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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/3279-0.txt b/3279-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ffb326a --- /dev/null +++ b/3279-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1962 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Canterbury Pieces, by Samuel Butler, Edited +by R. A. Streatfeild + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Canterbury Pieces + + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Editor: R. A. Streatfeild + +Release Date: July 26, 2019 [eBook #3279] +[This file was first posted May 24, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANTERBURY PIECES*** + + + + +Transcribed from the 1914 A. C. Fifield edition by David Price, email +ccx074@pglaf.org + + [Picture: Public domain cover] + + + + + + CANTERBURY PIECES + + + By + Samuel Butler + Author of “Erewhon,” “The Way of All Flesh,” etc. + + * * * * * + + Edited by R. A. Streatfeild + + * * * * * + + London: A. C. Fifield + 1914 + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +Darwin on the Origin of Species 149 + A Dialogue 155 + Barrel-Organs 164 + Letter: 21 February 1863 167 + Letter: 14 March 1863 171 + Letter: 18 March 1863 173 + Letter: 11 April 1863 175 + Letter: 22 June 1863 177 +Darwin Among the Machines 179 +Lucubratio Ebria 186 +A Note on “The Tempest” 195 +The English Cricketers 198 + +Darwin on the Origin of Species + + +Prefatory Note + + +_AS the following dialogue embodies the earliest fruits of Butler’s study +of the works of Charles Darwin_, _with whose name his own was destined in +later years to be so closely connected_, _and thus possesses an interest +apart from its intrinsic merit_, _a few words as to the circumstances in +which it was published will not be out of place_. + +_Butler arrived in New Zealand in October_, 1859, _and about the same +time Charles Darwin’s_ ORIGIN OF SPECIES _was published_. _Shortly +afterwards the book came into Butler’s hands_. _He seems to have read it +carefully_, _and meditated upon it_. _The result of his meditations took +the shape of the following dialogue_, _which was published on_ 20 +_December_, 1862, _in the_ PRESS _which had been started in the town of +Christ Church in May_, 1861. _The dialogue did not by any means pass +unnoticed_. _On the_ 17_th of January_, 1863, _a leading article_ (_of +course unsigned_) _appeared in the_ PRESS, _under the title_ +“_Barrel-Organs_,” _discussing Darwin’s theories_, _and incidentally +referring to Butler’s dialogue_. _A reply to this article_, _signed +A.M._, _appeared on the_ 21_st of February_, _and the correspondence was +continued until the_ 22_nd of June_, 1863. _The dialogue itself_, _which +was unearthed from the early files of the_ PRESS, _mainly owing to the +exertions of Mr. Henry Festing Jones_, _was reprinted_, _together with +the correspondence that followed its publication_, _in the_ PRESS _of +June_ 8 _and_ 15, 1912. _Soon after the original appearance of Butler’s +dialogue a copy of it fell into the hands of Charles Darwin_, _possibly +sent to him by a friend in New Zealand_. _Darwin was sufficiently struck +by it to forward it to the editor of some magazine_, _which has not been +identified_, _with the following letter_:— + + _Down_, _Bromley_, _Kent_, _S.E._ + _March_ 24 [1863]. + + (Private). + + _Mr. Darwin takes the liberty to send by this post to the Editor a + New Zealand newspaper for the very improbable chance of the Editor + having some spare space to reprint a Dialogue on Species_. _This + Dialogue_, _written by some_ [_sic_] _quite unknown to Mr. Darwin_, + _is remarkable from its spirit and from giving so clear and accurate + a view of Mr. D._ [_sic_] _theory_. _It is also remarkable from + being published in a colony exactly_ 12 _years old_, _in which it + might have_ [_sic_] _thought only material interests would have been + regarded_. + +_The autograph of this letter was purchased from Mr. Tregaskis by Mr. +Festing Jones_, _and subsequently presented by him to the Museum at +Christ Church_. _The letter cannot be dated with certainty_, _but since +Butler’s dialogue was published in December_, 1862, _and it is at least +probable that the copy of the_ PRESS _which contained it was sent to +Darwin shortly after it appeared_, _we may conclude with tolerable +certainty that the letter was written in March_, 1863. _Further light is +thrown on the controversy by a correspondence which took place between +Butler and Darwin in_ 1865, _shortly after Butler’s return to England_. +_During that year Butler had published a pamphlet entitled_ THE EVIDENCE +FOR THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST AS GIVEN BY THE FOUR EVANGELISTS +CRITICALLY EXAMINED, _of which he afterwards incorporated the substance +into_ THE FAIR HAVEN. _Butler sent a copy of this pamphlet to Darwin_, +_and in due course received the following reply_:— + + _Down_, _Bromley_, _Kent_. + _September_ 30 [1865]. + + _My dear Sir_,—_I am much obliged to you for so kindly sending me + your Evidences_, _etc._ _We have read it with much interest_. _It + seems to me written with much force_, _vigour_, _and clearness_; _and + the main argument to me is quite new_. _I particularly agree with + all you say in your preface_. + + _I do not know whether you intend to return to New Zealand_, _and_, + _if you are inclined to write_, _I should much like to know what your + future plans are_. + + _My health has been so bad during the last five months that I have + been confined to my bedroom_. _Had it been otherwise I would have + asked you if you could have spared the time to have paid us a visit_; + _but this at present is impossible_, _and I fear will be so for some + time_. + + _With my best thanks for your present_, + + _I remain_, + + _My dear Sir_, + + _Yours very faithfully_, + _Charles Darwin_. + +_To this letter Butler replied as follows_:— + + 15 _Clifford’s Inn_, _E.C._ + _October_ 1_st_, 1865. + + _Dear Sir_,—_I knew you were ill and I never meant to give you the + fatigue of writing to me_. _Please do not trouble yourself to do so + again_. _As you kindly ask my plans I may say that_, _though I very + probably may return to New Zealand in three or four years_, _I have + no intention of doing so before that time_. _My study is art_, _and + anything else I may indulge in is only by-play_; _it may cause you + some little wonder that at my age I should have started as an art + student_, _and I may perhaps be permitted to explain that this was + always my wish for years_, _that I had begun six years ago_, _as soon + as ever I found that I could not conscientiously take orders_; _my + father so strongly disapproved of the idea that I gave it up and went + out to New Zealand_, _stayed there for five years_, _worked like a + common servant_, _though on a run of my own_, _and sold out little + more than a year ago_, _thinking that prices were going to + fall_—_which they have since done_. _Being then rather at a loss + what to do and my capital being all locked up_, _I took the + opportunity to return to my old plan_, _and have been studying for + the last ten years unremittingly_. _I hope that in three or four + years more I shall be able to go on very well by myself_, _and then I + may go back to New Zealand or no as circumstances shall seem to + render advisable_. _I must apologise for so much detail_, _but + hardly knew how to explain myself without it_. + + _I always delighted in your_ ORIGIN OF SPECIES _as soon as I saw it + out in New Zealand_—_not as knowing anything whatsoever of natural + history_, _but it enters into so many deeply interesting questions_, + _or rather it suggests so many_, _that it thoroughly fascinated me_. + _I therefore feel all the greater pleasure that my pamphlet should + please you_, _however full of errors_. + + _The first dialogue on the_ ORIGIN _which I wrote in the_ PRESS + _called forth a contemptuous rejoinder from_ (_I believe_) _the + Bishop of Wellington_—(_please do not mention the name_, _though I + think that at this distance of space and time I might mention it to + yourself_) _I answered it with the enclosed_, _which may amuse you_. + _I assumed another character because my dialogue was in my hearing + very severely criticised by two or three whose opinion I thought + worth having_, _and I deferred to their judgment in my next_. _I do + not think I should do so now_. _I fear you will be shocked at an + appeal to the periodicals mentioned in my letter_, _but they form a + very staple article of bush diet_, _and we used to get a good deal of + superficial knowledge out of them_. _I feared to go in too heavy on + the side of the_ ORIGIN, _because I thought that_, _having said my + say as well as I could_, _I had better now take a less impassioned + tone_; _but I was really exceedingly angry_. + + _Please do not trouble yourself to answer this_, _and believe me_, + + _Yours most sincerely_, + + _S. Butler_. + +_This elicited a second letter from Darwin_:— + + _Down_, _Bromley_, _Kent_. + _October_ 6. + + _My dear Sir_,—_I thank you sincerely for your kind and frank + letter_, _which has interested me greatly_. _What a singular and + varied career you have already run_. _Did you keep any journal or + notes in New Zealand_? _For it strikes me that with your rare powers + of writing you might make a very interesting work descriptive of a + colonist’s life in New Zealand_. + + _I return your printed letter_, _which you might like to keep_. _It + has amused me_, _especially the part in which you criticise + yourself_. _To appreciate the letter fully I ought to have read the + bishop’s letter_, _which seems to have been very rich_. + + _You tell me not to answer your note_, _but I could not resist the + wish to thank you for your letter_. + + _With every good wish_, _believe me_, _my dear Sir_, + + _Yours sincerely_, + _Ch. Darwin_. + +_It is curious that in this correspondence Darwin makes no reference to +the fact that he had already had in his possession a copy of Butler’s +dialogue and had endeavoured to induce the editor of an English +periodical to reprint it_. _It is possible that we have not here the +whole of the correspondence which passed between Darwin and Butler at +this period_, _and this theory is supported by the fact that Butler seems +to take for granted that Darwin knew all about the appearance of the +original dialogue on the_ ORIGIN OF SPECIES _in the_ PRESS. _Enough_, +_however_, _has been given to explain the correspondence which the +publication of the dialogue occasioned_. _I do not know what authority +Butler had for supposing that Charles John Abraham_, _Bishop of +Wellington_, _was the author of the article entitled_ “_Barrel-Organs_,” +_and the_ “_Savoyard_” _of the subsequent controversy_. _However_, _at +that time Butler was deep in the __counsels of the_ PRESS, _and he may +have received private information on the subject_. _Butler’s own +reappearance over the initials A.M. is sufficiently explained in his +letter to Darwin_. + +_It is worth observing that Butler appears in the dialogue and ensuing +correspondence in a character very different from that which he was later +to assume_. _Here we have him as an ardent supporter of Charles Darwin_, +_and adopting a contemptuous tone with regard to the claims of Erasmus +Darwin to have sown the seed which was afterwards raised to maturity by +his grandson_. _It would be interesting to know if it was this +correspondence that first turned Butler’s attention seriously to the +works of the older evolutionists and ultimately led to the production of_ +EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW, _in which the indebtedness of Charles Darwin to +Erasmus Darwin_, _Buffon and Lamarck is demonstrated with such compelling +force_. + + + +A Dialogue + + + [From the _Press_, 20 December, 1862.] + +F. So you have finished Darwin? Well, how did you like him? + +C. You cannot expect me to like him. He is so hard and logical, and he +treats his subject with such an intensity of dry reasoning without giving +himself the loose rein for a single moment from one end of the book to +the other, that I must confess I have found it a great effort to read him +through. + +F. But I fancy that, if you are to be candid, you will admit that the +fault lies rather with yourself than with the book. Your knowledge of +natural history is so superficial that you are constantly baffled by +terms of which you do not understand the meaning, and in which you +consequently lose all interest. I admit, however, that the book is hard +and laborious reading; and, moreover, that the writer appears to have +predetermined from the commencement to reject all ornament, and simply to +argue from beginning to end, from point to point, till he conceived that +he had made his case sufficiently clear. + +C. I agree with you, and I do not like his book partly on that very +account. He seems to have no eye but for the single point at which he is +aiming. + +F. But is not that a great virtue in a writer? + +C. A great virtue, but a cold and hard one. + +F. In my opinion it is a grave and wise one. Moreover, I conceive that +the judicial calmness which so strongly characterises the whole book, the +absence of all passion, the air of extreme and anxious caution which +pervades it throughout, are rather the result of training and +artificially acquired self-restraint than symptoms of a cold and +unimpassioned nature; at any rate, whether the lawyer-like faculty of +swearing both sides of a question and attaching the full value to both is +acquired or natural in Darwin’s case, you will admit that such a habit of +mind is essential for any really valuable and scientific investigation. + +C. I admit it. Science is all head—she has no heart at all. + +F. You are right. But a man of science may be a man of other things +besides science, and though he may have, and ought to have no heart +during a scientific investigation, yet when he has once come to a +conclusion he may be hearty enough in support of it, and in his other +capacities may be of as warm a temperament as even you can desire. + +C. I tell you I do not like the book. + +F. May I catechise you a little upon it? + +C. To your heart’s content. + +F. Firstly, then, I will ask you what is the one great impression that +you have derived from reading it; or, rather, what do you think to be the +main impression that Darwin wanted you to derive? + +C. Why, I should say some such thing as the following—that men are +descended from monkeys, and monkeys from something else, and so on back +to dogs and horses and hedge-sparrows and pigeons and cinipedes (what is +a cinipede?) and cheesemites, and then through the plants down to +duckweed. + +F. You express the prevalent idea concerning the book, which as you +express it appears nonsensical enough. + +C. How, then, should you express it yourself? + +F. Hand me the book and I will read it to you through from beginning to +end, for to express it more briefly than Darwin himself has done is +almost impossible. + +C. That is nonsense; as you asked me what impression I derived from the +book, so now I ask you, and I charge you to answer me. + +F. Well, I assent to the justice of your demand, but I shall comply with +it by requiring your assent to a few principal statements deducible from +the work. + +C. So be it. + +F. You will grant then, firstly, that all plants and animals increase +very rapidly, and that unless they were in some manner checked, the world +would soon be overstocked. Take cats, for instance; see with what +rapidity they breed on the different runs in this province where there is +little or nothing to check them; or even take the more slowly breeding +sheep, and see how soon 500 ewes become 5000 sheep under favourable +circumstances. Suppose this sort of thing to go on for a hundred million +years or so, and where would be the standing room for all the different +plants and animals that would be now existing, did they not materially +check each other’s increase, or were they not liable in some way to be +checked by other causes? Remember the quail; how plentiful they were +until the cats came with the settlers from Europe. Why were they so +abundant? Simply because they had plenty to eat, and could get +sufficient shelter from the hawks to multiply freely. The cats came, and +tussocks stood the poor little creatures in but poor stead. The cats +increased and multiplied because they had plenty of food and no natural +enemy to check them. Let them wait a year or two, till they have +materially reduced the larks also, as they have long since reduced the +quail, and let them have to depend solely upon occasional dead lambs and +sheep, and they will find a certain rather formidable natural enemy +called Famine rise slowly but inexorably against them and slaughter them +wholesale. The first proposition then to which I demand your assent is +that all plants and animals tend to increase in a high geometrical ratio; +that they all endeavour to get that which is necessary for their own +welfare; that, as unfortunately there are conflicting interests in +Nature, collisions constantly occur between different animals and plants, +whereby the rate of increase of each species is very materially checked. +Do you admit this? + +C. Of course; it is obvious. + +F. You admit then that there is in Nature a perpetual warfare of plant, +of bird, of beast, of fish, of reptile; that each is striving selfishly +for its own advantage, and will get what it wants if it can. + +C. If what? + +F. If it can. How comes it then that sometimes it cannot? Simply +because all are not of equal strength, and the weaker must go to the +wall. + +C. You seem to gloat over your devilish statement. + +F. Gloat or no gloat, is it true or no? I am not one of those + + “Who would unnaturally better Nature + By making out that that which is, is not.” + +If the law of Nature is “struggle,” it is better to look the matter in +the face and adapt yourself to the conditions of your existence. Nature +will not bow to you, neither will you mend matters by patting her on the +back and telling her that she is not so black as she is painted. My dear +fellow, my dear sentimental friend, do you eat roast beef or roast +mutton? + +C. Drop that chaff and go back to the matter in hand. + +F. To continue then with the cats. Famine comes and tests them, so to +speak; the weaker, the less active, the less cunning, and the less +enduring cats get killed off, and only the strongest and smartest cats +survive; there will be no favouritism shown to animals in a state of +Nature; they will be weighed in the balance, and the weight of a hair +will sometimes decide whether they shall be found wanting or no. This +being the case, the cats having been thus naturally culled and the +stronger having been preserved, there will be a gradual tendency to +improve manifested among the cats, even as among our own mobs of sheep +careful culling tends to improve the flock. + +C. This, too, is obvious. + +F. Extend this to all animals and plants, and the same thing will hold +good concerning them all. I shall now change the ground and demand +assent to another statement. You know that though the offspring of all +plants and animals is in the main like the parent, yet that in almost +every instance slight deviations occur, and that sometimes there is even +considerable divergence from the parent type. It must also be admitted +that these slight variations are often, or at least sometimes, capable of +being perpetuated by inheritance. Indeed, it is only in consequence of +this fact that our sheep and cattle have been capable of so much +improvement. + +C. I admit this. + +F. Then the whole matter lies in a nutshell. Suppose that hundreds of +millions of years ago there existed upon this earth a single primordial +form of the very lowest life, or suppose that three or four such +primordial forms existed. Change of climate, of food, of any of the +circumstances which surrounded any member of this first and lowest class +of life would tend to alter it in some slight manner, and the alteration +would have a tendency to perpetuate itself by inheritance. Many failures +would doubtless occur, but with the lapse of time slight deviations would +undoubtedly become permanent and inheritable, those alone being +perpetuated which were beneficial to individuals in whom they appeared. +Repeat the process with each deviation and we shall again obtain +divergences (in the course of ages) differing more strongly from the +ancestral form, and again those that enable their possessor to struggle +for existence most efficiently will be preserved. Repeat this process +for millions and millions of years, and, as it is impossible to assign +any limit to variability, it would seem as though the present diversities +of species must certainly have come about sooner or later, and that other +divergences will continue to come about to the end of time. The great +agent in this development of life has been competition. This has culled +species after species, and secured that those alone should survive which +were best fitted for the conditions by which they found themselves +surrounded. Endeavour to take a bird’s-eye view of the whole matter. +See battle after battle, first in one part of the world, then in another, +sometimes raging more fiercely and sometimes less; even as in human +affairs war has always existed in some part of the world from the +earliest known periods, and probably always will exist. While a species +is conquering in one part of the world it is being subdued in another, +and while its conquerors are indulging in their triumph down comes the +fiat for their being culled and drafted out, some to life and some to +death, and so forth _ad infinitum_. + +C. It is very horrid. + +F. No more horrid than that you should eat roast mutton or boiled beef. + +C. But it is utterly subversive of Christianity; for if this theory is +true the fall of man is entirely fabulous; and if the fall, then the +redemption, these two being inseparably bound together. + +F. My dear friend, there I am not bound to follow you. I believe in +Christianity, and I believe in Darwin. The two appear irreconcilable. +My answer to those who accuse me of inconsistency is, that both being +undoubtedly true, the one must be reconcilable with the other, and that +the impossibility of reconciling them must be only apparent and +temporary, not real. The reconciliation will never be effected by +planing a little off the one and a little off the other and then gluing +them together with glue. People will not stand this sort of dealing, and +the rejection of the one truth or of the other is sure to follow upon any +such attempt being persisted in. The true course is to use the freest +candour in the acknowledgment of the difficulty; to estimate precisely +its real value, and obtain a correct knowledge of its precise form. Then +and then only is there a chance of any satisfactory result being +obtained. For unless the exact nature of the difficulty be known first, +who can attempt to remove it? Let me re-state the matter once again. +All animals and plants in a state of Nature are undergoing constant +competition for the necessaries of life. Those that can hold their +ground hold it; those that cannot hold it are destroyed. But as it also +happens that slight changes of food, of habit, of climate, of +circumjacent accident, and so forth, produce a slight tendency to vary in +the offspring of any plant or animal, it follows that among these slight +variations some may be favourable to the individual in whom they appear, +and may place him in a better position than his fellows as regards the +enemies with whom his interests come into collision. In this case he +will have a better chance of surviving than his fellows; he will thus +stand also a better chance of continuing the species, and in his +offspring his own slight divergence from the parent type will be apt to +appear. However slight the divergence, if it be beneficial to the +individual it is likely to preserve the individual and to reappear in his +offspring, and this process may be repeated _ad infinitum_. Once grant +these two things, and the rest is a mere matter of time and degree. That +the immense differences between the camel and the pig should have come +about in six thousand years is not believable; but in six hundred million +years it is not incredible, more especially when we consider that by the +assistance of geology a very perfect chain has been formed between the +two. Let this instance suffice. Once grant the principles, once grant +that competition is a great power in Nature, and that changes of +circumstances and habits produce a tendency to variation in the offspring +(no matter how slight such variation may be), and unless you can define +the possible limit of such variation during an infinite series of +generations, unless you can show that there is a limit, and that Darwin’s +theory over-steps it, you have no right to reject his conclusions. As +for the objections to the theory, Darwin has treated them with admirable +candour, and our time is too brief to enter into them here. My +recommendation to you is that you should read the book again. + +C. Thank you, but for my own part I confess to caring very little +whether my millionth ancestor was a gorilla or no; and as Darwin’s book +does not please me, I shall not trouble myself further about the matter. + + + +Barrel-Organs + + + [From the _Press_, 17 January, 1863.] + +Dugald Stewart in his _Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysics_ says: +“On reflecting on the repeated reproduction of ancient paradoxes by +modern authors one is almost tempted to suppose that human invention is +limited, like a barrel-organ, to a specific number of tunes.” + +It would be a very amusing and instructive task for a man of reading and +reflection to note down the instances he meets with of these old tunes +coming up again and again in regular succession with hardly any change of +note, and with all the old hitches and involuntary squeaks that the +barrel-organ had played in days gone by. It is most amusing to see the +old quotations repeated year after year and volume after volume, till at +last some more careful enquirer turns to the passage referred to and +finds that they have all been taken in and have followed the lead of the +first daring inventor of the mis-statement. Hallam has had the courage, +in the supplement to his _History of the Middle Ages_, p. 398, to +acknowledge an error of this sort that he has been led into. + +But the particular instance of barrel-organism that is present to our +minds just now is the Darwinian theory of the development of species by +natural selection, of which we hear so much. This is nothing new, but a +_réchauffée_ of the old story that his namesake, Dr. Darwin, served up in +the end of the last century to Priestley and his admirers, and Lord +Monboddo had cooked in the beginning of the same century. We have all +heard of his theory that man was developed directly from the monkey, and +that we all lost our tails by sitting too much upon that appendage. + +We learn from that same great and cautious writer Hallam in his _History +of Literature_ that there are traces of this theory and of other popular +theories of the present day in the works of Giordano Bruno, the +Neapolitan who was burnt at Rome by the Inquisition in 1600. It is +curious to read the titles of his works and to think of Dugald Stewart’s +remark about barrel-organs. For instance he wrote on “The Plurality of +Worlds,” and on the universal “Monad,” a name familiar enough to the +readers of _Vestiges of Creation_. He was a Pantheist, and, as Hallam +says, borrowed all his theories from the eclectic philosophers, from +Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists, and ultimately they were no doubt of +Oriental origin. This is just what has been shown again and again to be +the history of German Pantheism; it is a mere barrel-organ repetition of +the Brahman metaphysics found in Hindu cosmogonies. Bruno’s theory +regarding development of species was in Hallam’s words: “There is nothing +so small or so unimportant but that a portion of spirit dwells in it; and +this spiritual substance requires a proper subject to become a plant or +an animal”; and Hallam in a note on this passage observes how the modern +theories of equivocal generation correspond with Bruno’s. + +No doubt Hallam is right in saying that they are all of Oriental origin. +Pythagoras borrowed from thence his kindred theory of the metempsychosis, +or transmigration of souls. But he was more consistent than modern +philosophers; he recognised a downward development as well as an upward, +and made morality and immorality the crisis and turning-point of change—a +bold lion developed into a brave warrior, a drunken sot developed into a +wallowing pig, and Darwin’s slave-making ants, p. 219, would have been +formerly Virginian cotton and tobacco growers. + +Perhaps Prometheus was the first Darwin of antiquity, for he is said to +have begun his creation from below, and after passing from the +invertebrate to the sub-vertebrate, from thence to the backbone, from the +backbone to the mammalia, and from the mammalia to the manco-cerebral, he +compounded man of each and all:— + + Fertur Prometheus addere principi + Limo coactus particulam undique + Desectam et insani leonis + Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro. + +One word more about barrel-organs. We have heard on the undoubted +authority of ear and eyewitnesses, that in a neighbouring province there +is a church where the psalms are sung to a barrel-organ, but +unfortunately the psalm tunes come in the middle of the set, and the jigs +and waltzes have to be played through before the psalm can start. Just +so is it with Darwinism and all similar theories. All his fantasias, as +we saw in a late article, are made to come round at last to religious +questions, with which really and truly they have nothing to do, but were +it not for their supposed effect upon religion, no one would waste his +time in reading about the possibility of Polar bears swimming about and +catching flies so long that they at last get the fins they wish for. + + + +Darwin on Species +[From the _Press_, 21 February, 1863.] + + + To the Editor of the _Press_. + +Sir—In two of your numbers you have already taken notice of Darwin’s +theory of the origin of species; I would venture to trespass upon your +space in order to criticise briefly both your notices. + +The first is evidently the composition of a warm adherent of the theory +in question; the writer overlooks all the real difficulties in the way of +accepting it, and, caught by the obvious truth of much that Darwin says, +has rushed to the conclusion that all is equally true. He writes with +the tone of a partisan, of one deficient in scientific caution, and from +the frequent repetition of the same ideas manifest in his dialogue one +would be led to suspect that he was but little versed in habits of +literary composition and philosophical argument. Yet he may fairly claim +the merit of having written in earnest. He has treated a serious subject +seriously according to his lights; and though his lights are not +brilliant ones, yet he has apparently done his best to show the theory on +which he is writing in its most favourable aspect. He is rash, evidently +well satisfied with himself, very possibly mistaken, and just one of +those persons who (without intending it) are more apt to mislead than to +lead the few people that put their trust in them. A few will always +follow them, for a strong faith is always more or less impressive upon +persons who are too weak to have any definite and original faith of their +own. The second writer, however, assumes a very different tone. His +arguments to all practical intents and purposes run as follows:— + +Old fallacies are constantly recurring. Therefore Darwin’s theory is a +fallacy. + +They come again and again, like tunes in a barrel-organ. Therefore +Darwin’s theory is a fallacy. + +Hallam made a mistake, and in his _History of the Middle Ages_, p. 398, +he corrects himself. Therefore Darwin’s theory is wrong. + +Dr. Darwin in the last century said the same thing as his son or grandson +says now—will the writer of the article refer to anything bearing on +natural selection and the struggle for existence in Dr. Darwin’s +work?—and a foolish nobleman said something foolish about monkey’s tails. +Therefore Darwin’s theory is wrong. + +Giordano Bruno was burnt in the year 1600 A.D.; he was a Pantheist; +therefore Darwin’s theory is wrong. + +And finally, as a clinching argument, in one of the neighbouring +settlements there is a barrel-organ which plays its psalm tunes in the +middle of its jigs and waltzes. After this all lingering doubts +concerning the falsehood of Darwin’s theory must be at an end, and any +person of ordinary common sense must admit that the theory of development +by natural selection is unwarranted by experience and reason. + +The articles conclude with an implied statement that Darwin supposes the +Polar bear to swim about catching flies for so long a period that at last +it gets the fins it wishes for. + +Now, however sceptical I may yet feel about the truth of all Darwin’s +theory, I cannot sit quietly by and see him misrepresented in such a +scandalously slovenly manner. What Darwin does say is that sometimes +diversified and changed habits may be observed in individuals of the same +species; that is that there are eccentric animals just as there are +eccentric men. He adduces a few instances and winds up by saying that +“in North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours +with widely open mouth, thus catching—almost like a whale—insects in the +water.” This and nothing more. (See pp. 201 and 202.) + +Because Darwin says that a bear of rather eccentric habits happened to be +seen by Hearne swimming for hours and catching insects almost like a +whale, your writer (with a carelessness hardly to be reprehended in +sufficiently strong terms) asserts by implication that Darwin supposes +the whale to be developed from the bear by the latter having had a strong +desire to possess fins. This is disgraceful. + +I can hardly be mistaken in supposing that I have quoted the passage your +writer alludes to. Should I be in error, I trust he will give the +reference to the place in which Darwin is guilty of the nonsense that is +fathered upon him in your article. + +It must be remembered that there have been few great inventions in +physics or discoveries in science which have not been foreshadowed to a +certain extent by speculators who were indeed mistaken, but were yet more +or less on the right scent. Day is heralded by dawn, Apollo by Aurora, +and thus it often happens that a real discovery may wear to the careless +observer much the same appearance as an exploded fallacy, whereas in fact +it is widely different. As much caution is due in the rejection of a +theory as in the acceptation of it. The first of your writers is too +hasty in accepting, the second in refusing even a candid examination. + +Now, when the _Saturday Review_, the _Cornhill Magazine_, _Once a Week_, +and _Macmillan’s Magazine_, not to mention other periodicals, have either +actually and completely as in the case of the first two, provisionally as +in the last mentioned, given their adherence to the theory in question, +it may be taken for granted that the arguments in its favour are +sufficiently specious to have attracted the attention and approbation of +a considerable number of well-educated men in England. Three months ago +the theory of development by natural selection was openly supported by +Professor Huxley before the British Association at Cambridge. I am not +adducing Professor Huxley’s advocacy as a proof that Darwin is right +(indeed, Owen opposed him tooth and nail), but as a proof that there is +sufficient to be said on Darwin’s side to demand more respectful +attention than your last writer has thought it worth while to give it. A +theory which the British Association is discussing with great care in +England is not to be set down by off-hand nicknames in Canterbury. + +To those, however, who do feel an interest in the question, I would +venture to give a word or two of advice. I would strongly deprecate +forming a hurried opinion for or against the theory. Naturalists in +Europe are canvassing the matter with the utmost diligence, and a few +years must show whether they will accept the theory or no. It is +plausible; that can be decided by no one. Whether it is true or no can +be decided only among naturalists themselves. We are outsiders, and most +of us must be content to sit on the stairs till the great men come forth +and give us the benefit of their opinion. + + I am, Sir, + + Your obedient servant, + A. M. + + + +Darwin on Species +[From the _Press_, March 14th, 1863.] + + + To the Editor of the _Press_. + +Sir—A correspondent signing himself “A. M.” in the issue of February 21st +says:—“Will the writer (of an article on barrel-organs) refer to anything +bearing upon natural selection and the struggle for existence in Dr. +Darwin’s work?” This is one of the trade forms by which writers imply +that there is no such passage, and yet leave a loophole if they are +proved wrong. I will, however, furnish him with a passage from the notes +of Darwin’s _Botanic Garden_:— + +“I am acquainted with a philosopher who, contemplating this subject, +thinks it not impossible that the first insects were anthers or stigmas +of flowers, which had by some means loosed themselves from their parent +plant; and that many insects have gradually in long process of time been +formed from these, some acquiring wings, others fins, and others claws, +from their ceaseless efforts to procure their food or to secure +themselves from injury. The anthers or stigmas are therefore separate +beings.” + +This passage contains the germ of Mr. Charles Darwin’s theory of the +origin of species by natural selection:— + +“Analogy would lead me to the belief that all animals and plants have +descended from one prototype.” + +Here are a few specimens, his illustrations of the theory:— + +“There seems to me no great difficulty in believing that natural +selection has actually converted a swim-bladder into a lung or organ used +exclusively for respiration.” “A swim-bladder has apparently been +converted into an air-breathing lung.” “We must be cautious in +concluding that a bat could not have been formed by natural selection +from an animal which at first could only glide through the air.” “I can +see no insuperable difficulty in further believing it possible that the +membrane-connected fingers and forearm of the galeopithecus might be +greatly lengthened by natural selection, and this, as far as the organs +of flight are concerned, would convert it into a bat.” “The framework of +bones being the same in the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin of a +porpoise, and leg of a horse, the same number of vertebræ forming the +neck of the giraffe and of the elephant, and innumerable other such +facts, at once explain themselves on the theory of descent with slow and +slight successive modifications.” + +I do not mean to go through your correspondent’s letter, otherwise “I +could hardly reprehend in sufficiently strong terms” (and all that sort +of thing) the perversion of what I said about Giordano Bruno. But “ex +uno disce omnes”—I am, etc., + + “THE SAVOYARD.” + + + +Darwin on Species +[From the _Press_, 18 March, 1863.] + + + To the Editor of the _Press_. + +Sir—The “Savoyard” of last Saturday has shown that he has perused +Darwin’s _Botanic Garden_ with greater attention than myself. I am +obliged to him for his correction of my carelessness, and have not the +smallest desire to make use of any loopholes to avoid being “proved +wrong.” Let, then, the “Savoyard’s” assertion that Dr. Darwin had to a +certain extent forestalled Mr. C. Darwin stand, and let my implied denial +that in the older Darwin’s works passages bearing on natural selection, +or the struggle for existence, could be found, go for nought, or rather +let it be set down against me. + +What follows? Has the “Savoyard” (supposing him to be the author of the +article on barrel-organs) adduced one particle of real argument the more +to show that the real Darwin’s theory is wrong? + +The elder Darwin writes in a note that “he is acquainted with a +philosopher who thinks it not impossible that the first insects were the +anthers or stigmas of flowers, which by some means, etc. etc.” This is +mere speculation, not a definite theory, and though the passage above as +quoted by the “Savoyard” certainly does contain the germ of Darwin’s +theory, what is it more than the crudest and most unshapen germ? And in +what conceivable way does this discovery of the egg invalidate the +excellence of the chicken? + +Was there ever a great theory yet which was not more or less developed +from previous speculations which were all to a certain extent wrong, and +all ridiculed, perhaps not undeservedly, at the time of their appearance? +There is a wide difference between a speculation and a theory. A +speculation involves the notion of a man climbing into a lofty position, +and descrying a somewhat remote object which he cannot fully make out. A +theory implies that the theorist has looked long and steadfastly till he +is clear in his own mind concerning the nature of the thing which he is +beholding. I submit that the “Savoyard” has unfairly made use of the +failure of certain speculations in order to show that a distinct theory +is untenable. + +Let it be granted that Darwin’s theory has been foreshadowed by numerous +previous writers. Grant the “Savoyard” his Giordano Bruno, and give full +weight to the barrel-organ in a neighbouring settlement, I would still +ask, has the theory of natural development of species ever been placed in +anything approaching its present clear and connected form before the +appearance of Mr. Darwin’s book? Has it ever received the full attention +of the scientific world as a duly organised theory, one presented in a +tangible shape and demanding investigation, as the conclusion arrived at +by a man of known scientific attainments after years of patient toil? +The upshot of the barrel-organs article was to answer this question in +the affirmative and to pooh-pooh all further discussion. + +It would be mere presumption on my part either to attack or defend +Darwin, but my indignation was roused at seeing him misrepresented and +treated disdainfully. I would wish, too, that the “Savoyard” would have +condescended to notice that little matter of the bear. I have searched +my copy of Darwin again and again to find anything relating to the +subject except what I have quoted in my previous letter. + + I am, Sir, your obedient servant, + + A. M. + + + +Darwin on Species +[From the _Press_, April 11th, 1863.] + + + To the Editor of the _Press_. + +Sir—Your correspondent “A. M.” is pertinacious on the subject of the bear +being changed into a whale, which I said Darwin contemplated as not +impossible. I did not take the trouble in any former letter to answer +him on that point, as his language was so intemperate. He has modified +his tone in his last letter, and really seems open to the conviction that +he may be the “careless” writer after all; and so on reflection I have +determined to give him the opportunity of doing me justice. + +In his letter of February 21 he says: “I cannot sit by and see Darwin +misrepresented in such a scandalously slovenly manner. What Darwin does +say is ‘that SOMETIMES diversified and changed habits may be observed in +individuals of the same species; that is, that there are certain +eccentric animals as there are certain eccentric men. He adduces a few +instances, and winds up by saying that in North America the black bear +was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus +catching, ALMOST LIKE A WHALE, insects in the water.’ THIS, AND NOTHING +MORE, pp. 201, 202.” + +Then follows a passage about my carelessness, which (he says) is hardly +to be reprehended in sufficiently strong terms, and he ends with saying: +“This is disgraceful.” + +Now you may well suppose that I was a little puzzled at the seeming +audacity of a writer who should adopt this style, when the words which +follow his quotation from Darwin are (in the edition from which I quoted) +as follows: “Even in so extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects +were constant, and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in +the country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered by +natural selection more and more aquatic in their structure and habits, +with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous +as a whale.” + +Now this passage was a remarkable instance of the idea that I was +illustrating in the article on “Barrel-organs,” because Buffon in his +_Histoire Naturelle_ had conceived a theory of degeneracy (the exact +converse of Darwin’s theory of ascension) by which the bear might pass +into a seal, and that into a whale. Trusting now to the fairness of “A. +M.” I leave to him to say whether he has quoted from the same edition as +I have, and whether the additional words I have quoted are in his +edition, and if so whether he has not been guilty of a great injustice to +me; and if they are not in his edition, whether he has not been guilty of +great haste and “carelessness” in taking for granted that I have acted in +so “disgraceful” a manner. + + I am, Sir, etc., + “The Savoyard,” or player + on Barrel-organs. + +(The paragraph in question has been the occasion of much discussion. The +only edition in our hands is the third, seventh thousand, which contains +the paragraph as quoted by “A. M.” We have heard that it is different in +earlier editions, but have not been able to find one. The difference +between “A. M.” and “The Savoyard” is clearly one of different editions. +Darwin appears to have been ashamed of the inconsequent inference +suggested, and to have withdrawn it.—Ed. the _Press_.) + + + +Darwin on Species +[From the _Press_, 22nd June, 1863.] + + + To the Editor of the _Press_. + +Sir—I extract the following from an article in the _Saturday Review_ of +January 10, 1863, on the vertebrated animals of the Zoological Gardens. + +“As regards the ducks, for example, inter-breeding goes on to a very +great extent among nearly all the genera, which are well represented in +the collection. We think it unfortunate that the details of these +crosses have not hitherto been made public. The Zoological Society has +existed about thirty-five years, and we imagine that evidence must have +been accumulated almost enough to make or mar that part of Mr. Darwin’s +well-known argument which rests on what is known of the phenomena of +hybridism. The present list reveals only one fact bearing on the +subject, but that is a noteworthy one, for it completely overthrows the +commonly accepted theory that the mixed offspring of different species +are infertile _inter se_. At page 15 (of the list of vertebrated animals +living in the gardens of the Zoological Society of London, Longman and +Co., 1862) we find enumerated three examples of hybrids between two +perfectly distinct species, and even, according to modern classification, +between two distinct genera of ducks, for three or four generations. +There can be little doubt that a series of researches in this branch of +experimental physiology, which might be carried on at no great loss, +would place zoologists in a far better position with regard to a subject +which is one of the most interesting if not one of the most important in +natural history.” + +I fear that both you and your readers will be dead sick of Darwin, but +the above is worthy of notice. My compliments to the “Savoyard.” + + Your obedient servant, + +May 17th. + + A. M. + + + +Darwin Among the Machines + + +“_Darwin Among the Machines_” _originally appeared in the Christ Church_ +PRESS, 13 _June_, 1863. _It was reprinted by Mr. Festing Jones in his +edition of_ THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER (_Fifield_, _London_, 1912, +_Kennerley_, _New York_), _with a prefatory note pointing out its +connection with the genesis of_ EREWHON, _to which readers desirous of +further information may be referred_. + +[To the Editor of the _Press_, Christchurch, New Zealand, 13 June, 1863.] + +SIR—There are few things of which the present generation is more justly +proud than of the wonderful improvements which are daily taking place in +all sorts of mechanical appliances. And indeed it is matter for great +congratulation on many grounds. It is unnecessary to mention these here, +for they are sufficiently obvious; our present business lies with +considerations which may somewhat tend to humble our pride and to make us +think seriously of the future prospects of the human race. If we revert +to the earliest primordial types of mechanical life, to the lever, the +wedge, the inclined plane, the screw and the pulley, or (for analogy +would lead us one step further) to that one primordial type from which +all the mechanical kingdom has been developed, we mean to the lever +itself, and if we then examine the machinery of the _Great Eastern_, we +find ourselves almost awestruck at the vast development of the mechanical +world, at the gigantic strides with which it has advanced in comparison +with the slow progress of the animal and vegetable kingdom. We shall +find it impossible to refrain from asking ourselves what the end of this +mighty movement is to be. In what direction is it tending? What will be +its upshot? To give a few imperfect hints towards a solution of these +questions is the object of the present letter. + +We have used the words “mechanical life,” “the mechanical kingdom,” “the +mechanical world” and so forth, and we have done so advisedly, for as the +vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, and as in like +manner the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so now in these last few +ages an entirely new kingdom has sprung up, of which we as yet have only +seen what will one day be considered the antediluvian prototypes of the +race. + +We regret deeply that our knowledge both of natural history and of +machinery is too small to enable us to undertake the gigantic task of +classifying machines into the genera and sub-genera, species, varieties +and sub-varieties, and so forth, of tracing the connecting links between +machines of widely different characters, of pointing out how subservience +to the use of man has played that part among machines which natural +selection has performed in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, of pointing +out rudimentary organs {180} which exist in some few machines, feebly +developed and perfectly useless, yet serving to mark descent from some +ancestral type which has either perished or been modified into some new +phase of mechanical existence. We can only point out this field for +investigation; it must be followed by others whose education and talents +have been of a much higher order than any which we can lay claim to. + +Some few hints we have determined to venture upon, though we do so with +the profoundest diffidence. Firstly, we would remark that as some of the +lowest of the vertebrata attained a far greater size than has descended +to their more highly organised living representatives, so a diminution in +the size of machines has often attended their development and progress. +Take the watch for instance. Examine the beautiful structure of the +little animal, watch the intelligent play of the minute members which +compose it; yet this little creature is but a development of the cumbrous +clocks of the thirteenth century—it is no deterioration from them. The +day may come when clocks, which certainly at the present day are not +diminishing in bulk, may be entirely superseded by the universal use of +watches, in which case clocks will become extinct like the earlier +saurians, while the watch (whose tendency has for some years been rather +to decrease in size than the contrary) will remain the only existing type +of an extinct race. + +The views of machinery which we are thus feebly indicating will suggest +the solution of one of the greatest and most mysterious questions of the +day. We refer to the question: What sort of creature man’s next +successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely to be. We have often +heard this debated; but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating +our own successors; we are daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of +their physical organisation; we are daily giving them greater power and +supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that self-regulating, +self-acting power which will be to them what intellect has been to the +human race. In the course of ages we shall find ourselves the inferior +race. Inferior in power, inferior in that moral quality of self-control, +we shall look up to them as the acme of all that the best and wisest man +can ever dare to aim at. No evil passions, no jealousy, no avarice, no +impure desires will disturb the serene might of those glorious creatures. +Sin, shame, and sorrow will have no place among them. Their minds will +be in a state of perpetual calm, the contentment of a spirit that knows +no wants, is disturbed by no regrets. Ambition will never torture them. +Ingratitude will never cause them the uneasiness of a moment. The guilty +conscience, the hope deferred, the pains of exile, the insolence of +office, and the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes—these +will be entirely unknown to them. If they want “feeding” (by the use of +which very word we betray our recognition of them as living organism) +they will be attended by patient slaves whose business and interest it +will be to see that they shall want for nothing. If they are out of +order they will be promptly attended to by physicians who are thoroughly +acquainted with their constitutions; if they die, for even these glorious +animals will not be exempt from that necessary and universal +consummation, they will immediately enter into a new phase of existence, +for what machine dies entirely in every part at one and the same instant? + +We take it that when the state of things shall have arrived which we have +been above attempting to describe, man will have become to the machine +what the horse and the dog are to man. He will continue to exist, nay +even to improve, and will be probably better off in his state of +domestication under the beneficent rule of the machines than he is in his +present wild state. We treat our horses, dogs, cattle, and sheep, on the +whole, with great kindness; we give them whatever experience teaches us +to be best for them, and there can be no doubt that our use of meat has +added to the happiness of the lower animals far more than it has +detracted from it; in like manner it is reasonable to suppose that the +machines will treat us kindly, for their existence is as dependent upon +ours as ours is upon the lower animals. They cannot kill us and eat us +as we do sheep; they will not only require our services in the +parturition of their young (which branch of their economy will remain +always in our hands), but also in feeding them, in setting them right +when they are sick, and burying their dead or working up their corpses +into new machines. It is obvious that if all the animals in Great +Britain save man alone were to die, and if at the same time all +intercourse with foreign countries were by some sudden catastrophe to be +rendered perfectly impossible, it is obvious that under such +circumstances the loss of human life would be something fearful to +contemplate—in like manner were mankind to cease, the machines would be +as badly off or even worse. The fact is that our interests are +inseparable from theirs, and theirs from ours. Each race is dependent +upon the other for innumerable benefits, and, until the reproductive +organs of the machines have been developed in a manner which we are +hardly yet able to conceive, they are entirely dependent upon man for +even the continuance of their species. It is true that these organs may +be ultimately developed, inasmuch as man’s interest lies in that +direction; there is nothing which our infatuated race would desire more +than to see a fertile union between two steam engines; it is true that +machinery is even at this present time employed in begetting machinery, +in becoming the parent of machines often after its own kind, but the days +of flirtation, courtship, and matrimony appear to be very remote, and +indeed can hardly be realised by our feeble and imperfect imagination. + +Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by day +we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily bound down +as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the energies of their +whole lives to the development of mechanical life. The upshot is simply +a question of time, but that the time will come when the machines will +hold the real supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no +person of a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question. + +Our opinion is that war to the death should be instantly proclaimed +against them. Every machine of every sort should be destroyed by the +well-wisher of his species. Let there be no exceptions made, no quarter +shown; let us at once go back to the primeval condition of the race. If +it be urged that this is impossible under the present condition of human +affairs, this at once proves that the mischief is already done, that our +servitude has commenced in good earnest, that we have raised a race of +beings whom it is beyond our power to destroy, and that we are not only +enslaved but are absolutely acquiescent in our bondage. + +For the present we shall leave this subject, which we present gratis to +the members of the Philosophical Society. Should they consent to avail +themselves of the vast field which we have pointed out, we shall +endeavour to labour in it ourselves at some future and indefinite period. + + I am, Sir, etc., + + CELLARIUS + + + + +Lucubratio Ebria + + +“_Lucubratio Ebria_,” _like_ “_Darwin Among the Machines_,” _has already +appeared in_ THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER _with a prefatory note by +Mr. Festing Jones_, _explaining its connection with_ EREWHON _and_ LIFE +AND HABIT. _I need therefore only repeat that it was written by Butler +after his return to England and sent to New Zealand_, _where it was +published in the_ PRESS _on July_ 29, 1865. + + [From the _Press_, 29 July, 1865.] + +THERE is a period in the evening, or more generally towards the still +small hours of the morning, in which we so far unbend as to take a single +glass of hot whisky and water. We will neither defend the practice nor +excuse it. We state it as a fact which must be borne in mind by the +readers of this article; for we know not how, whether it be the +inspiration of the drink or the relief from the harassing work with which +the day has been occupied or from whatever other cause, yet we are +certainly liable about this time to such a prophetic influence as we +seldom else experience. We are rapt in a dream such as we ourselves know +to be a dream, and which, like other dreams, we can hardly embody in a +distinct utterance. We know that what we see is but a sort of +intellectual Siamese twins, of which one is substance and the other +shadow, but we cannot set either free without killing both. We are +unable to rudely tear away the veil of phantasy in which the truth is +shrouded, so we present the reader with a draped figure, and his own +judgment must discriminate between the clothes and the body. A truth’s +prosperity is like a jest’s, it lies in the ear of him that hears it. +Some may see our lucubration as we saw it, and others may see nothing but +a drunken dream or the nightmare of a distempered imagination. To +ourselves it is the speaking with unknown tongues to the early +Corinthians; we cannot fully understand our own speech, and we fear lest +there be not a sufficient number of interpreters present to make our +utterance edify. But there! (Go on straight to the body of the +article.) + +The limbs of the lower animals have never been modified by any act of +deliberation and forethought on their own part. Recent researches have +thrown absolutely no light upon the origin of life—upon the initial force +which introduced a sense of identity and a deliberate faculty into the +world; but they do certainly appear to show very clearly that each +species of the animal and vegetable kingdom has been moulded into its +present shape by chances and changes of many millions of years, by +chances and changes over which the creature modified had no control +whatever, and concerning whose aim it was alike unconscious and +indifferent, by forces which seem insensate to the pain which they +inflict, but by whose inexorably beneficent cruelty the brave and strong +keep coming to the fore, while the weak and bad drop behind and perish. +There was a moral government of this world before man came near it—a +moral government suited to the capacities of the governed, and which +unperceived by them has laid fast the foundations of courage, endurance, +and cunning. It laid them so fast that they became more and more +hereditary. Horace says well _fortes creantur fortibus et bonis_, good +men beget good children; the rule held even in the geological period; +good ichthyosauri begot good ichthyosauri, and would to our discomfort +have gone on doing so to the present time had not better creatures been +begetting better things than ichthyosauri, or famine or fire or +convulsion put an end to them. Good apes begot good apes, and at last +when human intelligence stole like a late spring upon the mimicry of our +semi-simious ancestry, the creature learnt how he could of his own +forethought add extra-corporaneous limbs to the members of his own body, +and become not only a vertebrate mammal, but a vertebrate machinate +mammal into the bargain. + +It was a wise monkey that first learned to carry a stick, and a useful +monkey that mimicked him. For the race of man has learned to walk +uprightly much as a child learns the same thing. At first he crawls on +all fours, then he clambers, laying hold of whatever he can; and lastly +he stands upright alone and walks, but for a long time with an unsteady +step. So when the human race was in its gorilla-hood it generally +carried a stick; from carrying a stick for many million years it became +accustomed and modified to an upright position. The stick wherewith it +had learned to walk would now serve to beat its younger brothers, and +then it found out its service as a lever. Man would thus learn that the +limbs of his body were not the only limbs that he could command. His +body was already the most versatile in existence, but he could render it +more versatile still. With the improvement in his body his mind improved +also. He learnt to perceive the moral government under which he held the +feudal tenure of his life—perceiving it he symbolised it, and to this day +our poets and prophets still strive to symbolise it more and more +completely. + +The mind grew because the body grew; more things were perceived, more +things were handled, and being handled became familiar. But this came +about chiefly because there was a hand to handle with; without the hand +there would be no handling, and no method of holding and examining is +comparable to the human hand. The tail of an opossum is a prehensile +thing, but it is too far from his eyes; the elephant’s trunk is better, +and it is probably to their trunks that the elephants owe their sagacity. +It is here that the bee, in spite of her wings, has failed. She has a +high civilisation, but it is one whose equilibrium appears to have been +already attained; the appearance is a false one, for the bee changes, +though more slowly than man can watch her; but the reason of the very +gradual nature of the change is chiefly because the physical organisation +of the insect changes, but slowly also. She is poorly off for hands, and +has never fairly grasped the notion of tacking on other limbs to the +limbs of her own body, and so being short lived to boot she remains from +century to century to human eyes _in statu quo_. Her body never becomes +machinate, whereas this new phase of organism which has been introduced +with man into the mundane economy, has made him a very quicksand for the +foundation of an unchanging civilisation; certain fundamental principles +will always remain, but every century the change in man’s physical +status, as compared with the elements around him, is greater and greater. +He is a shifting basis on which no equilibrium of habit and civilisation +can be established. Were it not for this constant change in our physical +powers, which our mechanical limbs have brought about, man would have +long since apparently attained his limit of possibility; he would be a +creature of as much fixity as the ants and bees; he would still have +advanced, but no faster than other animals advance. + +If there were a race of men without any mechanical appliances we should +see this clearly. There are none, nor have there been, so far as we can +tell, for millions and millions of years. The lowest Australian savage +carries weapons for the fight or the chase, and has his cooking and +drinking utensils at home; a race without these things would be +completely _feræ naturæ_ and not men at all. We are unable to point to +any example of a race absolutely devoid of extra-corporaneous limbs, but +we can see among the Chinese that with the failure to invent new limbs a +civilisation becomes as much fixed as that of the ants; and among savage +tribes we observe that few implements involve a state of things scarcely +human at all. Such tribes only advance _pari passu_ with the creatures +upon which they feed. + +It is a mistake, then, to take the view adopted by a previous +correspondent of this paper, to consider the machines as identities, to +animalise them and to anticipate their final triumph over mankind. They +are to be regarded as the mode of development by which human organism is +most especially advancing, and every fresh invention is to be considered +as an additional member of the resources of the human body. Herein lies +the fundamental difference between man and his inferiors. As regard his +flesh and blood, his senses, appetites, and affections, the difference is +one of degree rather than of kind, but in the deliberate invention of +such unity of limbs as is exemplified by the railway train—that +seven-leagued foot which five hundred may own at once—he stands quite +alone. + +In confirmation of the views concerning mechanism which we have been +advocating above, it must be remembered that men are not merely the +children of their parents, but they are begotten of the institutions of +the state of the mechanical sciences under which they are born and bred. +These things have made us what we are. We are children of the plough, +the spade, and the ship; we are children of the extended liberty and +knowledge which the printing press has diffused. Our ancestors added +these things to their previously existing members; the new limbs were +preserved by natural selection and incorporated into human society; they +descended with modifications, and hence proceeds the difference between +our ancestors and ourselves. By the institutions and state of science +under which a man is born it is determined whether he shall have the +limbs of an Australian savage or those of a nineteenth-century +Englishman. The former is supplemented with little save a rug and a +javelin; the latter varies his physique with the changes of the season, +with age and with advancing or decreasing wealth. If it is wet he is +furnished with an organ which is called an umbrella and which seems +designed for the purpose of protecting either his clothes or his lungs +from the injurious effects of rain. His watch is of more importance to +him than a good deal of his hair, at any rate than of his whiskers; +besides this he carries a knife and generally a pencil case. His memory +goes in a pocket-book. He grows more complex as he becomes older and he +will then be seen with a pair of spectacles, perhaps also with false +teeth and a wig; but, if he be a really well-developed specimen of the +race, he will be furnished with a large box upon wheels, two horses, and +a coachman. + +Let the reader ponder over these last remarks and he will see that the +principal varieties and sub-varieties of the human race are not now to be +looked for among the negroes, the Circassians, the Malays, or the +American aborigines, but among the rich and the poor. The difference in +physical organisation between these two species of man is far greater +than that between the so-called types of humanity. The rich man can go +from here to England whenever he feels inclined, the legs of the other +are by an invisible fatality prevented from carrying him beyond certain +narrow limits. Neither rich nor poor as yet see the philosophy of the +thing, or admit that he who can tack a portion of one of the P. and O. +boats on to his identity is a much more highly organised being than one +who cannot. Yet the fact is patent enough, if we once think it over, +from the mere consideration of the respect with which we so often treat +those who are richer than ourselves. We observe men for the most part +(admitting, however, some few abnormal exceptions) to be deeply impressed +by the superior organisation of those who have money. It is wrong to +attribute this respect to any unworthy motive, for the feeling is +strictly legitimate and springs from some of the very highest impulses of +our nature. It is the same sort of affectionate reverence which a dog +feels for man, and is not infrequently manifested in a similar manner. + +We admit that these last sentences are open to question, and we should +hardly like to commit ourselves irrecoverably to the sentiments they +express; but we will say this much for certain, namely, that the rich man +is the true hundred-handed Gyges of the poets. He alone possesses the +full complement of limbs who stands at the summit of opulence, and we may +assert with strictly scientific accuracy that the Rothschilds are the +most astonishing organisms that the world has ever yet seen. For to the +nerves or tissues, or whatever it be that answers to the helm of a rich +man’s desires, there is a whole army of limbs seen and unseen attachable; +he may be reckoned by his horse-power, by the number of foot-pounds which +he has money enough to set in motion. Who, then, will deny that a man +whose will represents the motive power of a thousand horses is a being +very different from the one who is equivalent but to the power of a +single one? + +Henceforward, then, instead of saying that a man is hard up, let us say +that his organisation is at a low ebb, or, if we wish him well, let us +hope that he will grow plenty of limbs. It must be remembered that we +are dealing with physical organisations only. We do not say that the +thousand-horse man is better than a one-horse man, we only say that he is +more highly organised and should be recognised as being so by the +scientific leaders of the period. A man’s will, truth, endurance, are +part of him also, and may, as in the case of the late Mr. Cobden, have in +themselves a power equivalent to all the horse-power which they can +influence; but were we to go into this part of the question we should +never have done, and we are compelled reluctantly to leave our dream in +its present fragmentary condition. + + + + +A Note on “The Tempest” +Act III, Scene I + + +_The following brief essay was contributed by Butler to a small +miscellany entitled_ LITERARY FOUNDLINGS: VERSE AND PROSE, COLLECTED IN +CANTERBURY, N.Z., _which was published at Christ Church on the occasion +of a bazaar held there in March_, 1864, _in aid of the funds of the +Christ Church Orphan Asylum_, _and offered for sale during the progress +of the bazaar_. _The miscellany consisted entirely of the productions of +Canterbury writers_, _and among the contributors were Dean Jacobs_, +_Canon Cottrell_, _and James Edward FitzGerald_, _the founder of the_ +PRESS. + +WHEN Prince Ferdinand was wrecked on the island Miranda was fifteen years +old. We can hardly suppose that she had ever seen Ariel, and Caliban was +a detestable object whom her father took good care to keep as much out of +her way as possible. Caliban was like the man cook on a back-country +run. “’Tis a villain, sir,” says Miranda. “I do not love to look on.” +“But as ’tis,” returns Prospero, “we cannot miss him; he does make our +fire, fetch in our wood, and serve in offices that profit us.” Hands +were scarce, and Prospero was obliged to put up with Caliban in spite of +the many drawbacks with which his services were attended; in fact, no one +on the island could have liked him, for Ariel owed him a grudge on the +score of the cruelty with which he had been treated by Sycorax, and we +have already heard what Miranda and Prospero had to say about him. He +may therefore pass for nobody. Prospero was an old man, or at any rate +in all probability some forty years of age; therefore it is no wonder +that when Miranda saw Prince Ferdinand she should have fallen violently +in love with him. “Nothing ill,” according to her view, “could dwell in +such a temple—if the ill Spirit have so fair an house, good things will +strive to dwell with ’t.” A very natural sentiment for a girl in +Miranda’s circumstances, but nevertheless one which betrayed a charming +inexperience of the ways of the world and of the real value of good +looks. What surprises us, however, is this, namely the remarkable +celerity with which Miranda in a few hours became so thoroughly wide +awake to the exigencies of the occasion in consequence of her love for +the Prince. Prospero has set Ferdinand to hump firewood out of the bush, +and to pile it up for the use of the cave. Ferdinand is for the present +a sort of cadet, a youth of good family, without cash and unaccustomed to +manual labour; his unlucky stars have landed him on the island, and now +it seems that he “must remove some thousands of these logs and pile them +up, upon a sore injunction.” Poor fellow! Miranda’s heart bleeds for +him. Her “affections were most humble”; she had been content to take +Ferdinand on speculation. On first seeing him she had exclaimed, “I have +no ambition to see a goodlier man”; and it makes her blood boil to see +this divine creature compelled to such an ignominious and painful labour. +What is the family consumption of firewood to her? Let Caliban do it; +let Prospero do it; or make Ariel do it; let her do it herself; or let +the lightning come down and “burn up those logs you are enjoined to +pile”;—the logs themselves, while burning, would weep for having wearied +him. Come what would, it was a shame to make Ferdinand work so hard, so +she winds up thus: “My father is hard at study; pray now rest +yourself—_he’s safe for these three hours_.” Safe—if she had only said +that “papa was safe,” the sentence would have been purely modern, and +have suited Thackeray as well as Shakspeare. See how quickly she has +learnt to regard her father as one to be watched and probably kept in a +good humour for the sake of Ferdinand. We suppose that the secret of the +modern character of this particular passage lies simply in the fact that +young people make love pretty much in the same way now that they did +three hundred years ago; and possibly, with the exception that “the +governor” may be substituted for the words “my father” by the young +ladies of three hundred years hence, the passage will sound as fresh and +modern then as it does now. Let the Prosperos of that age take a lesson, +and either not allow the Ferdinands to pile up firewood, or so to arrange +their studies as not to be “safe” for any three consecutive hours. It is +true that Prospero’s objection to the match was only feigned, but Miranda +thought otherwise, and for all purposes of argument we are justified in +supposing that he was in earnest. + + + + +The English Cricketers + + +_The following lines were written by Butler in February_, 1864, _and +appeared in the_ PRESS. _They refer to a visit paid to New Zealand by a +team of English cricketers_, _and have kindly been copied and sent to me +by Miss Colborne-Veel_, _whose father was editor of the_ PRESS _at the +time that Butler was writing for it_. _Miss Colborne-Veel has further +permitted to me to make use of the following explanatory note_: “_The +coming of the All England team was naturally a glorious event in a +province only fourteen years old_. _The Mayor and Councillors had_ ‘_a +car of state_’—_otherwise a brake_—‘_with postilions in the English +style_.’_ Cobb and Co. supplied a six-horse coach for the English +eleven_, _the yellow paint upon which suggested the_ ‘_glittering chariot +of pure gold_.’ _So they drove in triumph from the station and through +the town_. _Tinley for England and Tennant for Canterbury were the +heroes of the match_. _At the Wednesday dinner referred to they +exchanged compliments and cricket balls across the table_. _This early +esteem for cricket may be explained by a remark made by the All England +captain_, _that_ ‘_on no cricket ground in any colony had he met so many +public school men_, _especially men from old Rugby_, _as at +Canterbury_.’” + + [To the Editor, the _Press_, February 15th, 1864.] + +SIR—The following lines, which profess to have been written by a friend +of mine at three o’clock in the morning after the dinner of Wednesday +last, have been presented to myself with a request that I should forward +them to you. I would suggest to the writer of them the following +quotation from “Love’s Labour’s Lost.” + + I am, Sir, + + Your obedient servant, + S.B. + +“You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent; let me supervise +the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but for the elegancy, +facility, and golden cadence of poesy, _caret_ . . . _Imitari_ is +nothing. So doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired +horse his rider.” + + Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act IV, S. 2. + + HORATIO . . . + + . . . The whole town rose + Eyes out to meet them; in a car of state + The Mayor and all the Councillors rode down + To give them greeting, while the blue-eyed team + Drawn in Cobb’s glittering chariot of pure gold + Careered it from the station.—But the Mayor— + Thou shouldst have seen the blandness of the man, + And watched the effulgent and unspeakable smiles + With which he beamed upon them. + His beard, by nature tawny, was suffused + With just so much of a most reverend grizzle + That youth and age should kiss in’t. I assure you + He was a Southern Palmerston, so old + In understanding, yet jocund and jaunty + As though his twentieth summer were as yet + But in the very June o’ the year, and winter + Was never to be dreamt of. Those who heard + His words stood ravished. It was all as one + As though Minerva, hid in Mercury’s jaws, + Had counselled some divinest utterance + Of honeyed wisdom. So profound, so true, + So meet for the occasion, and so—short. + The king sat studying rhetoric as he spoke, + While the lord Abbot heaved half-envious sighs + And hung suspended on his accents. + + CLAUD. But will it pay, Horatio? + + HOR. Let Shylock see to that, but yet I trust + He’s no great loser. + + CLAUD. Which side went in first? + + HOR. We did, + And scored a paltry thirty runs in all. + The lissom Lockyer gambolled round the stumps + With many a crafty curvet: you had thought + An Indian rubber monkey were endued + With wicket-keeping instincts; teazing Tinley + Issued his treacherous notices to quit, + Ruthlessly truthful to his fame, and who + Shall speak of Jackson? Oh! ’twas sad indeed + To watch the downcast faces of our men + Returning from the wickets; one by one, + Like patients at the gratis consultation + Of some skilled leech, they took their turn at physic. + And each came sadly homeward with a face + Awry through inward anguish; they were pale + As ghosts of some dead but deep mourned love, + Grim with a great despair, but forced to smile. + + CLAUD. Poor souls! Th’ unkindest heart had bled for them. + But what came after? + + HOR. Fortune turned her wheel, + And Grace, disgracéd for the nonce, was bowled + First ball, and all the welkin roared applause! + As for the rest, they scored a goodly score + And showed some splendid cricket, but their deeds + Were not colossal, and our own brave Tennant + Proved himself all as good a man as they. + + * * * * * + + Through them we greet our Mother. In their coming, + We shake our dear old England by the hand + And watch space dwindling, while the shrinking world + Collapses into nothing. Mark me well, + Matter as swift as swiftest thought shall fly, + And space itself be nowhere. Future Tinleys + Shall bowl from London to our Christ Church Tennants, + And all the runs for all the stumps be made + In flying baskets which shall come and go + And do the circuit round about the globe + Within ten seconds. Do not check me with + The roundness of the intervening world, + The winds, the mountain ranges, and the seas— + These hinder nothing; for the leathern sphere, + Like to a planetary satellite, + Shall wheel its faithful orb and strike the bails + Clean from the centre of the middle stump. + + * * * * * + + Mirrors shall hang suspended in the air, + Fixed by a chain between two chosen stars, + And every eye shall be a telescope + To read the passing shadows from the world. + Such games shall be hereafter, but as yet + We lay foundations only. + + CLAUD. Thou must be drunk, Horatio. + + HOR. So I am. + + + + +Footnotes + + +{180} We were asked by a learned brother philosopher who saw this +article in MS. what we meant by alluding to rudimentary organs in +machines. Could we, he asked, give any example of such organs? We +pointed to the little protuberance at the bottom of the bowl of our +tobacco pipe. This organ was originally designed for the same purpose as +the rim at the bottom of a tea-cup, which is but another form of the same +function. Its purpose was to keep the heat of the pipe from marking the +table on which it rested. Originally, as we have seen in very early +tobacco pipes, this protuberance was of a very different shape to what it +is now. It was broad at the bottom and flat, so that while the pipe was +being smoked the bowl might rest upon the table. Use and disuse have +here come into play and served to reduce the function to its present +rudimentary condition. That these rudimentary organs are rarer in +machinery than in animal life is owing to the more prompt action of the +human selection as compared with the slower but even surer operation of +natural selection. Man may make mistakes; in the long run nature never +does so. We have only given an imperfect example, but the intelligent +reader will supply himself with illustrations. + + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANTERBURY PIECES*** + + +******* This file should be named 3279-0.txt or 3279-0.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/7/3279 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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A. Streatfeild + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most +other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of +the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have +to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. + + + + +Title: Canterbury Pieces + + +Author: Samuel Butler + +Editor: R. A. Streatfeild + +Release Date: July 26, 2019 [eBook #3279] +[This file was first posted May 24, 2001] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANTERBURY PIECES*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the 1914 A. C. Fifield edition by David +Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/cover.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Public domain cover" +title= +"Public domain cover" + src="images/cover.jpg" /> +</a></p> +<h1>CANTERBURY PIECES</h1> +<p style="text-align: center">By<br /> +<b>Samuel Butler</b><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">Author of “Erewhon,” +“The Way of All Flesh,” etc.</span></p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center">Edited by R. A. Streatfeild</p> + +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p style="text-align: center"><b>London</b>: <b>A. C. +Fifield</b><br /> +1914</p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<table> +<tr> +<td><p> </p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span +class="GutSmall">PAGE</span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Darwin on the Origin of Species</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page149">149</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">A Dialogue</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page155">155</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">Barrel-Organs</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page164">164</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">Letter: 21 February 1863</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page167">167</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">Letter: 14 March 1863</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page171">171</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">Letter: 18 March 1863</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page173">173</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">Letter: 11 April 1863</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page175">175</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p class="gutindent">Letter: 22 June 1863</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right" class="gutindent"><span +class="indexpageno"><a href="#page177">177</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Darwin Among the Machines</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page179">179</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>Lucubratio Ebria</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page186">186</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>A Note on “The Tempest”</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page195">195</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td><p>The English Cricketers</p> +</td> +<td><p style="text-align: right"><span class="indexpageno"><a +href="#page198">198</a></span></p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<h2><a name="page149"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +149</span>Darwin on the Origin of Species</h2> +<h3>Prefatory Note</h3> +<p><span class="smcap"><i>As</i></span><i> the following dialogue +embodies the earliest fruits of Butler’s study of the works +of Charles Darwin</i>, <i>with whose name his own was destined in +later years to be so closely connected</i>, <i>and thus possesses +an interest apart from its intrinsic merit</i>, <i>a few words as +to the circumstances in which it was published will not be out of +place</i>.</p> +<p><i>Butler arrived in New Zealand in October</i>, 1859, <i>and +about the same time Charles Darwin’s</i> <span +class="smcap">Origin of Species</span> <i>was +published</i>. <i>Shortly afterwards the book came into +Butler’s hands</i>. <i>He seems to have read it +carefully</i>, <i>and meditated upon it</i>. <i>The result +of his meditations took the shape of the following dialogue</i>, +<i>which was published on</i> 20 <i>December</i>, 1862, <i>in +the</i> <span class="smcap">Press</span> <i>which had been +started in the town of Christ Church in May</i>, 1861. +<i>The dialogue did not by any means pass unnoticed</i>. +<i>On the</i> 17<i>th of January</i>, 1863, <i>a leading +article</i> (<i>of course unsigned</i>) <i>appeared in the</i> +<span class="smcap">Press</span>, <i>under the title</i> +“<i>Barrel-Organs</i>,” <i>discussing Darwin’s +theories</i>, <i>and incidentally referring to Butler’s +dialogue</i>. <i>A reply to this article</i>, <i>signed +A.M.</i>, <i>appeared on the</i> 21<i>st of February</i>, <i>and +the correspondence was continued until the</i> 22<i>nd of +June</i>, 1863. <i>The dialogue itself</i>, <i>which was +unearthed from the early files of the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span>, <i>mainly owing to the exertions of +Mr. Henry Festing Jones</i>, <i>was reprinted</i>, <i>together +with the correspondence that followed its publication</i>, <i>in +the</i> <span class="smcap">Press</span> <i>of June</i> 8 +<i>and</i> 15, 1912. <i>Soon after the original appearance +of Butler’s dialogue a copy of it fell into the hands of +Charles Darwin</i>, <i>possibly sent to him by a friend in New +Zealand</i>. <i>Darwin was sufficiently struck by it to +forward it to the editor of some magazine</i>, <i>which has not +been identified</i>, <i>with the following letter</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><i>Down</i>, +<i>Bromley</i>, <i>Kent</i>, <i>S.E.</i><br /> +<i>March</i> 24 [1863].</p> +<p style="text-align: center">(Private).</p> +<p><i>Mr. Darwin takes the liberty to send by this post to the +Editor a New Zealand newspaper for the very improbable chance of +the Editor having some spare space to reprint a Dialogue on +Species</i>. <i>This Dialogue</i>, <i>written by some</i> +[<i>sic</i>] <i>quite unknown to Mr. Darwin</i>, <i>is remarkable +from its spirit and from giving so clear and accurate a view of +Mr. D.</i> [<i>sic</i>] <i>theory</i>. <i>It is also +remarkable from being published in a colony exactly</i> 12 +<i>years old</i>, <i>in which it might have</i> [<i>sic</i>] +<i>thought only material interests would have been +regarded</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>The autograph of this letter was purchased from Mr. +Tregaskis by Mr. Festing Jones</i>, <i>and subsequently presented +by him to the Museum at Christ Church</i>. <i>The letter +cannot be dated with certainty</i>, <i>but since Butler’s +dialogue was published in December</i>, 1862, <i>and it is at +least probable that the copy of the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span> <i>which contained it was sent to +Darwin shortly after it appeared</i>, <i>we may conclude with +tolerable certainty that the letter was written in March</i>, +1863. <i>Further light is thrown on the controversy by a +correspondence which took place between Butler and Darwin in</i> +1865, <i>shortly after Butler’s return to +England</i>. <i>During that year Butler had published a +pamphlet entitled</i> <span class="smcap">The Evidence for the +Resurrection of Jesus Christ as given by the Four Evangelists +critically examined</span>, <i>of which he afterwards +incorporated the substance into</i> <span class="smcap">The Fair +Haven</span>. <i>Butler sent a copy of this pamphlet to +Darwin</i>, <i>and in due course received the following +reply</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><i>Down</i>, +<i>Bromley</i>, <i>Kent</i>.<br /> +<i>September</i> 30 [1865].</p> +<p><i>My dear Sir</i>,—<i>I am much obliged to you for so +kindly sending me your Evidences</i>, <i>etc.</i> <i>We +have read it with much interest</i>. <i>It seems to me +written with much force</i>, <i>vigour</i>, <i>and clearness</i>; +<i>and the main argument to me is quite new</i>. <i>I +particularly agree with all you say in your preface</i>.</p> +<p><i>I do not know whether you intend to return to New +Zealand</i>, <i>and</i>, <i>if you are inclined to write</i>, +<i>I should much like to know what your future plans are</i>.</p> +<p><i>My health has been so bad during the last five months that +I have been confined to my bedroom</i>. <i>Had it been +otherwise I would have asked you if you could have spared the +time to have paid us a visit</i>; <i>but this at present is +impossible</i>, <i>and I fear will be so for some time</i>.</p> +<p><i>With my best thanks for your present</i>,</p> +<p><i>I remain</i>,</p> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>My dear Sir</i>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Yours very faithfully</i>,<br /> +<i>Charles Darwin</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>To this letter Butler replied as follows</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right">15 <i>Clifford’s +Inn</i>, <i>E.C.</i><br /> +<i>October</i> 1<i>st</i>, 1865.</p> +<p><i>Dear Sir</i>,—<i>I knew you were ill and I never +meant to give you the fatigue of writing to me</i>. +<i>Please do not trouble yourself to do so again</i>. <i>As +you kindly ask my plans I may say that</i>, <i>though I very +probably may return to New Zealand in three or four years</i>, +<i>I have no intention of doing so before that time</i>. +<i>My study is art</i>, <i>and anything else I may indulge in is +only by-play</i>; <i>it may cause you some little wonder that at +my age I should have started as an art student</i>, <i>and I may +perhaps be permitted to explain that this was always my wish for +years</i>, <i>that I had begun six years ago</i>, <i>as soon as +ever I found that I could not conscientiously take orders</i>; +<i>my father so strongly disapproved of the idea that I gave it +up and went out to New Zealand</i>, <i>stayed there for five +years</i>, <i>worked like a common servant</i>, <i>though on a +run of my own</i>, <i>and sold out little more than a year +ago</i>, <i>thinking that prices were going to +fall</i>—<i>which they have since done</i>. <i>Being +then rather at a loss what to do and my capital being all locked +up</i>, <i>I took the opportunity to return to my old plan</i>, +<i>and have been studying for the last ten years +unremittingly</i>. <i>I hope that in three or four years +more I shall be able to go on very well by myself</i>, <i>and +then I may go back to New Zealand or no as circumstances shall +seem to render advisable</i>. <i>I must apologise for so +much detail</i>, <i>but hardly knew how to explain myself without +it</i>.</p> +<p><i>I always delighted in your</i> <span class="smcap">Origin +of Species</span> <i>as soon as I saw it out in New +Zealand</i>—<i>not as knowing anything whatsoever of +natural history</i>, <i>but it enters into so many deeply +interesting questions</i>, <i>or rather it suggests so many</i>, +<i>that it thoroughly fascinated me</i>. <i>I therefore +feel all the greater pleasure that my pamphlet should please +you</i>, <i>however full of errors</i>.</p> +<p><i>The first dialogue on the</i> <span +class="smcap">Origin</span> <i>which I wrote in the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span> <i>called forth a contemptuous +rejoinder from</i> (<i>I believe</i>) <i>the Bishop of +Wellington</i>—(<i>please do not mention the name</i>, +<i>though I think that at this distance of space and time I might +mention it to yourself</i>) <i>I answered it with the +enclosed</i>, <i>which may amuse you</i>. <i>I assumed +another character because my dialogue was in my hearing very +severely criticised by two or three whose opinion I thought worth +having</i>, <i>and I deferred to their judgment in my +next</i>. <i>I do not think I should do so now</i>. +<i>I fear you will be shocked at an appeal to the periodicals +mentioned in my letter</i>, <i>but they form a very staple +article of bush diet</i>, <i>and we used to get a good deal of +superficial knowledge out of them</i>. <i>I feared to go in +too heavy on the side of the</i> <span +class="smcap">Origin</span>, <i>because I thought that</i>, +<i>having said my say as well as I could</i>, <i>I had better now +take a less impassioned tone</i>; <i>but I was really exceedingly +angry</i>.</p> +<p><i>Please do not trouble yourself to answer this</i>, <i>and +believe me</i>,</p> +</blockquote> +<p style="text-align: center"><i>Yours most sincerely</i>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>S. Butler</i>.</p> +<p><i>This elicited a second letter from Darwin</i>:—</p> +<blockquote><p style="text-align: right"><i>Down</i>, +<i>Bromley</i>, <i>Kent</i>.<br /> +<i>October</i> 6.</p> +<p><i>My dear Sir</i>,—<i>I thank you sincerely for your +kind and frank letter</i>, <i>which has interested me +greatly</i>. <i>What a singular and varied career you have +already run</i>. <i>Did you keep any journal or notes in +New Zealand</i>? <i>For it strikes me that with your rare +powers of writing you might make a very interesting work +descriptive of a colonist’s life in New Zealand</i>.</p> +<p><i>I return your printed letter</i>, <i>which you might like +to keep</i>. <i>It has amused me</i>, <i>especially the +part in which you criticise yourself</i>. <i>To appreciate +the letter fully I ought to have read the bishop’s +letter</i>, <i>which seems to have been very rich</i>.</p> +<p><i>You tell me not to answer your note</i>, <i>but I could not +resist the wish to thank you for your letter</i>.</p> +<p><i>With every good wish</i>, <i>believe me</i>, <i>my dear +Sir</i>,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><i>Yours sincerely</i>,<br /> +<i>Ch. Darwin</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<p><i>It is curious that in this correspondence Darwin makes no +reference to the fact that he had already had in his possession a +copy of Butler’s dialogue and had endeavoured to induce the +editor of an English periodical to reprint it</i>. <i>It is +possible that we have not here the whole of the correspondence +which passed between Darwin and Butler at this period</i>, <i>and +this theory is supported by the fact that Butler seems to take +for granted that Darwin knew all about the appearance of the +original dialogue on the</i> <span class="smcap">Origin of +Species</span> <i>in the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span>. <i>Enough</i>, <i>however</i>, +<i>has been given to explain the correspondence which the +publication of the dialogue occasioned</i>. <i>I do not +know what authority Butler had for supposing that Charles John +Abraham</i>, <i>Bishop of Wellington</i>, <i>was the author of +the article entitled</i> “<i>Barrel-Organs</i>,” +<i>and the</i> “<i>Savoyard</i>” <i>of the subsequent +controversy</i>. <i>However</i>, <i>at that time Butler was +deep in the </i><a name="page155"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +155</span><i>counsels of the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span>, <i>and he may have received private +information on the subject</i>. <i>Butler’s own +reappearance over the initials A.M. is sufficiently explained in +his letter to Darwin</i>.</p> +<p><i>It is worth observing that Butler appears in the dialogue +and ensuing correspondence in a character very different from +that which he was later to assume</i>. <i>Here we have him +as an ardent supporter of Charles Darwin</i>, <i>and adopting a +contemptuous tone with regard to the claims of Erasmus Darwin to +have sown the seed which was afterwards raised to maturity by his +grandson</i>. <i>It would be interesting to know if it was +this correspondence that first turned Butler’s attention +seriously to the works of the older evolutionists and ultimately +led to the production of</i> <span +class="smcap">Evolution</span>, <span class="smcap">Old and +New</span>, <i>in which the indebtedness of Charles Darwin to +Erasmus Darwin</i>, <i>Buffon and Lamarck is demonstrated with +such compelling force</i>.</p> +<h3>A Dialogue</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">[From the <i>Press</i>, 20 +December, 1862.]</p> +<p>F. So you have finished Darwin? Well, how did you +like him?</p> +<p>C. You cannot expect me to like him. He is so hard +and logical, and he treats his subject with such an intensity of +dry reasoning without giving himself the loose rein for a single +moment from one end of the book to the other, that I must confess +I have found it a great effort to read him through.</p> +<p>F. But I fancy that, if you are to be candid, you will +admit that the fault lies rather with yourself than with the +book. Your knowledge of natural history is so superficial +that you are constantly baffled by terms of which you do not +understand the meaning, and in which you consequently lose all +interest. I admit, however, that the book is hard and +laborious reading; and, moreover, that the writer appears to have +predetermined from the commencement to reject all ornament, and +simply to argue from beginning to end, from point to point, till +he conceived that he had made his case sufficiently clear.</p> +<p>C. I agree with you, and I do not like his book partly +on that very account. He seems to have no eye but for the +single point at which he is aiming.</p> +<p>F. But is not that a great virtue in a writer?</p> +<p>C. A great virtue, but a cold and hard one.</p> +<p>F. In my opinion it is a grave and wise one. +Moreover, I conceive that the judicial calmness which so strongly +characterises the whole book, the absence of all passion, the air +of extreme and anxious caution which pervades it throughout, are +rather the result of training and artificially acquired +self-restraint than symptoms of a cold and unimpassioned nature; +at any rate, whether the lawyer-like faculty of swearing both +sides of a question and attaching the full value to both is +acquired or natural in Darwin’s case, you will admit that +such a habit of mind is essential for any really valuable and +scientific investigation.</p> +<p>C. I admit it. Science is all head—she has +no heart at all.</p> +<p>F. You are right. But a man of science may be a +man of other things besides science, and though he may have, and +ought to have no heart during a scientific investigation, yet +when he has once come to a conclusion he may be hearty enough in +support of it, and in his other capacities may be of as warm a +temperament as even you can desire.</p> +<p>C. I tell you I do not like the book.</p> +<p>F. May I catechise you a little upon it?</p> +<p>C. To your heart’s content.</p> +<p>F. Firstly, then, I will ask you what is the one great +impression that you have derived from reading it; or, rather, +what do you think to be the main impression that Darwin wanted +you to derive?</p> +<p>C. Why, I should say some such thing as the +following—that men are descended from monkeys, and monkeys +from something else, and so on back to dogs and horses and +hedge-sparrows and pigeons and cinipedes (what is a cinipede?) +and cheesemites, and then through the plants down to +duckweed.</p> +<p>F. You express the prevalent idea concerning the book, +which as you express it appears nonsensical enough.</p> +<p>C. How, then, should you express it yourself?</p> +<p>F. Hand me the book and I will read it to you through +from beginning to end, for to express it more briefly than Darwin +himself has done is almost impossible.</p> +<p>C. That is nonsense; as you asked me what impression I +derived from the book, so now I ask you, and I charge you to +answer me.</p> +<p>F. Well, I assent to the justice of your demand, but I +shall comply with it by requiring your assent to a few principal +statements deducible from the work.</p> +<p>C. So be it.</p> +<p>F. You will grant then, firstly, that all plants and +animals increase very rapidly, and that unless they were in some +manner checked, the world would soon be overstocked. Take +cats, for instance; see with what rapidity they breed on the +different runs in this province where there is little or nothing +to check them; or even take the more slowly breeding sheep, and +see how soon 500 ewes become 5000 sheep under favourable +circumstances. Suppose this sort of thing to go on for a +hundred million years or so, and where would be the standing room +for all the different plants and animals that would be now +existing, did they not materially check each other’s +increase, or were they not liable in some way to be checked by +other causes? Remember the quail; how plentiful they were +until the cats came with the settlers from Europe. Why were +they so abundant? Simply because they had plenty to eat, +and could get sufficient shelter from the hawks to multiply +freely. The cats came, and tussocks stood the poor little +creatures in but poor stead. The cats increased and +multiplied because they had plenty of food and no natural enemy +to check them. Let them wait a year or two, till they have +materially reduced the larks also, as they have long since +reduced the quail, and let them have to depend solely upon +occasional dead lambs and sheep, and they will find a certain +rather formidable natural enemy called Famine rise slowly but +inexorably against them and slaughter them wholesale. The +first proposition then to which I demand your assent is that all +plants and animals tend to increase in a high geometrical ratio; +that they all endeavour to get that which is necessary for their +own welfare; that, as unfortunately there are conflicting +interests in Nature, collisions constantly occur between +different animals and plants, whereby the rate of increase of +each species is very materially checked. Do you admit +this?</p> +<p>C. Of course; it is obvious.</p> +<p>F. You admit then that there is in Nature a perpetual +warfare of plant, of bird, of beast, of fish, of reptile; that +each is striving selfishly for its own advantage, and will get +what it wants if it can.</p> +<p>C. If what?</p> +<p>F. If it can. How comes it then that sometimes it +cannot? Simply because all are not of equal strength, and +the weaker must go to the wall.</p> +<p>C. You seem to gloat over your devilish statement.</p> +<p>F. Gloat or no gloat, is it true or no? I am not +one of those</p> +<blockquote><p>“Who would unnaturally better Nature<br /> +By making out that that which is, is not.”</p> +</blockquote> +<p>If the law of Nature is “struggle,” it is better +to look the matter in the face and adapt yourself to the +conditions of your existence. Nature will not bow to you, +neither will you mend matters by patting her on the back and +telling her that she is not so black as she is painted. My +dear fellow, my dear sentimental friend, do you eat roast beef or +roast mutton?</p> +<p>C. Drop that chaff and go back to the matter in +hand.</p> +<p>F. To continue then with the cats. Famine comes +and tests them, so to speak; the weaker, the less active, the +less cunning, and the less enduring cats get killed off, and only +the strongest and smartest cats survive; there will be no +favouritism shown to animals in a state of Nature; they will be +weighed in the balance, and the weight of a hair will sometimes +decide whether they shall be found wanting or no. This +being the case, the cats having been thus naturally culled and +the stronger having been preserved, there will be a gradual +tendency to improve manifested among the cats, even as among our +own mobs of sheep careful culling tends to improve the flock.</p> +<p>C. This, too, is obvious.</p> +<p>F. Extend this to all animals and plants, and the same +thing will hold good concerning them all. I shall now +change the ground and demand assent to another statement. +You know that though the offspring of all plants and animals is +in the main like the parent, yet that in almost every instance +slight deviations occur, and that sometimes there is even +considerable divergence from the parent type. It must also +be admitted that these slight variations are often, or at least +sometimes, capable of being perpetuated by inheritance. +Indeed, it is only in consequence of this fact that our sheep and +cattle have been capable of so much improvement.</p> +<p>C. I admit this.</p> +<p>F. Then the whole matter lies in a nutshell. +Suppose that hundreds of millions of years ago there existed upon +this earth a single primordial form of the very lowest life, or +suppose that three or four such primordial forms existed. +Change of climate, of food, of any of the circumstances which +surrounded any member of this first and lowest class of life +would tend to alter it in some slight manner, and the alteration +would have a tendency to perpetuate itself by inheritance. +Many failures would doubtless occur, but with the lapse of time +slight deviations would undoubtedly become permanent and +inheritable, those alone being perpetuated which were beneficial +to individuals in whom they appeared. Repeat the process +with each deviation and we shall again obtain divergences (in the +course of ages) differing more strongly from the ancestral form, +and again those that enable their possessor to struggle for +existence most efficiently will be preserved. Repeat this +process for millions and millions of years, and, as it is +impossible to assign any limit to variability, it would seem as +though the present diversities of species must certainly have +come about sooner or later, and that other divergences will +continue to come about to the end of time. The great agent +in this development of life has been competition. This has +culled species after species, and secured that those alone should +survive which were best fitted for the conditions by which they +found themselves surrounded. Endeavour to take a +bird’s-eye view of the whole matter. See battle after +battle, first in one part of the world, then in another, +sometimes raging more fiercely and sometimes less; even as in +human affairs war has always existed in some part of the world +from the earliest known periods, and probably always will +exist. While a species is conquering in one part of the +world it is being subdued in another, and while its conquerors +are indulging in their triumph down comes the fiat for their +being culled and drafted out, some to life and some to death, and +so forth <i>ad infinitum</i>.</p> +<p>C. It is very horrid.</p> +<p>F. No more horrid than that you should eat roast mutton +or boiled beef.</p> +<p>C. But it is utterly subversive of Christianity; for if +this theory is true the fall of man is entirely fabulous; and if +the fall, then the redemption, these two being inseparably bound +together.</p> +<p>F. My dear friend, there I am not bound to follow +you. I believe in Christianity, and I believe in +Darwin. The two appear irreconcilable. My answer to +those who accuse me of inconsistency is, that both being +undoubtedly true, the one must be reconcilable with the other, +and that the impossibility of reconciling them must be only +apparent and temporary, not real. The reconciliation will +never be effected by planing a little off the one and a little +off the other and then gluing them together with glue. +People will not stand this sort of dealing, and the rejection of +the one truth or of the other is sure to follow upon any such +attempt being persisted in. The true course is to use the +freest candour in the acknowledgment of the difficulty; to +estimate precisely its real value, and obtain a correct knowledge +of its precise form. Then and then only is there a chance +of any satisfactory result being obtained. For unless the +exact nature of the difficulty be known first, who can attempt to +remove it? Let me re-state the matter once again. All +animals and plants in a state of Nature are undergoing constant +competition for the necessaries of life. Those that can +hold their ground hold it; those that cannot hold it are +destroyed. But as it also happens that slight changes of +food, of habit, of climate, of circumjacent accident, and so +forth, produce a slight tendency to vary in the offspring of any +plant or animal, it follows that among these slight variations +some may be favourable to the individual in whom they appear, and +may place him in a better position than his fellows as regards +the enemies with whom his interests come into collision. In +this case he will have a better chance of surviving than his +fellows; he will thus stand also a better chance of continuing +the species, and in his offspring his own slight divergence from +the parent type will be apt to appear. However slight the +divergence, if it be beneficial to the individual it is likely to +preserve the individual and to reappear in his offspring, and +this process may be repeated <i>ad infinitum</i>. Once +grant these two things, and the rest is a mere matter of time and +degree. That the immense differences between the camel and +the pig should have come about in six thousand years is not +believable; but in six hundred million years it is not +incredible, more especially when we consider that by the +assistance of geology a very perfect chain has been formed +between the two. Let this instance suffice. Once +grant the principles, once grant that competition is a great +power in Nature, and that changes of circumstances and habits +produce a tendency to variation in the offspring (no matter how +slight such variation may be), and unless you can define the +possible limit of such variation during an infinite series of +generations, unless you can show that there is a limit, and that +Darwin’s theory over-steps it, you have no right to reject +his conclusions. As for the objections to the theory, +Darwin has treated them with admirable candour, and our time is +too brief to enter into them here. My recommendation to you +is that you should read the book again.</p> +<p>C. Thank you, but for my own part I confess to caring +very little whether my millionth ancestor was <a +name="page164"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 164</span>a gorilla +or no; and as Darwin’s book does not please me, I shall not +trouble myself further about the matter.</p> +<h3>Barrel-Organs</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">[From the <i>Press</i>, 17 January, +1863.]</p> +<p>Dugald Stewart in his <i>Dissertation on the Progress of +Metaphysics</i> says: “On reflecting on the repeated +reproduction of ancient paradoxes by modern authors one is almost +tempted to suppose that human invention is limited, like a +barrel-organ, to a specific number of tunes.”</p> +<p>It would be a very amusing and instructive task for a man of +reading and reflection to note down the instances he meets with +of these old tunes coming up again and again in regular +succession with hardly any change of note, and with all the old +hitches and involuntary squeaks that the barrel-organ had played +in days gone by. It is most amusing to see the old +quotations repeated year after year and volume after volume, till +at last some more careful enquirer turns to the passage referred +to and finds that they have all been taken in and have followed +the lead of the first daring inventor of the mis-statement. +Hallam has had the courage, in the supplement to his <i>History +of the Middle Ages</i>, p. 398, to acknowledge an error of this +sort that he has been led into.</p> +<p>But the particular instance of barrel-organism that is present +to our minds just now is the Darwinian theory of the development +of species by natural selection, of which we hear so much. +This is nothing new, but a <i>réchauffée</i> of the +old story that his namesake, Dr. Darwin, served up in the end of +the last century to Priestley and his admirers, and Lord Monboddo +had cooked in the beginning of the same century. We have +all heard of his theory that man was developed directly from the +monkey, and that we all lost our tails by sitting too much upon +that appendage.</p> +<p>We learn from that same great and cautious writer Hallam in +his <i>History of Literature</i> that there are traces of this +theory and of other popular theories of the present day in the +works of Giordano Bruno, the Neapolitan who was burnt at Rome by +the Inquisition in 1600. It is curious to read the titles +of his works and to think of Dugald Stewart’s remark about +barrel-organs. For instance he wrote on “The +Plurality of Worlds,” and on the universal +“Monad,” a name familiar enough to the readers of +<i>Vestiges of Creation</i>. He was a Pantheist, and, as +Hallam says, borrowed all his theories from the eclectic +philosophers, from Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists, and +ultimately they were no doubt of Oriental origin. This is +just what has been shown again and again to be the history of +German Pantheism; it is a mere barrel-organ repetition of the +Brahman metaphysics found in Hindu cosmogonies. +Bruno’s theory regarding development of species was in +Hallam’s words: “There is nothing so small or so +unimportant but that a portion of spirit dwells in it; and this +spiritual substance requires a proper subject to become a plant +or an animal”; and Hallam in a note on this passage +observes how the modern theories of equivocal generation +correspond with Bruno’s.</p> +<p>No doubt Hallam is right in saying that they are all of +Oriental origin. Pythagoras borrowed from thence his +kindred theory of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of +souls. But he was more consistent than modern philosophers; +he recognised a downward development as well as an upward, and +made morality and immorality the crisis and turning-point of +change—a bold lion developed into a brave warrior, a +drunken sot developed into a wallowing pig, and Darwin’s +slave-making ants, p. 219, would have been formerly Virginian +cotton and tobacco growers.</p> +<p>Perhaps Prometheus was the first Darwin of antiquity, for he +is said to have begun his creation from below, and after passing +from the invertebrate to the sub-vertebrate, from thence to the +backbone, from the backbone to the mammalia, and from the +mammalia to the manco-cerebral, he compounded man of each and +all:—</p> +<blockquote><p>Fertur Prometheus addere principi<br /> +Limo coactus particulam undique<br /> +Desectam et insani leonis<br /> +Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro.</p> +</blockquote> +<p>One word more about barrel-organs. We have heard on the +undoubted authority of ear and eyewitnesses, that in a +neighbouring province there is a church where the psalms are sung +to a barrel-organ, but unfortunately the psalm tunes come in the +middle of the set, and the jigs and waltzes have to be played +through before the psalm can start. Just so is it with +Darwinism and all similar theories. All his fantasias, as +we saw in a late article, are made to come round at last to +religious questions, with which really and truly they have +nothing to do, but were it not for their supposed effect upon +religion, no one would waste <a name="page167"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 167</span>his time in reading about the +possibility of Polar bears swimming about and catching flies so +long that they at last get the fins they wish for.</p> +<h3>Darwin on Species<br /> +[From the <i>Press</i>, 21 February, 1863.]</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">To the Editor of the +<i>Press</i>.</p> +<p>Sir—In two of your numbers you have already taken notice +of Darwin’s theory of the origin of species; I would +venture to trespass upon your space in order to criticise briefly +both your notices.</p> +<p>The first is evidently the composition of a warm adherent of +the theory in question; the writer overlooks all the real +difficulties in the way of accepting it, and, caught by the +obvious truth of much that Darwin says, has rushed to the +conclusion that all is equally true. He writes with the +tone of a partisan, of one deficient in scientific caution, and +from the frequent repetition of the same ideas manifest in his +dialogue one would be led to suspect that he was but little +versed in habits of literary composition and philosophical +argument. Yet he may fairly claim the merit of having +written in earnest. He has treated a serious subject +seriously according to his lights; and though his lights are not +brilliant ones, yet he has apparently done his best to show the +theory on which he is writing in its most favourable +aspect. He is rash, evidently well satisfied with himself, +very possibly mistaken, and just one of those persons who +(without intending it) are more apt to mislead than to lead the +few people that put their trust in them. A few will always +follow them, for a strong faith is always more or less impressive +upon persons who are too weak to have any definite and original +faith of their own. The second writer, however, assumes a +very different tone. His arguments to all practical intents +and purposes run as follows:—</p> +<p>Old fallacies are constantly recurring. Therefore +Darwin’s theory is a fallacy.</p> +<p>They come again and again, like tunes in a barrel-organ. +Therefore Darwin’s theory is a fallacy.</p> +<p>Hallam made a mistake, and in his <i>History of the Middle +Ages</i>, p. 398, he corrects himself. Therefore +Darwin’s theory is wrong.</p> +<p>Dr. Darwin in the last century said the same thing as his son +or grandson says now—will the writer of the article refer +to anything bearing on natural selection and the struggle for +existence in Dr. Darwin’s work?—and a foolish +nobleman said something foolish about monkey’s tails. +Therefore Darwin’s theory is wrong.</p> +<p>Giordano Bruno was burnt in the year 1600 <span +class="GutSmall">A.D.</span>; he was a Pantheist; therefore +Darwin’s theory is wrong.</p> +<p>And finally, as a clinching argument, in one of the +neighbouring settlements there is a barrel-organ which plays its +psalm tunes in the middle of its jigs and waltzes. After +this all lingering doubts concerning the falsehood of +Darwin’s theory must be at an end, and any person of +ordinary common sense must admit that the theory of development +by natural selection is unwarranted by experience and reason.</p> +<p>The articles conclude with an implied statement that Darwin +supposes the Polar bear to swim about catching flies for so long +a period that at last it gets the fins it wishes for.</p> +<p>Now, however sceptical I may yet feel about the truth of all +Darwin’s theory, I cannot sit quietly by and see him +misrepresented in such a scandalously slovenly manner. What +Darwin does say is that sometimes diversified and changed habits +may be observed in individuals of the same species; that is that +there are eccentric animals just as there are eccentric +men. He adduces a few instances and winds up by saying that +“in North America the black bear was seen by Hearne +swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus +catching—almost like a whale—insects in the +water.” This and nothing more. (See pp. 201 and +202.)</p> +<p>Because Darwin says that a bear of rather eccentric habits +happened to be seen by Hearne swimming for hours and catching +insects almost like a whale, your writer (with a carelessness +hardly to be reprehended in sufficiently strong terms) asserts by +implication that Darwin supposes the whale to be developed from +the bear by the latter having had a strong desire to possess +fins. This is disgraceful.</p> +<p>I can hardly be mistaken in supposing that I have quoted the +passage your writer alludes to. Should I be in error, I +trust he will give the reference to the place in which Darwin is +guilty of the nonsense that is fathered upon him in your +article.</p> +<p>It must be remembered that there have been few great +inventions in physics or discoveries in science which have not +been foreshadowed to a certain extent by speculators who were +indeed mistaken, but were yet more or less on the right +scent. Day is heralded by dawn, Apollo by Aurora, and thus +it often happens that a real discovery may wear to the careless +observer much the same appearance as an exploded fallacy, whereas +in fact it is widely different. As much caution is due in +the rejection of a theory as in the acceptation of it. The +first of your writers is too hasty in accepting, the second in +refusing even a candid examination.</p> +<p>Now, when the <i>Saturday Review</i>, the <i>Cornhill +Magazine</i>, <i>Once a Week</i>, and <i>Macmillan’s +Magazine</i>, not to mention other periodicals, have either +actually and completely as in the case of the first two, +provisionally as in the last mentioned, given their adherence to +the theory in question, it may be taken for granted that the +arguments in its favour are sufficiently specious to have +attracted the attention and approbation of a considerable number +of well-educated men in England. Three months ago the +theory of development by natural selection was openly supported +by Professor Huxley before the British Association at +Cambridge. I am not adducing Professor Huxley’s +advocacy as a proof that Darwin is right (indeed, Owen opposed +him tooth and nail), but as a proof that there is sufficient to +be said on Darwin’s side to demand more respectful +attention than your last writer has thought it worth while to +give it. A theory which the British Association is +discussing with great care in England is not to be set down by +off-hand nicknames in Canterbury.</p> +<p>To those, however, who do feel an interest in the question, I +would venture to give a word or two of <a +name="page171"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +171</span>advice. I would strongly deprecate forming a +hurried opinion for or against the theory. Naturalists in +Europe are canvassing the matter with the utmost diligence, and a +few years must show whether they will accept the theory or +no. It is plausible; that can be decided by no one. +Whether it is true or no can be decided only among naturalists +themselves. We are outsiders, and most of us must be +content to sit on the stairs till the great men come forth and +give us the benefit of their opinion.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I am, Sir,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Your obedient servant,<br /> +A. M.</p> +<h3>Darwin on Species<br /> +[From the <i>Press</i>, March 14th, 1863.]</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">To the Editor of the +<i>Press</i>.</p> +<p>Sir—A correspondent signing himself “A. M.” +in the issue of February 21st says:—“Will the writer +(of an article on barrel-organs) refer to anything bearing upon +natural selection and the struggle for existence in Dr. +Darwin’s work?” This is one of the trade forms +by which writers imply that there is no such passage, and yet +leave a loophole if they are proved wrong. I will, however, +furnish him with a passage from the notes of Darwin’s +<i>Botanic Garden</i>:—</p> +<p>“I am acquainted with a philosopher who, contemplating +this subject, thinks it not impossible that the first insects +were anthers or stigmas of flowers, which had by some means +loosed themselves from their parent plant; and that many insects +have gradually in long process of time been formed from these, +some acquiring wings, others fins, and others claws, from their +ceaseless efforts to procure their food or to secure themselves +from injury. The anthers or stigmas are therefore separate +beings.”</p> +<p>This passage contains the germ of Mr. Charles Darwin’s +theory of the origin of species by natural selection:—</p> +<p>“Analogy would lead me to the belief that all animals +and plants have descended from one prototype.”</p> +<p>Here are a few specimens, his illustrations of the +theory:—</p> +<p>“There seems to me no great difficulty in believing that +natural selection has actually converted a swim-bladder into a +lung or organ used exclusively for respiration.” +“A swim-bladder has apparently been converted into an +air-breathing lung.” “We must be cautious in +concluding that a bat could not have been formed by natural +selection from an animal which at first could only glide through +the air.” “I can see no insuperable difficulty +in further believing it possible that the membrane-connected +fingers and forearm of the galeopithecus might be greatly +lengthened by natural selection, and this, as far as the organs +of flight are concerned, would convert it into a +bat.” “The framework of bones being the same in +the hand of a man, wing of a bat, fin of a porpoise, and leg of a +horse, the same number of vertebræ forming the neck of the +giraffe and of the elephant, and innumerable other such facts, at +once explain themselves on the theory of descent with slow and +slight successive modifications.”</p> +<p><a name="page173"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 173</span>I do +not mean to go through your correspondent’s letter, +otherwise “I could hardly reprehend in sufficiently strong +terms” (and all that sort of thing) the perversion of what +I said about Giordano Bruno. But “ex uno disce +omnes”—I am, etc.,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">“<span class="smcap">The +Savoyard</span>.”</p> +<h3>Darwin on Species<br /> +[From the <i>Press</i>, 18 March, 1863.]</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">To the Editor of the +<i>Press</i>.</p> +<p>Sir—The “Savoyard” of last Saturday has +shown that he has perused Darwin’s <i>Botanic Garden</i> +with greater attention than myself. I am obliged to him for +his correction of my carelessness, and have not the smallest +desire to make use of any loopholes to avoid being “proved +wrong.” Let, then, the “Savoyard’s” +assertion that Dr. Darwin had to a certain extent forestalled Mr. +C. Darwin stand, and let my implied denial that in the older +Darwin’s works passages bearing on natural selection, or +the struggle for existence, could be found, go for nought, or +rather let it be set down against me.</p> +<p>What follows? Has the “Savoyard” (supposing +him to be the author of the article on barrel-organs) adduced one +particle of real argument the more to show that the real +Darwin’s theory is wrong?</p> +<p>The elder Darwin writes in a note that “he is acquainted +with a philosopher who thinks it not impossible that the first +insects were the anthers or stigmas of flowers, which by some +means, etc. etc.” This is mere speculation, not a +definite theory, and though the passage above as quoted by the +“Savoyard” certainly does contain the germ of +Darwin’s theory, what is it more than the crudest and most +unshapen germ? And in what conceivable way does this +discovery of the egg invalidate the excellence of the +chicken?</p> +<p>Was there ever a great theory yet which was not more or less +developed from previous speculations which were all to a certain +extent wrong, and all ridiculed, perhaps not undeservedly, at the +time of their appearance? There is a wide difference +between a speculation and a theory. A speculation involves +the notion of a man climbing into a lofty position, and descrying +a somewhat remote object which he cannot fully make out. A +theory implies that the theorist has looked long and steadfastly +till he is clear in his own mind concerning the nature of the +thing which he is beholding. I submit that the +“Savoyard” has unfairly made use of the failure of +certain speculations in order to show that a distinct theory is +untenable.</p> +<p>Let it be granted that Darwin’s theory has been +foreshadowed by numerous previous writers. Grant the +“Savoyard” his Giordano Bruno, and give full weight +to the barrel-organ in a neighbouring settlement, I would still +ask, has the theory of natural development of species ever been +placed in anything approaching its present clear and connected +form before the appearance of Mr. Darwin’s book? Has +it ever received the full attention of the scientific world as a +duly organised theory, one presented in a tangible shape and +demanding investigation, as the conclusion arrived at by a man of +known scientific attainments <a name="page175"></a><span +class="pagenum">p. 175</span>after years of patient toil? +The upshot of the barrel-organs article was to answer this +question in the affirmative and to pooh-pooh all further +discussion.</p> +<p>It would be mere presumption on my part either to attack or +defend Darwin, but my indignation was roused at seeing him +misrepresented and treated disdainfully. I would wish, too, +that the “Savoyard” would have condescended to notice +that little matter of the bear. I have searched my copy of +Darwin again and again to find anything relating to the subject +except what I have quoted in my previous letter.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I am, Sir, your obedient +servant,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">A. M.</p> +<h3>Darwin on Species<br /> +[From the <i>Press</i>, April 11th, 1863.]</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">To the Editor of the +<i>Press</i>.</p> +<p>Sir—Your correspondent “A. M.” is +pertinacious on the subject of the bear being changed into a +whale, which I said Darwin contemplated as not impossible. +I did not take the trouble in any former letter to answer him on +that point, as his language was so intemperate. He has +modified his tone in his last letter, and really seems open to +the conviction that he may be the “careless” writer +after all; and so on reflection I have determined to give him the +opportunity of doing me justice.</p> +<p>In his letter of February 21 he says: “I cannot sit by +and see Darwin misrepresented in such a scandalously slovenly +manner. What Darwin does say is ‘that <span +class="GutSmall">SOMETIMES</span> diversified and changed habits +may be observed in individuals of the same species; that is, that +there are certain eccentric animals as there are certain +eccentric men. He adduces a few instances, and winds up by +saying that in North America the black bear was seen by Hearne +swimming for hours with widely open mouth, thus catching, <span +class="GutSmall">ALMOST LIKE A WHALE</span>, insects in the +water.’ <span class="smcap">This</span>, <span +class="smcap">and nothing more</span>, pp. 201, 202.”</p> +<p>Then follows a passage about my carelessness, which (he says) +is hardly to be reprehended in sufficiently strong terms, and he +ends with saying: “This is disgraceful.”</p> +<p>Now you may well suppose that I was a little puzzled at the +seeming audacity of a writer who should adopt this style, when +the words which follow his quotation from Darwin are (in the +edition from which I quoted) as follows: “Even in so +extreme a case as this, if the supply of insects were constant, +and if better adapted competitors did not already exist in the +country, I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being +rendered by natural selection more and more aquatic in their +structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a +creature was produced as monstrous as a whale.”</p> +<p>Now this passage was a remarkable instance of the idea that I +was illustrating in the article on “Barrel-organs,” +because Buffon in his <i>Histoire Naturelle</i> had conceived a +theory of degeneracy (the exact converse of Darwin’s theory +of ascension) by which the bear might pass into a seal, and that +into a whale. Trusting now to the fairness of “A. +M.” I leave to him to say whether he has <a +name="page177"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 177</span>quoted from +the same edition as I have, and whether the additional words I +have quoted are in his edition, and if so whether he has not been +guilty of a great injustice to me; and if they are not in his +edition, whether he has not been guilty of great haste and +“carelessness” in taking for granted that I have +acted in so “disgraceful” a manner.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">I am, Sir, etc.,<br /> +“The Savoyard,” or player<br /> +on Barrel-organs.</p> +<p>(The paragraph in question has been the occasion of much +discussion. The only edition in our hands is the third, +seventh thousand, which contains the paragraph as quoted by +“A. M.” We have heard that it is different in +earlier editions, but have not been able to find one. The +difference between “A. M.” and “The +Savoyard” is clearly one of different editions. +Darwin appears to have been ashamed of the inconsequent inference +suggested, and to have withdrawn it.—Ed. the +<i>Press</i>.)</p> +<h3>Darwin on Species<br /> +[From the <i>Press</i>, 22nd June, 1863.]</h3> +<p style="text-align: center">To the Editor of the +<i>Press</i>.</p> +<p>Sir—I extract the following from an article in the +<i>Saturday Review</i> of January 10, 1863, on the vertebrated +animals of the Zoological Gardens.</p> +<p>“As regards the ducks, for example, inter-breeding goes +on to a very great extent among nearly all the genera, which are +well represented in the collection. We think it unfortunate +that the details of these crosses have not hitherto been made +public. The Zoological Society has existed about +thirty-five years, and we imagine that evidence must have been +accumulated almost enough to make or mar that part of Mr. +Darwin’s well-known argument which rests on what is known +of the phenomena of hybridism. The present list reveals +only one fact bearing on the subject, but that is a noteworthy +one, for it completely overthrows the commonly accepted theory +that the mixed offspring of different species are infertile +<i>inter se</i>. At page 15 (of the list of vertebrated +animals living in the gardens of the Zoological Society of +London, Longman and Co., 1862) we find enumerated three examples +of hybrids between two perfectly distinct species, and even, +according to modern classification, between two distinct genera +of ducks, for three or four generations. There can be +little doubt that a series of researches in this branch of +experimental physiology, which might be carried on at no great +loss, would place zoologists in a far better position with regard +to a subject which is one of the most interesting if not one of +the most important in natural history.”</p> +<p>I fear that both you and your readers will be dead sick of +Darwin, but the above is worthy of notice. My compliments +to the “Savoyard.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">Your obedient servant,</p> +<p>May 17th.</p> +<p style="text-align: right">A. M.</p> +<h3><a name="page179"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +179</span>Darwin Among the Machines</h3> +<p class="gutsumm">“<i>Darwin Among the Machines</i>” +<i>originally appeared in the Christ Church</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span>, 13 <i>June</i>, 1863. <i>It was +reprinted by Mr. Festing Jones in his edition of</i> <span +class="smcap">The Note-Books of Samuel Butler</span> +(<i>Fifield</i>, <i>London</i>, 1912, <i>Kennerley</i>, <i>New +York</i>), <i>with a prefatory note pointing out its connection +with the genesis of</i> <span class="smcap">Erewhon</span>, <i>to +which readers desirous of further information may be +referred</i>.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">[To the Editor of the <i>Press</i>, +Christchurch, New Zealand, 13 June, 1863.]</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>—There are few things of +which the present generation is more justly proud than of the +wonderful improvements which are daily taking place in all sorts +of mechanical appliances. And indeed it is matter for great +congratulation on many grounds. It is unnecessary to +mention these here, for they are sufficiently obvious; our +present business lies with considerations which may somewhat tend +to humble our pride and to make us think seriously of the future +prospects of the human race. If we revert to the earliest +primordial types of mechanical life, to the lever, the wedge, the +inclined plane, the screw and the pulley, or (for analogy would +lead us one step further) to that one primordial type from which +all the mechanical kingdom has been developed, we mean to the +lever itself, and if we then examine the machinery of the +<i>Great Eastern</i>, we find ourselves almost awestruck at the +vast development of the mechanical world, at the gigantic strides +with which it has advanced in comparison with the slow progress +of the animal and vegetable kingdom. We shall find it +impossible to refrain from asking ourselves what the end of this +mighty movement is to be. In what direction is it +tending? What will be its upshot? To give a few +imperfect hints towards a solution of these questions is the +object of the present letter.</p> +<p>We have used the words “mechanical life,” +“the mechanical kingdom,” “the mechanical +world” and so forth, and we have done so advisedly, for as +the vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, and +as in like manner the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so +now in these last few ages an entirely new kingdom has sprung up, +of which we as yet have only seen what will one day be considered +the antediluvian prototypes of the race.</p> +<p>We regret deeply that our knowledge both of natural history +and of machinery is too small to enable us to undertake the +gigantic task of classifying machines into the genera and +sub-genera, species, varieties and sub-varieties, and so forth, +of tracing the connecting links between machines of widely +different characters, of pointing out how subservience to the use +of man has played that part among machines which natural +selection has performed in the animal and vegetable kingdoms, of +pointing out rudimentary organs <a name="citation180"></a><a +href="#footnote180" class="citation">[180]</a> which exist in +some few machines, feebly developed and perfectly useless, yet +serving to mark descent from some ancestral type which has either +perished or been modified into some new phase of mechanical +existence. We can only point out this field for +investigation; it must be followed by others whose education and +talents have been of a much higher order than any which we can +lay claim to.</p> +<p>Some few hints we have determined to venture upon, though we +do so with the profoundest diffidence. Firstly, we would +remark that as some of the lowest of the vertebrata attained a +far greater size than has descended to their more highly +organised living representatives, so a diminution in the size of +machines has often attended their development and progress. +Take the watch for instance. Examine the beautiful +structure of the little animal, watch the intelligent play of the +minute members which compose it; yet this little creature is but +a development of the cumbrous clocks of the thirteenth +century—it is no deterioration from them. The day may +come when clocks, which certainly at the present day are not +diminishing in bulk, may be entirely superseded by the universal +use of watches, in which case clocks will become extinct like the +earlier saurians, while the watch (whose tendency has for some +years been rather to decrease in size than the contrary) will +remain the only existing type of an extinct race.</p> +<p>The views of machinery which we are thus feebly indicating +will suggest the solution of one of the greatest and most +mysterious questions of the day. We refer to the question: +What sort of creature man’s next successor in the supremacy +of the earth is likely to be. We have often heard this +debated; but it appears to us that we are ourselves creating our +own successors; we are daily adding to the beauty and delicacy of +their physical organisation; we are daily giving them greater +power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious contrivances that +self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to them what +intellect has been to the human race. In the course of ages +we shall find ourselves the inferior race. Inferior in +power, inferior in that moral quality of self-control, we shall +look up to them as the acme of all that the best and wisest man +can ever dare to aim at. No evil passions, no jealousy, no +avarice, no impure desires will disturb the serene might of those +glorious creatures. Sin, shame, and sorrow will have no +place among them. Their minds will be in a state of +perpetual calm, the contentment of a spirit that knows no wants, +is disturbed by no regrets. Ambition will never torture +them. Ingratitude will never cause them the uneasiness of a +moment. The guilty conscience, the hope deferred, the pains +of exile, the insolence of office, and the spurns that patient +merit of the unworthy takes—these will be entirely unknown +to them. If they want “feeding” (by the use of +which very word we betray our recognition of them as living +organism) they will be attended by patient slaves whose business +and interest it will be to see that they shall want for +nothing. If they are out of order they will be promptly +attended to by physicians who are thoroughly acquainted with +their constitutions; if they die, for even these glorious animals +will not be exempt from that necessary and universal +consummation, they will immediately enter into a new phase of +existence, for what machine dies entirely in every part at one +and the same instant?</p> +<p>We take it that when the state of things shall have arrived +which we have been above attempting to describe, man will have +become to the machine what the horse and the dog are to +man. He will continue to exist, nay even to improve, and +will be probably better off in his state of domestication under +the beneficent rule of the machines than he is in his present +wild state. We treat our horses, dogs, cattle, and sheep, +on the whole, with great kindness; we give them whatever +experience teaches us to be best for them, and there can be no +doubt that our use of meat has added to the happiness of the +lower animals far more than it has detracted from it; in like +manner it is reasonable to suppose that the machines will treat +us kindly, for their existence is as dependent upon ours as ours +is upon the lower animals. They cannot kill us and eat us +as we do sheep; they will not only require our services in the +parturition of their young (which branch of their economy will +remain always in our hands), but also in feeding them, in setting +them right when they are sick, and burying their dead or working +up their corpses into new machines. It is obvious that if +all the animals in Great Britain save man alone were to die, and +if at the same time all intercourse with foreign countries were +by some sudden catastrophe to be rendered perfectly impossible, +it is obvious that under such circumstances the loss of human +life would be something fearful to contemplate—in like +manner were mankind to cease, the machines would be as badly off +or even worse. The fact is that our interests are +inseparable from theirs, and theirs from ours. Each race is +dependent upon the other for innumerable benefits, and, until the +reproductive organs of the machines have been developed in a +manner which we are hardly yet able to conceive, they are +entirely dependent upon man for even the continuance of their +species. It is true that these organs may be ultimately +developed, inasmuch as man’s interest lies in that +direction; there is nothing which our infatuated race would +desire more than to see a fertile union between two steam +engines; it is true that machinery is even at this present time +employed in begetting machinery, in becoming the parent of +machines often after its own kind, but the days of flirtation, +courtship, and matrimony appear to be very remote, and indeed can +hardly be realised by our feeble and imperfect imagination.</p> +<p>Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; +day by day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are +daily bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily +devoting the energies of their whole lives to the development of +mechanical life. The upshot is simply a question of time, +but that the time will come when the machines will hold the real +supremacy over the world and its inhabitants is what no person of +a truly philosophic mind can for a moment question.</p> +<p>Our opinion is that war to the death should be instantly +proclaimed against them. Every machine of every sort should +be destroyed by the well-wisher of his species. Let there +be no exceptions made, no quarter shown; let us at once go back +to the primeval condition of the race. If it be urged that +this is impossible under the present condition of human affairs, +this at once proves that the mischief is already done, that our +servitude has commenced in good earnest, that we have raised a +race of beings whom it is beyond our power to destroy, and that +we are not only enslaved but are absolutely acquiescent in our +bondage.</p> +<p>For the present we shall leave this subject, which we present +gratis to the members of the Philosophical Society. Should +they consent to avail themselves of the vast field which we have +pointed out, we shall endeavour to labour in it ourselves at some +future and indefinite period.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I am, Sir, etc.,</p> +<p style="text-align: right"><span +class="smcap">Cellarius</span></p> +<h2><a name="page186"></a><span class="pagenum">p. +186</span>Lucubratio Ebria</h2> +<p class="gutsumm">“<i>Lucubratio Ebria</i>,” +<i>like</i> “<i>Darwin Among the Machines</i>,” +<i>has already appeared in</i> <span class="smcap">The Note-Books +of Samuel Butler</span> <i>with a prefatory note by Mr. Festing +Jones</i>, <i>explaining its connection with</i> <span +class="smcap">Erewhon</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Life +and Habit</span>. <i>I need therefore only repeat that it +was written by Butler after his return to England and sent to New +Zealand</i>, <i>where it was published in the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span> <i>on July</i> 29, 1865.</p> +<p style="text-align: center">[From the <i>Press</i>, 29 July, +1865.]</p> +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> is a period in the evening, +or more generally towards the still small hours of the morning, +in which we so far unbend as to take a single glass of hot whisky +and water. We will neither defend the practice nor excuse +it. We state it as a fact which must be borne in mind by +the readers of this article; for we know not how, whether it be +the inspiration of the drink or the relief from the harassing +work with which the day has been occupied or from whatever other +cause, yet we are certainly liable about this time to such a +prophetic influence as we seldom else experience. We are +rapt in a dream such as we ourselves know to be a dream, and +which, like other dreams, we can hardly embody in a distinct +utterance. We know that what we see is but a sort of +intellectual Siamese twins, of which one is substance and the +other shadow, but we cannot set either free without killing +both. We are unable to rudely tear away the veil of +phantasy in which the truth is shrouded, so we present the reader +with a draped figure, and his own judgment must discriminate +between the clothes and the body. A truth’s +prosperity is like a jest’s, it lies in the ear of him that +hears it. Some may see our lucubration as we saw it, and +others may see nothing but a drunken dream or the nightmare of a +distempered imagination. To ourselves it is the speaking +with unknown tongues to the early Corinthians; we cannot fully +understand our own speech, and we fear lest there be not a +sufficient number of interpreters present to make our utterance +edify. But there! (Go on straight to the body of the +article.)</p> +<p>The limbs of the lower animals have never been modified by any +act of deliberation and forethought on their own part. +Recent researches have thrown absolutely no light upon the origin +of life—upon the initial force which introduced a sense of +identity and a deliberate faculty into the world; but they do +certainly appear to show very clearly that each species of the +animal and vegetable kingdom has been moulded into its present +shape by chances and changes of many millions of years, by +chances and changes over which the creature modified had no +control whatever, and concerning whose aim it was alike +unconscious and indifferent, by forces which seem insensate to +the pain which they inflict, but by whose inexorably beneficent +cruelty the brave and strong keep coming to the fore, while the +weak and bad drop behind and perish. There was a moral +government of this world before man came near it—a moral +government suited to the capacities of the governed, and which +unperceived by them has laid fast the foundations of courage, +endurance, and cunning. It laid them so fast that they +became more and more hereditary. Horace says well <i>fortes +creantur fortibus et bonis</i>, good men beget good children; the +rule held even in the geological period; good ichthyosauri begot +good ichthyosauri, and would to our discomfort have gone on doing +so to the present time had not better creatures been begetting +better things than ichthyosauri, or famine or fire or convulsion +put an end to them. Good apes begot good apes, and at last +when human intelligence stole like a late spring upon the mimicry +of our semi-simious ancestry, the creature learnt how he could of +his own forethought add extra-corporaneous limbs to the members +of his own body, and become not only a vertebrate mammal, but a +vertebrate machinate mammal into the bargain.</p> +<p>It was a wise monkey that first learned to carry a stick, and +a useful monkey that mimicked him. For the race of man has +learned to walk uprightly much as a child learns the same +thing. At first he crawls on all fours, then he clambers, +laying hold of whatever he can; and lastly he stands upright +alone and walks, but for a long time with an unsteady step. +So when the human race was in its gorilla-hood it generally +carried a stick; from carrying a stick for many million years it +became accustomed and modified to an upright position. The +stick wherewith it had learned to walk would now serve to beat +its younger brothers, and then it found out its service as a +lever. Man would thus learn that the limbs of his body were +not the only limbs that he could command. His body was +already the most versatile in existence, but he could render it +more versatile still. With the improvement in his body his +mind improved also. He learnt to perceive the moral +government under which he held the feudal tenure of his +life—perceiving it he symbolised it, and to this day our +poets and prophets still strive to symbolise it more and more +completely.</p> +<p>The mind grew because the body grew; more things were +perceived, more things were handled, and being handled became +familiar. But this came about chiefly because there was a +hand to handle with; without the hand there would be no handling, +and no method of holding and examining is comparable to the human +hand. The tail of an opossum is a prehensile thing, but it +is too far from his eyes; the elephant’s trunk is better, +and it is probably to their trunks that the elephants owe their +sagacity. It is here that the bee, in spite of her wings, +has failed. She has a high civilisation, but it is one +whose equilibrium appears to have been already attained; the +appearance is a false one, for the bee changes, though more +slowly than man can watch her; but the reason of the very gradual +nature of the change is chiefly because the physical organisation +of the insect changes, but slowly also. She is poorly off +for hands, and has never fairly grasped the notion of tacking on +other limbs to the limbs of her own body, and so being short +lived to boot she remains from century to century to human eyes +<i>in statu quo</i>. Her body never becomes machinate, +whereas this new phase of organism which has been introduced with +man into the mundane economy, has made him a very quicksand for +the foundation of an unchanging civilisation; certain fundamental +principles will always remain, but every century the change in +man’s physical status, as compared with the elements around +him, is greater and greater. He is a shifting basis on +which no equilibrium of habit and civilisation can be +established. Were it not for this constant change in our +physical powers, which our mechanical limbs have brought about, +man would have long since apparently attained his limit of +possibility; he would be a creature of as much fixity as the ants +and bees; he would still have advanced, but no faster than other +animals advance.</p> +<p>If there were a race of men without any mechanical appliances +we should see this clearly. There are none, nor have there +been, so far as we can tell, for millions and millions of +years. The lowest Australian savage carries weapons for the +fight or the chase, and has his cooking and drinking utensils at +home; a race without these things would be completely +<i>feræ naturæ</i> and not men at all. We are +unable to point to any example of a race absolutely devoid of +extra-corporaneous limbs, but we can see among the Chinese that +with the failure to invent new limbs a civilisation becomes as +much fixed as that of the ants; and among savage tribes we +observe that few implements involve a state of things scarcely +human at all. Such tribes only advance <i>pari passu</i> +with the creatures upon which they feed.</p> +<p>It is a mistake, then, to take the view adopted by a previous +correspondent of this paper, to consider the machines as +identities, to animalise them and to anticipate their final +triumph over mankind. They are to be regarded as the mode +of development by which human organism is most especially +advancing, and every fresh invention is to be considered as an +additional member of the resources of the human body. +Herein lies the fundamental difference between man and his +inferiors. As regard his flesh and blood, his senses, +appetites, and affections, the difference is one of degree rather +than of kind, but in the deliberate invention of such unity of +limbs as is exemplified by the railway train—that +seven-leagued foot which five hundred may own at once—he +stands quite alone.</p> +<p>In confirmation of the views concerning mechanism which we +have been advocating above, it must be remembered that men are +not merely the children of their parents, but they are begotten +of the institutions of the state of the mechanical sciences under +which they are born and bred. These things have made us +what we are. We are children of the plough, the spade, and +the ship; we are children of the extended liberty and knowledge +which the printing press has diffused. Our ancestors added +these things to their previously existing members; the new limbs +were preserved by natural selection and incorporated into human +society; they descended with modifications, and hence proceeds +the difference between our ancestors and ourselves. By the +institutions and state of science under which a man is born it is +determined whether he shall have the limbs of an Australian +savage or those of a nineteenth-century Englishman. The +former is supplemented with little save a rug and a javelin; the +latter varies his physique with the changes of the season, with +age and with advancing or decreasing wealth. If it is wet +he is furnished with an organ which is called an umbrella and +which seems designed for the purpose of protecting either his +clothes or his lungs from the injurious effects of rain. +His watch is of more importance to him than a good deal of his +hair, at any rate than of his whiskers; besides this he carries a +knife and generally a pencil case. His memory goes in a +pocket-book. He grows more complex as he becomes older and +he will then be seen with a pair of spectacles, perhaps also with +false teeth and a wig; but, if he be a really well-developed +specimen of the race, he will be furnished with a large box upon +wheels, two horses, and a coachman.</p> +<p>Let the reader ponder over these last remarks and he will see +that the principal varieties and sub-varieties of the human race +are not now to be looked for among the negroes, the Circassians, +the Malays, or the American aborigines, but among the rich and +the poor. The difference in physical organisation between +these two species of man is far greater than that between the +so-called types of humanity. The rich man can go from here +to England whenever he feels inclined, the legs of the other are +by an invisible fatality prevented from carrying him beyond +certain narrow limits. Neither rich nor poor as yet see the +philosophy of the thing, or admit that he who can tack a portion +of one of the P. and O. boats on to his identity is a much more +highly organised being than one who cannot. Yet the fact is +patent enough, if we once think it over, from the mere +consideration of the respect with which we so often treat those +who are richer than ourselves. We observe men for the most +part (admitting, however, some few abnormal exceptions) to be +deeply impressed by the superior organisation of those who have +money. It is wrong to attribute this respect to any +unworthy motive, for the feeling is strictly legitimate and +springs from some of the very highest impulses of our +nature. It is the same sort of affectionate reverence which +a dog feels for man, and is not infrequently manifested in a +similar manner.</p> +<p>We admit that these last sentences are open to question, and +we should hardly like to commit ourselves irrecoverably to the +sentiments they express; but we will say this much for certain, +namely, that the rich man is the true hundred-handed Gyges of the +poets. He alone possesses the full complement of limbs who +stands at the summit of opulence, and we may assert with strictly +scientific accuracy that the Rothschilds are the most astonishing +organisms that the world has ever yet seen. For to the +nerves or tissues, or whatever it be that answers to the helm of +a rich man’s desires, there is a whole army of limbs seen +and unseen attachable; he may be reckoned by his horse-power, by +the number of foot-pounds which he has money enough to set in +motion. Who, then, will deny that a man whose will +represents the motive power of a thousand horses is a being very +different from the one who is equivalent but to the power of a +single one?</p> +<p>Henceforward, then, instead of saying that a man is hard up, +let us say that his organisation is at a low ebb, or, if we wish +him well, let us hope that he will grow plenty of limbs. It +must be remembered that we are dealing with physical +organisations only. We do not say that the thousand-horse +man is better than a one-horse man, we only say that he is more +highly organised and should be recognised as being so by the +scientific leaders of the period. A man’s will, +truth, endurance, are part of him also, and may, as in the case +of the late Mr. Cobden, have in themselves a power equivalent to +all the horse-power which they can influence; but were we to go +into this part of the question we should never have done, and we +are compelled reluctantly to leave our dream in its present +fragmentary condition.</p> +<h2><a name="page195"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 195</span>A +Note on “The Tempest”<br /> +Act III, Scene I</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><i>The following brief essay was contributed +by Butler to a small miscellany entitled</i> <span +class="smcap">Literary Foundlings</span>: <span +class="smcap">Verse and Prose</span>, <span +class="smcap">Collected in Canterbury</span>, N.Z., <i>which was +published at Christ Church on the occasion of a bazaar held there +in March</i>, 1864, <i>in aid of the funds of the Christ Church +Orphan Asylum</i>, <i>and offered for sale during the progress of +the bazaar</i>. <i>The miscellany consisted entirely of the +productions of Canterbury writers</i>, <i>and among the +contributors were Dean Jacobs</i>, <i>Canon Cottrell</i>, <i>and +James Edward FitzGerald</i>, <i>the founder of the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span>.</p> +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Prince Ferdinand was wrecked +on the island Miranda was fifteen years old. We can hardly +suppose that she had ever seen Ariel, and Caliban was a +detestable object whom her father took good care to keep as much +out of her way as possible. Caliban was like the man cook +on a back-country run. “’Tis a villain, +sir,” says Miranda. “I do not love to look +on.” “But as ’tis,” returns +Prospero, “we cannot miss him; he does make our fire, fetch +in our wood, and serve in offices that profit us.” +Hands were scarce, and Prospero was obliged to put up with +Caliban in spite of the many drawbacks with which his services +were attended; in fact, no one on the island could have liked +him, for Ariel owed him a grudge on the score of the cruelty with +which he had been treated by Sycorax, and we have already heard +what Miranda and Prospero had to say about him. He may +therefore pass for nobody. Prospero was an old man, or at +any rate in all probability some forty years of age; therefore it +is no wonder that when Miranda saw Prince Ferdinand she should +have fallen violently in love with him. “Nothing +ill,” according to her view, “could dwell in such a +temple—if the ill Spirit have so fair an house, good things +will strive to dwell with ’t.” A very natural +sentiment for a girl in Miranda’s circumstances, but +nevertheless one which betrayed a charming inexperience of the +ways of the world and of the real value of good looks. What +surprises us, however, is this, namely the remarkable celerity +with which Miranda in a few hours became so thoroughly wide awake +to the exigencies of the occasion in consequence of her love for +the Prince. Prospero has set Ferdinand to hump firewood out +of the bush, and to pile it up for the use of the cave. +Ferdinand is for the present a sort of cadet, a youth of good +family, without cash and unaccustomed to manual labour; his +unlucky stars have landed him on the island, and now it seems +that he “must remove some thousands of these logs and pile +them up, upon a sore injunction.” Poor fellow! +Miranda’s heart bleeds for him. Her “affections +were most humble”; she had been content to take Ferdinand +on speculation. On first seeing him she had exclaimed, +“I have no ambition to see a goodlier man”; and it +makes her blood boil to see this divine creature compelled to +such an ignominious and painful labour. What is the family +consumption of firewood to her? Let Caliban do it; let +Prospero do it; or make Ariel do it; let her do it herself; or +let the lightning come down and “burn up those logs you are +enjoined to pile”;—the logs themselves, while +burning, would weep for having wearied him. Come what +would, it was a shame to make Ferdinand work so hard, so she +winds up thus: “My father is hard at study; pray now rest +yourself—<i>he’s safe for these three +hours</i>.” Safe—if she had only said that +“papa was safe,” the sentence would have been purely +modern, and have suited Thackeray as well as Shakspeare. +See how quickly she has learnt to regard her father as one to be +watched and probably kept in a good humour for the sake of +Ferdinand. We suppose that the secret of the modern +character of this particular passage lies simply in the fact that +young people make love pretty much in the same way now that they +did three hundred years ago; and possibly, with the exception +that “the governor” may be substituted for the words +“my father” by the young ladies of three hundred +years hence, the passage will sound as fresh and modern then as +it does now. Let the Prosperos of that age take a lesson, +and either not allow the Ferdinands to pile up firewood, or so to +arrange their studies as not to be “safe” for any +three consecutive hours. It is true that Prospero’s +objection to the match was only feigned, but Miranda thought +otherwise, and for all purposes of argument we are justified in +supposing that he was in earnest.</p> +<h2><a name="page198"></a><span class="pagenum">p. 198</span>The +English Cricketers</h2> +<p class="gutsumm"><i>The following lines were written by Butler +in February</i>, 1864, <i>and appeared in the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span>. <i>They refer to a visit paid +to New Zealand by a team of English cricketers</i>, <i>and have +kindly been copied and sent to me by Miss Colborne-Veel</i>, +<i>whose father was editor of the</i> <span +class="smcap">Press</span> <i>at the time that Butler was writing +for it</i>. <i>Miss Colborne-Veel has further permitted to +me to make use of the following explanatory note</i>: +“<i>The coming of the All England team was naturally a +glorious event in a province only fourteen years old</i>. +<i>The Mayor and Councillors had</i> ‘<i>a car of +state</i>’—<i>otherwise a +brake</i>—‘<i>with postilions in the English +style</i>.’<i> Cobb and Co. supplied a six-horse +coach for the English eleven</i>, <i>the yellow paint upon which +suggested the</i> ‘<i>glittering chariot of pure +gold</i>.’ <i>So they drove in triumph from the +station and through the town</i>. <i>Tinley for England and +Tennant for Canterbury were the heroes of the match</i>. +<i>At the Wednesday dinner referred to they exchanged compliments +and cricket balls across the table</i>. <i>This early +esteem for cricket may be explained by a remark made by the All +England captain</i>, <i>that</i> ‘<i>on no cricket ground +in any colony had he met so many public school men</i>, +<i>especially men from old Rugby</i>, <i>as at +Canterbury</i>.’”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">[To the Editor, the <i>Press</i>, +February 15th, 1864.]</p> +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>—The following lines, +which profess to have been written by a friend of mine at three +o’clock in the morning after the dinner of Wednesday last, +have been presented to myself with a request that I should +forward them to you. I would suggest to the writer of them +the following quotation from “Love’s Labour’s +Lost.”</p> +<p style="text-align: center">I am, Sir,</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Your obedient servant,<br /> +S.B.</p> +<p>“You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent; +let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers +ratified; but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of +poesy, <i>caret</i> . . . <i>Imitari</i> is nothing. So +doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse +his rider.”</p> +<p style="text-align: right">Love’s Labour’s Lost, +Act IV, S. 2.</p> +<p class="poetry"><span class="smcap">Horatio</span> . . .<br /> +<br /> +. . . The whole town rose<br /> +Eyes out to meet them; in a car of state<br /> +The Mayor and all the Councillors rode down<br /> +To give them greeting, while the blue-eyed team<br /> +Drawn in Cobb’s glittering chariot of pure gold<br /> +Careered it from the station.—But the Mayor—<br /> +Thou shouldst have seen the blandness of the man,<br /> +And watched the effulgent and unspeakable smiles<br /> +With which he beamed upon them.<br /> +His beard, by nature tawny, was suffused<br /> +With just so much of a most reverend grizzle<br /> +That youth and age should kiss in’t. I assure you<br +/> +He was a Southern Palmerston, so old<br /> +In understanding, yet jocund and jaunty<br /> +As though his twentieth summer were as yet<br /> +But in the very June o’ the year, and winter<br /> +Was never to be dreamt of. Those who heard<br /> +His words stood ravished. It was all as one<br /> +As though Minerva, hid in Mercury’s jaws,<br /> +Had counselled some divinest utterance<br /> +Of honeyed wisdom. So profound, so true,<br /> +So meet for the occasion, and so—short.<br /> +The king sat studying rhetoric as he spoke,<br /> +While the lord Abbot heaved half-envious sighs<br /> +And hung suspended on his accents.</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Claud</span>. But will it pay, Horatio?</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Hor</span>. Let Shylock see to that, but yet +I trust<br /> +He’s no great loser.</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Claud</span>. Which side went in first?</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Hor</span>. +We did,<br /> +And scored a paltry thirty runs in all.<br /> +The lissom Lockyer gambolled round the stumps<br /> +With many a crafty curvet: you had thought<br /> +An Indian rubber monkey were endued<br /> +With wicket-keeping instincts; teazing Tinley<br /> +Issued his treacherous notices to quit,<br /> +Ruthlessly truthful to his fame, and who<br /> +Shall speak of Jackson? Oh! ’twas sad indeed<br /> +To watch the downcast faces of our men<br /> +Returning from the wickets; one by one,<br /> +Like patients at the gratis consultation<br /> +Of some skilled leech, they took their turn at physic.<br /> +And each came sadly homeward with a face<br /> +Awry through inward anguish; they were pale<br /> +As ghosts of some dead but deep mourned love,<br /> +Grim with a great despair, but forced to smile.</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Claud</span>. Poor souls! Th’ +unkindest heart had bled for them.<br /> +But what came after?</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Hor</span>. +Fortune turned her wheel,<br /> +And Grace, disgracéd for the nonce, was bowled<br /> +First ball, and all the welkin roared applause!<br /> +As for the rest, they scored a goodly score<br /> +And showed some splendid cricket, but their deeds<br /> +Were not colossal, and our own brave Tennant<br /> +Proved himself all as good a man as they.</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">* * * * *</p> +<p class="poetry">Through them we greet our Mother. In +their coming,<br /> +We shake our dear old England by the hand<br /> +And watch space dwindling, while the shrinking world<br /> +Collapses into nothing. Mark me well,<br /> +Matter as swift as swiftest thought shall fly,<br /> +And space itself be nowhere. Future Tinleys<br /> +Shall bowl from London to our Christ Church Tennants,<br /> +And all the runs for all the stumps be made<br /> +In flying baskets which shall come and go<br /> +And do the circuit round about the globe<br /> +Within ten seconds. Do not check me with<br /> +The roundness of the intervening world,<br /> +The winds, the mountain ranges, and the seas—<br /> +These hinder nothing; for the leathern sphere,<br /> +Like to a planetary satellite,<br /> +Shall wheel its faithful orb and strike the bails<br /> +Clean from the centre of the middle stump.</p> +<p style="text-align: center" class="poetry">* * * * *</p> +<p class="poetry">Mirrors shall hang suspended in the air,<br /> +Fixed by a chain between two chosen stars,<br /> +And every eye shall be a telescope<br /> +To read the passing shadows from the world.<br /> +Such games shall be hereafter, but as yet<br /> +We lay foundations only.</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Claud</span>. Thou must be drunk, +Horatio.</p> +<p class="poetry"> <span +class="smcap">Hor</span>. +So I am.</p> +<h2>Footnotes</h2> +<p><a name="footnote180"></a><a href="#citation180" +class="footnote">[180]</a> We were asked by a learned +brother philosopher who saw this article in MS. what we meant by +alluding to rudimentary organs in machines. Could we, he +asked, give any example of such organs? We pointed to the +little protuberance at the bottom of the bowl of our tobacco +pipe. This organ was originally designed for the same +purpose as the rim at the bottom of a tea-cup, which is but +another form of the same function. Its purpose was to keep +the heat of the pipe from marking the table on which it +rested. Originally, as we have seen in very early tobacco +pipes, this protuberance was of a very different shape to what it +is now. It was broad at the bottom and flat, so that while +the pipe was being smoked the bowl might rest upon the +table. Use and disuse have here come into play and served +to reduce the function to its present rudimentary +condition. That these rudimentary organs are rarer in +machinery than in animal life is owing to the more prompt action +of the human selection as compared with the slower but even surer +operation of natural selection. Man may make mistakes; in +the long run nature never does so. We have only given an +imperfect example, but the intelligent reader will supply himself +with illustrations.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CANTERBURY PIECES***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 3279-h.htm or 3279-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/7/3279 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced from the 1914 A. C. Fifield edition by David +Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +SAMUEL BUTLER'S CANTERBURY PIECES + +by Samuel Butler + + + + +Contents: + +Darwin on the Origin of Species + A Dialogue + Barrel-Organs + Letter: 21 Feb 1863 + Letter: 14 Mar 1863 + Letter: 18 Mar 1863 + Letter: 11 Apr 1863 + Letter: 22 June 1863 +Darwin Among the Machines +Lucubratio Ebria +A note on "The Tempest" +The English Cricketers + + +DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES + + + +Prefatory Note + +As the following dialogue embodies the earliest fruits of Butler's +study of the works of Charles Darwin, with whose name his own was +destined in later years to be so closely connected, and thus +possesses an interest apart from its intrinsic merit, a few words as +to the circumstances in which it was published will not be out of +place. + +Butler arrived in New Zealand in October, 1859, and about the same +time Charles Darwin's ORIGIN OF SPECIES was published. Shortly +afterwards the book came into Butler's hands. He seems to have read +it carefully, and meditated upon it. The result of his meditations +took the shape of the following dialogue, which was published on 20 +December, 1862, in the PRESS which had been started in the town of +Christ Church in May, 1861. The dialogue did not by any means pass +unnoticed. On the 17th of January, 1863, a leading article (of +course unsigned) appeared in the PRESS, under the title "Barrel- +Organs," discussing Darwin's theories, and incidentally referring to +Butler's dialogue. A reply to this article, signed A .M., appeared +on the 21st of February, and the correspondence was continued until +the 22nd of June, 1863. The dialogue itself, which was unearthed +from the early files of the PRESS, mainly owing to the exertions of +Mr. Henry Festing Jones, was reprinted, together with the +correspondence that followed its publication, in the PRESS of June 8 +and 15, 1912. Soon after the original appearance of Butler's +dialogue a copy of it fell into the hands of Charles Darwin, possibly +sent to him by a friend in New Zealand. Darwin was sufficiently +struck by it to forward it to the editor of some magazine, which has +not been identified, with the following letter:- + + +Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E. +March 24 [1863]. + +(Private). + +Mr. Darwin takes the liberty to send by this post to the Editor a New +Zealand newspaper for the very improbable chance of the Editor having +some spare space to reprint a Dialogue on Species. This Dialogue, +written by some [sic] quite unknown to Mr. Darwin, is remarkable from +its spirit and from giving so clear and accurate a view of Mr. D. +[sic] theory. It is also remarkable from being published in a colony +exactly 12 years old, in which it might have [sic] thought only +material interests would have been regarded. + + +The autograph of this letter was purchased from Mr. Tregaskis by Mr. +Festing Jones, and subsequently presented by him to the Museum at +Christ Church. The letter cannot be dated with certainty, but since +Butler's dialogue was published in December, 1862, and it is at least +probable that the copy of the PRESS which contained it was sent to +Darwin shortly after it appeared, we may conclude with tolerable +certainty that the letter was written in March, 1863. Further light +is thrown on the controversy by a correspondence which took place +between Butler and Darwin in 1865, shortly after Butler's return to +England. During that year Butler had published a pamphlet entitled +THE EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST AS GIVEN BY THE +FOUR EVANGELISTS CRITICALLY EXAMINED, of which he afterwards +incorporated the substance into THE FAIR HAVEN. Butler sent a copy +of this pamphlet to Darwin, and in due course received the following +reply:- + + +Down, Bromley, Kent. +September 30 [1865]. + +My dear Sir,--I am much obliged to you for so kindly sending me your +Evidences, etc. We have read it with much interest. It seems to me +written with much force, vigour, and clearness; and the main argument +to me is quite new. I particularly agree with all you say in your +preface. + +I do not know whether you intend to return to New Zealand, and, if +you are inclined to write, I should much like to know what your +future plans are. + +My health has been so bad during the last five months that I have +been confined to my bedroom. Had it been otherwise I would have +asked you if you could have spared the time to have paid us a visit; +but this at present is impossible, and I fear will be so for some +time. + +With my best thanks for your present, + +I remain, +My dear Sir, +Yours very faithfully, +Charles Darwin. + + +To this letter Butler replied as follows:- + + +15 Clifford's Inn, E.C. +October 1st, 1865. + +Dear Sir,--I knew you were ill and I never meant to give you the +fatigue of writing to me. Please do not trouble yourself to do so +again. As you kindly ask my plans I may say that, though I very +probably may return to New Zealand in three or four years, I have no +intention of doing so before that time. My study is art, and +anything else I may indulge in is only by-play; it may cause you some +little wonder that at my age I should have started as an art student, +and I may perhaps be permitted to explain that this was always my +wish for years, that I had begun six years ago, as soon as ever I +found that I could not conscientiously take orders; my father so +strongly disapproved of the idea that I gave it up and went out to +New Zealand, stayed there for five years, worked like a common +servant, though on a run of my own, and sold out little more than a +year ago, thinking that prices were going to fall--which they have +since done. Being then rather at a loss what to do and my capital +being all locked up, I took the opportunity to return to my old plan, +and have been studying for the last ten years unremittingly. I hope +that in three or four years more I shall be able to go on very well +by myself, and then I may go back to New Zealand or no as +circumstances shall seem to render advisable. I must apologise for +so much detail, but hardly knew how to explain myself without it. + +I always delighted in your ORIGIN OF SPECIES as soon as I saw it out +in New Zealand--not as knowing anything whatsoever of natural +history, but it enters into so many deeply interesting questions, or +rather it suggests so many, that it thoroughly fascinated me. I +therefore feel all the greater pleasure that my pamphlet should +please you, however full of errors. + +The first dialogue on the ORIGIN which I wrote in the PRESS called +forth a contemptuous rejoinder from (I believe) the Bishop of +Wellington--(please do not mention the name, though I think that at +this distance of space and time I might mention it to yourself) I +answered it with the enclosed, which may amuse you. I assumed +another character because my dialogue was in my hearing very severely +criticised by two or three whose opinion I thought worth having, and +I deferred to their judgment in my next. I do not think I should do +so now. I fear you will be shocked at an appeal to the periodicals +mentioned in my letter, but they form a very staple article of bush +diet, and we used to get a good deal of superficial knowledge out of +them. I feared to go in too heavy on the side of the ORIGIN, because +I thought that, having said my say as well as I could, I had better +now take a less impassioned tone; but I was really exceedingly angry. + +Please do not trouble yourself to answer this, and believe me, + +Yours most sincerely, +S. Butler. + + +This elicited a second letter from Darwin:- + + +Down, Bromley, Kent. +October 6. + +My dear Sir,--I thank you sincerely for your kind and frank letter, +which has interested me greatly. What a singular and varied career +you have already run. Did you keep any journal or notes in New +Zealand? For it strikes me that with your rare powers of writing you +might make a very interesting work descriptive of a colonist's life +in New Zealand. + +I return your printed letter, which you might like to keep. It has +amused me, especially the part in which you criticise yourself. To +appreciate the letter fully I ought to have read the bishop's letter, +which seems to have been very rich. + +You tell me not to answer your note, but I could not resist the wish +to thank you for your letter. + +With every good wish, believe me, my dear Sir, + +Yours sincerely, +Ch. Darwin. + + +It is curious that in this correspondence Darwin makes no reference +to the fact that he had already had in his possession a copy of +Butler's dialogue and had endeavoured to induce the editor of an +English periodical to reprint it. It is possible that we have not +here the whole of the correspondence which passed between Darwin and +Butler at this period, and this theory is supported by the fact that +Butler seems to take for granted that Darwin knew all about the +appearance of the original dialogue on the ORIGIN OF SPECIES in the +PRESS. + +Enough, however, has been given to explain the correspondence which +the publication of the dialogue occasioned. I do not know what +authority Butler had for supposing that Charles John Abraham, Bishop +of Wellington, was the author of the article entitled "Barrel- +Organs," and the "Savoyard" of the subsequent controversy. However, +at that time Butler was deep in the counsels of the PRESS, and he may +have received private information on the subject. Butler's own +reappearance over the initials A. M. is sufficiently explained in his +letter to Darwin. + +It is worth observing that Butler appears in the dialogue and ensuing +correspondence in a character very different from that which he was +later to assume. Here we have him as an ardent supporter of Charles +Darwin, and adopting a contemptuous tone with regard to the claims of +Erasmus Darwin to have sown the seed which was afterwards raised to +maturity by his grandson. It would be interesting to know if it was +this correspondence that first turned Butler's attention seriously to +the works of the older evolutionists and ultimately led to the +production of EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW, in which the indebtedness of +Charles Darwin to Erasmus Darwin, Buffon and Lamarck is demonstrated +with such compelling force. + + + +DARWIN ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES: A Dialogue +[From the Press, 20 December, 1862.] + + + +F. So you have finished Darwin? Well, how did you like him? + +C. You cannot expect me to like him. He is so hard and logical, and +he treats his subject with such an intensity of dry reasoning without +giving himself the loose rein for a single moment from one end of the +book to the other, that I must confess I have found it a great effort +to read him through. + +F. But I fancy that, if you are to be candid, you will admit that +the fault lies rather with yourself than with the book. Your +knowledge of natural history is so superficial that you are +constantly baffled by terms of which you do not understand the +meaning, and in which you consequently lose all interest. I admit, +however, that the book is hard and laborious reading; and, moreover, +that the writer appears to have predetermined from the commencement +to reject all ornament, and simply to argue from beginning to end, +from point to point, till he conceived that he had made his case +sufficiently clear. + +C. I agree with you, and I do not like his book partly on that very +account. He seems to have no eye but for the single point at which +he is aiming. + +F. But is not that a great virtue in a writer? + +C. A great virtue, but a cold and hard one. + +F. In my opinion it is a grave and wise one. Moreover, I conceive +that the judicial calmness which so strongly characterises the whole +book, the absence of all passion, the air of extreme and anxious +caution which pervades it throughout, are rather the result of +training and artificially acquired self-restraint than symptoms of a +cold and unimpassioned nature; at any rate, whether the lawyer-like +faculty of swearing both sides of a question and attaching the full +value to both is acquired or natural in Darwin's case, you will admit +that such a habit of mind is essential for any really valuable and +scientific investigation. + +C. I admit it. Science is all head--she has no heart at all. + +F. You are right. But a man of science may be a man of other things +besides science, and though he may have, and ought to have no heart +during a scientific investigation, yet when he has once come to a +conclusion he may be hearty enough in support of it, and in his other +capacities may be of as warm a temperament as even you can desire. + +C. I tell you I do not like the book. + +F. May I catechise you a little upon it? + +C. To your heart's content. + +F. Firstly, then, I will ask you what is the one great impression +that you have derived from reading it; or, rather, what do you think +to be the main impression that Darwin wanted you to derive? + +C. Why, I should say some such thing as the following--that men are +descended from monkeys, and monkeys from something else, and so on +back to dogs and horses and hedge-sparrows and pigeons and cinipedes +(what is a cinipede?) and cheesemites, and then through the plants +down to duckweed. + +F. You express the prevalent idea concerning the book, which as you +express it appears nonsensical enough. + +C. How, then, should you express it yourself? + +F. Hand me the book and I will read it to you through from beginning +to end, for to express it more briefly than Darwin himself has done +is almost impossible. + +C. That is nonsense; as you asked me what impression I derived from +the book, so now I ask you, and I charge you to answer me. + +F. Well, I assent to the justice of your demand, but I shall comply +with it by requiring your assent to a few principal statements +deducible from the work. + +C. So be it. + +F. You will grant then, firstly, that all plants and animals +increase very rapidly, and that unless they were in some manner +checked, the world would soon be overstocked. Take cats, for +instance; see with what rapidity they breed on the different runs in +this province where there is little or nothing to check them; or even +take the more slowly breeding sheep, and see how soon 500 ewes become +5000 sheep under favourable circumstances. Suppose this sort of +thing to go on for a hundred million years or so, and where would be +the standing room for all the different plants and animals that would +be now existing, did they not materially check each other's increase, +or were they not liable in some way to be checked by other causes? +Remember the quail; how plentiful they were until the cats came with +the settlers from Europe. Why were they so abundant? Simply because +they had plenty to eat, and could get sufficient shelter from the +hawks to multiply freely. The cats came, and tussocks stood the poor +little creatures in but poor stead. The cats increased and +multiplied because they had plenty of food and no natural enemy to +check them. Let them wait a year or two, till they have materially +reduced the larks also, as they have long since reduced the quail, +and let them have to depend solely upon occasional dead lambs and +sheep, and they will find a certain rather formidable natural enemy +called Famine rise slowly but inexorably against them and slaughter +them wholesale. The first proposition then to which I demand your +assent is that all plants and animals tend to increase in a high +geometrical ratio; that they all endeavour to get that which is +necessary for their own welfare; that, as unfortunately there are +conflicting interests in Nature, collisions constantly occur between +different animals and plants, whereby the rate of increase of each +species is very materially checked. Do you admit this? + +C. Of course; it is obvious. + +F. You admit then that there is in Nature a perpetual warfare of +plant, of bird, of beast, of fish, of reptile; that each is striving +selfishly for its own advantage, and will get what it wants if it +can. + +C. If what? + +F. If it can. How comes it then that sometimes it cannot? Simply +because all are not of equal strength, and the weaker must go to the +wall. + +C. You seem to gloat over your devilish statement. + +F. Gloat or no gloat, is it true or no? I am not one of those + + +"Who would unnaturally better Nature +By making out that that which is, is not." + + +If the law of Nature is "struggle," it is better to look the matter +in the face and adapt yourself to the conditions of your existence. +Nature will not bow to you, neither will you mend matters by patting +her on the back and telling her that she is not so black as she is +painted. My dear fellow, my dear sentimental friend, do you eat +roast beef or roast mutton? + +C. Drop that chaff and go back to the matter in hand. + +F. To continue then with the cats. Famine comes and tests them, so +to speak; the weaker, the less active, the less cunning, and the less +enduring cats get killed off, and only the strongest and smartest +cats survive; there will be no favouritism shown to animals in a +state of Nature; they will be weighed in the balance, and the weight +of a hair will sometimes decide whether they shall be found wanting +or no. This being the case, the cats having been thus naturally +culled and the stronger having been preserved, there will be a +gradual tendency to improve manifested among the cats, even as among +our own mobs of sheep careful culling tends to improve the flock. + +C. This, too, is obvious. + +F. Extend this to all animals and plants, and the same thing will +hold good concerning them all. I shall now change the ground and +demand assent to another statement. You know that though the +offspring of all plants and animals is in the main like the parent, +yet that in almost every instance slight deviations occur, and that +sometimes there is even considerable divergence from the parent type. +It must also be admitted that these slight variations are often, or +at least sometimes, capable of being perpetuated by inheritance. +Indeed, it is only in consequence of this fact that our sheep and +cattle have been capable of so much improvement. + +C. I admit this. + +F. Then the whole matter lies in a nutshell. Suppose that hundreds +of millions of years ago there existed upon this earth a single +primordial form of the very lowest life, or suppose that three or +four such primordial forms existed. Change of climate, of food, of +any of the circumstances which surrounded any member of this first +and lowest class of life would tend to alter it in some slight +manner, and the alteration would have a tendency to perpetuate itself +by inheritance. Many failures would doubtless occur, but with the +lapse of time slight deviations would undoubtedly become permanent +and inheritable, those alone being perpetuated which were beneficial +to individuals in whom they appeared. Repeat the process with each +deviation and we shall again obtain divergences (in the course of +ages) differing more strongly from the ancestral form, and again +those that enable their possessor to struggle for existence most +efficiently will be preserved. Repeat this process for millions and +millions of years, and, as it is impossible to assign any limit to +variability, it would seem as though the present diversities of +species must certainly have come about sooner or later, and that +other divergences will continue to come about to the end of time. +The great agent in this development of life has been competition. +This has culled species after species, and secured that those alone +should survive which were best fitted for the conditions by which +they found themselves surrounded. Endeavour to take a bird's-eye +view of the whole matter. See battle after battle, first in one part +of the world, then in another, sometimes raging more fiercely and +sometimes less; even as in human affairs war has always existed in +some part of the world from the earliest known periods, and probably +always will exist. While a species is conquering in one part of the +world it is being subdued in another, and while its conquerors are +indulging in their triumph down comes the fiat for their being culled +and drafted out, some to life and some to death, and so forth ad +infinitum. + +C. It is very horrid. + +F. No more horrid than that you should eat roast mutton or boiled +beef. + +C. But it is utterly subversive of Christianity; for if this theory +is true the fall of man is entirely fabulous; and if the fall, then +the redemption, these two being inseparably bound together. + +F. My dear friend, there I am not bound to follow you. I believe in +Christianity, and I believe in Darwin. The two appear +irreconcilable. My answer to those who accuse me of inconsistency +is, that both being undoubtedly true, the one must be reconcilable +with the other, and that the impossibility of reconciling them must +be only apparent and temporary, not real. The reconciliation will +never be effected by planing a little off the one and a little off +the other and then gluing them together with glue. People will not +stand this sort of dealing, and the rejection of the one truth or of +the other is sure to follow upon any such attempt being persisted in. +The true course is to use the freest candour in the acknowledgment of +the difficulty; to estimate precisely its real value, and obtain a +correct knowledge of its precise form. Then and then only is there a +chance of any satisfactory result being obtained. For unless the +exact nature of the difficulty be known first, who can attempt to +remove it? Let me re-state the matter once again. All animals and +plants in a state of Nature are undergoing constant competition for +the necessaries of life. Those that can hold their ground hold it; +those that cannot hold it are destroyed. But as it also happens that +slight changes of food, of habit, of climate, of circumjacent +accident, and so forth, produce a slight tendency to vary in the +offspring of any plant or animal, it follows that among these slight +variations some may be favourable to the individual in whom they +appear, and may place him in a better position than his fellows as +regards the enemies with whom his interests come into collision. In +this case he will have a better chance of surviving than his fellows; +he will thus stand also a better chance of continuing the species, +and in his offspring his own slight divergence from the parent type +will be apt to appear. However slight the divergence, if it be +beneficial to the individual it is likely to preserve the individual +and to reappear in his offspring, and this process may be repeated ad +infinitum. Once grant these two things, and the rest is a mere +matter of time and degree. That the immense differences between the +camel and the pig should have come about in six thousand years is not +believable; but in six hundred million years it is not incredible, +more especially when we consider that by the assistance of geology a +very perfect chain has been formed between the two. Let this +instance suffice. Once grant the principles, once grant that +competition is a great power in Nature, and that changes of +circumstances and habits produce a tendency to variation in the +offspring (no matter how slight such variation may be), and unless +you can define the possible limit of such variation during an +infinite series of generations, unless you can show that there is a +limit, and that Darwin's theory over-steps it, you have no right to +reject his conclusions. As for the objections to the theory, Darwin +has treated them with admirable candour, and our time is too brief to +enter into them here. My recommendation to you is that you should +read the book again. + +C. Thank you, but for my own part I confess to caring very little +whether my millionth ancestor was a gorilla or no; and as Darwin's +book does not please me, I shall not trouble myself further about the +matter. + + + +BARREL-ORGANS: [From the Press, 17 January, 1863.] + + + +Dugald Stewart in his Dissertation on the Progress of Metaphysics +says: "On reflecting on the repeated reproduction of ancient +paradoxes by modern authors one is almost tempted to suppose that +human invention is limited, like a barrel-organ, to a specific number +of tunes." + +It would be a very amusing and instructive task for a man of reading +and reflection to note down the instances he meets with of these old +tunes coming up again and again in regular succession with hardly any +change of note, and with all the old hitches and involuntary squeaks +that the barrel-organ had played in days gone by. It is most amusing +to see the old quotations repeated year after year and volume after +volume, till at last some more careful enquirer turns to the passage +referred to and finds that they have all been taken in and have +followed the lead of the first daring inventor of the mis-statement. +Hallam has had the courage, in the supplement to his History of the +Middle Ages, p. 398, to acknowledge an error of this sort that he has +been led into. + +But the particular instance of barrel-organism that is present to our +minds just now is the Darwinian theory of the development of species +by natural selection, of which we hear so much. This is nothing new, +but a rechauffee of the old story that his namesake, Dr. Darwin, +served up in the end of the last century to Priestley and his +admirers, and Lord Monboddo had cooked in the beginning of the same +century. We have all heard of his theory that man was developed +directly from the monkey, and that we all lost our tails by sitting +too much upon that appendage. + +We learn from that same great and cautious writer Hallam in his +History of Literature that there are traces of this theory and of +other popular theories of the present day in the works of Giordano +Bruno, the Neapolitan who was burnt at Rome by the Inquisition in +1600. It is curious to read the titles of his works and to think of +Dugald Stewart's remark about barrel-organs. For instance he wrote +on "The Plurality of Worlds," and on the universal "Monad," a name +familiar enough to the readers of Vestiges of Creation. He was a +Pantheist, and, as Hallam says, borrowed all his theories from the +eclectic philosophers, from Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists, and +ultimately they were no doubt of Oriental origin. This is just what +has been shown again and again to be the history of German Pantheism; +it is a mere barrel-organ repetition of the Brahman metaphysics found +in Hindu cosmogonies. Bruno's theory regarding development of +species was in Hallam's words: "There is nothing so small or so +unimportant but that a portion of spirit dwells in it; and this +spiritual substance requires a proper subject to become a plant or an +animal"; and Hallam in a note on this passage observes how the modern +theories of equivocal generation correspond with Bruno's. + +No doubt Hallam is right in saying that they are all of Oriental +origin. Pythagoras borrowed from thence his kindred theory of the +metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls. But he was more +consistent than modern philosophers; he recognised a downward +development as well as an upward, and made morality and immorality +the crisis and turning-point of change--a bold lion developed into a +brave warrior, a drunken sot developed into a wallowing pig, and +Darwin's slave-making ants, p. 219, would have been formerly +Virginian cotton and tobacco growers. + +Perhaps Prometheus was the first Darwin of antiquity, for he is said +to have begun his creation from below, and after passing from the +invertebrate to the sub-vertebrate, from thence to the backbone, from +the backbone to the mammalia, and from the mammalia to the manco- +cerebral, he compounded man of each and all:- + + +Fertur Prometheus addere principi +Limo coactus particulam undique +Desectam et insani leonis +Vim stomacho apposuisse nostro. + + +One word more about barrel-organs. We have heard on the undoubted +authority of ear and eyewitnesses, that in a neighbouring province +there is a church where the psalms are sung to a barrel-organ, but +unfortunately the psalm tunes come in the middle of the set, and the +jigs and waltzes have to be played through before the psalm can +start. Just so is it with Darwinism and all similar theories. All +his fantasias, as we saw in a late article, are made to come round at +last to religious questions, with which really and truly they have +nothing to do, but were it not for their supposed effect upon +religion, no one would waste his time in reading about the +possibility of Polar bears swimming about and catching flies so long +that they at last get the fins they wish for. + + + +DARWIN ON SPECIES: [From the Press, 21 February, 1863.] + + + +To the Editor of the Press. + +Sir--In two of your numbers you have already taken notice of Darwin's +theory of the origin of species; I would venture to trespass upon +your space in order to criticise briefly both your notices. + +The first is evidently the composition of a warm adherent of the +theory in question; the writer overlooks all the real difficulties in +the way of accepting it, and, caught by the obvious truth of much +that Darwin says, has rushed to the conclusion that all is equally +true. He writes with the tone of a partisan, of one deficient in +scientific caution, and from the frequent repetition of the same +ideas manifest in his dialogue one would be led to suspect that he +was but little versed in habits of literary composition and +philosophical argument. Yet he may fairly claim the merit of having +written in earnest. He has treated a serious subject seriously +according to his lights; and though his lights are not brilliant +ones, yet he has apparently done his best to show the theory on which +he is writing in its most favourable aspect. He is rash, evidently +well satisfied with himself, very possibly mistaken, and just one of +those persons who (without intending it) are more apt to mislead than +to lead the few people that put their trust in them. A few will +always follow them, for a strong faith is always more or less +impressive upon persons who are too weak to have any definite and +original faith of their own. The second writer, however, assumes a +very different tone. His arguments to all practical intents and +purposes run as follows:- + +Old fallacies are constantly recurring. Therefore Darwin's theory is +a fallacy. + +They come again and again, like tunes in a barrel-organ. Therefore +Darwin's theory is a fallacy. + +Hallam made a mistake, and in his History of the Middle Ages, p. 398, +he corrects himself. Therefore Darwin's theory is wrong. + +Dr. Darwin in the last century said the same thing as his son or +grandson says now--will the writer of the article refer to anything +bearing on natural selection and the struggle for existence in Dr. +Darwin's work?--and a foolish nobleman said something foolish about +monkey's tails. Therefore Darwin's theory is wrong. + +Giordano Bruno was burnt in the year 1600 A.D.; he was a Pantheist; +therefore Darwin's theory is wrong. + +And finally, as a clinching argument, in one of the neighbouring +settlements there is a barrel-organ which plays its psalm tunes in +the middle of its jigs and waltzes. After this all lingering doubts +concerning the falsehood of Darwin's theory must be at an end, and +any person of ordinary common sense must admit that the theory of +development by natural selection is unwarranted by experience and +reason. + +The articles conclude with an implied statement that Darwin supposes +the Polar bear to swim about catching flies for so long a period that +at last it gets the fins it wishes for. + +Now, however sceptical I may yet feel about the truth of all Darwin's +theory, I cannot sit quietly by and see him misrepresented in such a +scandalously slovenly manner. What Darwin does say is that sometimes +diversified and changed habits may be observed in individuals of the +same species; that is that there are eccentric animals just as there +are eccentric men. He adduces a few instances and winds up by saying +that "in North America the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for +hours with widely open mouth, thus catching--almost like a whale-- +insects in the water." This and nothing more. (See pp. 201 and +202.) + +Because Darwin says that a bear of rather eccentric habits happened +to be seen by Hearne swimming for hours and catching insects almost +like a whale, your writer (with a carelessness hardly to be +reprehended in sufficiently strong terms) asserts by implication that +Darwin supposes the whale to be developed from the bear by the latter +having had a strong desire to possess fins. This is disgraceful. + +I can hardly be mistaken in supposing that I have quoted the passage +your writer alludes to. Should I be in error, I trust he will give +the reference to the place in which Darwin is guilty of the nonsense +that is fathered upon him in your article. + +It must be remembered that there have been few great inventions in +physics or discoveries in science which have not been foreshadowed to +a certain extent by speculators who were indeed mistaken, but were +yet more or less on the right scent. Day is heralded by dawn, Apollo +by Aurora, and thus it often happens that a real discovery may wear +to the careless observer much the same appearance as an exploded +fallacy, whereas in fact it is widely different. As much caution is +due in the rejection of a theory as in the acceptation of it. The +first of your writers is too hasty in accepting, the second in +refusing even a candid examination. + +Now, when the Saturday Review, the Cornhill Magazine, Once a Week, +and Macmillan's Magazine, not to mention other periodicals, have +either actually and completely as in the case of the first two, +provisionally as in the last mentioned, given their adherence to the +theory in question, it may be taken for granted that the arguments in +its favour are sufficiently specious to have attracted the attention +and approbation of a considerable number of well-educated men in +England. Three months ago the theory of development by natural +selection was openly supported by Professor Huxley before the British +Association at Cambridge. I am not adducing Professor Huxley's +advocacy as a proof that Darwin is right (indeed, Owen opposed him +tooth and nail), but as a proof that there is sufficient to be said +on Darwin's side to demand more respectful attention than your last +writer has thought it worth while to give it. A theory which the +British Association is discussing with great care in England is not +to be set down by off-hand nicknames in Canterbury. + +To those, however, who do feel an interest in the question, I would +venture to give a word or two of advice. I would strongly deprecate +forming a hurried opinion for or against the theory. Naturalists in +Europe are canvassing the matter with the utmost diligence, and a few +years must show whether they will accept the theory or no. It is +plausible; that can be decided by no one. Whether it is true or no +can be decided only among naturalists themselves. We are outsiders, +and most of us must be content to sit on the stairs till the great +men come forth and give us the benefit of their opinion. + +I am, Sir, +Your obedient servant, +A. M. + + + +DARWIN ON SPECIES: [From the Press, March 14th, 1863.] + + + +To the Editor of the Press. + +Sir--A correspondent signing himself "A. M." in the issue of February +21st says: --"Will the writer (of an article on barrel-organs) refer +to anything bearing upon natural selection and the struggle for +existence in Dr. Darwin's work?" This is one of the trade forms by +which writers imply that there is no such passage, and yet leave a +loophole if they are proved wrong. I will, however, furnish him with +a passage from the notes of Darwin's Botanic Garden:- + +"I am acquainted with a philosopher who, contemplating this subject, +thinks it not impossible that the first insects were anthers or +stigmas of flowers, which had by some means loosed themselves from +their parent plant; and that many insects have gradually in long +process of time been formed from these, some acquiring wings, others +fins, and others claws, from their ceaseless efforts to procure their +food or to secure themselves from injury. The anthers or stigmas are +therefore separate beings." + +This passage contains the germ of Mr. Charles Darwin's theory of the +origin of species by natural selection:- + +"Analogy would lead me to the belief that all animals and plants have +descended from one prototype." + +Here are a few specimens, his illustrations of the theory:- + +"There seems to me no great difficulty in believing that natural +selection has actually converted a swim-bladder into a lung or organ +used exclusively for respiration." "A swim-bladder has apparently +been converted into an air-breathing lung." "We must be cautious in +concluding that a bat could not have been formed by natural selection +from an animal which at first could only glide through the air." "I +can see no insuperable difficulty in further believing it possible +that the membrane-connected fingers and forearm of the galeopithecus +might be greatly lengthened by natural selection, and this, as far as +the organs of flight are concerned, would convert it into a bat." +"The framework of bones being the same in the hand of a man, wing of +a bat, fin of a porpoise, and leg of a horse, the same number of +vertebrae forming the neck of the giraffe and of the elephant, and +innumerable other such facts, at once explain themselves on the +theory of descent with slow and slight successive modifications." + +I do not mean to go through your correspondent's letter, otherwise "I +could hardly reprehend in sufficiently strong terms" (and all that +sort of thing) the perversion of what I said about Giordano Bruno. +But "ex uno disce omnes"--I am, etc., + +"THE SAVOYARD." + + + +DARWIN ON SPECIES: [From the Press, 18 March, 1863.] + + + +To the Editor of the Press. + +Sir--The "Savoyard" of last Saturday has shown that he has perused +Darwin's Botanic Garden with greater attention than myself. I am +obliged to him for his correction of my carelessness, and have not +the smallest desire to make use of any loopholes to avoid being +"proved wrong." Let, then, the "Savoyard's" assertion that Dr. +Darwin had to a certain extent forestalled Mr. C. Darwin stand, and +let my implied denial that in the older Darwin's works passages +bearing on natural selection, or the struggle for existence, could be +found, go for nought, or rather let it be set down against me. + +What follows? Has the "Savoyard" (supposing him to be the author of +the article on barrel-organs) adduced one particle of real argument +the more to show that the real Darwin's theory is wrong? + +The elder Darwin writes in a note that "he is acquainted with a +philosopher who thinks it not impossible that the first insects were +the anthers or stigmas of flowers, which by some means, etc. etc." +This is mere speculation, not a definite theory, and though the +passage above as quoted by the" Savoyard" certainly does contain the +germ of Darwin's theory, what is it more than the crudest and most +unshapen germ? And in what conceivable way does this discovery of +the egg invalidate the excellence of the chicken? + +Was there ever a great theory yet which was not more or less +developed from previous speculations which were all to a certain +extent wrong, and all ridiculed, perhaps not undeservedly, at the +time of their appearance? There is a wide difference between a +speculation and a theory. A speculation involves the notion of a man +climbing into a lofty position, and descrying a somewhat remote +object which he cannot fully make out. A theory implies that the +theorist has looked long and steadfastly till he is clear in his own +mind concerning the nature of the thing which he is beholding. I +submit that the "Savoyard" has unfairly made use of the failure of +certain speculations in order to show that a distinct theory is +untenable. + +Let it be granted that Darwin's theory has been foreshadowed by +numerous previous writers. Grant the "Savoyard" his Giordano Bruno, +and give full weight to the barrel-organ in a neighbouring +settlement, I would still ask, has the theory of natural development +of species ever been placed in anything approaching its present clear +and connected form before the appearance of Mr. Darwin's book? Has +it ever received the full attention of the scientific world as a duly +organised theory, one presented in a tangible shape and demanding +investigation, as the conclusion arrived at by a man of known +scientific attainments after years of patient toil? The upshot of +the barrel-organs article was to answer this question in the +affirmative and to pooh-pooh all further discussion. + +It would be mere presumption on my part either to attack or defend +Darwin, but my indignation was roused at seeing him misrepresented +and treated disdainfully. I would wish, too, that the "Savoyard" +would have condescended to notice that little matter of the bear. I +have searched my copy of Darwin again and again to find anything +relating to the subject except what I have quoted in my previous +letter. + +I am, Sir, your obedient servant, +A. M. + + + +DARWIN ON SPECIES: [From the Press, April 11th, 1863.] + + + +To the Editor of the Press. + +Sir--Your correspondent "A. M." is pertinacious on the subject of the +bear being changed into a whale, which I said Darwin contemplated as +not impossible. I did not take the trouble in any former letter to +answer him on that point, as his language was so intemperate. He has +modified his tone in his last letter, and really seems open to the +conviction that he may be the "careless" writer after all; and so on +reflection I have determined to give him the opportunity of doing me +justice. + +In his letter of February 21 he says: "I cannot sit by and see +Darwin misrepresented in such a scandalously slovenly manner. What +Darwin does say is 'that SOMETIMES diversified and changed habits may +be observed in individuals of the same species; that is, that there +are certain eccentric animals as there are certain eccentric men. He +adduces a few instances, and winds up by saying that in North America +the black bear was seen by Hearne swimming for hours with widely open +mouth, thus catching, ALMOST LIKE A WHALE, insects in the water.' +THIS, AND NOTHING MORE, pp. 201, 202." + +Then follows a passage about my carelessness, which (he says) is +hardly to be reprehended in sufficiently strong terms, and he ends +with saying: "This is disgraceful." + +Now you may well suppose that I was a little puzzled at the seeming +audacity of a writer who should adopt this style, when the words +which follow his quotation from Darwin are (in the edition from which +I quoted) as follows: "Even in so extreme a case as this, if the +supply of insects were constant, and if better adapted competitors +did not already exist in the country, I can see no difficulty in a +race of bears being rendered by natural selection more and more +aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, +till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale." + +Now this passage was a remarkable instance of the idea that I was +illustrating in the article on "Barrel-organs," because Buffon in his +Histoire Naturelle had conceived a theory of degeneracy (the exact +converse of Darwin's theory of ascension) by which the bear might +pass into a seal, and that into a whale. Trusting now to the +fairness of "A. M." I leave to him to say whether he has quoted from +the same edition as I have, and whether the additional words I have +quoted are in his edition, and if so whether he has not been guilty +of a great injustice to me; and if they are not in his edition, +whether he has not been guilty of great haste and "carelessness" in +taking for granted that I have acted in so "disgraceful" a manner. + +I am, Sir, etc., +"The Savoyard," or player +on Barrel-organs. + +(The paragraph in question has been the occasion of much discussion. +The only edition in our hands is the third, seventh thousand, which +contains the paragraph as quoted by "A. M." We have heard that it is +different in earlier editions, but have not been able to find one. +The difference between "A. M." and "The Savoyard" is clearly one of +different editions. Darwin appears to have been ashamed of the +inconsequent inference suggested, and to have withdrawn it.--Ed. the +Press.) + + + +DARWIN ON SPECIES: [From the Press, 22nd June, 1863.] + + + +To the Editor of the Press. + +Sir--I extract the following from an article in the Saturday Review +of January 10, 1863, on the vertebrated animals of the Zoological +Gardens. + +"As regards the ducks, for example, inter-breeding goes on to a very +great extent among nearly all the genera, which are well represented +in the collection. We think it unfortunate that the details of these +crosses have not hitherto been made public. The Zoological Society +has existed about thirty-five years, and we imagine that evidence +must have been accumulated almost enough to make or mar that part of +Mr. Darwin's well-known argument which rests on what is known of the +phenomena of hybridism. The present list reveals only one fact +bearing on the subject, but that is a noteworthy one, for it +completely overthrows the commonly accepted theory that the mixed +offspring of different species are infertile inter se. At page 15 +(of the list of vertebrated animals living in the gardens of the +Zoological Society of London, Longman and Co., 1862) we find +enumerated three examples of hybrids between two perfectly distinct +species, and even, according to modern classification, between two +distinct genera of ducks, for three or four generations. There can +be little doubt that a series of researches in this branch of +experimental physiology, which might be carried on at no great loss, +would place zoologists in a far better position with regard to a +subject which is one of the most interesting if not one of the most +important in natural history." + +I fear that both you and your readers will be dead sick of Darwin, +but the above is worthy of notice. My compliments to the "Savoyard." + +Your obedient servant, +May 17th. A. M. + + + +DARWIN AMONG THE MACHINES + + + +"Darwin Among the Machines" originally appeared in the Christ Church +PRESS, 13 June, 1863. It was reprinted by Mr. Festing Jones in his +edition of THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER (Fifield, London, 1912, +Kennerley, New York), with a prefatory note pointing out its +connection with the genesis of EREWHON, to which readers desirous of +further information may be referred. + + +[To the Editor of the Press, Christchurch, New Zealand, 13 June, +1863.] + +Sir--There are few things of which the present generation is more +justly proud than of the wonderful improvements which are daily +taking place in all sorts of mechanical appliances. And indeed it is +matter for great congratulation on many grounds. It is unnecessary +to mention these here, for they are sufficiently obvious; our present +business lies with considerations which may somewhat tend to humble +our pride and to make us think seriously of the future prospects of +the human race. If we revert to the earliest primordial types of +mechanical life, to the lever, the wedge, the inclined plane, the +screw and the pulley, or (for analogy would lead us one step further) +to that one primordial type from which all the mechanical kingdom has +been developed, we mean to the lever itself, and if we then examine +the machinery of the Great Eastern, we find ourselves almost +awestruck at the vast development of the mechanical world, at the +gigantic strides with which it has advanced in comparison with the +slow progress of the animal and vegetable kingdom. We shall find it +impossible to refrain from asking ourselves what the end of this +mighty movement is to be. In what direction is it tending? What +will be its upshot? To give a few imperfect hints towards a solution +of these questions is the object of the present letter. + +We have used the words "mechanical life," "the mechanical kingdom," +"the mechanical world" and so forth, and we have done so advisedly, +for as the vegetable kingdom was slowly developed from the mineral, +and as in like manner the animal supervened upon the vegetable, so +now in these last few ages an entirely new kingdom has sprung up, of +which we as yet have only seen what will one day be considered the +antediluvian prototypes of the race. + +We regret deeply that our knowledge both of natural history and of +machinery is too small to enable us to undertake the gigantic task of +classifying machines into the genera and sub-genera, species, +varieties and sub-varieties, and so forth, of tracing the connecting +links between machines of widely different characters, of pointing +out how subservience to the use of man has played that part among +machines which natural selection has performed in the animal and +vegetable kingdoms, of pointing out rudimentary organs {1} which +exist in some few machines, feebly developed and perfectly useless, +yet serving to mark descent from some ancestral type which has either +perished or been modified into some new phase of mechanical +existence. We can only point out this field for investigation; it +must be followed by others whose education and talents have been of a +much higher order than any which we can lay claim to. + +Some few hints we have determined to venture upon, though we do so +with the profoundest diffidence. Firstly, we would remark that as +some of the lowest of the vertebrata attained a far greater size than +has descended to their more highly organised living representatives, +so a diminution in the size of machines has often attended their +development and progress. Take the watch for instance. Examine the +beautiful structure of the little animal, watch the intelligent play +of the minute members which compose it; yet this little creature is +but a development of the cumbrous clocks of the thirteenth century-- +it is no deterioration from them. The day may come when clocks, +which certainly at the present day are not diminishing in bulk, may +be entirely superseded by the universal use of watches, in which case +clocks will become extinct like the earlier saurians, while the watch +(whose tendency has for some years been rather to decrease in size +than the contrary) will remain the only existing type of an extinct +race. + +The views of machinery which we are thus feebly indicating will +suggest the solution of one of the greatest and most mysterious +questions of the day. We refer to the question: What sort of +creature man's next successor in the supremacy of the earth is likely +to be. We have often heard this debated; but it appears to us that +we are ourselves creating our own successors; we are daily adding to +the beauty and delicacy of their physical organisation; we are daily +giving them greater power and supplying by all sorts of ingenious +contrivances that self-regulating, self-acting power which will be to +them what intellect has been to the human race. In the course of +ages we shall find ourselves the inferior race. Inferior in power, +inferior in that moral quality of self-control, we shall look up to +them as the acme of all that the best and wisest man can ever dare to +aim at. No evil passions, no jealousy, no avarice, no impure desires +will disturb the serene might of those glorious creatures. Sin, +shame, and sorrow will have no place among them. Their minds will be +in a state of perpetual calm, the contentment of a spirit that knows +no wants, is disturbed by no regrets. Ambition will never torture +them. Ingratitude will never cause them the uneasiness of a moment. +The guilty conscience, the hope deferred, the pains of exile, the +insolence of office, and the spurns that patient merit of the +unworthy takes--these will be entirely unknown to them. If they want +"feeding" (by the use of which very word we betray our recognition of +them as living organism) they will be attended by patient slaves +whose business and interest it will be to see that they shall want +for nothing. If they are out of order they will be promptly attended +to by physicians who are thoroughly acquainted with their +constitutions; if they die, for even these glorious animals will not +be exempt from that necessary and universal consummation, they will +immediately enter into a new phase of existence, for what machine +dies entirely in every part at one and the same instant? + +We take it that when the state of things shall have arrived which we +have been above attempting to describe, man will have become to the +machine what the horse and the dog are to man. He will continue to +exist, nay even to improve, and will be probably better off in his +state of domestication under the beneficent rule of the machines than +he is in his present wild state. We treat our horses, dogs, cattle, +and sheep, on the whole, with great kindness; we give them whatever +experience teaches us to be best for them, and there can be no doubt +that our use of meat has added to the happiness of the lower animals +far more than it has detracted from it; in like manner it is +reasonable to suppose that the machines will treat us kindly, for +their existence is as dependent upon ours as ours is upon the lower +animals. They cannot kill us and eat us as we do sheep; they will +not only require our services in the parturition of their young +(which branch of their economy will remain always in our hands), but +also in feeding them, in setting them right when they are sick, and +burying their dead or working up their corpses into new machines. It +is obvious that if all the animals in Great Britain save man alone +were to die, and if at the same time all intercourse with foreign +countries were by some sudden catastrophe to be rendered perfectly +impossible, it is obvious that under such circumstances the loss of +human life would be something fearful to contemplate--in like manner +were mankind to cease, the machines would be as badly off or even +worse. The fact is that our interests are inseparable from theirs, +and theirs from ours. Each race is dependent upon the other for +innumerable benefits, and, until the reproductive organs of the +machines have been developed in a manner which we are hardly yet able +to conceive, they are entirely dependent upon man for even the +continuance of their species. It is true that these organs may be +ultimately developed, inasmuch as man's interest lies in that +direction; there is nothing which our infatuated race would desire +more than to see a fertile union between two steam engines; it is +true that machinery is even at this present time employed in +begetting machinery, in becoming the parent of machines often after +its own kind, but the days of flirtation, courtship, and matrimony +appear to be very remote, and indeed can hardly be realised by our +feeble and imperfect imagination. + +Day by day, however, the machines are gaining ground upon us; day by +day we are becoming more subservient to them; more men are daily +bound down as slaves to tend them, more men are daily devoting the +energies of their whole lives to the development of mechanical life. +The upshot is simply a question of time, but that the time will come +when the machines will hold the real supremacy over the world and its +inhabitants is what no person of a truly philosophic mind can for a +moment question. + +Our opinion is that war to the death should be instantly proclaimed +against them. Every machine of every sort should be destroyed by the +well-wisher of his species. Let there be no exceptions made, no +quarter shown; let us at once go back to the primeval condition of +the race. If it be urged that this is impossible under the present +condition of human affairs, this at once proves that the mischief is +already done, that our servitude has commenced in good earnest, that +we have raised a race of beings whom it is beyond our power to +destroy, and that we are not only enslaved but are absolutely +acquiescent in our bondage. + +For the present we shall leave this subject, which we present gratis +to the members of the Philosophical Society. Should they consent to +avail themselves of the vast field which we have pointed out, we +shall endeavour to labour in it ourselves at some future and +indefinite period. + +I am, Sir, etc., +CELLARIUS + + + +LUCUBRATIO EBRIA + + + +"Lucubratio Ebria," like "Darwin Among the Machines," has already +appeared in THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER with a prefatory note by +Mr. Festing Jones, explaining its connection with EREWHON and LIFE +AND HABIT. I need therefore only repeat that it was written by +Butler after his return to England and sent to New Zealand, where it +was published in the PRESS on July 29, 1865. + + +There is a period in the evening, or more generally towards the still +small hours of the morning, in which we so far unbend as to take a +single glass of hot whisky and water. We will neither defend the +practice nor excuse it. We state it as a fact which must be borne in +mind by the readers of this article; for we know not how, whether it +be the inspiration of the drink or the relief from the harassing work +with which the day has been occupied or from whatever other cause, +yet we are certainly liable about this time to such a prophetic +influence as we seldom else experience. We are rapt in a dream such +as we ourselves know to be a dream, and which, like other dreams, we +can hardly embody in a distinct utterance. We know that what we see +is but a sort of intellectual Siamese twins, of which one is +substance and the other shadow, but we cannot set either free without +killing both. We are unable to rudely tear away the veil of phantasy +in which the truth is shrouded, so we present the reader with a +draped figure, and his own judgment must discriminate between the +clothes and the body. A truth's prosperity is like a jest's, it lies +in the ear of him that hears it. Some may see our lucubration as we +saw it, and others may see nothing but a drunken dream or the +nightmare of a distempered imagination. To ourselves it is the +speaking with unknown tongues to the early Corinthians; we cannot +fully understand our own speech, and we fear lest there be not a +sufficient number of interpreters present to make our utterance +edify. But there! (Go on straight to the body of the article.) + +The limbs of the lower animals have never been modified by any act of +deliberation and forethought on their own part. Recent researches +have thrown absolutely no light upon the origin of life--upon the +initial force which introduced a sense of identity and a deliberate +faculty into the world; but they do certainly appear to show very +clearly that each species of the animal and vegetable kingdom has +been moulded into its present shape by chances and changes of many +millions of years, by chances and changes over which the creature +modified had no control whatever, and concerning whose aim it was +alike unconscious and indifferent, by forces which seem insensate to +the pain which they inflict, but by whose inexorably beneficent +cruelty the brave and strong keep coming to the fore, while the weak +and bad drop behind and perish. There was a moral government of this +world before man came near it--a moral government suited to the +capacities of the governed, and which unperceived by them has laid +fast the foundations of courage, endurance, and cunning. It laid +them so fast that they became more and more hereditary. Horace says +well fortes creantur fortibus et bonis, good men beget good children; +the rule held even in the geological period; good ichthyosauri begot +good ichthyosauri, and would to our discomfort have gone on doing so +to the present time had not better creatures been begetting better +things than ichthyosauri, or famine or fire or convulsion put an end +to them. Good apes begot good apes, and at last when human +intelligence stole like a late spring upon the mimicry of our semi- +simious ancestry, the creature learnt how he could of his own +forethought add extra-corporaneous limbs to the members of his own +body, and become not only a vertebrate mammal, but a vertebrate +machinate mammal into the bargain. + +It was a wise monkey that first learned to carry a stick, and a +useful monkey that mimicked him. For the race of man has learned to +walk uprightly much as a child learns the same thing. At first he +crawls on all fours, then he clambers, laying hold of whatever he +can; and lastly he stands upright alone and walks, but for a long +time with an unsteady step. So when the human race was in its +gorilla-hood it generally carried a stick; from carrying a stick for +many million years it became accustomed and modified to an upright +position. The stick wherewith it had learned to walk would now serve +to beat its younger brothers, and then it found out its service as a +lever. Man would thus learn that the limbs of his body were not the +only limbs that he could command. His body was already the most +versatile in existence, but he could render it more versatile still. +With the improvement in his body his mind improved also. He learnt +to perceive the moral government under which he held the feudal +tenure of his life--perceiving it he symbolised it, and to this day +our poets and prophets still strive to symbolise it more and more +completely. + +The mind grew because the body grew; more things were perceived, more +things were handled, and being handled became familiar. But this +came about chiefly because there was a hand to handle with; without +the hand there would be no handling, and no method of holding and +examining is comparable to the human hand. The tail of an opossum is +a prehensile thing, but it is too far from his eyes; the elephant's +trunk is better, and it is probably to their trunks that the +elephants owe their sagacity. It is here that the bee, in spite of +her wings, has failed. She has a high civilisation, but it is one +whose equilibrium appears to have been already attained; the +appearance is a false one, for the bee changes, though more slowly +than man can watch her; but the reason of the very gradual nature of +the change is chiefly because the physical organisation of the insect +changes, but slowly also. She is poorly off for hands, and has never +fairly grasped the notion of tacking on other limbs to the limbs of +her own body, and so being short lived to boot she remains from +century to century to human eyes in statu quo. Her body never +becomes machinate, whereas this new phase of organism which has been +introduced with man into the mundane economy, has made him a very +quicksand for the foundation of an unchanging civilisation; certain +fundamental principles will always remain, but every century the +change in man's physical status, as compared with the elements around +him, is greater and greater. He is a shifting basis on which no +equilibrium of habit and civilisation can be established. Were it +not for this constant change in our physical powers, which our +mechanical limbs have brought about, man would have long since +apparently attained his limit of possibility; he would be a creature +of as much fixity as the ants and bees; he would still have advanced, +but no faster than other animals advance. + +If there were a race of men without any mechanical appliances we +should see this clearly. There are none, nor have there been, so far +as we can tell, for millions and millions of years. The lowest +Australian savage carries weapons for the fight or the chase, and has +his cooking and drinking utensils at home; a race without these +things would be completely ferae naturae and not men at all. We are +unable to point to any example of a race absolutely devoid of extra- +corporaneous limbs, but we can see among the Chinese that with the +failure to invent new limbs a civilisation becomes as much fixed as +that of the ants; and among savage tribes we observe that few +implements involve a state of things scarcely human at all. Such +tribes only advance pari passu with the creatures upon which they +feed. + +It is a mistake, then, to take the view adopted by a previous +correspondent of this paper, to consider the machines as identities, +to animalise them and to anticipate their final triumph over mankind. +They are to be regarded as the mode of development by which human +organism is most especially advancing, and every fresh invention is +to be considered as an additional member of the resources of the +human body. Herein lies the fundamental difference between man and +his inferiors. As regard his flesh and blood, his senses, appetites, +and affections, the difference is one of degree rather than of kind, +but in the deliberate invention of such unity of limbs as is +exemplified by the railway train--that seven-leagued foot which five +hundred may own at once--he stands quite alone. + +In confirmation of the views concerning mechanism which we have been +advocating above, it must be remembered that men are not merely the +children of their parents, but they are begotten of the institutions +of the state of the mechanical sciences under which they are born and +bred. These things have made us what we are. We are children of the +plough, the spade, and the ship; we are children of the extended +liberty and knowledge which the printing press has diffused. Our +ancestors added these things to their previously existing members; +the new limbs were preserved by natural selection and incorporated +into human society; they descended with modifications, and hence +proceeds the difference between our ancestors and ourselves. By the +institutions and state of science under which a man is born it is +determined whether he shall have the limbs of an Australian savage or +those of a nineteenth-century Englishman. The former is supplemented +with little save a rug and a javelin; the latter varies his physique +with the changes of the season, with age and with advancing or +decreasing wealth. If it is wet he is furnished with an organ which +is called an umbrella and which seems designed for the purpose of +protecting either his clothes or his lungs from the injurious effects +of rain. His watch is of more importance to him than a good deal of +his hair, at any rate than of his whiskers; besides this he carries a +knife and generally a pencil case. His memory goes in a pocket-book. +He grows more complex as he becomes older and he will then be seen +with a pair of spectacles, perhaps also with false teeth and a wig; +but, if he be a really well-developed specimen of the race, he will +be furnished with a large box upon wheels, two horses, and a +coachman. + +Let the reader ponder over these last remarks and he will see that +the principal varieties and sub-varieties of the human race are not +now to be looked for among the negroes, the Circassians, the Malays, +or the American aborigines, but among the rich and the poor. The +difference in physical organisation between these two species of man +is far greater than that between the so-called types of humanity. +The rich man can go from here to England whenever he feels inclined, +the legs of the other are by an invisible fatality prevented from +carrying him beyond certain narrow limits. Neither rich nor poor as +yet see the philosophy of the thing, or admit that he who can tack a +portion of one of the P. and O. boats on to his identity is a much +more highly organised being than one who cannot. Yet the fact is +patent enough, if we once think it over, from the mere consideration +of the respect with which we so often treat those who are richer than +ourselves. We observe men for the most part (admitting, however, +some few abnormal exceptions) to be deeply impressed by the superior +organisation of those who have money. It is wrong to attribute this +respect to any unworthy motive, for the feeling is strictly +legitimate and springs from some of the very highest impulses of our +nature. It is the same sort of affectionate reverence which a dog +feels for man, and is not infrequently manifested in a similar +manner. + +We admit that these last sentences are open to question, and we +should hardly like to commit ourselves irrecoverably to the +sentiments they express; but we will say this much for certain, +namely, that the rich man is the true hundred-handed Gyges of the +poets. He alone possesses the full complement of limbs who stands at +the summit of opulence, and we may assert with strictly scientific +accuracy that the Rothschilds are the most astonishing organisms that +the world has ever yet seen. For to the nerves or tissues, or +whatever it be that answers to the helm of a rich man's desires, +there is a whole army of limbs seen and unseen attachable; he may be +reckoned by his horse-power, by the number of foot-pounds which he +has money enough to set in motion. Who, then, will deny that a man +whose will represents the motive power of a thousand horses is a +being very different from the one who is equivalent but to the power +of a single one? + +Henceforward, then, instead of saying that a man is hard up, let us +say that his organisation is at a low ebb, or, if we wish him well, +let us hope that he will grow plenty of limbs. It must be remembered +that we are dealing with physical organisations only. We do not say +that the thousand-horse man is better than a one-horse man, we only +say that he is more highly organised and should be recognised as +being so by the scientific leaders of the period. A man's will, +truth, endurance, are part of him also, and may, as in the case of +the late Mr. Cobden, have in themselves a power equivalent to all the +horse-power which they can influence; but were we to go into this +part of the question we should never have done, and we are compelled +reluctantly to leave our dream in its present fragmentary condition. + + +A NOTE ON "THE TEMPEST" +Act III, Scene I + + + +The following brief essay was contributed by Butler to a small +miscellany entitled LITERARY FOUNDLINGS: VERSE AND PROSE, COLLECTED +IN CANTERBURY, N.Z., which was published at Christ Church on the +occasion of a bazaar held there in March, 1864, in aid of the funds +of the Christ Church Orphan Asylum, and offered for sale during the +progress of the bazaar. The miscellany consisted entirely of the +productions of Canterbury writers, and among the contributors were +Dean Jacobs, Canon Cottrell, and James Edward FitzGerald, the founder +of the PRESS. + +When Prince Ferdinand was wrecked on the island Miranda was fifteen +years old. We can hardly suppose that she had ever seen Ariel, and +Caliban was a detestable object whom her father took good care to +keep as much out of her way as possible. Caliban was like the man +cook on a back-country run. "'Tis a villain, sir," says Miranda. "I +do not love to look on." "But as 'tis," returns Prospero, "we cannot +miss him; he does make our fire, fetch in our wood, and serve in +offices that profit us." Hands were scarce, and Prospero was obliged +to put up with Caliban in spite of the many drawbacks with which his +services were attended; in fact, no one on the island could have +liked him, for Ariel owed him a grudge on the score of the cruelty +with which he had been treated by Sycorax, and we have already heard +what Miranda and Prospero had to say about him. He may therefore +pass for nobody. Prospero was an old man, or at any rate in all +probability some forty years of age; therefore it is no wonder that +when Miranda saw Prince Ferdinand she should have fallen violently in +love with him. "Nothing ill," according to her view, "could dwell in +such a temple--if the ill Spirit have so fair an house, good things +will strive to dwell with 't." A very natural sentiment for a girl +in Miranda's circumstances, but nevertheless one which betrayed a +charming inexperience of the ways of the world and of the real value +of good looks. What surprises us, however, is this, namely the +remarkable celerity with which Miranda in a few hours became so +thoroughly wide awake to the exigencies of the occasion in +consequence of her love for the Prince. Prospero has set Ferdinand +to hump firewood out of the bush, and to pile it up for the use of +the cave. Ferdinand is for the present a sort of cadet, a youth of +good family, without cash and unaccustomed to manual labour; his +unlucky stars have landed him on the island, and now it seems that he +"must remove some thousands of these logs and pile them up, upon a +sore injunction." Poor fellow! Miranda's heart bleeds for him. Her +"affections were most humble"; she had been content to take Ferdinand +on speculation. On first seeing him she had exclaimed, "I have no +ambition to see a goodlier man"; and it makes her blood boil to see +this divine creature compelled to such an ignominious and painful +labour. What is the family consumption of firewood to her? Let +Caliban do it; let Prospero do it; or make Ariel do it; let her do it +herself; or let the lightning come down and "burn up those logs you +are enjoined to pile";--the logs themselves, while burning, would +weep for having wearied him. Come what would, it was a shame to make +Ferdinand work so hard, so she winds up thus: "My father is hard at +study; pray now rest yourself--HE'S SAFE FOR THESE THREE HOURS." +Safe--if she had only said that "papa was safe," the sentence would +have been purely modern, and have suited Thackeray as well as +Shakspeare. See how quickly she has learnt to regard her father as +one to be watched and probably kept in a good humour for the sake of +Ferdinand. We suppose that the secret of the modern character of +this particular passage lies simply in the fact that young people +make love pretty much in the same way now that they did three hundred +years ago; and possibly, with the exception that "the governor" may +be substituted for the words "my father" by the young ladies of three +hundred years hence, the passage will sound as fresh and modern then +as it does now. Let the Prosperos of that age take a lesson, and +either not allow the Ferdinands to pile up firewood, or so to arrange +their studies as not to be "safe" for any three consecutive hours. +It is true that Prospero's objection to the match was only feigned, +but Miranda thought otherwise, and for all purposes of argument we +are justified in supposing that he was in earnest. + + + +THE ENGLISH CRICKETERS + + + +The following lines were written by Butler in February, 1864, and +appeared in the PRESS. They refer to a visit paid to New Zealand by +a team of English cricketers, and have kindly been copied and sent to +me by Miss Colborne-Veel, whose father was editor of the PRESS at the +time that Butler was writing for it. Miss Colborne-Veel has further +permitted to me to make use of the following explanatory note: "The +coming of the All England team was naturally a glorious event in a +province only fourteen years old. The Mayor and Councillors had 'a +car of state'--otherwise a brake--'with postilions in the English +style.' Cobb and Co. supplied a six-horse coach for the English +eleven, the yellow paint upon which suggested the 'glittering chariot +of pure gold.' So they drove in triumph from the station and through +the town. Tinley for England and Tennant for Canterbury were the +heroes of the match. At the Wednesday dinner referred to they +exchanged compliments and cricket balls across the table. This early +esteem for cricket may be explained by a remark made by the All +England captain, that 'on no cricket ground in any colony had he met +so many public school men, especially men from old Rugby, as at +Canterbury.'" + + [To the Editor, the Press, February 15th, 1864.] + +Sir--The following lines, which profess to have been written by a +friend of mine at three o'clock in the morning after the dinner of +Wednesday last, have been presented to myself with a request that I +should forward them to you. I would suggest to the writer of them +the following quotation from "Love's Labour's Lost." + +I am, Sir, +Your obedient servant, +S.B. + +"You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent; let me +supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but for the +elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret . . . Imitari +is nothing. So doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the +tired horse his rider." + +Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV, S. 2. + +HORATIO . . . + +. . . The whole town rose +Eyes out to meet them; in a car of state +The Mayor and all the Councillors rode down +To give them greeting, while the blue-eyed team +Drawn in Cobb's glittering chariot of pure gold +Careered it from the station.--But the Mayor - +Thou shouldst have seen the blandness of the man, +And watched the effulgent and unspeakable smiles +With which he beamed upon them. +His beard, by nature tawny, was suffused +With just so much of a most reverend grizzle +That youth and age should kiss in't. I assure you +He was a Southern Palmerston, so old +In understanding, yet jocund and jaunty +As though his twentieth summer were as yet +But in the very June o' the year, and winter +Was never to be dreamt of. Those who heard +His words stood ravished. It was all as one +As though Minerva, hid in Mercury's jaws, +Had counselled some divinest utterance +Of honeyed wisdom. So profound, so true, +So meet for the occasion, and so--short. +The king sat studying rhetoric as he spoke, +While the lord Abbot heaved half-envious sighs +And hung suspended on his accents. + CLAUD. But will it pay, Horatio? + HOR. Let Shylock see to that, but yet I trust +He's no great loser. + CLAUD. Which side went in first? + HOR. We did, +And scored a paltry thirty runs in all. +The lissom Lockyer gambolled round the stumps +With many a crafty curvet: you had thought +An Indian rubber monkey were endued +With wicket-keeping instincts; teazing Tinley +Issued his treacherous notices to quit, +Ruthlessly truthful to his fame, and who +Shall speak of Jackson? Oh! 'twas sad indeed +To watch the downcast faces of our men +Returning from the wickets; one by one, +Like patients at the gratis consultation +Of some skilled leech, they took their turn at physic. +And each came sadly homeward with a face +Awry through inward anguish; they were pale +As ghosts of some dead but deep mourned love, +Grim with a great despair, but forced to smile. + CLAUD. Poor souls! Th' unkindest heart had bled for them. +But what came after? + HOR. Fortune turned her wheel, +And Grace, disgraced for the nonce, was bowled +First ball, and all the welkin roared applause! +As for the rest, they scored a goodly score +And showed some splendid cricket, but their deeds +Were not colossal, and our own brave Tennant +Proved himself all as good a man as they. +* * * * * +Through them we greet our Mother. In their coming, +We shake our dear old England by the hand +And watch space dwindling, while the shrinking world +Collapses into nothing. Mark me well, +Matter as swift as swiftest thought shall fly, +And space itself be nowhere. Future Tinleys +Shall bowl from London to our Christ Church Tennants, +And all the runs for all the stumps be made +In flying baskets which shall come and go +And do the circuit round about the globe +Within ten seconds. Do not check me with +The roundness of the intervening world, +The winds, the mountain ranges, and the seas - +These hinder nothing; for the leathern sphere, +Like to a planetary satellite, +Shall wheel its faithful orb and strike the bails +Clean from the centre of the middle stump. +* * * * * +Mirrors shall hang suspended in the air, +Fixed by a chain between two chosen stars, +And every eye shall be a telescope +To read the passing shadows from the world. +Such games shall be hereafter, but as yet +We lay foundations only. + CLAUD. Thou must be drunk, Horatio. + HOR. So I am. + + + +Footnotes: + +{1} We were asked by a learned brother philosopher who saw this +article in MS. what we meant by alluding to rudimentary organs in +machines. Could we, he asked, give any example of such organs? We +pointed to the little protuberance at the bottom of the bowl of our +tobacco pipe. This organ was originally designed for the same +purpose as the rim at the bottom of a tea-cup, which is but another +form of the same function. Its purpose was to keep the heat of the +pipe from marking the table on which it rested. Originally, as we +have seen in very early tobacco pipes, this protuberance was of a +very different shape to what it is now. It was broad at the bottom +and flat, so that while the pipe was being smoked the bowl might rest +upon the table. Use and disuse have here come into play and served +to reduce the function to its present rudimentary condition. That +these rudimentary organs are rarer in machinery than in animal life +is owing to the more prompt action of the human selection as compared +with the slower but even surer operation of natural selection. Man +may make mistakes; in the long run nature never does so. We have +only given an imperfect example, but the intelligent reader will +supply himself with illustrations. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of Canterbury Pieces, by Samuel Butler + diff --git a/old/cantp10.zip b/old/cantp10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a30a98 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/cantp10.zip |
