380 Poems

Anderson, Vicar of S. John's, Limehouse, whfilent it to Matt.
Arnold (when inspecting Anderson's Schools) who lent it to
Richd. Holt Hutton who, with Butler's consent, printed it in the
Spectator of iSth May, 1878."

The " Psalm of Montreal" was included in Selections from
Previous Works (1884) and in Seven Sonnets, etc.

vi. The Righteous Man

Butler wrote this in 1876; it has appeared before only in
1879 in the Examiner, where it formed part of the correspond-
ence " A Clergyman's Doubts3> of which the letter signed(< Ethics "
has already been given in this volume (see p. 304 ante). tl The
Righteous Man " was signed " X.Y.Z." and, in order to connect
it with the discussion, Butler prefaced it with a note comparing
it to the last six, inches of a line of railway ; there is no part
of the road so ugly, so little travelled over, or so useless gener-
ally, but it is the end, at any rate, of a very long thing.

vii. To Critics and Others
This was written in 1883 and has not hitherto been published.

viii. For Narcissus

These are printed for the first time. The pianoforte score of
Narcissus was published in 1888. The poem (A) was written
because there was some discussion then going on in musical
circles about additional accompaniments to the Messiah and
we did not want any to be written for Narcissus.

The poem (B) shows how Butler originally intended to open
Part 17 with a kind of descriptive programme, but he changed
his mind and did it differently.

ix. A Translation Attempted in Consequence
of a Challenge

This translation into Homeric verse of a famous passage from
Martin Chuzzlewit was a by-product of Butler's work on the
Odyssey and the Iliad. It was published in The Eagle in
March, 1894, and was included in Seven Sonnets.

/ asked Butler who had challenged him to attempt the trans-
lation and he replied that he had thought of that and had settled