The Note Books Of Samuel Butler

226 Higgledy-Piggledy

Evasive Nature

She is one long This-way-and-it-isness and, at the same
time, That-way-and-it-isn'tness. She flies so like a snipe
that she is hard to hit.

Fashion

Fashion is like God, man cannot see it in its holy of holies
and live. And it is, like God, increate, springing out of
nothing, yet the maker of all things—ever changing yet
the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.

Doctors and Clergymen

A physician's physiology has much the same relation to
his power of healing as a cleric's divinity has to his power of
influencing conduct.

God is Love

I dare say. But what a mischievous devil Love is !

Common Chords

If Man is the tonic and God the dominant, the Devil is
certainly the sub-dominant and Woman is the relative minor.

God and the Devil

God and the Devil are an effort after specialisation and
division of labour.

Sex

The sexes are the first—or are among the first great ex-
periments in the social subdivision of labour.

Women

If you choose to insist on the analogies and points of
resemblance between men and women, they are so great
that the differences seem indeed small. If, on the other
hand, you are in a mood for emphasising the points of differ-