BY SAMUEL BUTLER

Prefatory Note

"GOD the Known and God the Unknown" first appeared in the form ofa series of articles which were published in "The Examiner" inMay, June, and July, 1879.Samuel Butler subsequently revisedthe text of his work, presumably with the intention ofrepublishing it, though he never carried the intention intoeffect.In the present edition I have followed his revisedversion almost without deviation.I have, however, retained afew passages which Butler proposed to omit, partly because theyappear to me to render the course of his argument clearer, andpartly because they contain characteristic thoughts andexpressions of which none of his admirers would wish to bedeprived.In the list of Butler's works "God the Known and Godthe 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 areclosely akin in subject and treatment, and that "God the Knownand God the Unknown" will gain in interest by being considered inrelation to its predecessors.

R.A.STREATFEILD