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Library / Philosophy

Essays on Life, Art and Science

by Samuel Butler

Pages
about 239
Category
Philosophy
Language
English
Reading time
4.4 h at 250 wpm
Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 2.4 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

Transcribed from the 1908 A. C. Fifield edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

Introduction Quis Desiderio? Ramblings in Cheapside The Aunt, The Nieces, and the Dog How to make the best of life The Sanctuary of Montrigone A Medieval Girl School Art in the Valley of Saas Thought and Language The Deadlock in Darwinism

It is hardly necessary to apologise for the miscellaneous character of the following collection of essays. Samuel Butler was a man of such unusual versatility, and his interests were so many and so various that his literary remains were bound to cover a wide field. Nevertheless it will be found that several of the subjects to which he devoted much time and labour are not represented in these pages. I have not thought it necessary to reprint any of the numerous pamphlets and articles which he wrote upon the Iliad and Odyssey, since these were all merged in "The Authoress of the Odyssey," which gives his matured views upon everything relating to the Homeric poems. For a similar reason I have not included an essay on the evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which he printed in 1865 for private circulation, since he subsequently made extensive use of it in "The Fair Haven."

Two of the essays in this collection were originally delivered as lectures; the remainder were published in The Universal Review during 1888, 1889, and 1890.

I should perhaps explain why two other essays of his, which also appeared in The Universal Review, have been omitted.

The first of these, entitled "L'Affaire Holbein-Rippel," relates to a drawing of Holbein's "Danse des Paysans," in the Basle Museum, which is usually described as a copy, but which Butler believed to be the work of Holbein himself. This essay requires to be illustrated in so elaborate a manner that it was impossible to include it in a book of this size.

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