He replied, 'When I hear your majesty has amended of that fault, I will tell you of your next;' and so it ended."

The following anecdote is related on the same authority :-"Being in company with Addison, Steele, Secretary Craggs, and Sir Robert Walpole, they engaged in a dispute, whether a secretary of state could be an honest man. Whiston, being silent, was asked his opinion, and said, 'he thought honesty was the best policy, and if a minister would practise it, he would find it so.' To which Craggs replied, 'It might do for a fortnight, but would not do for a month.' Whiston demanded, 'If he had ever tried it for a fortnight.' To which he, making no answer, the company gave it for Whiston."

Joseph Butler.

BORN A. D. 1692.-dieD A. D. 1752.

THIS celebrated theologian of the English church was born at Wantage, in Berkshire, in 1692. Of his father, Thomas Butler, scarcely any thing is recorded, except that he was a respectable tradesman in that town, and belonged to the Presbyterian communion. · The subject of this memoir was the youngest of eight children. Having early given indications of superior capacity and genius, he was destined by his father for the work of the ministry in his own denomination. Accordingly, after the usual course of elementary instruction at the grammar-school of Wantage, Butler was sent to a dissenting academy, then established at Gloucester, but afterwards removed to Tewkesbury. This institution was at that time under the superintendence of Mr Jones, a man of uncommon talents and learning, of whose pupils many attained to great subsequent eminence, both in the church of England and among the dissenters. While a member of this academy, Mr Butler, at the early age of nineteen, entered into a correspondence with Dr Samuel Clarke, on some of the arguments advanced in the doctor's celebrated 'Demonstration of the Being and Attributes of God.' This correspondence was anonymous on Butler's side; and the transmission of the letters was managed for him by his friend and fellow-student Secker, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury. The same reach and sagacity of intellect, which characterize all Butler's subsequent performances, are exhibited to the greatest advantage in these letters to Dr Clarke. objections are aimed at Clarke's (professed) demonstrations of the omnipresence and the unity of God. With regard to the first of these, the doctor's answers seem to have wrought considerable conviction in Mr Butler's mind. And, indeed, if the method of arguing from original and absolute necessity, as the ground or reason of existence, be admitted, it seems impossible to invalidate Dr Clarke's demonstration of the Divine ubiquity. To us, however, it appears, that the fundamental principle of this pretended demonstration is untenable and fallacious.' As to the metaphysical argument in support of the unity of God, Butler remained unsatisfied to the last; and, indeed, if we could forget the influence of system, and the force of that parental affection with which

iSee our notice of Dr Samuel Clarke.

His

even the most unbiassed minds almost always regard their own opinions, we might be surprised that Clarke himself did not yield to the arguments of his anonymous correspondent. It is only fair to add that all the doctor's letters are written in a friendly and respectful tone; and that, after he ascertained the name of his acute antagonist, he always manifested the greatest esteem and kindness for him. It was about this time that Butler entered upon a serious, and, we doubt not, a conscientious examination of the reasons of non-conformity; the result of which determined him to enter the established church. The accession of so illustrious a proselyte has, of course, been celebrated with the loudest exultation by the apologists of the English hierarchy. But, without detracting one particle from the acknowledged acumen and piety of Butler, no intelligent advocate of independency will find much to wonder at in this conversion, which the zealots of episcopacy have "voiced so regardfully." It was the weakness of this great man to attach a disproportionate, and almost preposterous importance to the external observances of religion. Indeed we suspect that it would be difficult to produce another protestant divine of the eighteenth century, whose sentiments upon this point bordered so nearly upon Romanism. To this it must be added, that the theological system of Butler was never by any means sufficiently evangelical. Though he admitted them into his creed, he seems to have had no idea of giving due weight and prominence to those principles which constitute the spirit and vitality, the very element and essence of the gospel. Hence he would easily be led to acquiesce in an ecclesiastical system of which it is one of the worst features, that it not only does not provide in any adequate degree for the exhibition of those principles, but actually operates, with most calamitous effect, to counteract and destroy them.-After some opposition from his father, Butler was allowed to follow his inclinations, and in 1714 he entered as a commoner of Oriel college, Oxford. Here he became the intimate friend of Edward Talbot, second son of Dr William Talbot, a prelate of some eminence in the English church.

In 1718, through the recommendation of Mr Talbot and Dr Clarke, Sir Joseph Jekyll bestowed upon Butler the appointment of preacher at the Rolls, which he retained till 1725. In the beginning of this year he gave to the world a volume entitled, 'Fifteen Sermons preached at the Rolls' Chapel;' of which a second edition was published in 1729. To these were subsequently added, 'Six Sermons preached upon public occasions.' Of these sermons, considered as disquisitions on the philosophy of morals and religion, it is difficult to speak in terms of proper and commensurate commendation. They exhibit a rare combination of nearly all the excellences of which compositions of this class are susceptible, and are, generally, remarkably free from most of the defects and blemishes of abstrusely argumentative sermons. They are chargeable, however, with one serious and capital deficiency, a deficiency of evangelical statement. Without falling in with those who demand that a man shall empty the whole of his theological system into every sermon, we must unequivocally deplore and condemn the almost total omission of evangelical sentiment and principle which so unfavourably distinguishes the sermons of Butler. As there is scarcely any

Shakspeare's Timon of Athens.

thing in any of his reasonings or remarks inconsistent with the leading truths of the gospel, he might have incorporated those truths with the profoundest of his disquisitions without in the last impairing their scientific exactness, or weakening their impression. On the contrary, it would have been a task entirely worthy of his mighty intellect to show how the deepest researches into the foundation of morals, and the structure and operations of the human mind, only tend to sustain and illustrate the divine philosophy of the gospel. The preface and the first three sermons are chiefly occupied with discussions on the nature and authority of conscience, and on the social nature of man. It is surprising with what depth, comprehensiveness, and clearness he has succeeded in treating these subjects, the native obscurity of which has, in every age, been so greatly augmented, in part by the errors of the wise and the good, but chiefly by the "perverse disputings" of the licentious. We greatly doubt whether there is any thing of importance in the settlement of the first principles of morals which may not be found in the preface and the first three sermons of this volume. The discourses on the character of Balaam, on Self-deceit, on the Love of God, and on the Ignorance of Man, may be noticed as of peculiar excellence. From the last of these we are tempted to extract a short passage, which, for depth of thought and beauty of illustration, has not often been excelled. "Due sense of the general ignorance of man would also beget in us a disposition to take up and rest satisfied with any evidence whatever which is real. I mention this as the contrary to a disposition, of which there are not wanting instances, to find fault with and reject evidence, because it is not such as was desired. If a man were to walk by twilight, must he not follow his eyes as much as if it were broad day and clear sunshine? Or if he were obliged to take a journey by night, would he not 'give heed' to any light shining in the darkness, till the day should break, and the day-star arise?' It would not be altogether unnatural for him to reflect how much better it were to have day-light; he might, perhaps, have great curiosity to see the country round about him; he might lament that the darkness concealed many extended prospects from his eyes, and wish for the sun to draw away the veil: but how ridiculous would it be to reject with scorn and disdain the guidance and direction which that lesser light might afford him, because it was not the sun himself."

In 1722 he was presented by his patron, Bishop Talbot, with the benefice of Haughton, which, three years after, he exchanged for that of Stanhope. In this last place he remained for seven years. The retirement of a country parish, however, tended so powerfully to aggravate Butler's constitutional melancholy, that his friends became very desirous to remove him to a superior scene. It is said that when his name was mentioned to Queen Caroline, she asked whether he was not dead; to which it was answered "No, madam, but he is buried." In 1733 Butler was appointed chaplain to the Lord-chancellor Talbot; and in the same year he was admitted to the degree of D. C. L. by the university of Oxford. In 1736 he was made clerk of the closet to her majesty. Shortly after appeared his great work, entitled, 'The Analogy of Religion, natural and revealed, to the constitution and course of nature.' great scope and bearing of this immortal treatise is to destroy the force of the chief antecedent exceptions against natural and revealed religion,

The

by showing that the doctrines objected to in both, coincide and harmonize with what we know to be the ordinary operations of nature and providence. He proceeds, throughout, on the assumption of the being and perfections of God, which, he observes, "have often been proved with accumulated evidence." He commences in his introduction with some acute remarks on the nature and measures of probability, and the unquestionable force of analogical evidence in innumerable matters of daily practice and observation. Here we may observe, that throughout the work Dr Butler employs the word "analogy" in its most extended sense, as synonymous with similarity or resemblance. Hence he affirms that it is from the evidence of analogy that we collect that "the sun will rise to-morrow, and be seen, where it is seen, in the figure of a circle, and not that of a square." It is important to keep this usage of the term steadily in mind; since there are two other senses in which it is used by writers of authority, neither of which would quadrate with the reasonings and illustrations of Dr Butler. By Aristotle, Cicero, Quintilian, and almost all the ancients, and by Berkeley, Johnson, A. Ferguson, Coplestone, and Whately, among our own writers, analogy" is employed to signify equality or similarity of relations: hence it is said by Aristotle that the roots of a tree are "analogous" to the mouth of an animal; for both draw in nourishment.3 By most of our later metaphysicians, however, "analogy" is used to signify a vague and general similarity, in contradistinction from those more exact and complete resemblances which constitute the foundation of what is called the testimony of experience. From inattention to this diversity in the use of the term, the arguments of Butler have frequently been greatly misunderstood. In the first part of the work, which treats of natural religion, he considers successively the doctrines "of a future life;” “ of the government of God by rewards and punishments;" "of the moral government of God;" "of a state of probation as implying trial, difficulties, and danger;" "of a state of probation as intended for moral discipline and improvement;"" of the opinion of necessity considered as influencing practice;" and "of the government of God considered as a scheme or constitution imperfectly comprehended." In the second part, which is devoted to revealed religion, he discusses, seriatim, “the importance of Christianity;""the supposed presumptions against a revelation, considered as miraculous;" "our incapacity of judging what were to be expected in a revelation ;” “Christianity considered as a scheme or constitution imperfectly comprehended;" "the appointment of a Mediator;" "the want of universality in revelation, and the supposed deficiency in the proof of it;" "the particular evidence for Christianity;" and "the objections which may be made against arguing from the analogy of nature to religion." On each of these well-selected and momentous subjects he offers a variety of original and masterly remarks and arguments, the general impression of which is to prove that unless we are prepared to reject the first principles of all religion and of common sense, we are bound in consistency to embrace and act up to every one of the enumerated doctrines. To the whole treatise are appended two dissertations," on personal identity," and "on the nature of virtue." In the first of these he briefly considers and refutes Mr Locke's account of 3 See note to Bishop Coplestone's second sermon on the Calvinistic controversy. 4 See Stewart's Elem, vol. ii.

6

personal identity, in a style which shows that had he concentrated his attention upon the philosophy of the human mind, he might have eclipsed the fame of some of the greatest metaphysicians. In the second he propounds and illustrates with great perspicuity the same theory of virtue on which he had before insisted in the preface to his sermons. The Analogy,' ever since its first publication, has been universally considered as beyond comparison the ablest treatise on the philosophy of religion. As a preparation for the study of the evidences of natural and revealed religion, it is invaluable; since it both annihilates the most formidable à priori objections of the infidel, and is admirably fitted to form the mind to the serious and earnest pursuit of the truth. To good men of a speculative turn of mind, who are tormented by the frequent recurrence of sceptical doubts, it has always proved an inestimable blessing; and even infidels have been compelled to acknowledge its superlative excellence as a piece of reasoning. If we were required to specify particular portions of merit, superior to the rest, we should mention the chapter on the moral government of God, especially the argument drawn from the necessary tendencies of virtue, and that which treats of the want of universality in religion, and of the supposed deficiency in the proof of it. It is to be regretted that the author did not extend his work so as to embrace some other important doctrines, in support of which, the argument from analogy might have been employed with perfect success. We also desiderate in this, as in his other publications, that full decided exhibition of evangelical sentiment, which would have been the crowning excellence to a work in most other respects beyond all praise.

In 1738 Dr Butler was raised to the bishopric of Bristol, and two years after received the deanery of St Paul's. In 1750 he was translated to the see of Durham. The following year he delivered to the clergy of his diocese a charge, which was subsequently published. In this he insists very strongly on the value and effect of external forms and institutes in religion. He was answered by an anonymous writer of considerable ability, who is reported to have been a clergyman of the church of England, and who certainly had by many degrees the best of the argument. Shortly after his elevation to the see of Durham, the health of Dr Butler began to decline; and in 1752 he died at Bath, in the sixty-first year of his age. His body was interred in the cathedral at Bristol.

In the mind of Bishop Butler, all the elements of the true philosophic intellect were developed in their utmost strength and finest proportion. His metaphysical sagacity, while scarcely less profound than that of Leibnitz or of Edwards, was chastened and controlled by a sound practical reason, which neither the German nor the American ever possessed. In that Baconian grasp and comprehensiveness of mind which embraces a complex and extensive subject in all its parts and bearings, he has rarely, if ever, been surpassed. The greatness of his genius is remarkably displayed in that simplicity and sobriety of mind which he preserved entire and undisturbed, amidst his most abstruse and elevated speculations. He never attempts to prop a weak position, or to bear too heavily upon a strong one. He never understates the 5 See, in particular, Sir James Mackintosh's Dissertation on the History of Ethical Science, Encyc. Brit. New Edition,