in Essex. Dr. Butler, though the income of the see was small, contributed munificently to the numerous charitable institutions of Bristol, and expended the entire income of his episcopal office in improving the palace of the incumbent. In his zeal for ecclesiastical decoration-which seems to have been quite a hobby with him-he erected a cross in his own chapel, an act which subsequently exposed him to suspicion as having a leaning towards Popery. While here he continued his strange habit of walking for hours in his garden in the darkest nights, sometimes accompanied by friends, but frequently solitarily. The concentration of his thoughts appears to have demanded the exclusion of all excitements to the sense. When all around him was drearest, his ideas were clearest. In February, 1739, he preached a sermon on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In 1740 he preached before the Lord Mayor in St. Bride's Church, London, having been inducted to a Deanery of St. Paul's on 24th May of that year. On attaining this preferment he resigned the rectory of Stanhope, rich though it was, and common as was the retention of pluralities in these days of lukewarm ecclesiasticism. In the calm performance of his Bristolian duties, and of the requirements of his Deanery, a few years more of Butler's life glided by in unaspiring calmness and content. In 1746 Dr. Egerton, Bishop of Hereford, died, and a vacancy having thus occurred in the clerkship of the King's closet, Butler accepted the office, at the express request of his sovereign. In the following year Archbishop Potter, author of The Antiquities of Greece," died, and the Primacy was offered to Butler, who had preached in the same year a sermon before the House of Lords on the anniversary of the accession of George II., June 11th. For such a charge he felt incompetent; and, in consideration of the weighty care which that mitre laid upon the incumbent's brow in the state of the Church of his day, refused to become the head of the ecclesiastical hierarchy of England. One of his nephews at this juncture, Presbyterian though he was, under the impression that his uncle hesitated to occupy the topmost pinnacle of the Church's honours on account of his incompetency to bear the expense, offered to supply the primate-designate with £20,000 to enable him to fill the office with complete acceptance in a pecuniary point of view. He was greatly astonished at finding him intractable and impracticable; and out of this incident, perhaps, arises the family myth that the Bishop had expressed himself dolefully to the effect that "it was too late for him now to attempt to uphold a falling church." It does not appear, however, that he thought the Church in so hopeless and helpless a state; for on the death (16th Oct., 1750) of Dr. Edward Chandler, Bishop of Durham, author of the "Defence of Christianity from the Prophecies,' who had succeeded his former patron, Dr. Butler accepted the office. But even here the stern, conscientious, unplacemanlike dealing of Butler had a work to do. The Duke of Newcastle, then Premier, wished to confer the dignity of Lord Lieutenant of the

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County Palatine upon Lord Barnard. Hitherto this secular office had been joined to the episcopate. On hearing that this was the case, Butler objected to the bishopric's being denuded of any honour in his hands, and insisted upon the continuance of the lieutenancy in connection with the see. By the King's command the Duke yielded, and Butler was installed as Bishop of Durham, with all its dignities attached to it and unharmed.

On taking possession of the diocese, he determined to emulate his former patron, Bishop Talbot, in hospitality and liberality. While continuing his large contributions to the Bristol Infirmary and his subscriptions to three of the London hospitals, he engaged, with great eagerness, in setting the infirmary at Newcastle on a better and firmer footing. He regarded the income of his bishopric not as a personal allowance, but as a means of maintaining his station. Public benefactions and private benevolence, therefore, made great claims upon his purse. The poorer clergy were welcomed to his home, and he condescended to visit them at theirs. He spent large sums in improving the episcopal residences, and in entertaining the gentry of the diocese at his dwelling with princely munificence. In the distribution of his vast patronage he was strictly conscientious and impartial. A nephew of his, who had betaken himself to the Church, exclaimed, on being refused a preferment, because he did not seem sufficiently devoted to his duty, "Methinks, my lord, it is a misfortune to be related to you He chose, on account of his talents alone, Dr. Nathaniel Forster (1717-1757), author of "Popery Destructive of the Evidences of Christianity," &c., for his domestic chaplain, who remained his fast friend, and was appointed his executor and residuary legatee. In 1751, Bishop Butler delivered to the diocese of Durham his first and last charge. This tractate was printed and published at Durham immediately on its delivery. The chief topic on which it laid stress was the decency and reverence requisite in the external rites and forms of religion, and the usefulness of outward observances in the promotion of inward piety. The choice of this subject, and the rumour regarding the Bristol cross, seem to have set some men's minds against the prelate, as one holding views savouring of Popery; and in the following year a critical pamphlet was issued, containing "A Serious Inquiry into the Use and Importance of External Religion; occasioned by some passages in the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Durham's Charge to the Clergy of that Diocese," -the only direct criticism to which Butler was subjected in his lifetime. The scandal, however, was revived, with the usual accumulations of virulence which time imparts to that commodity, fifteen years after the prelate's demise, in the assertion that he died a papist. By this date, Forster, hwo saw him die, was dead, but Secker came instantly to the rescue of his friend's memory, and denied the lying imputation.

Shortly after the delivery of this charge Butler's health began to decline, and then it failed rapidly. Mildly and meekly he bore the

woe of sickness, only lamenting that he should be taken from the world just at the moment when it seemed he might have been of use to it. There can be little doubt that, during the fifteen years which intervened between the issue of the "Analogy" and this illness, his mind was brooding over some other work of higher aim and broader grasp than even that magnificent exercise of reasoning, and that his ripened thoughts would have been valuable to the race who were to follow him in the pilgrimage of life-and of death. He was ordered to Bath to try the effects of the hot springs of that famous Somersetshire watering-place. There, taken by slow, short stages, he arrived on 3rd June, 1752; on the 8th he was sinking rapidly; on the 12th, disease had eclipsed thought; on the 16th, the Messenger arrived about 11 a.m., and the body alone of Butler was left to the care of friends. His end, it is said, was peace. His corpse was interred in Bristol Cathedral, where a monument, bearing an inscription written by Dr. Forster, was erected to his memory. There his dust reposes still; but his writings have achieved a life beyond life for his name and fame.

Butler was not a professed logician, but he had noted with a discerning eye the necessity of his age. Bacon's realism had caught the world, and had given the desire for certainty an overweight in its esteem. The magnificent discoveries of Newton had not only gratified all thinkers, but had ratified the legislation for science which Bacon had elaborated. Trust in probabilities and dependence upon faith were looked upon as figments and insanities. This distrust in faith too soon manifested itself in not merely speculative, but practical faithlessness. "There was a general decay of religion in the nation, observed by every one, for some time the complaint of all serious persons-the influence of it more and more wearing out the minds of men, even of those who did not pretend to enter into speculations on the subject; whilst the numbers of those who did, and who professed themselves unbelievers, increased,-and with their numbers their zeal, zeal for nothing, but against everything that was good and sacred among men." To win such a state of society to the investigation of religion, expository discourses were not required; nothing could have made them successful. To find a new starting-point for thought-to find a point of view in harmony with the spirit of his age, yet able to lead to higher and holier thoughts was the requirement. This Butler found. To reason from facts determined to others beyond the immediate reach of thought; to pass from indisputable premises to conclusions transcending the mere scope of the senses; to infer identity in the whole from the identity of the parts noticeable in the panorama of objects; and to deduce arguments regarding the affinity of objects from perceiving their resemblances, were the great aims of the time. Butler recalled to men's minds the other tendency and effect of the soul's love of making identity or similarity a ground of inference; and laid before men who boasted themselves of their skill in reasoning a grand scheme of well-knit logical thought singularly

coherent and strong, that they might test it with all their force of intellect, and detect its flaws. He, it is true, did not supply the key to the machinery of argument employed; for that would have defeated his object, and lessened the marvel of his irrefragable deductions. He composed for publication no logic of analogy; but that he had elaborated the whole logic of that form of inference for the ground-plan of his treatise there is no doubt. Indeed, from his work, the whole theory of reasoning by analogy might be compiled, either by extract, inference, or exemplification.

The peculiarity of Butler's genius was that it was architectural and systematic. He looked on nature as a scheme and course; on religion as a system and an agency; on life as a work and a progress; on thought as a power and gift; and on logic as a structure of itself, but capable of being employed as a subsidiary and aid in the erection of an edifice much nobler than itself the temple of truth. Of the nature, foundation, and measure of probability; of the justness, conclusiveness, and innate source of reasoning by analogy; of the extent, compass, and force of the logic of likeness; of the species of arguments which outweigh contradictions, educe presumptions, excite opinions, suggest probabilities, give birth to convictions, and impress by their persuasiveness, he gives no formal exposition. "This belongs," he says, "to the subject of logic, and is a part of that subject which has not yet been thoroughly considered." But it is evident from the form of the work, and from its unrivalled relevancy and effectiveness, that he had the logic of analogy well systematized in his mind, that he carefully controlled his argumentation by its laws.

"The

We have, in the introductory observations to this paper, endeavoured to give explicit form to this logic, with what effect our readers must judge. We hope our synopsis may be useful to them in the perusal or criticism of that work which has "fixed the admiration of all competent judges." We are glad to find that in this serial the "Analogy "is to be made a topic of study. mind of a master pervades it. The author chose a theme infinitely important, and he has treated it with a skill, a force, a novelty and talent which have left little for others to do after him. He opened the mine, and exhausted it himself. A discretion which never oversteps the line of prudence is, in him, united with a penetration which nothing can escape. There are in his writings a vastness of idea, a reach and generalization of reasoning, a native simplicity and grandeur of thought, which command and fill the mind."* The seeds of thought abound in the book, and the logic on which it rests is as sure as the law which "guides the planets in their course." S. N.

* Rev. D. Wilson's Introductory Essay prefixed to Butler's "Analogy," London, 1827.

Beligion.

CAN MEMBERS OF CHRISTIAN CHURCHES CONSISTENTLY TAKE PART IN THE SHAKSPERE TERCENTENARY MOVEMENT?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-II.

It

WITHIN the last half-century civilization has almost worked miracles. It has softened the heart of man, and opened it to a keener realization of the many pleasures of social life. has been the means of raising men wallowing in ignorance, and heirs of the endless crimes and miseries of which ignorance is the source, to an intellectual greatness which enables them to behold and enjoy that vast scene of historic truth which opens to view in the works of modern and ancient authors. To civilization it is that we are chiefly indebted for the superior refinement and moral tone which pervades human thoughts and acts, from the glittering scenes of courts to the low occupation of labourers. The effects of civilization are always healthy. But there often springs up in the breast of men a morbid, over-sensitive feeling of refinement that can have no endurance, for it is violated by the ordinary conversation and transactions of daily life. This pure refinement some are too apt to consider as a result of civilization, whereas it is a result of a morbid mind that would outrun civilization itself. We cannot but think that those who hold it to be inconsistent with the character of members of Christian churches to take part in the Shakspere tercentenary are under the influence of this feeling, or of others equally morbid and erroneous. It seems to us that by withholding their countenance from this movement they add nothing to the cause either of civilization or religion.

The question admits of no compromise. It either is, or is not, consistent for members of Christian churches to take part in this movement. We will examine the reasons that appear to us to be those which writers on the opposite side may urge in defence of their opinion. They are:-First, that Shakspere was a tragedian, and that by sanctioning a co-operation in this movement they will be sanctioning the reading and study of the drama, and at the same time encouraging an attendance at theatres and similar places of amusement. And, second, that the works of Shakspere, though they are faithful delineations of human character and feelings, are interspersed here and there with licentious words and phrases, that render the reading or representation of them dangerous to morals, especially to those of the young. It was, and still is, to a great