Beings whom it is beyond our power to
destroy, and that we are not only enslaved but are absolutely
acquiescent in our bondage.
For the present we shall leave this subject, which we present gratis
to the members of the Philosophical Society. Should they consent to
avail themselves of the vast field which we have pointed out, we
shall endeavour to labour in it ourselves at some future and
indefinite period.
I am, Sir, etc.,
CELLARIUS
LUCUBRATIO EBRIA
"Lucubratio Ebria," like "Darwin Among the Machines," has already
appeared in THE NOTE-BOOKS OF SAMUEL BUTLER with a prefatory note by
Mr. Festing Jones, explaining its connection with EREWHON and LIFE
AND HABIT. I need therefore only repeat that it was written by
Butler after his return to England and sent to New Zealand, where it
was published in the PRESS on July 29, 1865.
There is a period in the evening, or more generally towards the still
small hours of the morning, in which we so far unbend as to take a
single glass of hot whisky and water. We will neither defend the
practice nor excuse it. We state it as a fact which must be borne in
mind by the readers of this article; for we know not how, whether it
be the inspiration of the drink or the relief from the harassing work
with which the day has been occupied or from whatever other cause,
yet we are certainly liable about this time to such a prophetic
influence as we seldom else experience. We are rapt in a dream such
as we ourselves know to be a dream, and which, like other dreams, we
can hardly embody in a distinct utterance. We know that what we see
is but a sort of intellectual Siamese twins, of which one is
substance and the other shadow, but we cannot set either free without
killing both. We are unable to rudely tear away the veil of phantasy
in which the truth is shrouded, so we present the reader with a
draped figure, and his own judgment must discriminate between the
clothes and the body. A truth's prosperity is like a jest's, it lies
in the ear of him that hears it. Some may see our lucubration as we
saw it, and others may see nothing but a drunken dream or the
nightmare of a distempered imagination. To ourselves it is the
speaking with unknown tongues to the early Corinthians; we cannot
fully understand our own speech, and we fear lest there be not a
sufficient number of interpreters present to make our utterance
edify. But there! (Go on straight to the body of the article.)
The limbs of the lower animals have never been modified by any act of
deliberation and forethought on their own part.
