Festing Jones, has kindly supervised the corrections of my book as it
passed through the press.

SAMUEL BUTLER.
May 1, 1901.




CHAPTER I: UPS AND DOWNS OF FORTUNE--MY FATHER STARTS FOR EREWHON


Before telling the story of my father's second visit to the remarkable
country which he discovered now some thirty years since, I should perhaps
say a few words about his career between the publication of his book in
1872, and his death in the early summer of 1891. I shall thus touch
briefly on the causes that occasioned his failure to maintain that hold
on the public which he had apparently secured at first.

His book, as the reader may perhaps know, was published anonymously, and
my poor father used to ascribe the acclamation with which it was
received, to the fact that no one knew who it might not have been written
by. _Omne ignotum pro magnifico_, and during its month of anonymity the
book was a frequent topic of appreciative comment in good literary
circles. Almost coincidently with the discovery that he was a mere
nobody, people began to feel that their admiration had been too hastily
bestowed, and before long opinion turned all the more seriously against
him for this very reason. The subscription, to which the Lord Mayor had
at first given his cordial support, was curtly announced as closed before
it had been opened a week; it had met with so little success that I will