By Samuel Butler Author of “Life and Habit,” “Erewhon,” “The Way of All Flesh,” etc. New Edition, entirely reset, with an Introduction by Marcus Hartog, M.A. , D.SC. , F.L.S. , F.R.H.S. , Pro- fessor of Zoology in University College, Cork. Op . 5 London A. C. Fifield, 13 Clifford’s Inn, E.C. 1910 “As this paper contains nothing which deserves the name either of experiment or discovery, and as it is, in fact, destitute of every species of merit, we should have allowed it to pass among the multitu

For many years a link in the chain of Samuel Butler’s biological works has been missing.  “Unconscious Memory” was originally published thirty years ago, but for fully half that period it has been out of print, owing to the destruction of a large number of the unbound sheets in a fire at the premises of the printers some years ago.  The present reprint comes, I think, at a peculiarly fortunate moment, since the attention of the general public has of late been drawn to Butler’s biological theorie

In reviewing Samuel Butler’s works, “Unconscious Memory” gives us an invaluable lead; for it tells us (Chaps. II, III) how the author came to write the Book of the Machines in “Erewhon” (1872), with its foreshadowing of the later theory, “Life and Habit,” (1878), “Evolution, Old and New” (1879), as well as “Unconscious Memory” (1880) itself.  His fourth book on biological theory was “Luck? or Cunning?” (1887). [0a] Besides these books, his contributions to biology comprise several essays: “Remar

Not finding the “well-known German scientific journal Kosmos ” [0m] entered in the British Museum Catalogue, I have presented the Museum with a copy of the number for February 1879, which contains the article by Dr. Krause of which Mr. Charles Darwin has given a translation, the accuracy of which is guaranteed—so he informs us—by the translator’s “scientific reputation together with his knowledge of German.” [0n] I have marked the copy, so that the reader can see at a glance what passages has be

Introduction—General ignorance on the subject of evolution at the time the “Origin of Species” was published in 1859. There are few things which strike us with more surprise, when we review the course taken by opinion in the last century, than the suddenness with which belief in witchcraft and demoniacal possession came to an end.  This has been often remarked upon, but I am not acquainted with any record of the fact as it appeared to those under whose eyes the change was taking place, nor have

How I came to write “Life and Habit,” and the circumstances of its completion. It was impossible, however, for Mr. Darwin’s readers to leave the matter as Mr. Darwin had left it.  We wanted to know whence came that germ or those germs of life which, if Mr. Darwin was right, were once the world’s only inhabitants.  They could hardly have come hither from some other world; they could not in their wet, cold, slimy state have travelled through the dry ethereal medium which we call space, and yet rem

How I came to write “Evolution, Old and New”—Mr Darwin’s “brief but imperfect” sketch of the opinions of the writers on evolution who had preceded him—The reception which “Evolution, Old and New,” met with. Though my book was out in 1877, it was not till January 1878 that I took an opportunity of looking up Professor Ray Lankester’s account of Professor Hering’s lecture.  I can hardly say how relieved I was to find that it sprung no mine upon me, but that, so far as I could gather, Professor Her

The manner in which Mr. Darwin met “Evolution, Old and New.” By far the most important notice of “Evolution, Old and New,” was that taken by Mr. Darwin himself; for I can hardly be mistaken in believing that Dr. Krause’s article would have been allowed to repose unaltered in the pages of the well-known German scientific journal, Kosmos , unless something had happened to make Mr. Darwin feel that his reticence concerning his grandfather must now be ended. Mr. Darwin, indeed, gives me the impressi

Introduction to Professor Hering’s lecture. After I had finished “Evolution, Old and New,” I wrote some articles for the Examiner , [52] in which I carried out the idea put forward in “Life and Habit,” that we are one person with our ancestors.  It follows from this, that all living animals and vegetables, being—as appears likely if the theory of evolution is accepted—descended from a common ancestor, are in reality one person, and unite to form a body corporate, of whose existence, however, the

Professor Ewald Hering “On Memory.” I will now lay before the reader a translation of Professor Hering’s own words.  I have had it carefully revised throughout by a gentleman whose native language is German, but who has resided in England for many years past.  The original lecture is entitled “On Memory as a Universal Function of Organised Matter,” and was delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Vienna, May 30, 1870. [63] It is as follows:— “When the student o

Introduction to a translation of the chapter upon instinct in Von Hartmann’s “Philosophy of the Unconscious.” I am afraid my readers will find the chapter on instinct from Von Hartmann’s “Philosophy of the Unconscious,” which will now follow, as distasteful to read as I did to translate, and would gladly have spared it them if I could.  At present, the works of Mr. Sully, who has treated of the “Philosophy of the Unconscious” both in the Westminster Review (vol. xlix. N.S. ) and in his work “Pes

Translation of the chapter on “The Unconscious in Instinct,” from Von Hartmann’s “Philosophy of the Unconscious.” Von Hartmann’s chapter on instinct is as follows:— Instinct is action taken in pursuance of a purpose but without conscious perception of what the purpose is. [92a] A purposive action, with consciousness of the purpose and where the course taken is the result of deliberation is not said to be instinctive; nor yet, again, is blind aimless action, such as outbreaks of fury on the part

Remarks upon Von Hartmann’s position in regard to instinct. Uncertain how far the foregoing chapter is not better left without comment of any kind, I nevertheless think that some of my readers may be helped by the following extracts from the notes I took while translating.  I will give them as they come, without throwing them into connected form. Von Hartmann defines instinct as action done with a purpose, but without consciousness of purpose. The building of her nest by a bird is an instinctive

Recapitulation and statement of an objection. The true theory of unconscious action, then, is that of Professor Hering, from whose lecture it is no strained conclusion to gather that he holds the action of all living beings, from the moment of their conception to that of their 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 c

On Cycles. 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, and it cannot be gainsaid, it follows that if ever a complete cycle were formed, so that the whole universe

Refutation—Memory at once a promoter and a disturber of uniformity of action and structure. 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 th

Conclusion. 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