Introduction xxxv 



He was, we have seen, anticipated by Hering ; but his 

 attitude was his own, fresh and originaL He did not 

 hamper his exposition, hke Hering, by a subsidiary hypo- 

 thesis of vibrations which may or may not be true, which 

 burdens the theory without giving it greater carrying 

 power or persuasiveness, which is based on no objective 

 facts, and which, as Semon has practically demonstrated, 

 is needless for the detailed working out of the theory. 

 Butler failed to impress the biologists of his day, even 

 those on whom, like Romanes, he might have reasonably 

 counted for understanding and for support. But he kept 

 alive Hering's work when it bade fair to sink into the hmbo 

 of obsolete hypotheses. To use Oliver Wendell Holmes's 

 phrase, he " depolarised " evolutionary thought. We 

 quote the words of a young biologist, who, when an ardent 

 and dogmatic Weismannist of the most pronounced type, 

 was induced to read " Life and Habit": "The book was 

 to me a transformation and an inspiration." Such learned 

 writings as Semon's or Hering's could never produce such 

 an effect : they do not penetrate to the heart of man ; 

 they cannot carry conviction to the intellect already filled 

 full with rival theories, and with the unreasoned faith 

 that to-morrow or next day a new discovery will obliterate 

 all distinction between Man and his makings. The mind 

 must needs be open for the reception of truth, for the re- 

 jection of prejudice; and the violence of a Samuel Butler 

 may in the future as in the past be needed to shatter the 

 coat of mail forged by too exclusively professional a 

 training. 



MARCUS HARTOG 



Cork, April, 1910 



