Selections from Previous Works

Оглавление

Samuel Butler. Selections from Previous Works

Selections from Previous Works

Table of Contents

PREFACE

SELECTIONS FROM EREWHON. [1]

CURRENT OPINIONS. (chapter x. of erewhon.)

AN EREWHONIAN TRIAL. (chapter xi. of erewhon.)

MALCONTENTS. (part of chapter xii. of erewhon.)

THE MUSICAL BANKS. (chapter xiv. of erewhon.)

BIRTH FORMULÆ. (chapter xvii. of erewhon.)

THE WORLD OF THE UNBORN. (part of chapter xvii. of erewhon.)

SELECTIONS FROM THE FAIR HAVEN

MEMOIR OF THE LATE JOHN PICKARD OWEN. (chapter i. of the fair haven.) [48]

SELECTIONS FROM LIFE AND HABIT

ON CERTAIN ACQUIRED HABITS. (from chapter i. of life and habit.) [68]

CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS KNOWERS THE LAW AND GRACE. (from chapter ii. of life and habit.)

APPLICATION OF FOREGOING CHAPTERS TO CERTAIN HABITS ACQUIRED AFTER BIRTH WHICH ARE COMMONLY CONSIDERED INSTINCTIVE. (chapter iii. of life and habit.)

PERSONAL IDENTITY. (chapter v. of life and habit.)

INSTINCT AS INHERITED MEMORY. (chapter xi. of life and habit.)

CONCLUDING REMARKS. (from chapter xv. of life and habit.)

SELECTIONS FROM EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW. [131]

IMPOTENCE OF PALEY’S CONCLUSION. THE TELEOLOGY OF THE EVOLUTIONIST. (from chapter iii. of evolution, old and new.)

FAILURE OF THE FIRST EVOLUTIONISTS TO SEE THEIR POSITION AS TELEOLOGICAL. (chapter iv. of evolution, old and new.)

THE TELEOLOGICAL EVOLUTION OF ORGANISM. (chapter v. of evolution, old and new.)

BUFFON—MEMOIR. (chapter viii. of evolution, old and new.)

BUFFON’S METHOD—THE IRONICAL CHARACTER OF HIS WORK. (chapter ix. of evolution, old and new.)

EXTRACTS FROM UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY

RECAPITULATION AND STATEMENT OF AN OBJECTION. (chapter x. of unconscious memory.) [181a]

ON CYCLES. (chapter xi. of unconscious memory.)

REPUTATION—MEMORY AT ONCE A PROMOTER AND A DISTURBER OF UNIFORMITY OF ACTION AND STRUCTURE. (chapter xii. of unconscious memory.)

CONCLUSION. (chapter xiii. of unconscious memory.)

REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS. [228a]

REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS—(continued)

REMARKS ON MR. ROMANES’ MENTAL EVOLUTION IN ANIMALS—(concluded)

POSTSCRIPT

EXTRACTS FROM “ALPS AND SANCTUARIES OP PIEDMONT AND THE CANTON TICINO.”

DALPE, PRATO, ROSSURA. (from chapter iii. of alps and sanctuaries.) [255]

CALONICO. (from chapter v. of alps and sanctuaries.)

PIORA. (from chapter vi. of alps and sanctuaries.) [275]

S. MICHELE AND MONTE PIRCHIRIANO. (extracts from chapters vii. and x. of alps and sanctuaries.)

CONSIDERATIONS ON THE DECLINE OF ITALIAN ART. (from chapter xiii. of alps and sanctuaries.)

SANCTUARIES OF OROPA AND GRAGLIA. (from chapters xv. and xvi. of alps and sanctuaries.)

A PSALM OF MONTREAL

Works by the same Author

Footnotes:

Отрывок из книги

Samuel Butler

With Remarks on Romanes' Mental Evolution in Animals, and a Psalm of Montreal

.....

What is the offence of a lamb that we should rear it, and tend it, and lull it into security, for the express purpose of killing it? Its offence is the misfortune of being something which society wants to eat, and which cannot defend itself. This is ample. Who shall limit the right of society except society itself? And what consideration for the individual is tolerable unless society be the gainer thereby? Wherefore should a man be so richly rewarded for having been son to a millionaire, were it not clearly provable that the common welfare is thus better furthered? We cannot seriously detract from a man’s merit in having been the son of a rich father without imperilling our own tenure of things which we do not wish to jeopardise; if this were otherwise we should not let him keep his money for a single hour; we would have it ourselves at once. For property is robbery, but then we are all robbers or would-be robbers together, and have found it expedient to organise our thieving, as we have found it to organise our lust and our revenge. Property, marriage, the law; as the bed to the river, so rule and convention to the instinct.

But to return. Even in England a man on board a ship with yellow fever is held responsible for his mischance, no matter what his being kept in quarantine may cost him. He may catch the fever and die; we cannot help it; he must take his chance as other people do; but surely it would be desperate unkindness to add contumely to our self-protection, unless, indeed, we believe that contumely is one of our best means of self-protection. Again, take the case of maniacs. We say that they are irresponsible for their actions, but we take good care, or ought to take good care, that they shall answer to us for their insanity, and we imprison them in what we call an asylum (that modern sanctuary!) if we do not like their answers. This is a strange kind of irresponsibility. What we ought to say is that we can afford to be satisfied with a less satisfactory answer from a lunatic than from one who is not mad, because lunacy is less infectious than crime.

.....