the notion of our existing now and hereafter, or indeed in any two consecutive moments.” But in truth it is not easy to see the strangeness of the difficulty, if the words either “personal” or “identity” are used in any strictness. Personality is one of those ideas with which we are so familiar that we have lost sight of the foundations upon which it
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INSTINCT AS INHERITED MEMORY. (chapter xi. of life and habit.)
INSTINCT AS INHERITED MEMORY. (chapter xi. of life and habit.)
Obviously the memory of a habit or experience will not commonly be transmitted to offspring in that perfection which is called “instinct,” till the habit or experience has been repeated in several generations with more or less uniformity; for otherwise the impression made will not be strong enough to endure through the busy and difficult task of reproduction. This of course involves that the habit shall have attained, as it were, equilibrium with the creature’s sense of its own needs, so that i
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CONCLUDING REMARKS. (from chapter xv. of life and habit.)
CONCLUDING REMARKS. (from chapter xv. of life and habit.)
Here, then, I leave my case, though well aware that I have crossed the threshold only of my subject. My work is of a tentative character, put before the public as a sketch or design for a, possibly, further endeavour, in which I hope to derive assistance from the criticisms which this present volume may elicit. [125] Such as it is, however, for the present I must leave it. We have seen that we cannot do anything thoroughly till we can do it unconsciously, and that we cannot do anything uncons
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IMPOTENCE OF PALEY’S CONCLUSION. THE TELEOLOGY OF THE EVOLUTIONIST. (from chapter iii. of evolution, old and new.)
IMPOTENCE OF PALEY’S CONCLUSION. THE TELEOLOGY OF THE EVOLUTIONIST. (from chapter iii. of evolution, old and new.)
If we conceive of ourselves as looking simultaneously upon a real foot, and upon an admirably constructed artificial one, placed by the side of it, the idea of design, and design by an intelligent living being with a body and soul (without which, the use of the word design is delusive), will present itself strongly to our minds in connection both with the true foot and with the model; but we find another idea asserting itself with even greater strength, namely, that the design of the true foot i
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FAILURE OF THE FIRST EVOLUTIONISTS TO SEE THEIR POSITION AS TELEOLOGICAL. (chapter iv. of evolution, old and new.)
FAILURE OF THE FIRST EVOLUTIONISTS TO SEE THEIR POSITION AS TELEOLOGICAL. (chapter iv. of evolution, old and new.)
It follows from the doctrine of Dr. Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, if not from that of Buffon himself, that the majority of organs are as purposive to the evolutionist as to the theologian, and far more intelligibly so. Circumstances, however, prevented these writers from acknowledging this fact to the world, and perhaps even to themselves. Their crux was, as it still is to so many evolutionists, the presence of rudimentary organs, and the processes of embryological development. They would not a
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THE TELEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF ORGANISM. (chapter v. of evolution, old and new.)
THE TELEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF ORGANISM. (chapter v. of evolution, old and new.)
I have stated the foregoing in what I take to be an extreme logical development, in order that the reader may more easily perceive the consequences of those premises which I am endeavouring to re-establish. But it must not be supposed that an animal or plant has ever conceived the idea of some organ widely different from any it was yet possessed of, and has set itself to design it in detail and grow towards it. The small jelly-speck, which we call the amœba, has no organs save what it can extem
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BUFFON—MEMOIR. (chapter viii. of evolution, old and new.)
BUFFON—MEMOIR. (chapter viii. of evolution, old and new.)
Buffon, says M. Flourens, was born at Montbar, on the 7th of September 1707; he died in Paris, at the Jardin du Roi, on the 16th of April 1788, aged 81 years. More than fifty of these years, as he used himself to say, he had passed at his writing-desk. His father was a councillor of the parliament of Burgundy. His mother was celebrated for her wit, and Buffon cherished her memory. He studied at Dijon with much éclat , and shortly after leaving became accidentally acquainted with the Duke of K
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BUFFON’S METHOD—THE IRONICAL CHARACTER OF HIS WORK. (chapter ix. of evolution, old and new.)
BUFFON’S METHOD—THE IRONICAL CHARACTER OF HIS WORK. (chapter ix. of evolution, old and new.)
Buffon’s idea of a method amounts almost to the denial of the possibility of method at all. “The true method,” he writes, “is the complete description and exact history of each particular object,” [164a] and later on he asks, “is it not more simple, more natural and more true to call an ass an ass, and a cat a cat, than to say, without knowing why, that an ass is a horse, and a cat a lynx?” [164b] He admits such divisions as between animals and vegetables, or between vegetables and minerals, bu
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RECAPITULATION AND STATEMENT OF AN OBJECTION. (chapter x. of unconscious memory.) [181a]
RECAPITULATION AND STATEMENT OF AN OBJECTION. (chapter x. of unconscious memory.) [181a]
The true theory of unconscious action is that of Professor Hering, from whose lecture [181b] it is no strained conclusion to gather that he holds the action of all living beings, from the moment of conception to that of fullest development, to be founded in volition and design, though these have been so long lost sight of that the work is now carried on, as it were, departmentally and in due course according to an official routine which can hardly be departed from. This involves the older “Darwi
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ON CYCLES. (chapter xi. of unconscious memory.)
ON CYCLES. (chapter xi. of unconscious memory.)
The one faith on which all normal living beings consciously or unconsciously act, is that like antecedents will be followed by like consequents. This is the one true and catholic faith, undemonstrable, but except a living being believe which, without doubt it shall perish everlastingly. In the assurance of this all action is taken. But if this fundamental article is admitted, it follows that if ever a complete cycle were formed, so that the whole universe of one instant were to repeat itself
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REPUTATION—MEMORY AT ONCE A PROMOTER AND A DISTURBER OF UNIFORMITY OF ACTION AND STRUCTURE. (chapter xii. of unconscious memory.)
REPUTATION—MEMORY AT ONCE A PROMOTER AND A DISTURBER OF UNIFORMITY OF ACTION AND STRUCTURE. (chapter xii. of unconscious memory.)
To meet the objections in the two foregoing chapters, I need do little more than show that the fact of certain often inherited diseases and developments, whether of youth or old age, being obviously not due to a memory on the part of offspring of like diseases and developments in the parents, does not militate against supposing that embryonic and youthful development generally is due to memory. This is the main part of the objection; the rest resolves itself into an assertion that there is no ev
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CONCLUSION. (chapter xiii. of unconscious memory.)
CONCLUSION. (chapter xiii. of unconscious memory.)
If we observed the resemblance between successive generations to be as close as that between distilled water and distilled water through all time, and if we observed that perfect unchangeableness in the action of living beings which we see in what we call chemical and mechanical combinations, we might indeed suspect that memory had as little place among the causes of their action as it can have in anything, and that each repetition, whether of a habit or the practice of art, or of an embryonic p
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REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. [228a]
REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. [228a]
I have said on page 96 of this book that the word “heredity” may be a very good way of stating the difficulty which meets us when we observe the reappearance of like characteristics, whether of body or mind, in successive generations, but that it does nothing whatever towards removing it. It is here that Mr. Herbert Spencer, the late Mr. G. H. Lewes, and Mr. Romanes fail. Mr. Herbert Spencer does indeed go so far in one place as to call instinct “organised memory,” [228b] and Mr. G. H. Lewes at
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REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS—(continued).
REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS—(continued).
I will give examples of my meaning. Mr. Romanes says on an early page, “The most fundamental principle of mental operation is that of memory, for this is the conditio sine quâ non of all mental life” (page 35). I do not understand Mr. Romanes to hold that there is any living being which has no mind at all, and I do understand him to admit that development of body and mind are closely interdependent. If then, “the most fundamental principle” of mind is memory, it follows that memory enters also
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POSTSCRIPT.
POSTSCRIPT.
This afternoon (March 7, 1884), the copies of this book being ready for issue, I see Mr. Romanes’ letter to the Athenæum of this day, and get this postscript pasted into the book after binding. Mr. Romanes corrects his reference to the passage in which he says that Canon Kingsley first advanced the theory that instinct is inherited memory (“M. E. in Animals,” p. 296). Canon Kingsley’s words are to be found in Fraser , June, 1867, and are as follows:— “Yon wood-wren has had enough to make him sa
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DALPE, PRATO, ROSSURA. (from chapter iii. of alps and sanctuaries.) [255]
DALPE, PRATO, ROSSURA. (from chapter iii. of alps and sanctuaries.) [255]
Talking of legs, as I went through the main street of Dalpe an old lady of about sixty-five stopped me, and told me that while gathering her winter store of firewood she had had the misfortune to hurt her leg. I was very sorry, but I failed to satisfy her; the more I sympathised in general terms, the more I felt that something further was expected of me. I went on trying to do the civil thing, when the old lady cut me short by saying it would be much better if I were to see the leg at once; so
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CALONICO. (from chapter v. of alps and sanctuaries.)
CALONICO. (from chapter v. of alps and sanctuaries.)
Our inventions increase in geometrical ratio. They are like living beings, each one of which may become parent of a dozen others—some good and some ne’er-do-weels; but they differ from animals and vegetables inasmuch as they not only increase in a geometrical ratio, but the period of their gestation decreases in geometrical ratio also. Take this matter of Alpine roads for example. For how many millions of years was there no approach to a road over the St. Gothard, save the untutored watercour
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PIORA. (from chapter vi. of alps and sanctuaries.) [275]
PIORA. (from chapter vi. of alps and sanctuaries.) [275]
An excursion which may be very well made from Faido is to the Val Piora, which I have already more than once mentioned. There is a large hotel here which has been opened some years, but has not hitherto proved the success which it was hoped it would be. I have stayed there two or three times and found it very comfortable; doubtless, now that Signer Lombardi of the Hotel Prosa has taken it, it will become a more popular place of resort. I took a trap from Faido to Ambri, and thence walked over
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S. MICHELE AND MONTE PIRCHIRIANO. (extracts from chapters vii. and x. of alps and sanctuaries.)
S. MICHELE AND MONTE PIRCHIRIANO. (extracts from chapters vii. and x. of alps and sanctuaries.)
The history of the sanctuary of S. Michele is briefly as follows:— At the close of the tenth century, when Otho III. was Emperor of Germany, a certain Hugh de Montboissier, a noble of Auvergne, commonly called “Hugh the Unsewn” ( lo sdruscito ), was commanded by the Pope to found a monastery in expiation of some grave offence. He chose for his site the summit of the Monte Pirchiriano in the valley of Susa, being attracted partly by the fame of a church already built there by a recluse of Ravenn
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CONSIDERATIONS ON THE DECLINE OF ITALIAN ART. (from chapter xiii. of alps and sanctuaries.)
CONSIDERATIONS ON THE DECLINE OF ITALIAN ART. (from chapter xiii. of alps and sanctuaries.)
Those who know the Italians will see no sign of decay about them. They are the quickest-witted people in the world, and at the same time have much more of the old Roman steadiness than they are generally credited with. Not only is there no sign of degeneration, but, as regards practical matters, there is every sign of health and vigorous development. The North Italians are more like Englishmen, both in body, and mind, than any other people whom I know; I am continually meeting Italians whom I
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SANCTUARIES OF OROPA AND GRAGLIA. (from chapters xv. and xvi. of alps and sanctuaries.)
SANCTUARIES OF OROPA AND GRAGLIA. (from chapters xv. and xvi. of alps and sanctuaries.)
The morning after our arrival at Biella, we took the daily diligence for Oropa, leaving Biella at eight o’clock. Before we were clear of the town we could see the long line of the hospice, and the chapels dotted about near it, high up in a valley at some distance off; presently we were shown another fine building some eight or nine miles away, which we were told was the sanctuary of Graglia. About this time the pictures and statuettes of the Madonna began to change their hue and to become blac
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A PSALM OF MONTREAL.
A PSALM OF MONTREAL.
[The City of Montreal is one of the most rising and, in many respects, most agreeable on the American continent, but its inhabitants are as yet too busy with commerce to care greatly about the masterpieces of old Greek Art. A cast of one of these masterpieces—the finest of the several statues of Discoboli, or Quoit-throwers—was found by the present writer in the Montreal Museum of Natural History; it was, however, banished from public view, to a room where were all manner of skins, plants, snak
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Works by the same Author.
Works by the same Author.
Sixth Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 6s. EREWHON; or, OVER THE RANGE. Op. 1. A Work of Satire and Imagination . Second Edition. Demy 8vo, Cloth, 7s. 6d. THE FAIR HAVEN. Op. 2. A work in Defence of the Miraculous Element in our Lord’s Ministry on earth, both as against Rationalistic Impugners and certain Orthodox Defenders. Written under the pseudonym of john pickard owen , with a Memoir by his supposed brother, William Bickersteth Owen . Second Edition. Crown 8vo, Cloth, 7s. 6d. LIFE AND HABIT
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