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Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Note-Books of Samuel Butler"

"

Moral Try-Your-Strengths

There are people who, if they only had a slot, might turn a pretty
penny as moral try-your-strengths, like those we see in railway-
stations for telling people their physical strength when they have
dropped a penny in the slot. In a way they have a slot, which is
their mouths, and people drop pennies in by asking them to dinner,
and then they try their strength against them and get snubbed; but
this way is roundabout and expensive. We want a good automatic
asinometer by which we can tell at a moderate cost how great or how
little of a fool we are.

Populus Vult

If people like being deceived--and this can hardly be doubted--there
can rarely have been a time during which they can have had more of
the wish than now. The literary, scientific and religious worlds vie
with one another in trying to gratify the public.

Men and Monkeys

In his latest article (Feb. 1892) Prof. Garner says that the chatter
of monkeys is not meaningless, but that they are conveying ideas to
one another. This seems to me hazardous. The monkeys might with
equal justice conclude that in our magazine articles, or literary and
artistic criticisms, we are not chattering idly but are conveying
ideas to one another.

"One Touch of Nature"

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." Should it not be
"marks," not "makes"? There is one touch of nature, or natural
feature, which marks all mankind as of one family.


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Shanice Maciej Silski Shifty Stereophonics Patty Smyth