EREWHONIAN IDEAS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21116, 17 March 1934, Page 15

EREWHONIAN IDEAS

TWO POSSIBLE SOURCES

(iriciiiLT Wilms rot T«i nut.) lEtA.B.] It is hardly too much to say that eJI Samuel Butler's thought is contained in the germ in "Erewhon," and that the different streams into which it was split up in later works unite once more in "The Way of All Flesh," the maturest expression of his thought. "Erewhon" itself, apart from the introductory matter, for which his experiences in the Canterbury settlement provided material, consists of a score of chapters on the customs and opinions of the Erewhonians; and the subject matter of I these chapters falls into three rough divisions, corresponding to the three main interests of Butler's life. The first division wc may describe as dealing with ethics and the Butlerian ideal of manhood and womanhood, which is touched on in "Erewhon" in connexion with the ideas of disease considered as a crime and crime as a disease; the s :cond division deals with religion and more particularly with Christianity and church matters; tnc third division ; dials with biology and evolution. was never anything watertight about these compartment;: nevertheless, ail Butler's later books, with the exception of "The Way of All Flesh" may be considered as falling into one or other ef them. The youthful Butler, who comj bined a critical intellect with idcaj listic tendencies, set out to be a i clergyman, and finding himself unable to go on conscientiously, renounced the ministry with the intention of becoming an artist inI stead. The religious streak that ! runs through his work was a natural I expression of his deeply thought- ' i'ul nature; but what specially directed his thought towards the criti-1 cal examination of Christian foundations and of the churches and I church movements of his day was undoubtedly his preparation f.r tneI Christian ministry. We need not seek farther for the origin of tho chapters iv. "Erev.'hon'' en the Musical Eankr, YdTtui and the Ydgrunite-, etc. These were taken up again in "Th" v air Haven" and in "Erewhon Revisited. J Xo mere need be said here on ihrJ subject. ! "Muru" in Butler's Lthics With regard to Butler's ethical ' which he wo.; later to h-.k up iso closely with his evolutionary

theories, it must be remarked that Butler was always trying to describe what he called "nice people," people who appealed to him both as being attractive and as being what nature seems to want. He tells us that the Ancient Greeks, the Modern Italians, and the South Sea Islanders are the nicest people of whom we have rword. He, has endowed his Erewhonlans with the characteristics of the latter, their naturalness, the simplicity of their manners, their courtesy, and that amiability which is the natural result of freedom from care and a perfectly functioning body. How much of this he found in the Maori of this country is uncertain—their life was a harder one than that of the Polynesians generally, and Butler may not have seen them at their best. He had doubtless read some books on the South Sea Islanders, Cook's voyages for example; but whether or not he was indebted to the Maori of this country for any very powerful impressions, one thing has always seemed rather more than probable to me—namely, his indebtedness to ! that classic of New Zealand literaI lure. Maning's "Old New Zealand." ! All who have read any of the I many excellent works on the manners and customs of our native race are acquainted with the custom of muru, of which so spirited an account is given in "Old New Zealand." A man with whom the gods were clearly angry, as testified by some striking misfortune, was regarded as fair game and promptly despoiled of anything he might have in the way of property.' Something of this sort seems to have been behind the ancient custom of muru. so strange to European idea?. Now Butler is never tired of declaring the ethical justification of punishment for misfortune, and states this view very clearly in "Erewhon." "I write with great diffidence," says the narrator in a passage where Butler is clearly stating his own views, "but it seems to me that there is no unfairness in punishing people for their misfortunes, or rewarding them for their sheer good luck: it the normal condition of human life that this should be done, and no right-minded person will complain of being subjected to the common treatment." Can it have been the custom of muru which first set Butler thinking on these lines? The beginnings of "Erewhon" date from 13(53, the year in which Maning's "Old New Zealand" first appeared. The chapters which concern us, howover, do rot seem to have been written before 1870. Maning's book does not fail to bring out what Butler would call the "nice" side cf '.he Maori people, though it dors not co"ceal their savagery; and i!.s exeeilence was such as must make an impression on Butler, as it doe:: on lis readers to-day.

Disraeli's "Awful Speculation" It is always interesting to see on whLt food a mind such as Butler's way nourished, and what hints picked up in the course of reading i-.i-ni set it thinking along certain lines. Whether or not the custom of muru as described by Maning first suggested to Butler one of tho ideas most characteristic of his ethical attitude, I can scarcely doubt that the following passage from Disraeli's "Coningsby," together, of course with "The Origin of Species," ;s the source of those speculations of which tiie outcome was the Book of Machines in "Erewhon." Butler has many appreciative references to Disraeli; and though he prided himself on having the smallest library of any literary man in London and could seldom be induced to read a novel, he had a keen admiration for Disraeli's novels, and pronounced each of them to be better than the last. Knowing this, no student of Butler, with the Book of Machines l'rti-h in his memory, could fail to be struck by the following remarkable passage from "Coningsby," Boo!; IV., Chapter 11.. describing Coningsby's first visit to Manchester: lie entered chambers vaster than arc told of in Arabian fable, and peopled with habitants more wondrous th:.n Afritc or Peri. For there he bc-h'.-UJ, in long continued ranks, thorc mysterious forms full of existence without life, perform with facility, and in an instant, what man can fulfil only with difficulty and in days. A machine is a slave that neither brings nor bears degradation; it is a being endowed Willi the greatest degree of excitement, yet free at the same time from all passion and emotion. It is, therefore, not only a slave, but a supernatural slave. And why should oi-e sav that the machine does not live? It breathes, for its breath forms II:j aimospherc of some towns. 11 moves with more regularity than man. And has it not a voice? Does not the spindle sing like a merry girl at her work, and the steam-engine roar in joily chorus, like a strong artisan handling his lusty tool?, and gaining a fair day's wages for a fair day's toil? ... And yet the mystery of mysteries is to view machines making machines, a spectacle that fills the mind with curious and even awful speculation. ''Surely," says the Ercwhonian philosopher, "if a machine is able to reproduce another machine systematically, we may say that it has a reproductive system"; and he ends by recommending the destruction of the machines before they have encroached too far. But further quoi lation from so well known a book as "Erewhon" is superfluous. We may note in conclusion how Butler's life came to be divided chiefly between the quest of his ideal as exemplified in life—the Greeks, the Italians, Shakespeare, Nausicaa, Dr. Butler—and the quest of a theory in support of it; for that is what the evolution books amount to. "Life and Habit," the first of the series, had its origin, as Butler himself tells us, in the speculations of the Book of Machines.