In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

SAMUEL BUTLER: I8J5-19o2 HERBERT DAVIS I T is not quite proper to make the centenary of Samuel Butler's birth an occasion to .do him honour. Not because in Erewhon it was custotnary not to touch upon such a painful subject, but because for Butler the date of a man's birth was much Jess important than the date of a man's death, when his real life begins. "A man should spend his life"-he wrote in his Note Books- " or, rather, does spend his life in being born. His life is his birth throes.... I could not keep myself going at all if I did not believe that I was likely to inherit a good average three-score years and ten of immortality."· But P.e would be glad that we should make it an excuse to consider the maturity of his true self, the life which his work lives to-day, and the influence which he has so far exerted upon this century. For he was much concerned with the question of his permanent success, having failed to gain a hearing from his own generation. He felt that h~ could not hope to reach them, because it was his task to attack at the same time two principal sets of vested interests, the Church and Science, and because he valued his independence too highly to make any concessions to the leaders of the literary and acadetnic world. That, however, does not really explain why his books were not read. He was always most careful to observe the co"nventions, his tone was moderate and reasonable, he was no dangerous revolutionary, and he hated Radicals and Socialists. Why then, we may ask, was his fate so different from that of his disciple, Bernard Shaw, who co!llplained, within a few months of Butler's death, that 21 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY in spite of all his railing at "the revival of tribal soothsaying and idolatrous rites which Huxley called Science and mistook for an advance on the Pentateuch, no less than at the welter of ecclesiastical and professional humbug which saves the face of the stupid system of violence which we call Law and Industry/' the respectable newspapers persisted in announcing cc another book by·this brilliant and thoughtful writer" r In the first place, as Butler himself recognized, he lacked some of the qualities necessary for a popular writer; he had "more of perseverance than facility or readiness of resources." He was born at a time when the word "earnest" was coming into fashion, and he was not only at a disadvantage in having to appeal to a very earnest and solemn reading public, but he was himself not unaffected by that' prevailing mood, some of his gayest and most irresponsible sallies being often the result· of his determined efforts to cast out this evil spirit. It should not be forgotten that Butler's life almost exactly fits into the reign of Queen Victoria, and in many ways he was even more Victorian than the n1ajor prophets of his day. Even the circumstances of his life are conceivable at no other time. Born in a country vicarage, educated .at Shrewsbury and Cambridge, and intended for ordination, Butler found himself unable to accept the doctrines of the Church of England with regard to Infant Baptism, and e1nigrated to New Zealand with a capital of about four thousand pounds. After :five years of sheep-farming, having doubled his capital and invested it to bring a return of te~ per cent., he returned to London·at the age of twenty-eight to begin life again as a painter. Ten years later, conditions in New Zealand being less favourable, he was persuaded to invest his money in a .company ((for making extract from hemlock bark in 22 SAMUEL BUTLER Canada, which was to pay at least sixty per cent. and revolutionise the leather trade." When it duly failed, he came to Montreal and spent more than a year trying to put in order the affairs of the Canada Tanning Extract Company. Perhaps Butler's lack of appreciation for this country may have been partly due to the fact that...

pdf

Share