They rather show the preparation of the
soil in which those germs sprouted and grew; and, remembering his
last remark on the subject that "it was all very young and silly," I
decided to omit them. The Dialogue is no longer lost, and the
numbers of the Press containing it and the correspondence that ensued
can be seen in the British Museum.
Butler's other two contributions to the Press mentioned above do
contain the germs of the machine chapters in Erewhon, and led him to
the theory put forward in Life and Habit. In 1901 he wrote in the
preface to the new and revised edition of Erewhon: "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 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."
The article is in the form of a letter, and the copy spoken of by
Butler, as indexed under his name in the British Museum, being
defective, the reprint which appeared in the jubilee number of the
Press has been used in completing the version which follows.
Further on in the preface to the 1901 edition of Erewhon he writes:
"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.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69