At the Century Club I was talking with a man who asked me why I did not
publish the substance of what I had been saying. I believed he knew me
and said:
“Well, you know, there’s _Life and Habit_.”
He did not seem to rise at all, so I asked him if he had seen the book.
“Seen it?” he answered. “Why, I should think every one has seen _Life
and Habit_: but what’s that got to do with it?”
I said it had taken me so much time lately that I had had none to spare
for anything else. Again he did not seem to see the force of the remark
and a friend, who was close by, said:
“You know, Butler wrote _Life and Habit_.”
He would not believe it, and it was only after repeated assurance that he
accepted it. It was plain he thought a great deal of _Life and Habit_
and had idealised its author, whom he was disappointed to find so very
commonplace a person. Exactly the same thing happened to me with
_Erewhon_. I was glad to find that _Life and Habit_ had made so deep an
impression at any rate upon one person.