PREFACE. 



SINCE Samuel Butler published "Life and Habit" thirty- 

 three 1 years have elapsed years fruitful in change 

 and discovery, during which many of the mighty have 

 been put down from their seat and many of the humble 

 have been exalted. I do not know that Butler can 

 truthfully be called humble, indeed, I think he had 

 very few misgivings as to his ultimate triumph, but he 

 has certainly been exalted with a rapidity that he him- 

 self can scarcely have foreseen. During his lifetime 

 he was a literary pariah, the victim of an organized 

 conspiracy of silence. He is now, I think it may be 

 said without exaggeration, universally accepted as one 

 of the most remarkable English writers of the latter 

 part of the nineteenth century. I will not weary my 

 readers by quoting the numerous tributes paid by dis- 

 tinguished contemporary writers to Butler's origin- 

 ality and force of mind, but I cannot refrain from 

 illustrating the changed attitude of the scientific world 

 to Butler and his theories by a reference to " Darwin 

 and Modern Science," the collection of essays published 

 in 1909 by the University of Cambridge, in com- 

 memoration of the Darwin centenary. In that work 

 Professor Bateson, while referring repeatedly to Butler's 

 biological works, speaks of him as " the most brilliant 

 and by far the most interesting of Darwin's opponents, 

 whose works are at length emerging from oblivion." 



1 Although the original edition of "Life and Habit" is dated 

 1878, the book was actually published in December, 1877. 



