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.' The great scope and bearing of this immortal treatise is to destroy the force of the chief antecedent exceptions against natural and revcaled religion,

R

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. See Stewart's Elem. vol. ii.

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 cousidered 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 See, in particular, Sir James Mackintosh's Dissertation on the History of Ethical Science, Encyc. Brit. New Edition.

argument of an antagonist, never conceals the difficulties which encumber his own. In short, he exhibits nothing of the artifice and generalship which usually render controversial divinity so comparatively unproductive of conviction. But indeed he could afford the negligent simplicity of greatness; for at the same time that his speculations were uniformly sound and just, they were infinitely more original than all the brilliant paradoxes that ever flashed across the imagination of Horsley or of Warburton. The style of Bishop Butler has, we think, been condemned undeservedly. It certainly is not formed to any thing like Ciceronian harmony and elegance; but it seldom offends the ear, or violates the purity of the English idiom. The charge of obscurity may be confidently repelled; and indeed it is difficult to conceive how it should ever have been advanced by any but a brainless sciolist,

"too weak to bear

The insupportable fatigue of thought."

Dr Butler was a man of great liberality and benevolence. He is said to have expended, in the repairs and embellishment of the episcopal palace at Bristol, more than he received from the bishopric during his whole tenure of that see. It is reported that, when he was bishop of Durham, he one day asked his steward how much money was in the house; to which it was answered, "Five hundred pounds." "Five hundred pounds !" exclaimed the worthy prelate, "what a shame for a bishop to have so much money in the house at one time!" On this he ordered a great part of it to be distributed to the poor. His piety, though not free from a tincture of austerity and mysticism, was full of seriousness, humility, and fervour. Fifteen years after his decease, the religious world was startled by the affirmation of an anonymous writer that Bishop Butler died in the communion of the church of Rome. For this, when the subject came to be examined, no better evidence was produced than Butler's excessive predilection for the external ceremonials of religion, and the fact that he had a cross set up in his chapel at Bristol. Archbishop Secker, with a pious and affectionate regard for the memory of his illustrious friend, entered zealously into his defence, and entirely refuted this gratuitous and monstrous calumny."

Bishop Berkeley.

BORN A. D. 1684.-DIED A. D. 1753.

THIS learned and eminent prelate was the son of William Berkeley, Esq. of Thomastown, in the county of Kilkenny, a cadet of the family of Earl Berkeley. He was born at Kilerin, on the 12th of March, 1684; and had the first part of his education at Kilkenny school on the Ormond foundation under Dr Hinton. Swift had preceded him a few years before at this provincial seminary. At the age of fifteen he was entered a pensioner of Trinity college, Dublin, under the tuition of Dr Hall. In 1707, whilst bachelor of arts, he obtained a fellowship of Trinity.

See Dr Halifax's 'Account of the Character and Writings of Bishop Butler.'