Note 



FOR many years a link in the chain of Samuel Butler's bio- 

 logical works has been missing. " Unconscious Memory " 

 was originally published thirty years ago, but for fully half 

 that period it has been out of print, owing to the destruction 

 of a large number of the unbound sheets in a fire at the 

 premises of the printers some years ago. The present 

 reprint comes, I think, at a peculiarly fortunate moment, 

 since the attention of the general public has of late been 

 drawn to Butler's biological theories in a marked manner by 

 several distinguished men of science, notably by Dr. Francis 

 Darwin, who, in his presidential address to the British Associa- 

 tion in 1908, quoted from the translation of Hering's address 

 on " Memory as a Universal Function of Original INIatter," 

 which Butler incorporated into " Unconscious Memory," and 

 spoke in the highest terms of Butler himself. It is not neces- 

 sary for me to do more than refer to the changed attitude of 

 scientific authorities with regard to Butler and his theories, 

 since Professor Marcus Hartog has most kindly consented 

 to contribute an introduction to the present edition of 

 "Unconscious Memory," summarising Butler's views upon 

 biology, and defining his position in the world of science. A 

 word must be said as to the controversy between Butler and 

 Darwin, with which Chapter IV is concerned. I have been 

 told that in reissuing the book at all I am committing a 

 grievous error of taste, that the world is no longer interested 

 in these " old, unhappy far-off things and battles long ago," 

 and that Butler himself, by refraining from republishing 

 " Unconscious Memory," tacitly admitted that he wished the 

 controversy to be consigned to oblivion. This last suggestion, 

 at any rate, has no foundation in fact. Butler desired nothing 

 less than that his vindication of himself against what he 

 considered unfair treatment should be forgotten. He would 

 have republished "Unconscious Memory" himself, had not 

 the latter years of his life been devoted to all-engrossing 

 work in other fields. In issuing the present edition I am 

 fulfilling a wish that he expressed to me shortly before his 



^^^*^- R. A. Streatfeild. 



April, 1 910. 



viii 



