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From: Ross Clark <benlizro@ihug.co.nz>
Newsgroups: sci.lang
Subject: Samuel Butler died (18-6-1902)
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2024 15:07:52 +1200
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
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That means it's the _Erewhon_ Butler. The one born 1835, author of the 
satirical utopian (satopian? utirical?) novel _Erewhon_, some of which 
was based on his five years in New Zealand (1859-64), much of it 
managing a sheep station called "Mesopotamia" in the South Island high 
country.
"Butler went there, like many early British settlers of materially 
privileged origins, to maximise distance between himself and his family."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Butler_(novelist)

Frequently confused (by me) with the _Hudibras_ Butler (no relation), 
(1613-1680), author of the "vigorous mock-heroic satirical poem" 
_Hudibras_, which remained popular for centuries after its publication. 
Long enough for me to be exposed to a little bit of it at an early age:

In Mathematicks, he was greater
Than Tycho Brahe, or Erra Pater:
For he, by Geometrick scale,
Could take the size of Pots of Ale;
Revolve by Signs and Tangents streight,
If Bread or Butter wanted weight;
And wisely tell what hour o'th'day
The Clock doth strike, by Algebra.

It's a satire on the puritans of the Interregnum. It "delighted the 
royalists but was less an attack on the puritans than a criticism of 
antiquated thinking and contemporary morals, and a parody of 
old-fashioned literary form."

Might be time to read the whole thing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Butler_(poet)

Back to Erewhon Butler: Crystal concentrates on some aphorisms about 
language. This is the shortest:

"Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in 
actual use."