Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Butler Read online

  The Complete Works of

  SAMUEL BUTLER

  (1835-1902)

  Contents

  The Novels

  EREWHON: OR OVER THE RANGE

  EREWHON REVISITED TWENTY YEARS LATER

  THE WAY OF ALL FLESH

  The Non-Fiction

  A FIRST YEAR IN CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT

  THE EVIDENCE FOR THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST, AS GIVEN BY THE FOUR EVANGELISTS, CRITICALLY EXAMINED

  THE FAIR HAVEN

  LIFE AND HABIT

  EVOLUTION, OLD AND NEW

  UNCONSCIOUS MEMORY

  ALPS AND SANCTUARIES OF PIEDMONT AND THE CANTON TICINO

  SELECTIONS FROM PREVIOUS WORKS

  LUCK OR CUNNING AS THE MAIN MEANS OF ORGANIC MODIFICATION?

  EX VOTO

  A LECTURE ON THE HUMOUR OF HOMER AND OTHER ESSAYS

  THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF DR. SAMUEL BUTLER

  SHAKESPEARE’S SONNETS RECONSIDERED

  THE AUTHORESS OF THE ODYSSEY

  ESSAYS ON LIFE, ART AND SCIENCE

  CAMBRIDGE PIECES

  CANTERBURY PIECES

  GOD THE KNOWN AND GOD THE UNKNOWN

  The Epic Poem Translations

  THE ILIAD OF HOMER, RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE

  THE ODYSSEY, RENDERED INTO ENGLISH PROSE

  The Note-Books

  THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER

  The Biography

  SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF SAMUEL BUTLER, AUTHOR OF EREWHON by Henry Festing Jones

  © Delphi Classics 2015

  Version 1

  The Complete Works of

  SAMUEL BUTLER

  By Delphi Classics, 2015

  The Novels

  Samuel Butler was born on 4 December 1835 at the rectory in the village of Langar, near Bingham, Nottinghamshire, to the Rev. Thomas Butler, son of Dr. Samuel Butler, then headmaster of Shrewsbury School and later Bishop of Lichfield.

  Butler’s father was the rector of St. Andrew’s in Langar from 1834 to 1876.

  Butler as a young man, 1858

  EREWHON: OR OVER THE RANGE

  Erewhon is an oddity from Butler’s point of view as it is the only work that brought him great praise, and consequently profit, in his lifetime (just under £70 or the equivalent of approximately £3,150 in the early twenty-first century).

  Erewhon is the word “nowhere” rearranged and is the name of the novel’s imaginary country, which is beautifully described and inspired by Butler’s sojourn in New Zealand from 1860 to 1864. Some of the narrative is drawn from journalistic writings completed and published by Butler during his time there. The novel was highly praised by other authors with an interest in futuristic writing, such as George Orwell; however, some of Butler’s contemporaries saw the novel as a criticism of Darwin’s theory of evolution, an accusation he strongly refuted as he was for a long time a supporter of Darwin’s views. Butler saw his novel more as a satire of Victorian society in general. It has also been suggested that Erewhon began a whole genre of similar novels by later New Zealand writers.

  The story does not begin in Erewhon, but in another more familiar country, based on the sheep farm Butler ran when in New Zealand. However, the unnamed hero, also a sheep farmer and his elderly assistant Chowbok, decide to venture beyond the mountains to another unfamiliar country — Erewhon. Chowbok’s courage fails him before long and he returns home, but the farmer continues with his journey. He discovers that Erewhon is not like his familiar home country; in Erewhon, illness is considered to be a crime and one can be imprisoned for being sick or poor; conversely, genuine criminals are seen as having an illness and given help by therapists known as “straighteners”, rather like the therapies given to a recovering addict. In addition, the citizens of Erewhon are highly suspicious of machines, which they fear could become so intelligent they could one day take over and for this reason machines are banned from the country. One such “ill” criminal, an embezzler called Nosibor, takes the farmer under his wing; the farmer falls in love with the youngest daughter, Arowhena and studies at the University of Unreason, which allows students to focus on any topic on condition that it has no practical use whatsoever! However, Nosibor is opposed to the marriage of the hero and Arowhena and the protagonist must find a way to follow his heart. An uncannily accurate and acerbic look at Western society, the novel is certain to appeal to modern readers due to its parallels with critiques of life in the twenty-first century.

  The first edition

  CONTENTS

  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

  PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

  PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

  CHAPTER I: WASTE LANDS

  CHAPTER II: IN THE WOOL-SHED

  CHAPTER III: UP THE RIVER

  CHAPTER IV: THE SADDLE

  CHAPTER V: THE RIVER AND THE RANGE

  CHAPTER VI: INTO EREWHON

  CHAPTER VII: FIRST IMPRESSIONS

  CHAPTER VIII: IN PRISON

  CHAPTER IX: TO THE METROPOLIS

  CHAPTER X: CURRENT OPINIONS

  CHAPTER XI: SOME EREWHONIAN TRIALS

  CHAPTER XII: MALCONTENTS

  CHAPTER XIII: THE VIEWS OF THE EREWHONIANS CONCERNING DEATH

  CHAPTER XIV: MAHAINA

  CHAPTER XV: THE MUSICAL BANKS

  CHAPTER XVI: AROWHENA

  CHAPTER XVII: YDGRUN AND THE YDGRUNITES

  CHAPTER XVIII: BIRTH FORMULAE

  CHAPTER XIX: THE WORLD OF THE UNBORN

  CHAPTER XX: WHAT THEY MEAN BY IT

  CHAPTER XXI: THE COLLEGES OF UNREASON

  CHAPTER XXII: THE COLLEGES OF UNREASON — Continued

  CHAPTER XXIII: THE BOOK OF THE MACHINES

  CHAPTER XXIV: THE MACHINES — continued

  CHAPTER XXV: THE MACHINES — concluded

  CHAPTER XXVI: THE VIEWS OF AN EREWHONIAN PROPHET CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS

  CHAPTER XXVII: THE VIEWS OF AN EREWHONIAN PHILOSOPHER CONCERNING THE RIGHTS OF VEGETABLES

  CHAPTER XXVIII: ESCAPE

  CHAPTER XXIX: CONCLUSION

  The original title page

  Map of part of New Zealand to illustrate ‘Erewhon’

  EREWHON, OR OVER THE RANGE

  “” — ARIST. Pol.

  “There is no action save upon a balance of considerations.” — Paraphrase.

  PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

  The Author wishes it to be understood that Erewhon is pronounced as a word of three syllables, all short — thus, Ĕ-rĕ-whŏn.

  PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION

  Having been enabled by the kindness of the public to get through an unusually large edition of “Erewhon” in a very short time, I have taken the opportunity of a second edition to make some necessary corrections, and to add a few passages where it struck me that they would be appropriately introduced; the passages are few, and it is my fixed intention never to touch the work again.

  I may perhaps be allowed to say a word or two here in reference to “The Coming Race,” to the success of which book “Erewhon” has been very generally set down as due. This is a mistake, though a perfectly natural one. The fact is that “Erewhon” was finished, with the exception of the last twenty pages and a sentence or two inserted from time to time here and there throughout the book, before the first advertisement of “The Coming Race” appeared. A friend having called my attention to one of the first of these advertisements, and suggesting that it probably referred to a work of similar character to my own, I took “Erewhon” to a well-known firm of publishers on the 1st of May 1871, and left it in their hands for consideration. I then went abroad, and on learning that the publishers alluded to declined the MS., I let it alone for six or sev
en months, and, being in an out-of-the-way part of Italy, never saw a single review of “The Coming Race,” nor a copy of the work. On my return, I purposely avoided looking into it until I had sent back my last revises to the printer. Then I had much pleasure in reading it, but was indeed surprised at the many little points of similarity between the two books, in spite of their entire independence to one another.

  I regret that reviewers have in some cases been inclined to treat the chapters on Machines as an attempt to reduce Mr. Darwin’s theory to an absurdity. Nothing could be further from my intention, and few things would be more distasteful to me than any attempt to laugh at Mr. Darwin; but I must own that I have myself to thank for the misconception, for I felt sure that my intention would be missed, but preferred not to weaken the chapters by explanation, and knew very well that Mr. Darwin’s theory would take no harm. The only question in my mind was how far I could afford to be misrepresented as laughing at that for which I have the most profound admiration. I am surprised, however, that the book at which such an example of the specious misuse of analogy would seem most naturally levelled should have occurred to no reviewer; neither shall I mention the name of the book here, though I should fancy that the hint given will suffice.

  I have been held by some whose opinions I respect to have denied men’s responsibility for their actions. He who does this is an enemy who deserves no quarter. I should have imagined that I had been sufficiently explicit, but have made a few additions to the chapter on Malcontents, which will, I think, serve to render further mistake impossible.

  An anonymous correspondent (by the hand-writing presumably a clergyman) tells me that in quoting from the Latin grammar I should at any rate have done so correctly, and that I should have written “agricolas” instead of “agricolae”. He added something about any boy in the fourth form, &c., &c., which I shall not quote, but which made me very uncomfortable. It may be said that I must have misquoted from design, from ignorance, or by a slip of the pen; but surely in these days it will be recognised as harsh to assign limits to the all-embracing boundlessness of truth, and it will be more reasonably assumed that each of the three possible causes of misquotation must have had its share in the apparent blunder. The art of writing things that shall sound right and yet be wrong has made so many reputations, and affords comfort to such a large number of readers, that I could not venture to neglect it; the Latin grammar, however, is a subject on which some of the younger members of the community feel strongly, so I have now written “agricolas”. I have also parted with the word “infortuniam” (though not without regret), but have not dared to meddle with other similar inaccuracies.

  For the inconsistencies in the book, and I am aware that there are not a few, I must ask the indulgence of the reader. The blame, however, lies chiefly with the Erewhonians themselves, for they were really a very difficult people to understand. The most glaring anomalies seemed to afford them no intellectual inconvenience; neither, provided they did not actually see the money dropping out of their pockets, nor suffer immediate physical pain, would they listen to any arguments as to the waste of money and happiness which their folly caused them. But this had an effect of which I have little reason to complain, for I was allowed almost to call them life-long self-deceivers to their faces, and they said it was quite true, but that it did not matter.

  I must not conclude without expressing my most sincere thanks to my critics and to the public for the leniency and consideration with which they have treated my adventures.

  June 9, 1872

  PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION

  My publisher wishes me to say a few words about the genesis of the work, a revised and enlarged edition of which he is herewith laying before the public. I therefore place on record as much as I can remember on this head after a lapse of more than thirty years.

  The first part of “Erewhon” written was an article headed “Darwin among the Machines,” and signed Cellarius. It was written in the Upper Rangitata district of the Canterbury Province (as it then was) of New Zealand, and appeared at Christchurch in the Press Newspaper, June 13, 1863. A copy of this article is indexed under my books in the British Museum catalogue. In passing, I may say that the opening chapters of “Erewhon” were also drawn from the Upper Rangitata district, with such modifications as I found convenient.

  A second article on the same subject as the one just referred to appeared in the Press shortly after the first, but I have no copy. It treated Machines from a different point of view, and was the basis of p-274 of the present edition of “Erewhon.” This view ultimately led me to the theory I put forward in “Life and Habit,” published in November 1877. I have put a bare outline of this theory (which I believe to be quite sound) into the mouth of an Erewhonian philosopher in Chapter XXVII. of this book.

  In 1865 I rewrote and enlarged “Darwin among the Machines” for the Reasoner, a paper published in London by Mr. G. J. Holyoake. It appeared July 1, 1865, under the heading, “The Mechanical Creation,” and can be seen in the British Museum. I again rewrote and enlarged it, till it assumed the form in which it appeared in the first edition of “Erewhon.”

  The next part of “Erewhon” that I wrote was the “World of the Unborn,” a preliminary form of which was sent to Mr. Holyoake’s paper, but as I cannot find it among those copies of the Reasoner that are in the British Museum, I conclude that it was not accepted. I have, however, rather a strong fancy that it appeared in some London paper of the same character as the Reasoner, not very long after July 1, 1865, but I have no copy.

  I also wrote about this time the substance of what ultimately became the Musical Banks, and the trial of a man for being in a consumption. These four detached papers were, I believe, all that was written of “Erewhon” before 1870. Between 1865 and 1870 I wrote hardly anything, being hopeful of attaining that success as a painter which it has not been vouchsafed me to attain, but in the autumn of 1870, just as I was beginning to get occasionally hung at Royal Academy exhibitions, my friend, the late Sir F. N. (then Mr.) Broome, suggested to me that I should add somewhat to the articles I had already written, and string them together into a book. I was rather fired by the idea, but as I only worked at the MS. on Sundays it was some months before I had completed it.

  I see from my second Preface that I took the book to Messrs. Chapman & Hall May 1, 1871, and on their rejection of it, under the advice of one who has attained the highest rank among living writers, I let it sleep, till I took it to Mr. Trübner early in 1872. As regards its rejection by Messrs. Chapman & Hall, I believe their reader advised them quite wisely. They told me he reported that it was a philosophical work, little likely to be popular with a large circle of readers. I hope that if I had been their reader, and the book had been submitted to myself, I should have advised them to the same effect.

  “Erewhon” appeared with the last day or two of March 1872. I attribute its unlooked-for success mainly to two early favourable reviews — the first in the Pall Mall Gazette of April 12, and the second in the Spectator of April 20. There was also another cause. I was complaining once to a friend that though “Erewhon” had met with such a warm reception, my subsequent books had been all of them practically still-born. He said, “You forget one charm that ‘Erewhon’ had, but which none of your other books can have.” I asked what? and was answered, “The sound of a new voice, and of an unknown voice.”

  The first edition of “Erewhon” sold in about three weeks; I had not taken moulds, and as the demand was strong, it was set up again immediately. I made a few unimportant alterations and additions, and added a Preface, of which I cannot say that I am particularly proud, but an inexperienced writer with a head somewhat turned by unexpected success is not to be trusted with a preface. I made a few further very trifling alterations before moulds were taken, but since the summer of 1872, as new editions were from time to time wanted, they have been printed from stereos then made.

  Having now, I fear, at too great length done what I was asked to d
o, I should like to add a few words on my own account. I am still fairly well satisfied with those parts of “Erewhon” that were repeatedly rewritten, but from those that had only a single writing I would gladly cut out some forty or fifty pages if I could.

  This, however, may not be, for the copyright will probably expire in a little over twelve years. It was necessary, therefore, to revise the book throughout for literary inelegancies — of which I found many more than I had expected — and also to make such substantial additions as should secure a new lease of life — at any rate for the copyright. If, then, instead of cutting out, say fifty pages, I have been compelled to add about sixty invitâ Minervâ — the blame rests neither with my publisher nor with me, but with the copyright laws. Nevertheless I can assure the reader that, though I have found it an irksome task to take up work which I thought I had got rid of thirty years ago, and much of which I am ashamed of, I have done my best to make the new matter savour so much of the better portions of the old, that none but the best critics shall perceive at what places the gaps of between thirty and forty years occur.

  Lastly, if my readers note a considerable difference between the literary technique of “Erewhon” and that of “Erewhon Revisited,” I would remind them that, as I have just shown, “Erewhon” look something like ten years in writing, and even so was written with great difficulty, while “Erewhon Revisited” was written easily between November 1900 and the end of April 1901. There is no central idea underlying “Erewhon,” whereas the attempt to realise the effect of a single supposed great miracle dominates the whole of its successor. In “Erewhon” there was hardly any story, and little attempt to give life and individuality to the characters; I hope that in “Erewhon Revisited” both these defects have been in great measure avoided. “Erewhon” was not an organic whole, “Erewhon Revisited” may fairly claim to be one. Nevertheless, though in literary workmanship I do not doubt that this last-named book is an improvement on the first, I shall be agreeably surprised if I am not told that “Erewhon,” with all its faults, is the better reading of the two.