Note 
Tuis second edition of Luck, or Cunning ? is a reprint of the first 
edition, dated 1887, but actually published in November, 1886. 
The only alterations of any consequence are in the Index, which 
has been enlarged by the incorporation of several entries made by 
the author in a copy of the book which came into my possession on 
the death of his literary executor, Mr. R. A. Streatfeild. I thank 
Mr. G. W. Webb, of the University Library, Cambridge, for the 
care and skill with which he has made the necessary alterations ; it 
was a troublesome job because owing to the re-setting, the pagina- 
tion was no longer the same. 
‘Luck, or Cunning ? is the fourth of Butler’s evolution books ; it 
was followed in 1890 by three articles in The Universal Review 
entitled ‘‘The Deadlock in Darwinism’’ (republished in The 
Humour of Homer), after which he published no more upon that 
subject. 
In this book, as he says in his Introduction, he insists upon two 
main points: (1) the substantial identity between heredity and 
memory, and (2) the reintroduction of design into organic develop- 
ment; and these two points he treats as though they have some- 
thing of that physical life with which they are so closely associated. 
He was aware that what he had to say was likely to prove more 
interesting to future generations than to his immediate public, 
“but any book that desires to see out a literary three-score years 
and ten must offer something to future generations as well as to 
its own.’ By next year one half of the three-score years and ten 
will have passed, and the new generation by their constant enquiries 
for the work have already begun to show their appreciation of 
Butler’s method of treating the subject, and their readiness to 
listen to what was addressed to them as well as to their fathers. 
HENRY FESTING JONES. 
March, 1920. 
