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HE FULL TITLE OF THIS WORK IS
Unconscious Memory: a comparison between the theory
of Dr. Ewald Hering, Professor of Physiology at the
University of Prague, and the " Philosophy of the Un-

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conscious" of Dr. Edward Von Hartmann; with translations from these authors, and preliminary chapters bearing on Life and Habit," Evolution, Old and Ñew,” and Mr. Charles Darwin's edition of Dr. Krause's "Erasmus Darwin." It appeared in 1880; a second edition, with an Introduction by the late Professor Marcus Hartog, was published in 1910 and a third in 1920. From the third edition the work is now reprinted, with a few corrections, some amplifications which Butler made in chapters 10-13 when he reprinted them in his book of Selections from Previous Works (1884), and an Index.

Professor Hartog's critical Introduction is omitted from this edition as being outside its scope, but it will continue to appear in the ordinary edition of the work.

The reader is reminded that since Butler died documents have come to light which go far towards clearing up the personal quarrel between Butler and Charles Darwin, of which the story is told in chapter 4 of Unconscious Memory. The matter is fully dealt with in H. F. Jones's Charles Darwin and Samuel Butler: a Step towards Reconciliation (1911); and in his Memoir of Butler, vol. i, pp. 322 foll., and ii, pp. 446 foll. (1919).

1924.

H.F.J.

A.T.B.

OR MANY YEARS A LINK IN THE CHAIN of Samuel Butler's biological works has been missing. Unconscious Memory was originally pub

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lished thirty years ago, but for fully half that period it has been out of print, owing to the destruction of a large number of the unbound sheets in a fire at the premises of the printers some years ago. The present reprint comes, I think, at a peculiarly fortunate moment, since the attention of the general public has of late been drawn to Butler's biological theories in a marked manner by several distinguished men of science, notably by Dr. Francis Darwin, who, in his presidential address to the British Association in 1908, quoted from the translation of Hering's address On Memory as a Universal Function of Organized Matter, which Butler incorporated into Unconscious Memory, and spoke in the highest terms of Butler himself. It is not necessary for me to do more than refer to the changed attitude of scientific authorities with regard to Butler and his theories, since Professor Marcus Hartog has most kindly consented to contribute an introduction to the present edition of Unconscious Memory, summarizing Butler's views upon biology, and defining his position in the world of science. A word must be said as to the controversy between Butler and Darwin, with which chapter 4 is concerned. I have been told that in reissuing the book at all I am committing a grievous error of taste, that the world is no longer interested in these "old unhappy far-off things and battles long ago," and that Butler himself, by refraining from republishing Unconscious Memory, tacitly admitted that he wished the controversy to be consigned to oblivion. This last suggestion, at any rate, has no foundation in fact. Butler desired nothing less than that his vindication of himself against what he considered unfair treatment should be for

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