iii. The Two Deans
iv. On the Italian Priesthood
Butler wrote these four pieces while he was an undergraduate at St. John’s College, Cambridge. He kept no copy of any of them, but his friend the Rev. Canon Joseph McCormick, D.D., Rector of St. James’s, Piccadilly, kept copies in a note-book which he lent me. The only one that has appeared in print is “The Shield of Achilles,” which Canon McCormick sent to The Eagle, the magazine of St. John’s College, Cambridge, and it was printed in the number for December 1902, about six months after Butler’s death.
“On the Italian Priesthood” is a rendering of the Italian epigram accompanying it which, with others under the heading “Astuzia, Inganno,” is given in Raccolta di Proverbi Toscani di Giuseppe Giusti (Firenze, 1853).
v. A Psalm of Montreal
This was written in Canada in 1875. Butler often recited it and gave copies of it to his friends. Knowing that Mr. Edward Clodd had had something to do with its appearance in the Spectator I wrote asking him to tell me what he remembered about it. He very kindly replied, 29th October, 1905:
“The ‘Psalm’ was recited to me at the Century Club by Butler. He gave me a copy of it which I read to the late Chas. Anderson, Vicar of S. John’s, Limehouse, who lent 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 18th 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 correspondence “A Clergyman’s Doubts” of which the letter signed “Ethics” has already been given in this volume (see p. 304 ante). “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 generally, but it is the end, at any rate, of a very long thing.