Introduction 

 By Marcus Hartog, m.a., d.sc, f.l.s., f.r.h.s. 



IN reviewing Samuel Butler's works, " Unconscious 

 Memory " gives us an invaluable lead ; for it tells us 

 (Chaps. II, III) how the author came to write the Book of 

 the Machines in " Erewhon " (1872), with its foreshadow- 

 ing of the later theory, " Life and Habit " (1878), " Evolu- 

 tion, Old and New" (1879), as well as "Unconscious 

 Memory " (1880) itself. His fourth book on biological 

 theory was " Luck ? or Cunning ? " (1887).^ 



Besides these books, his contributions to biology comprise 

 several essays : " Remarks on Romanes' Menial Evo- 

 lution in Animals, contained in " Selections from Previous 

 Works" (1884) incorporated into "Luck? or Cunning," 

 " The Deadlock in Darwinism " {Universal Review, 

 April-June, 1890), republished in the posthumous volume 

 of " Essays on Life, Art, and Science " (1904), and, finally, 

 some of the " Extracts from the Notebooks of the late 

 Samuel Butler," edited by Mr. H. Festing Jones, now in 

 course of publication in the New Quarterly Review. 



Of all these, " LIFE AND HABIT " (1878) is the most 

 important, the main building to which the other writings 

 are buttresses or, at most, annexes. Its teaching has been 

 summarised in " Unconscious Memory " in four main 

 principles : " (i) the oneness of personality between parent 

 and offspring ; (2) memory on the part of the offspring of 

 certain actions which it did when in the persons of its 



* This is the date on the title-page. The preface is dated 

 October 15, 1886, and the first copy was issued in November of the 

 same year. All the dates are taken from the Bibliography by ]\Ir. 

 H. Festing Jones prefixed to the " Extracts" in the New Quarterly 

 Review (1909). 



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