This etext was produced from the 1914 A. C. Fifield edition by David
Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
by Samuel Butler
INTRODUCTION
By R. A. Streatfeild
Since Butler's death in 1902 his fame has spread so rapidly and theworld of letters now takes so keen in interest in the man and hiswritings that no apology is necessary for the republication of even hisleast significant works. I had long desired to bring out a new editionof his earliest book A FIRST YEAR IN CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT, togetherwith the other pieces that he wrote during his residence in New Zealand,and, that wish being now realised, I have added a supplementary group ofpieces written during his undergraduate days at Cambridge, so that thepresent volume forms a tolerably complete record of Butler's literaryactivity up to the days of EREWHON, the only omission of any importancebeing that of his pamphlet, published anonymously in 1865, THE EVIDENCEFOR THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST AS CONTAINED IN THE FOUREVANGELISTS CRITICALLY EXAMINED. I have not reprinted this, becausepractically the whole of it was incorporated into THE FAIR HAVEN.
A FIRST YEAR IN CANTERBURY SETTLEMENT has long been out of print, andcopies of the original edition are difficult to procure. Butlerprofessed to think poorly of it. Writing in 1889 to his friend AlfredMarks, who had picked up a second-hand copy and felt some doubt as toits authorship, he said: "I am afraid the little book you have referredto was written by me. My people edited my letters home. I did notwrite freely to them, of course, because they were my people. If I wasat all freer anywhere they cut it out before printing it; besides, I hadnot yet shed my Cambridge skin and its trail is everywhere, I am afraid,perceptible. I have never read the book myself. I dipped into a fewpages when they sent it to me in New Zealand, but saw 'prig' writtenupon them so plainly that I read no more and never have and never meanto. I am told the book sells for 1 pound a copy in New Zealand; infact, last autumn I know Sir Walter Buller gave that for a copy inEngland, so as a speculation it is worth 2s. 6d. or 3s. I stole apassage or two from it for EREWHON, meaning to let it go and never bereprinted during my lifetime."
This must be taken with a grain of salt. It was Butler's habitsometimes to entertain his friends and himself by speaking of his ownworks with studied disrespect, as when, with reference to his own DARWINAND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, which also is reprinted in this volume, hedescribed philosophical dialogues as "the most offensive form, exceptpoetry and books of travel into supposed unknown countries, that evenliterature can assume." The circumstances which led to A FIRST YEARbeing written have been fully described by Mr. Festing Jones in hissketch of Butler's life prefixed to THE HUMOUR OF HOMER (Fifield,London, 1913, Kennerley, New York), and I will only briefly recapitulatethem. Butler left England for New Zealand in September, 1859, remainingin the colony until 1864. A FIRST YEAR was published in 1863 inButler's name by his father, who contributed a short preface, statingthat the book was compiled from his son's journal and letters, withextracts from two papers contributed to THE EAGLE, the magazine of St.John's College, Cambridge. These two papers had appeared in 1861 in theform of three articles entitled "Our Emigrant" and signed "Cellarius."By comparing these articles with the book as published by Butler'sfather it is possible to arrive at some conclusion as to the amount ofediting to which Butler's