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Erewhon’s fictional treatise calls dependence "the art of the machines—they serve that they may rule". Copy claim link
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Date 1872 · publication Role Context Register (kind of text) Fiction Missing element "They serve that they may rule" is figurative; the treatise says machines are of themselves unable to struggle and gives them no concealed intent. Scope and limits Fiction inside a satirical novel; the machines act only through people.
The evidence 01 primary source Supports the claim
Erewhon, or Over the Range ↗ Trübner & Co. · 1872
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Source excerpt “But the servant glides by imperceptible approaches into the master; and we have come to such a pass that even now man must suffer terribly on ceasing to benefit the machines. [...] this is the art of the machines—they serve that they may rule.” Location in source Chapter XXII, pp. 200–201 (leaves 212–213)
Machine-checked · 2026-10-06
Source details and check notes Authors Samuel Butler (published anonymously) Version Internet Archive scan of the 1872 printing (ErewhonOverrang00Butl, Smithsonian Libraries copy); quoted passages read on the page images of pp. 191, 196, 197, 200, 201 and 221. The OCR text was used to locate them. Canonical address Open the canonical source ↗ Accessed 2026-10-06 Language English (en) Attribution [Samuel Butler], Erewhon, or Over the Range (London: Trübner & Co., 1872), Internet Archive scan. Reuse Public domain (published 1872; the author died in 1902).. Bibliographic metadata, editorial paraphrases and short attributed quotations (at most 50 words each) under Selekoa’s quotation policy. Public-domain text. Check notes The same passage as the B6 record; read on the page images. Status and meaning Editorial status. Not reviewed by an editor . An exploratory record that no editor has accepted. This status does not say whether a person has read any linked passage. Each evidence record above shows how it was checked.
Relation. A passage of the document bears on the proposition without meeting its criterion; the record names the missing element. It is not an articulation and implies no influence.
Date. Year on the title page of the inspected 1872 Trübner printing (Smithsonian Libraries copy, catalogued as the first edition). Butler’s later prefaces give March 1872.
Record ID ts-b2-erewhon-1872-context