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The Humour of Homer and Other Essays by Samuel Butler
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essay in the light of Cavaliere Negri's discoveries, the value of
which he fully recognized. As it stands the essay requires so much
revision that I have decided to omit it altogether and to postpone
giving English readers a full account of Tabachetti's career until a
second edition of Butler's "Ex Voto," in which Tabachetti's work is
discussed in detail, is required. Meanwhile I have given a brief
summary of the main facts of Tabachetti's life in a note (p. 195) to
the essay on "Art in the Valley of Saas." Anyone who desires
further details concerning the sculptor and his work will find them
in Cavaliere Negri's pamphlet "Il Santuario di Crea" (Alessandria,
1902).

The three essays grouped together under the title The Deadlock in
Darwinism may be regarded as a postscript to Butler's four books on
evolution, viz. Life and Habit, Evolution Old and New, Unconscious
Memory, and Luck or Cunning? When these essays were first published
in book form in 1904, I ventured to give a brief summary of Butler's
position with regard to the main problem of evolution. I need now
only refer readers to Mr. Festing Jones's biographical sketch and,
for fuller details, to the masterly introduction contributed by
Professor Marcus Hartog to the new edition of Unconscious Memory (A.
C. Fifield, 1910), and recently reprinted in his Problems of Life
and Reproduction (John Murray, 1913), in which Butler's work in the
field of biology and his share in the various controversies
connected with the study of evolution are discussed with the
authority of a specialist.

R. A. STREATFEILD. July, 1913.


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