Man's conduct in life, not his theory of the universe, was what interested him. . . . It would be unfair to Butler's argument to demand from it answers to problems which had not in his time arisen, and to which, even if they had then existed, the plan of his work would not have extended. . . . What that work has done is to prove to the consistent Deist that no objections can be drawn from reason or experience against natural or revealed religion, and, consequently, that the things objected to are not incredible, and may be proved by external evidence. . . . 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. The moral nature of man, his conduct in life, is that on account of which alone an inquiry into religion is of importance. The systematic account of this moral nature is to be found in the famous Sermons, especially in the first three. In these sermons Butler has made substantial contributions to ethical science, and it may be said with confidence, that in their own department nothing superior in value appeared during the long interval between Aristotle and Kant. To both of these great

re

thinkers he has certain analogies. He sembles the first in his method of investigating the end which human nature is intended to realise; he reminds of the other by the consistency with which he upholds the absolute supremacy of moral law."

As against Deism, the force of Butler's argument is unanswerable." What we have to do is to support Butler by a satisfactory basis for the belief in God and the soul.

The belief in God and the belief in a soul are with Butler the primary articles of natural religion. The first is assumed, the validity of the second is examined in the first chapter of the Analogy." But Butler's position is more than an assumption; although he does not formulate it, it is really the same as that taken up in later days by Kant. Without the two regulative principles of belief in God and the soul, morality, as a matter of fact, is impossible; without morality man cannot, as a matter of fact, pursue his true end, or attain to what is deserving of being called happiness. This, when fully stated, is a sufficient ground; and it was throughout in Butler's mind. Had his opponents been other than Deists, he would

have had to state his ultimate ground; and that he could have stated it as profoundly and convincingly as Kant cannot reasonably be doubted.

Butler's birthplace was Wantage, and his birthday May 18th, 1692. His father was a retired Presbyterian draper, who lived in a house called "The Priory The Priory" on the outskirts of the

Joseph was the

At the Latin

town, which can still be seen. youngest of eight children. School at Wantage his master was the Rev. Philip Barton, to whom long after, when Dean of St. Paul's, he had the gratification of giving one of his first pieces of patronage, the rectory of Hutton, Essex. His father, intending him for the Presbyterian ministry, sent him to a Nonconformist school, kept by Samuel Jones, at Gloucester, and afterwards at Tewkesbury. Among the pupils were Secker, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury; Maddox, afterwards Bishop of Worcester; and Samuel Chandler, a well-known Nonconformist divine. There were sixteen pupils in logic, Hebrew, mathematics, and classics. While still at Tewkesbury Butler carried on a correspondence with Samuel Clarke, the a priori theological philosopher, offering

1 Letters from Secker to Dr. Isaac Watts.

acute objections to some of his positions, which he subsequently withdrew. Butler did not give his name, but got the letters posted through Secker at Gloucester.

Deciding to conform to the Church of England, he succeeded in persuading his father to allow him to enter at Oriel College, Oxford, with a view to taking orders; and he matriculated in March 1714-15. Oxford seems to have been at that time uncongenial to his mind ; he tells Clarke, with whom he corresponded under his own name, that he is so "tired out" by "frivolous lectures” and “unintelligible disputations" that he thinks of migrating to Cambridge. However, he took his B.A. degree on October 16th, 1718, in his twenty-seventh year, and that of B.C.L. on June 10th, 1721.

One of his chief college friends was Edward Talbot, afterwards Archdeacon of Buckingham, son of the Bishop of Salisbury, and younger brother of Lord Chancellor Talbot. In 1717 Edward became Vicar of East Hendred, near Wantage, and the parish registers contain traces of Butler's ministrations. In October and December 1718 Butler was ordained Deacon and Presbyter by Bishop Talbot at Salisbury, and was appointed to the Preacher

ship of the Rolls Chapel. Edward the Archdeacon died in 1720, and it is interesting to notice that his widow and daughter became inmates of Secker's family, and that Butler remained their constant friend through life. On his deathbed Talbot recommended both Butler and Secker to his father.

In 1721 Butler became Prebendary of Salisbury, and in 1722 Bishop Talbot, who had been transferred to Durham, placed Butler in the rectory of Houghton-le-Skerne, where he improved the house. In 1722 the Bishop ordained Secker, and in 1724 made him Rector of Houghton-le-Spring. Secker, in his turn, persuaded the Bishop to present Butler to the rectory of Stanhope, famous at that time and long afterwards for its abundant income. Becoming thus at last independent, Butler resigned the Preachership of the Rolls in 1726, and published the famous Fifteen Sermons, the selection of which, he says in the preface to the second edition, was in great measure

accidental.

Butler remained thirteen years at Stanhope, leading a very quiet life. Bishop Philpotts, late of Exeter, one of his successors in the parish, learned that he rode a black pony,