Village books

Of the best of them one is now at Canterbury, New
Zealand, one at St. John's College, Cambridge, and one at the
Schools, Shrewsbury.
This is Butler's own account of himself, taken from a letter to Sir
Julius von Haast; although written in 1865 it is true of his mode of
life for many years:
I have been taking lessons in painting ever since I arrived, I
was always very fond of it and mean to stick to it; it suits me
and I am not without hopes that I shall do well at it. I live
almost the life of a recluse, seeing very few people and going
nowhere that I can help--I mean in the way of parties and so
forth; if my friends had their way they would fritter away my
time without any remorse; but I made a regular stand against it
from the beginning and so, having my time pretty much in my own
hands, work hard; I find, as I am sure you must find, that it is
next to impossible to combine what is commonly called society and
work.
But the time saved from society was not all devoted to painting.


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