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The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

by Samuel Butler

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  1. 1Epigraph — Preface
  2. 2Biographical Statement
  3. 3I — Lord, What Is Man?
  4. 4Life
  5. 5The Individual and the World
  6. 6My Life
  7. 7The Life We Live in Others
  8. 8The World Made to Enjoy
  9. 9Living in Others
  10. 10Karma
  11. 11Birth and Death
  12. 12Reproduction
  13. 13Thinking Almost Identically
  14. 14Is Life Worth Living? — Evacuations
  15. 15Man and His Organism
  16. 16Tools
  17. 17Organs and Makeshifts
  18. 18Joining and DisjoiningThese Are the Essence of Change
  19. 19Cotton Factories
  20. 20Our Trivial Bodies
  21. 21II — Elementary Morality
  22. 22Counsels of Imperfection
  23. 23Lucifer
  24. 24The Oracle in Erewhon
  25. 25God’s Laws — Physical Excellence
  26. 26Intellectual Self-Indulgence — Dodging Fatigue
  27. 27Vice and Virtue
  28. 28My Virtuous Life
  29. 29Sin — Morality
  30. 30Change and Immorality
  31. 31Cannibalism — Abnormal Developments
  32. 32Young People
  33. 33The Family
  34. 34Unconscious Humour
  35. 35Homer’s Odyssey
  36. 36Melchisedec — Bacon for Breakfast
  37. 37God and Man
  38. 38The Homeric Deity and the Pall Mall Gazette
  39. 39Good Breeding the Summum Bonum
  40. 40Advice to the Young
  41. 41Religion
  42. 42Heaven and Hell
  43. 43Priggishness
  44. 44Lohengrin
  45. 45Swells
  46. 46Science and Religion — Gentleman
  47. 47The Finest Men
  48. 48On Being a Swell All Round
  49. 49Money
  50. 50A Luxurious Death
  51. 51Money, Health and Reputation
  52. 52Solicitors
  53. 53Doctors
  54. 54Priests
  55. 55III — The Germs of Erewhon and of Life and Habit
  56. 56Darwin Among the Machines
  57. 57Lucubratio Ebria
  58. 58Letter to Thomas William Gale Butler
  59. 59IV — Memory and Design
  60. 60Memory
  61. 61Antitheses
  62. 62Unconscious Memory
  63. 63Reproduction and Memory
  64. 64Personal Identity
  65. 65Sensations
  66. 66Cobwebs in the Dark
  67. 67Shocks and Memory — Shocks
  68. 68Design
  69. 69Accident, Design and Memory
  70. 70Memory and Mistakes
  71. 71Remembering
  72. 72A Torn Finger-Nail
  73. 73Unconscious Association
  74. 74Association
  75. 75Language — V — Vibrations
  76. 76The Universal Substance
  77. 77Mental and Physical
  78. 78Vibrations, Memory and Chemical Properties
  79. 79Protoplasm and Reproduction
  80. 80Germs Within Germs
  81. 81Atoms and Fixed Laws
  82. 82Thinking
  83. 83Equilibrium
  84. 84VI — Mind and Matter
  85. 85Matter and Mind
  86. 86Organic and Inorganic
  87. 87The Power to Make Mistakes
  88. 88The Omnipresence of Intelligence
  89. 89The Super-Organic Kingdom
  90. 90Feeling
  91. 91Opinion and Matter
  92. 92Moral Influence
  93. 93Mental and Physical Pabulum
  94. 94Eating and Proselytising
  95. 95Sea-Sickness
  96. 96Indigestion
  97. 97Assimilation and Persecution
  98. 98Matter Infinitely Subdivisible
  99. 99Differences
  100. 100Union and Separation
  101. 101Unity and Multitude
  102. 102The Atom
  103. 103Our Cells
  104. 104Nerves and Postmen
  105. 105Night-Shirts and Babies
  106. 106Our Organism
  107. 107Beer and My Cat
  108. 108The Union Bank
  109. 109The Unity of Nature
  110. 110Croesus and His Kitchen-Maid
  111. 111VII — On the Making of Music, Pictures and Books
  112. 112The Law
  113. 113Ideas · Expression · Development — Acquired Characteristics
  114. 114Physical and Spiritual — Trail and Writing
  115. 115Conveyancing and the Arts
  116. 116The Rules for Making Literature, Music and Pictures
  117. 117Relative Importances
  118. 118Eating Grapes Downwards
  119. 119Terseness
  120. 120Making Notes
  121. 121Shortening
  122. 122Omission
  123. 123Brevity
  124. 124Diffuseness
  125. 125Difficulties in Art, Literature and Music
  126. 126Knowledge Is Power
  127. 127Academicism
  128. 128Agonising
  129. 129The Choice of Subjects
  130. 130Imaginary Countries
  131. 131My Books
  132. 132Great Works · New Ideas — Books and Children
  133. 133The Life of Books
  134. 134Criticism
  135. 135Le Style C’est l’Homme
  136. 136A Man’s Style — The Gauntlet of Youth
  137. 137Greatness in Art
  138. 138Literary Power
  139. 139Subject and Treatment
  140. 140Public Opinion
  141. 141A Literary Man’s Test
  142. 142What Audience to Write for
  143. 143Writing for a Hundred Years Hence
  144. 144VIII — Handel and Music
  145. 145Handel and Domenico Scarlatti
  146. 146Handel and Homer
  147. 147Handel and Bach
  148. 148Handel and the British Public
  149. 149Handel and Madame Patey
  150. 150Handel and Shakespeare
  151. 151A Yankee Handelian
  152. 152Waste
  153. 153Handel a Conservative
  154. 154Handel and Ernest Pontifex
  155. 155Handel’s Commonplaces
  156. 156Handel and Dr. Morell
  157. 157Wordsworth
  158. 158Sleeping Beauties
  159. 159“And the Glory of the Lord”
  160. 160Handel and the Speaking Voice
  161. 161Handel and the Wetterhorn
  162. 162Handel and Marriage
  163. 163Handel and a Letter to a Solicitor
  164. 164Handel’s Shower of Rain
  165. 165Theodora and Susanna
  166. 166John Sebastian Bach
  167. 167Honesty
  168. 168Musical Criticism
  169. 169On Borrowing in Music
  170. 170Music
  171. 171Discords
  172. 172Anachronism
  173. 173Chapters in Music
  174. 174At the Opera
  175. 175At a Philharmonic Concert
  176. 176At the Wind Concerts
  177. 177At a Handel Festival
  178. 178Handel and Dickens
  179. 179IX — A Painter’s Views on Painting
  180. 180The Academic System and Repentance
  181. 181The Jubilee Sixpence
  182. 182Studying From Nature
  183. 183The Model and the Lay-Figure
  184. 184Sketching From Nature — Great Art and Sham Art
  185. 185Inarticulate Touches
  186. 186Detail
  187. 187Painting and Association — The Credulous Eye
  188. 188Truths From Nature · Accuracy · Herbert Spencer — Shade Colour and…
  189. 189Money and Technique
  190. 190Action and Study
  191. 191Sacred and Profane Statues
  192. 192Seeing
  193. 193Improvement in Art
  194. 194Light and Shade
  195. 195Colour
  196. 196Words and Colour
  197. 197Amateurs and Professionals
  198. 198The Ansidei Raffaelle
  199. 199Buying a Rembrandt
  200. 200Trying to Buy a Bellini
  201. 201Watts
  202. 202Lombard Portals
  203. 203Holbein at Basle
  204. 204Van Eyck
  205. 205Giotto
  206. 206Early Art
  207. 207Sincerity
  208. 208X — The Position of a Homo Unius Libri
  209. 209Capping a Success
  210. 210A Lady Critic
  211. 211Compensation — Hudibras and Erewhon
  212. 212Life and Habit and Myself
  213. 213A Disappointing Person
  214. 214Entertaining Angels
  215. 215Myself and My Books
  216. 216Dragons
  217. 217Trying to Know
  218. 218Squaring Accounts
  219. 219Charles Darwin on What Sells a Book
  220. 220Hoodwinking the Public
  221. 221The Public Ear
  222. 222Secular Thinking
  223. 223The Art of Propagating Opinion
  224. 224Gladstone as a Financier
  225. 225Argument
  226. 226Humour
  227. 227Myself and “Unconscious Humour”
  228. 228My Humour
  229. 229Myself and My Publishers
  230. 230XI — Cash and Credit
  231. 231The Kingdom of Heaven
  232. 232The Philosopher
  233. 233The Artist and the Shopkeeper
  234. 234Art and Trade
  235. 235Money
  236. 236Modern Simony
  237. 237My Grandfather and Myself
  238. 238Art and Usefulness
  239. 239Genius
  240. 240Great Things
  241. 241Genius and Providence
  242. 242The Art of Covery
  243. 243Wanted
  244. 244Ephemeral and Permanent Success
  245. 245My Birthright — XII — The Enfant Terrible of Literature
  246. 246Blake, Dante, Virgil and Tennyson
  247. 247My Father and Shakespeare
  248. 248Tennyson
  249. 249Walter Pater and Matthew Arnold
  250. 250My Random Passages
  251. 251Moral Try-Your-Strengths
  252. 252Populus Vult
  253. 253Men and Monkeys
  254. 254“One Touch of Nature”
  255. 255Genuine Feeling
  256. 256George Meredith
  257. 257Froude and Freeman
  258. 258Style
  259. 259Diderot on Criticism
  260. 260Bunyan and Others
  261. 261Bunyan and the Odyssey
  262. 262Poetry
  263. 263Verse
  264. 264Verse, Poetry and Prose — Ancient Work
  265. 265Nausicaa and Myself
  266. 266Telemachus and Nicholas Nickleby
  267. 267Gadshill and Trapani
  268. 268Waiting to Be Hired
  269. 269Ilium and Padua
  270. 270Eumaeus and Lord Burleigh
  271. 271My Reviewers’ Sense of Need
  272. 272The Authoress of the Odyssey
  273. 273Homer and His Commentators
  274. 274The Iliad
  275. 275Glacial Periods of Folly
  276. 276Translations From Verse Into Prose
  277. 277Translating the Odyssey
  278. 278The Odyssey and a Tomb at Carcassonne
  279. 279Getting It Wrong
  280. 280XIII — Unprofessional Sermons
  281. 281Wisdom
  282. 282Loving and Hating
  283. 283The Roman Empire
  284. 284Italians and Englishmen
  285. 285On Knowing What Gives Us Pleasure
  286. 286De Minimis Non Curat Lex
  287. 287Saints
  288. 288Prayer
  289. 289XIV — Higgledy-Piggledy
  290. 290Waste-Paper Baskets — Flies in the Milk-Jug
  291. 291My Thoughts · Our Ideas — Cat-Ideas and Mouse-Ideas
  292. 292Incoherency of New Ideas
  293. 293An Apology for the Devil — Hallelujah
  294. 294Hating
  295. 295Reputation — Science and Business
  296. 296Scientists
  297. 297Scientific Terminology
  298. 298Scientists and Drapers
  299. 299Men of Science — Sparks
  300. 300Dumb-Bells · Purgatory · Greatness · The Vanity of Human Wishes · J…
  301. 301On Breaking Habits
  302. 302Dogs
  303. 303Future and Past
  304. 304Nature
  305. 305Lucky and Unlucky
  306. 306Definitions
  307. 307Money
  308. 308Wit · Oxford and Cambridge — Cooking
  309. 309Perseus and St. George
  310. 310Specialism and Generalism · Silence and Tact · Truth-tellers · Stre…
  311. 311Providence and Improvidence
  312. 312Epiphany
  313. 313Fortune
  314. 314Gold-Mines
  315. 315Things and Purses
  316. 316Solomon in All His Glory
  317. 317David’s Teachers
  318. 318S. Michael
  319. 319One Form of Failure — Andromeda
  320. 320Self-Confidence · Wandering — Poverty
  321. 321Pedals or Drones
  322. 322Evasive Nature — Fashion
  323. 323Doctors and Clergymen · God Is Love · Common Chords · God and the D…
  324. 324Offers of Marriage
  325. 325Marriage
  326. 326Life and Love · The Basis of Life — Woman Suffrage
  327. 327Manners Makyth Man — Women and Religion
  328. 328Happiness — Sorrow Within Sorrow
  329. 329Going Away · XV — Titles and Subjects · “The Ancient Mariner” — For…
  330. 330Imaginary Worlds
  331. 331An Idyll
  332. 332A Divorce Novelette
  333. 333The Moral Painter — A Tale of Double Personality
  334. 334Two Writers
  335. 335The Archbishop of Heligoland
  336. 336XVI — Written Sketches
  337. 337London
  338. 338A Clifford’s Inn Euphemism
  339. 339London Trees
  340. 340What I Said to the Milkman
  341. 341The Return of the Jews to Palestine
  342. 342The Great Bear’s Barley-Water
  343. 343The Cock Tavern
  344. 344Myself in Dowie’s Shop
  345. 345My Dentist
  346. 346Furber the Violin-Maker
  347. 347Window Cleaning in the British Museum Reading-Room
  348. 348The Electric Light in Its Infancy
  349. 349Fire
  350. 350Adam and Eve
  351. 351Does Mamma Know?
  352. 352Mr. Darwin in the Zoological Gardens
  353. 353Terbourg
  354. 354At Doctors’ Commons
  355. 355The Sack of Khartoum
  356. 356Missolonghi
  357. 357Memnon
  358. 358Manzi the Model
  359. 359A Sailor Boy and Some Chickens
  360. 360Gogin, the Japanese Gentleman and the Dead Dog
  361. 361St. Pancras’ Bells
  362. 362At Eynsford
  363. 363Mrs. Hicks
  364. 364New-Laid Eggs
  365. 365At Englefield Green
  366. 366At Abbey Wood
  367. 367At Ightham Mote
  368. 368Dr. Mandell Creighton and Mr. W. S. Rockstro
  369. 369Pigs
  370. 370Mozart
  371. 371Divorce
  372. 372Ravens
  373. 373Calais to Dover
  374. 374Snapshotting a Bishop
  375. 375Homer and the Basins
  376. 376The Channel Passage
  377. 377The Two Barristers at Ypres
  378. 378At Montreuil-sur-Mer
  379. 379XVII — Material for a Projected Sequel to Alps and Sanctuaries
  380. 380Not to Be Omitted
  381. 381The Sacro Monte at Varese
  382. 382The Albergo Grotta Crimea
  383. 383Public Opinion
  384. 384These Notes
  385. 385The Wife of Bath
  386. 386Horace at the Post-Office in Rome
  387. 387Beethoven at Faido and at Boulogne
  388. 388Silvio
  389. 389Sunday Morning at Soglio
  390. 390Fascination
  391. 391Supreme Occasions
  392. 392The Aurora Borealis
  393. 393A Tragic Expression
  394. 394The Wrath to Come
  395. 395The Beauties of Nature
  396. 396The Late King Vittorio Emanuele
  397. 397The Bishop of Chichester at Faido
  398. 398At Piora
  399. 399At Ferentino
  400. 400The Imperfect Lady
  401. 401Siena and S. Gimignano
  402. 402The Etruscan Urns at Volterra
  403. 403The Quick and the Dead
  404. 404The Grape-Filter
  405. 405Bertoli and His Bees
  406. 406“The Lost Chord”
  407. 407Introduction of Foreign Plants
  408. 408Saint Cosimo and Saint Damiano at Siena
  409. 409At Pienza
  410. 410Homer’s Hot and Cold Springs
  411. 411XVIII — Material for Erewhon Revisited
  412. 412XIX — Truth and Convenience
  413. 413Two Points of View
  414. 414Truth
  415. 415Falsehood
  416. 416Nature’s Double Falsehood
  417. 417Convenience
  418. 418Classification
  419. 419Attempts at Classification
  420. 420A Clergyman’s Doubts
  421. 421XX — First Principles
  422. 422Imagination
  423. 423Inexperience
  424. 424Ex Nihilo Nihil Fit
  425. 425Contradiction in Terms
  426. 426Extremes
  427. 427Free-Will and Necessity
  428. 428Free-Will Otherwise Cunning
  429. 429Necessity Otherwise Luck
  430. 430Choice
  431. 431Ego and Non-Ego
  432. 432Two Incomprehensibles
  433. 433God and the Unknown
  434. 434Scylla and Charybdis
  435. 435Philosophy
  436. 436Philosophy and Equal Temperament
  437. 437Hedging the Cuckoo
  438. 438God and Philosophies
  439. 439Common Sense, Reason and Faith
  440. 440The Credit System
  441. 441Argument
  442. 442Logic and Philosophy
  443. 443Science
  444. 444Religion
  445. 445Logic
  446. 446Logic and Faith
  447. 447Common Sense and Philosophy — First Principles
  448. 448XXI — Rebelliousness
  449. 449God and Flesh
  450. 450Gods and Prophets
  451. 451Faith and Reason
  452. 452God and the Devil
  453. 453Christianity
  454. 454Miracles
  455. 455Wants and Creeds
  456. 456Faith
  457. 457The Cuckoo and the Moon
  458. 458Buddhism · Theist and Atheist — The Peculiar People
  459. 459Renan
  460. 460The Spiritual Treadmill
  461. 461The Dim Religious Light
  462. 462The Peace That Passeth Understanding — The New Testament
  463. 463Christ and the L. & N.W. Railway
  464. 464The Jumping Cat
  465. 465Personified Science
  466. 466Science and Theology
  467. 467The Church and the Supernatural
  468. 468Gratitude and Revenge
  469. 469Cant and Hypocrisy
  470. 470Real Blasphemy
  471. 471The English Church Abroad
  472. 472Drunkenness
  473. 473Hell-Fire
  474. 474XXII — Reconciliation
  475. 475God and Convenience
  476. 476The World
  477. 477Blasphemy
  478. 478Gaining One’s Point
  479. 479The Voice of Common Sense
  480. 480Amendes Honorables
  481. 481Forgiveness and Retribution
  482. 482Inaccuracy
  483. 483Jutland and “Waitee”
  484. 484The Parables
  485. 485The Irreligion of Orthodoxy
  486. 486Society and Christianity
  487. 487Sanctified by Faith
  488. 488Ourselves and the Clergy
  489. 489The Rules of Life
  490. 490XXIII — Death
  491. 491Continued Identity
  492. 492Complete Death
  493. 493Life and Death
  494. 494The Defeat of Death
  495. 495The Torture of Death
  496. 496Ignorance of Death
  497. 497Dissolution
  498. 498The Dislike of Death
  499. 499XXIV — The Life of the World to Come
  500. 500The Test of Faith
  501. 501Starting Again Ad Infinitum
  502. 502Preparation for Death
  503. 503The Vates Sacer
  504. 504The Dictionary of National Biography
  505. 505The World — Accumulated Dinners
  506. 506Judging the Dead
  507. 507Myself and My Books
  508. 508My Son
  509. 509Obscurity
  510. 510Posthumous Honours
  511. 511Posthumous Recognition
  512. 512Analysis of the Sales of My Books
  513. 513Worth Doing
  514. 514Doubt and Hope
  515. 515Unburying Cities
  516. 516Apologia
  517. 517My Work
  518. 518XXV — Poems
  519. 519I — Translation From an Unpublished Work of Herodotus
  520. 520Ii — The Shield of Achilles — With Variations
  521. 521Iii — The Two Deans
  522. 522Iv — On the Italian Priesthood
  523. 523V — A Psalm of Montreal
  524. 524Vi — The Righteous Man
  525. 525Vii — To Critics and Others
  526. 526Viii — For Narcissus
  527. 527Ix — A Translation
  528. 528X — In Memoriam
  529. 529Xi — An Academic Exercise
  530. 530Xii — A Prayer
  531. 531Xiii — Karma
  532. 532Xiv — The Life After Death

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