seen, anticipated by Hering; but his attitude was his own, fresh and
original. He did not hamper his exposition, like Hering, by a
subsidiary hypothesis of vibrations which may or may not be true,
which burdens the theory without giving it greater carrying power or
persuasiveness, which is based on no objective facts, and which, as
Semon has practically demonstrated, is needless for the detailed
working out of the theory. Butler failed to impress the biologists
of his day, even those on whom, like Romanes, he might have
reasonably counted for understanding and for support. But he kept
alive Hering's work when it bade fair to sink into the limbo of
obsolete hypotheses. To use Oliver Wendell Holmes's phrase, he
"depolarised" evolutionary thought. We quote the words of a young
biologist, who, when an ardent and dogmatic Weismannist of the most
pronounced type, was induced to read "Life and Habit": "The book was
to me a transformation and an inspiration." Such learned writings as
Semon's or Hering's could never produce such an effect: they do not
penetrate to the heart of man; they cannot carry conviction to the
intellect already filled full with rival theories, and with the
unreasoned faith that to-morrow or next day a new discovery will
obliterate all distinction between Man and his makings. The mind
must needs be open for the reception of truth, for the rejection of
prejudice; and the violence of a Samuel Butler may in the future as
in the past be needed to shatter the coat of mail forged by too
exclusively professional a training.


MARCUS HARTOG
Cork, April, 1910