The Humour of Homer and Other Essays

This sketch of Butler’s life, together with the portrait which forms the frontispiece to this volume, first appeared in December, 1902, in The Eagle, the magazine of St. John’s College, Cambridge.  I revised the sketch and read it before the British Homoeopathic Association at 43 Russell Square, London, W.C., on the 9th February, 1910; some of Butler’s music was performed by Miss Grainger Kerr, Mr. R. A. Streatfeild, Mr. J. A. Fuller Maitland, and Mr. H. J. T. Wood, the secretary of the Association.  I again revised it and read it before the Historical Society of St. John’s College, Cambridge, in the combination room of the college on the 16th November, 1910; the Master (Mr. R. F. Scott), who was also Vice-Chancellor of the University, was in the chair, and a vote of thanks was proposed by Professor William Bateson, F.R.S.

As the full Memoir of Butler on which I am engaged is not yet ready for publication, I have again revised the sketch, and it is here published in response to many demands for some account of his life.

H. F. J.
August, 1913.