Original (English)

Preface Early in his life Samuel Butler began to carry a note-book and to write down in it anything he wanted to remember; it might be something he heard some one say, more commonly it was something he said himself.  In one of these notes he gives a reason for making them: “One’s thoughts fly so fast that one must shoot them; it is no use trying to put salt on their tails.” So he bagged as many as he could hit and preserved them, re-written on loose sheets of paper which constituted a s