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Fashioning in the Works of Samuel Butler (1835–1902)

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Fashioning in the Works of Samuel Butler (1835–1902) ORBIT-OnlineRepository ofBirkbeckInstitutionalTheses Enabling Open Access to Birkbeck’s Research Degree output Authority, Authorship, and Lamarckian Self- Fashioning in the Works of Samuel Butler (1835–1902) https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40024/ Version: Full Version Citation: Gillott, David James (2013) Authority, Authorship, and Lamar- ckian Self-Fashioning in the Works of Samuel Butler (1835–1902). [The- sis] (Unpublished) c 2020 The Author(s) All material available through ORBIT is protected by intellectual property law, including copy- right law. Any use made of the contents should comply with the relevant law. Deposit Guide Contact: email Birkbeck, University of London Authority, Authorship, and Lamarckian Self-Fashioning in the Works of Samuel Butler (1835–1902) David James Gillott Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 2012 Declaration I, David James Gillott, declare that this thesis is all my own work. Signed declaration __________________________________ Date _________________________ Unless otherwise stated, this work is © David Gillott and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. ! 2 Abstract The Lamarckian thought of Samuel Butler (1835–1902) has been much observed in relation to his evolutionary works, but my thesis offers a wider ranging examination, and argues for the pervasiveness of Lamarckian ideas across the whole breadth of Butler’s varied oeuvre. In his intervention into evolutionary debate, Butler differentiated between Darwinian luck and Lamarckian cunning, and I show how this distinction informs his notions of authority and authorship, and how he employs Lamarckian concepts in his attempt to fashion for himself an authoritative position as a man of letters. Via an examination of two of his earliest works on evolution, Chapter 1 demonstrates how Butler satirically subverts the argument by analogy employed by theologians Bishop Butler and William Paley, as well as by Charles Darwin, in order to highlight the dangers of logical argument as a means of establishing authority. Chapter 2 extends this critique through a consideration of Butler’s more mature evolutionary works. These amount to a condemnation of what he believes to be the underhand means by which Darwin had sought to appropriate evolutionary theory as his own, without acknowledging the efforts of earlier evolutionists. Chapter 3 describes Butler’s developing epistemology through the lens of his theological writings. It concludes that his epistemological trajectory is best read as a ‘reconversion narrative’, in which reason is subordinated to faith, and which is a necessary consequence of his evolutionary theory. In Chapter 4 I argue that Butler’s writings on art constitute a ‘Lamarckian aesthetics’ that offers both a new reading of the Renaissance, as well as an optimistic alternative to ideas of fin-de-siècle cultural degeneration. Finally, in Chapter 5 I show how Butler’s last works are the culmination of his self-fashioning as he sought to position himself favourably for posterity. ! 3 Table of Contents ! List of Illustrations ............................................................................................................ 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 6 Abbreviations .................................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1: Butler’s Use of Analogical Reasoning ........................................................... 33 Chapter 2: Butler and Scientific Naturalism ................................................................... 60 Chapter 3: The Evolution of Butler’s Epistemology ....................................................... 97 Chapter 4: Butler’s Lamarckian Aesthetics ................................................................... 136 Chapter 5: Towards a Posthumous Life ....................................................................... 172 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 209 Appendix ....................................................................................................................... 217 Works Cited .................................................................................................................. 218 List of Illustrations Figure 1: The sacro monte at Varese ....………………………………………………...135 Figure 2: Chapel of the Journey to Calvary, Varallo ...……………………………....170 Figure 3: Il Vecchietto, Varallo …………………………………………………………171 ! 5 Acknowledgements First of all I must thank the staff and my fellow students in the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck for providing such a wonderfully supportive environment during the three years of my PhD. Writing an English PhD thesis can be a lonely experience, but the programme of seminars and lectures put on by the Department, together with post-seminar pub gatherings, went a long way to help preserve some semblance of sanity. In particular, I must single out my supervisor Carolyn Burdett. In a thesis in which the word ‘professional’ tends to be used pejoratively, I make no apologies in using it in reference to Carolyn in its most positive sense. Her patience was unflagging in the many instances when it took a while for the penny to drop for me. Through no fault of hers there are many pennies still to drop, and maybe several that never will. I shall miss our monthly supervisions. I should also like to thank James Emmott for the numerous discussions in which we thrashed out some of the more recondite cruxes in the MHRA Style Guide. I can think of few others who share my enthusiasm for this aspect of research. Towards the end of my thesis I benefited from personal communication with Wendy Moffat and P. N. Furbank, who both helped to clarify my views on Butler’s sexuality. Erin Kimber of the Macmillan Brown Library at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, responded promptly to my request for information regarding an obscure 1863 article in the Christchurch Press, which, sadly, did not make the final cut. My PhD was funded by an AHRC Studentship for which I am grateful. In addition, I benefited from AHRC RTSG Study Visit funding for my visit to the sacri monti of Varallo and Varese in the hills north of Milan. This research trip went some way to explain why Butler loved this region and its art so much. Finally, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my parents, Arthur and Mavis Gillott. If Butler had been similarly blessed, we would never have enjoyed the horrors of domestic life with Theobald and Christina Pontifex, and The Way of All Flesh would never have been written in the form we now have it. In contrast to Butler’s experience, my parents have trusted me to follow my instincts throughout my life, and have been supportive in all the choices I have made. I dedicate this thesis to them. ! 6 Abbreviations of Works by Samuel Butler AO The Authoress of the Odyssey AS Alps and Sanctuaries CD ‘A Clergyman’s Doubts’ DM ‘Darwin Among the Machines’ DOS ‘Darwin on the Origin of Species: A Dialogue’ E Erewhon EON Evolution, Old and New ER Erewhon Revisited EV Ex Voto FH The Fair Haven GK ‘God the Known and God the Unknown’ HH ‘The Humour of Homer’ LC Luck, or Cunning? LE ‘Lucubratio Ebria’ LH Life and Habit LL The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Butler, 2 vols NB The Note-Books of Samuel Butler SBR Samuel Butler on the Resurrection SSR Shakespeare’s Sonnets Reconsidered UM Unconscious Memory WF The Way of All Flesh WOW ‘Was the Odyssey Written by a Woman?’ ! 7 Introduction The scholarship on Samuel Butler abounds with commonplaces that will be familiar to any Victorianist with only even the vaguest knowledge of his writings. ‘Iconoclastic’, ‘original’, and ‘anti-Victorian’ are a few typical examples in the constellation of adjectives associated with him. The tenor of these is summed up in the sub-title of the recent collection of essays discussing his works: Victorian Against the Grain. As with all clichés, these descriptions of Butler contain a germ of truth, but, as my thesis will show, they can also be spectacularly wrong. In many ways, he was as conformist as iconoclastic, derivative as much as original, Victorian as much as anti-Victorian. The perceived slipperiness or self-contradictory nature of his literary personas can be detected in the oxymoronic phrases used in the titles of two of his earlier biographies: ‘Earnest Atheist’ and ‘Mid-Victorian Modern’.1 Such phrases are accurate in their formal paradox, if not in the precise oppositional terms used to construct the paradox. Another commonplace associated with Butler is that he is a neglected writer. Samuel Butler, Victorian Against the Grain, the 2007 critical essay collection that grew out of a 2002 seminar commemorating the centenary of his death, was the first such collection ever published. In his introduction, James Paradis observes that ‘the flow of research on Butler is currently at a low point, having dropped to a listing or two in annual research bibliographies’.2 Twenty-six years before this, Thomas Jeffers similarly wrote of the ‘desuetude’ into which the study of Butler had then fallen.3 Paradis is correct: a Literature Online search produces a list of just sixteen articles in academic journals since 2002. But Butler does
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