LUCK, OR CUNNING AS THE MAIN MEANS OF ORGANIC MODIFICATION




NOTE



This second edition of Luck, or Cunning? is a reprint of the first
edition, dated 1887, but actually published in November, 1886. The
only alterations of any consequence are in the Index, which has been
enlarged by the incorporation of several entries made by the author
in a copy of the book which came into my possession on the death of
his literary executor, Mr. R. A. Streatfeild. I thank Mr. G. W.
Webb, of the University Library, Cambridge, for the care and skill
with which he has made the necessary alterations; it was a
troublesome job because owing to the re-setting, the pagination was
no longer the same.

Luck, or Cunning? is the fourth of Butler's evolution books; it was
followed in 1890 by three articles in The Universal Review entitled
"The Deadlock in Darwinism" (republished in The Humour of Homer),
after which he published no more upon that subject.

In this book, as he says in his Introduction, he insists upon two
main points: (1) the substantial identity between heredity and
memory, and (2) the reintroduction of design into organic
development; and these two points he treats as though they have
something of that physical life with which they are so closely