GodtheKnownandGodtheUnknown(已知的上帝和未知的上帝).pdf

God the Known and God the Unknown
God the Known and God
the Unknown
BY SAMUEL BUTLER
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God the Known and God the Unknown
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, Butler subsequently revisedthe text of his work,
presumably with the intention ofrepublishing it, though he never carried
the intention the present edition I have followed his
revisedversion almost without 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 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.

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God the Known and God the Unknown
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
MANKIND has ever been ready to discuss matters in the inverseratio
of their importance, so that the more closely a question isfelt to touch the
hearts of all of us, the more incumbent it isconsidered upon prudent people
to profess that it does not exist,to frown it down, to tell it to hold its
tongue, to maintain thatit has long been finally settled, so that there is now
noquestion concerning it.
So far, indeed, has this been carried through all time past thatthe
actions which are most important to us, such as our passagethrough the
embryonic stages, the circulation of our blood, ourrespiration, .,
have long been formulated beyond allpower of reopening question
con