THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, NATURAL AND REVEALED, TO THE CONSTITUTION AND COURSE OF NATURE. TO WHICH ARE ADDED TWO BRIEF DISSERTATIONS: I. OF PERSONAL IDENTITY. II. OF THE NATURE OF VIRTUE. BY JOSEPH BUTLER, LL. D.,. LORD BISHOP OF DURHAM. "Ejus (Analogiæ) hæc vis est, ut id quod dubium est, ad aliquid simile, de quo non quæritur, referat WITH A LIFE OF THE AUTHOR, COPIOUS NOTES, AND INDEX, BY THE RIGHT REV. WILLIAM FITZGERALD, D.D., LORD BISHOP OF CORK, CLOYNE, AND ROSS. WILLIAM TEGG, 85, QUEEN-STREET, CHEAPSIDE. DUBLIN: MCGLASHAN & GILL. 1860. 141. b. 20. CAREFULLY REPRINTED FROM THE FOURTH EDITION, LONDON 1750, WITH A COLLATION OF THE TEXT OF THE FIRST EDITION, LONDON, 1736. PREFACE. I HAVE Only a few words to address to the reader by way of Preface, in explanation of my design in this Edition of the Analogy, and the mode in which that design is executed. For the Life, it is only to be considered as a prefatory Memoir, and is not ambitiously intended to supersede the larger Biography, lately published by Mr. Bartlett; to whose volume I am much indebted, and must remit such readers as desire fuller information concerning Butler, his family, and his times. Mine, however, may perhaps be thought to have some advantage over the Life usually prefixed to the common editions of the Analogy. I have been diligent to revise the Text, and have corrected many errors in the Oxford edition of 1844. I have not adhered to Butler's spelling, where its peculiarities were merely the orthography of the times. But, in other cases, I have preserved even what I think to be mistakes; as the barbarism of cotemporary, for contemporary. I have subjoined a collation of the first edition, which has been sometimes thought desirable. It is, at any rate, a literary curiosity; and it will show the singular pains which Butler took in a matter, in which he has been commonly censured for carelessness. The Notes were not designed to serve as a continuous commentary, but as occasional helps and suggestions to the student; in which light alone I desire they may be viewed, and in which respect I hope they will be found useful. To have prosecuted all Butler's hints, illustrated all his allusions, and noticed all improvements of, or objec tions to, his reasoning, would have required a very bulky body of annotation. I have endeavoured to reduce my remarks to a convenient compass, and preserve them in keeping with the text. Malui prodesse quam conspici. The best commentaries I know upon the Analogy are the Bishop of Hereford's "Philosophical Evidences of Religion," and Dr. Chalmer's "Natural Theology," and Bridgewater Treatise. The headings of the pages, will, I trust, facilitate reference. I have taken no small trouble with the Index; and, though doubtless falling very far short of perfection, I confidently hope that it will be judged preferable to Dr. Bentham's. It is, in some sort, an abstract of the work, as well as an Index. It only remains that I should gratefully acknowledge my large obligations to the Rev. Aubrey Townsend, B. D., of Bath, and the Rev. W. D. Sadleir, D. D., Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, for their kind and valuable assistance and advice. |