and momentous as those contained in Butler's discourses-with how much more clearness must they have appeared to his own great understanding, if he had possessed the strength and distinctness with which Hobbes enforces odious falsehood, or the unspeakable charm of that transparent diction which clothed the unfruitful paradoxes of Berkeley. of Berkeley. MACKINTOSH, SIR JAMES, 1830, Second Preliminary Disseration to Encyclopædia Britannica.

In the Sermons which he published, the true foundation of morals is affirmed in the principle of the supremacy of conscience; and though overlaid for a season by the principle of expediency of Paley, which had the disastrous advantage of being recommended to the world by the most popular of writers, truth is once more beginning to show how mighty it is, and Butler's assertion of it to prevail.BLUNT, J. J., 1839, Life of Bishop Butler, Quarterly Review, vol. 64, p. 334.

In this travailing to give birth to great thoughts conceived by the spirit, by far the most useful writer to him [Channing] was Butler, whose "Sermons on Human Nature" he regarded as unsurpassed in English for clear, full, and condensed thought, and to which may be traced, perhaps, the germs of some of his most important views.-CHANNING, WILLIAM HENRY, 1848, Life of William Ellery Channing.

They are philosophical rather than the ological, and ought to be viewed as such. In this respect they have received the unanimous praise of great men; and one of our great seminaries of education, the University of Oxford, sets such a high value upon them, that they are used at this day as the manual of moral philosophy, and are made the subject on which students are examined. Butler is one of the four philosophers with which an exact acquaintance is required there, in all candidates for classical honours; the other three being Plato, Aristotle, and Bacon. -FARRAR, ADAM ADAM STOREY, 1862-63, Bishop Butler, Exeter Hall Lectures, vol. XVIII, p. 343.

His "Sermons on Human Nature" are also of the highest value; they proceed in the same path of reflection, and form a text-book on morals, which, putting aside schemes framed on the fitness of

things and the expediency of virtue, builds a sound ethical system on a study of human nature, according to its original constitution, as discoverable through consciousness and observation. Probably, after all that has been written and said on the subject since, these sermons go as far as is possible for human thought under the guidance of enlightened reason. But with the great admiration which Butler's works inspire in most minds, not a few are constrained to confess that his arguments are "wrought out in frost. not in fire." An impassioned style would certainly not befit the kind of reasoning in which Butler was engaged, but more warmth might have been thrown into the colour of the work, imparting to it a glow, which would heighten the impressiveness of the author's logic.-STOUGHTON, JOHN, 1867-81, History of Religion in England from the Opening of the Long Parliament to the End of the Eighteenth Century, vol. VI, p. 39.

Impressive, then, as the Sermons at the Rolls are, and much as they contain that is precious, I do not think that these sermons, setting forth Butler's theory of the foundation of morals, will satisfy any one who in disquietude, and seeking earnestly for a sure stay, comes to them.-ARNOLD, MATTHEW, 1876, Bishop Butler and the Zeit-Geist, The Contemporary Review, vol. 27, p. 580.

The "Analogy" is perhaps the most original, if not the most powerful, book ever written in defense of the Christian creed; but it has probably been the parent of much modern Agnosticism, for its method is to parallel every difficulty in revealed religion by a corresponding difficulty in natural religion, and to argue that the two must stand or fall together. Butler's unrivaled sermons on human nature, on the other hand, have been essentially conservative and constructive, and their influence has been at least as strong on character as on belief.-LECKY, WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE, 1890, Formative Influences, The Forum, vol. 9, p. 381.

Him I believe the march of reform has swept away, hardly to the clearing of men's minds. I do not so much mean the "Analogy" as the wonderful "Sermons." From the "Sermons on Human Nature" one learns, and one does not straightway forget, what manner of man one

is.FREEMAN, EDWARD A., 1892, A Review of my Opinions, The Forum, vol. 13, p. 152.

The lectures on the "Evidences of Christianity," delivered in January, 1844, the first important book of Dr. Hopkins, bear clear marks of the great influence that Bishop Butler has exercised upon his mind. The lectures from the third to the eighth inclusive are simply the carrying out with fine and yet powerful strokes suggestions that might well arise from the study of the "Analogy." Of this there is an abundance of evidence. CARTER, FRANKLIN, 1892, Life of Mark Hopkins, pp. 136, 137.

His sense of beauty if he possessed it, was absorbed in a supreme allegiance to truth, and his life was that of a Christian philosopher intent upon one object. His sermons, preached, at the Rolls Chapel, which contain the germ of his philosophy, are too closely packed with argument and too recondite in thought to fit them for pulpit discourses.-DENNIS, JOHN, 1894, The Age of Pope, p. 236.

ANALOGY

1736

If the reader should meet here with any thing which he had not before attended to, it will not be in the observations upon the constitution and course of nature, these being all obvious; but in the application of them: in which, though there is nothing but what appears to me of some real weight, and therefore of great importance; yet he will observe several things, which will appear to him of very little, if he can think things to be of little importance, which are of any real weight at all, upon such a subject as religion. However, the proper force of the following Treatise lies in the whole general analogy considered together.-BUTLER, JOSEPH, 1736, The Analogy of Religion, Advertisement; Works, ed. Gladstone, vol. I, p. 1.

The Bishop of Durham (Chandler), another great writer of controversy, is dead too, immensely rich; he is succeeded by Butler of Bristol, a metaphysic author, much patronized by the late Queen: she never could make my father read his book, and which she certainly did not understand herself.-WALPOLE, HORACE, 1750, Letter to Sir Horace Mann, May 2; Letters, ed. Cunningham, vol. II.

I know no author who has made a more just and a more happy use of this mode of reasoning than Bishop Butler, in his "Analogy of Religion." . . . In that excellent work the author does not ground any of the truths of religion upon analogy, as their proper evidence; he only makes use of analogy to answer objections against them. When objections are made against the truths of religion, which may be made with equal strength against what we know to be true in the course of nature, such objections can have no weight.REID, THOMAS, 1785, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man, Essay i, ch. v.

To a mind disposed to view with calmness, humility and reverence, the whole system of Providence, as far as it is permitted to man to view "the work which God worketh from the beginning to the end," Dr. Butler has unfolded the "Analogy, or relation of the Course of Nature to Religion," by which all things are found to proceed in harmony from Him who hath made nothing imperfect. I think this great performance of Butler has peculiar force when it is considered in the conclusion of our religious researches, and not as part of the original proof; or as Lord Bacon expresses himself, "tanquam portum et sabbathum humanarum contemplationum omnium.” Reader,

whoever thou art, if thou shouldst approve these introductory ideas to this great subject, inexhausted as it is and inexhaustible, prepare thyself, thy understanding, and thy affections. "Te quoque dignum finge Deo!"-MATHIAS, THOMAS JAMES, 1798, The Pursuits of Literature, Eighth ed., pp. 204, 205.

Without exception the most unanswerable demonstration of the folly of infidelity that the world ever saw.-WHITE, HENRY KIRKE, 1805, Letters, Remains, vol. 1, p. 154.

In the course of my reading I do not think that any of the books that treat of the evidences of natural and revealed religion were omitted. Of all such works, however, I consider myself to have profited most by Butler's "Analogy," for strengthening my understanding, satisfying my doubts, and suggesting the soundest rules and most becoming temper for the investigation of truth.-SOMERVILLE, THOMAS, 1814-30? My Own Life and Times, 17411814.

The most argumentative and philosophical defence of Christianity ever submitted to the world.-BROUGHAM, HENRY LORD, 1835, A Discourse on Natural Theology, pt. ii, sec. iii.

I should think you would gain great benefit, on the whole subject of religion and ethics, from Bishop Butler's "Analogy." It is a very deep work, and, while it requires, will amply repay your study. -NEWMAN, JOHN HENRY, 1840, Letter to Miss H., Letters, ed. Mozley, vol. II, p. 311.

Having furnished, with a design directly contrary, one of the most terrible of the persuasives to atheism that has ever been produced. MARTINEAU, JAMES, 1853, Studies of Christianity.

In truth, the greatest beauty of any author's style consists in its appropriateness to express his meaning.

There is a rough likeness between the style of the "Analogy" and that of a legal document; and it goes deeper than might have been expected. For what makes a deed obscure to the uninitiated? Chiefly the attempt on the part of the framer to exclude all ambiguity. It looks like irony, but it is true, that no written thing, when examined, is clearer than a legal document; and the object, the attained object, of all those obscure phrases is to avoid the possibility of being misunderstood. Therefore it is that, the more one examines into possible meanings of what seemed clearer expressions, the more we shall realise and admire the sound judgment which has preferred what we, at first sight, thought ill-chosen and obscure. Thus it is that careful students of Butler's works generally come, in the end, to have a sort of relish for his peculiar style. STEERE, EDWARD, 1857, ed. Butler's Analogy, Preface.

By the main body of Christian believers he is still considered unanswered and unanswerable, strong as a giant against all the puny attacks of infidelity.-HENNELL, MISS S. S., 1859, On the Sceptical Tendency of Butler's Analogy.

It is no paradox to say that the merit of the "Analogy" lies in its want of originality. Its admirable arrangement only is all its own. Its substance are the thoughts of a whole. age, not barely compiled, but each reconsidered and digested.-PATTISON, MARK, 1860-69, Essays, ed. Nettleship, vol. II, p.75.

The one writer whose reputation stands out pre-eminently above the other apologists is Bishop Butler. His praise is in all the churches. Though the force of a few illustrations in his great work may perhaps have been slightly weakened by the modern progress of physical science, and though objections have been taken on the ground that the solutions are not ultimate, mere media axiomata; yet the work, if regarded as adapted to those who start from a monotheistic position, possesses a permanent power of attractiveness which can only be explained by its grandeur as a work of philosophy, as well as its mere potency as an argument. The width and fulness of knowledge displayed in the former respect, together with the singular candour and dignified forbearance of its tone, go far to explain the secret of its mighty influence. When viewed in reference to the deist writings against which it was designed, or the works of contemporary apologists, Butler's carefulness in study is manifest. -FARRAR, ADAM STOREY, 1862, A Critical History of Free Thought, p. 157.

It

The argument is handled with great skill and fairness, and the work has had a more extensive circulation, and exerted a greater influence than any other apologetic treatise of the Modern Church. supposes however that the objector concedes the truths of ethics and natural religion, and therefore is less effective as a reply to universal skepticism, or to such materialistic systems as those of Hobbes and Bolingbroke, than the work of Conybeare. The purely defensive attitude, moreover, which it assumes, in being content with merely showing that the same difficulty besets the religion of nature that lies against the religion of the Bible, imparts something of a cautious and timid tone to the work, though rendering it an exceedingly difficult one to be replied to.-SHEDD, WILLIAM G. T., 1863, A History of Christian Doctrine, vol. I, p.

212.

His "Analogy" is so compact and exhaustive, that it has superseded and destroyed the reputation of all the replies to the Deists then current.-MINTO, WILLIAM, 1872-80, Manual of English Prose Literature, p. 426.

The objection will naturally be made. that to prove so little was surely not

worth such profound and elaborate reasoning. But though Butler was ostensibly addressing men who made formal objections to Christianity, he had also in his mind the frivolous freethinkers of his time. Indifference where there was a probability, however small, was unworthy of a reasonable man. And if that indifference was the growth of an immoral life, its danger was serious. It was, therefore, a matter of the greatest importance to convince men that Christianity really had clear demands to be earnestly and impartially examined. Butler also knew the importance in an argument of getting one bit of sure ground, however small.HUNT, JOHN, 1873, Bishop Butler, The Contemporary Review, vol. 22, p. 906.

The "Analogy" has been built up like a coral reef by slow accretions of carefully digested matter. The style corresponds to the method. We may say, if we choose to be paradoxical, that the "Analogy" is an almost unique example of a book which has survived, not merely in spite of, but almost by reason of, its faults of style. The paradox, indeed, holds only in so far as the faulty language is indicative of the effort to pack thought more closely than it will easily go. The defect results from a good motive. But it is also characteristic of the lonely thinker who forgets the necessity of expounding with sufficient clearness the arguments which have long been familiar to himself. And, in this sense, it is indicative of a more serious weakness. Butler's mind, like the mind of every recluse, was apt to run in grooves. He endeavoured, as he tells us, to answer by anticipation every difficulty that could be suggested. But, unfortunately, he has always considered them from the same point of view. He has not verified his arguments by varying the centre of thought or contemplating his system from the outside. And thus his reasoning often reminds us of those knots which bind the faster the more they are pulled in a given direction, but fall asunder at the first strain from another quarter.STEPHEN, LESLIE, 1876, History of English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, vol. I, p. 279.

I have drawn your attention to the terms of unbounded praise in which the "Analogy" is extolled. It is called unanswerable. It is said to be the most

original and profound work extant in any langaage on the philosophy of religion. It is asserted that, by his "Analogy, Butler placed metaphysics, which till then had nothing to support them but mere abstraction or shadowy speculation, on the firm basis of observation and experiment. I have also told you what is to my mind the one sole point of interest for us now, in a work like the "Analogy." To those who search earnestly, amid that break-up of traditional and conventional notions respecting our life, its conduct, and its sanctions, which is undeniably befalling our age, for some clear light and some sure stay, does the "Analogy" afford them? A religious work cannot touch us very deeply as a mere intellectual feat. Whether the "Analogy" was or was not calculated to make the loose Deists of fashionable circles, in the year of grace 1736, feel uncomfortable, we do not, care two straws, unless we hold the argumentative positions of those Deists; and we do not. What has the "Analogy" got to enlighten and help us? . . . How unlike, above all, is this motive to the motive always supposed in the book itself of our religion, in the Bible! After reading the "Analogy" one goes instinctively to bathe one's spirit in the Bible again, to be refreshed by its boundless certitude and exhilaration.-ARNOLD MATTHEW, 1876, Bishop Butler and the Zeit-Geist, The Contemporary Review, vol. 27, pp. 581, 588.

The "Analogy," it would appear, has and can have but little influence on the present state of theology; it was not a book for all time, but was limited to the controversies and questions of the period at which it appeared. Throughout the whole of the "Analogy," it is manifest that the interest which lay closest to Butler's heart was the ethical. His whole cast of thinking was practical.—ADAMSON, ROBERT, 1875, Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth edition, vol. IV.

The book was written with the single purpose of assisting others in what had been the business of his own life, the search after truth. Its reasonings are those with which he had in his own mind overcome doubt. There is no thought about style; no care to give graceful form to sentences intellectually armed with suggestive, defensive, restrictive and

otherwise subordinated clauses, so that it has been said that everyone of Butler's sentences is like a well-considered move in chess.-MORLEY, HENRY, 1884, ed. Butler's Analogy of Religion, Introduction, p. 8.

Bishop Wilson has well said of the "Analogy" that probably no work in the compass of theology is so full of-to use Bacon's expression-"the seeds of things." For few works have ever been written so suggestive of thought as this. Its author has condensed in it the reading and reflection of more than twenty years, during which time there was scarcely an objection or a difficulty which he had not noted and most carefully considered.ABBEY, CHARLES J., 1887, The English Church and Its Bishops, 1700-1800, vol. II, p. 56.

The "Analogy" is an isolated work. Even in its own age, when polemical pamphleteering was in fashion, though it was read, it was neither attacked nor defended. It does not refer to any theological movement that preceded it, and it is not the precursor of any subsequent literature. It stands alone, original, inexorably honest and veracious, but unsympathetic, like its silent and unexpansive author.-GOSSE, EDMUND, 1888, A History of Eighteenth Century Literature, p. 275.

The involutions of the sentence in the "Analogy" are often impassable, as Emerson would say, and utterly opposed to paragraph structure. Butler is mentioned here merely for the fact that he has a larger percentage of strictly inductive paragraphs than almost any other writer in the language. It may be added that when his sentences are short they usually need the light of the whole section to make their bearing plain.-LEWIS, EDWIN HERBERT, 1894, The History of the English Paragraph, p.117.

To do any justice to this great workthe greatest, certainly, which appeared in the eighteenth century-it must be read in the light of the Deism which was then prevalent, for Butler's mind was positively steeped in Deistical literature. If this had been borne in mind, we should never have heard the objection that Butler raised more doubts than he solved; for the doubts were already raised, and Butler

did more than any man to solve them.OVERTON, JOHN HENRY, 1897, The Church in England, vol. II, p. 224.

GENERAL

He is a most judicious writer, has searched deeply into human nature, and is by some thought obscure; but he thinks with great clearness, and there needs only a deep attention to understand him perfectly.-COCKBURN, CATHERINE, 1738,

Letter to Mrs. Arbuthnot.

The literary reputation of Bishop Butler in truth is the least of his excellences. . . . He was more than a good writer, he was a good man; and what is an addition even to his eulogy, he was a sincere Christian. knowledge and practice of sound morality His whole study was directed to the and true religion: these he adorned by his life, and had recommended to future ages in his writings; in which, if my judgment be of any avail, he has done essential service to both, as much, perhaps, as any single person since the extraordinary gifts of "the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge" have been withdrawn.-HALIFAX, SAMUEL, 1786, ed. Butler's Analogy, Preface.

I am an entire disciple of Butler.CECIL, RICHARD, 1810, Remains, p. 195.

It is true, a man cannot expect constant success in his endeavour, but he is not likely to succeed in any thing that is now even the object of his endeavors. This speaking as if one had something to say, is probably what Bishop Butler means by the expression of a man's writing "with simplicity and in earnest." His manner has this advantage, though it is not only inelegant, but often obscure.-WHATELY, RICHARD, 1827-57, Elements of Rhetoric, pt. iii, ch. iii, par. 2.

I have derived greater aid from the views and reasonings of Bishop Butler than I have been able to find besides in the whole range of our extant authorship. -CHALMERS, THOMAS, 1834, Bridgewater Treatise, Preface.

Now, of the poetic religion there is nothing in Butler; no one could tell from his writings that the universe was beautiful. If the world were a Durham mine or an exact square, if no part of it were more expressive than a gravel pit or a chalk quarry, the teaching of Butler would be as true as it is now.

There