The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

When people ask what faith we would substitute for that which we would destroy, we answer that we destroy no faith and need substitute none.  We hold the glory of God to be the summum bonum, and so do Christians generally.  It is on the question of what is the glory of God that we join issue.  We say it varies with the varying phases of God as made manifest in his works, but that, so far as we are ourselves concerned, the glory of God is best advanced by advancing that of man.  If asked what is the glory of man we answer “Good breeding”—­using the words in their double sense and meaning both the continuance of the race and that grace of manner which the words are more commonly taken to signify.  The double sense of the words is all the more significant for the unconsciousness with which it is passed over.