Prev | Current Page 499 | Next

Butler, Samuel, 1835-1902

"The Note-Books of Samuel Butler"

I have made a
succession of jaunts or pleasure trips from meadow to meadow, but no
long journey unless life itself be reckoned so. Nevertheless, I have
strayed into no field in which I have not found a flower that was
worth the finding, I have gone into no public place in which I have
not found sovereigns lying about on the ground which people would not
notice and be at the trouble of picking up. They have been things
which any one else has had--or at any rate a very large number of
people have had--as good a chance of picking up as I had. My finds
have none of them come as the result of research or severe study,
though they have generally given me plenty to do in the way of
research and study as soon as I had got hold of them. I take it that
these are the most interesting--or whatever the least offensive word
may be:
1. The emphasising the analogies between crime and disease.
[Erewhon.]
2. The emphasising also the analogies between the development of the
organs of our bodies and of those which are not incorporate with our
bodies and which we call tools or machines. [Erewhon and Luck or
Cunning?]
3. The clearing up the history of the events in connection with the
death, or rather crucifixion, of Jesus Christ; and a reasonable
explanation, first, of the belief on the part of the founders of
Christianity that their master had risen from the dead and, secondly,
of what might follow from belief in a single supposed miracle.


Pages:
487 488 489 490 491 492 493 494 495 496 497 498 499 500 501 502 503 504 505 506 507 508 509 510 511
Soul II Soul Nina Simone Spin Doctors Smokie Bruce Springsteen