Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Samuel Butler: A Critical Study
Though a man may be stupid there is no reason why he should be stripped Of his self respect. He will make a bad enough mess Of his affairs without being helped to do so by parasites who trade on his superstitions and his vanity, by princes, priests, professed gover nors and soldiers. Beginning with rage against common men, your exasperated man of lively intelligence ends by pitying them and desiring to protect them and to urge them to protect themselves against the persons and institu tions by which they are cheated and betrayed and led to renounce their freedom. The ideas\ which sustain these persons and institutions become the Object of lifelong hatred and attack, the weapons used being irony and ridicule. Candide was written to deride the complacent Optimism which in the face of an extraordinary series of catastrophes seemed petty and childish. Life is so precious, so\ varied, and so entertaining that there is no room for trite theory as to its nature. Even in the absence Of imagination, there are enough facts available for common sense to draw a satisfactory and good-tempered con elusion. Left to itself, common sense may be trusted to do so, but while it is possible for lazy, cunning men to make a good thing out of superstition, common sense will be baf?ed.
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