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God the Known and God the Unknown
BY SAMUEL BUTLER

Prefatory Note "GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first
appeared in the form of a series of articles which were published in
"The Examiner" in May, June, and July, 1879. Samuel Butler
subsequently revised the text of his work, presumably with the
intention of republishing it, though he never carried the intention into
effect. In the present edition I have followed his revised version almost
without deviation. I have, however, retained a few passages which
Butler proposed to omit, partly because they appear to me to render the
course of his argument clearer, and partly because they contain
characteristic thoughts and expressions of which none of his admirers
would wish to be deprived. In the list of Butler's works "God the
Known and God the Unknown" follows "Life and Habit," which
appeared in 1877, and "Evolution, Old and New," which was published
in May, 1879. It is scarcely necessary to point out that the three works
are closely akin in subject and treatment, and that "God the Known and
God the Unknown" will gain in interest by being considered in relation
to its predecessors.
R. A. STREATFEILD ------------------------------------------------
God the Known and God the Unknown
BY SAMUEL BUTLER


CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters
in the inverse ratio of their importance, so that the more closely a
question is felt to touch the hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it is
considered upon prudent people to profess that it does not exist, to
frown it down, to tell it to hold its tongue, to maintain that it has long
been finally settled, so that there is now no question concerning it.
So far, indeed, has this been carried through all time past that the
actions which are most important to us, such as our passage through the
embryonic stages, the circulation of our blood, our respiration, etc. etc.,
have long been formulated beyond all power of reopening question
concerning them - the mere fact or manner of their being done at all
being ranked among the great discoveries of recent ages. Yet the
analogy of past settlements would lead us to suppose that so much
unanimity was not arrived at all at once, but rather that it must have
been preceded by much smouldering [sic] discontent, which again was
followed by open warfare; and that even after a settlement had been
ostensibly arrived at, there was still much secret want of conviction on
the part of many for several generations.
There are many who see nothing in this tendency of our nature but