of Butler's reputation "Life and Habit" has had much to do. It was
the first and is undoubtedly the most important of his writings on
evolution. From its loins, as it were, sprang his three later books,
"Evolution Old and New," "Unconscious Memory," and "Luck or Cunning",
which carried its arguments further afield. It will perhaps interest
Butler's readers if I here quote a passage from his note-books,
lately published in the "New Quarterly Review" (Vol. III. No. 9), in
which he summarizes his work in biology:

"To me it seems that my contributions to the theory of evolution have
been mainly these

"1. The identification of heredity and memory, and the corollaries
relating to sports, the reversion to remote ancestors, the phenomena
of old age, the causes of the sterility of hybrids, and the
principles underlying longevity--all of which follow as a matter of
course. This was 'Life and Habit' [1877].

"2. The re-introduction of teleology into organic life, which to me
seems hardly, if at all, less important than the 'Life and Habit'
theory. This was 'Evolution Old and New' [1879].

"3. An attempt to suggest an explanation of the physics of memory.
This was Unconscious Memory' [1880]. I was alarmed by the suggestion
and fathered it upon Professor Hering, who never, that I can see,
meant to say anything of the kind, but I forced my view upon him, as
it were, by taking hold of a sentence or two in his lecture, 'On
Memory as a Universal Function of Organised Matter,' and thus
connected memory with vibrations.