were perhaps deterred by the fear of venturing into the profundities of his argument. Hume's writings on theology, indeed, especially the essay upon ‘A Providence and a Future State,’ contain an implicit criticism of the ‘Analogy.’ At a later period the proofs of Butler's influence are abundant. To some thinkers he appears as the most profound apologist of christian theology, while others have held that his argument leads to scepticism, because, while conclusive against the optimism of the deists, it really shows only that the difficulties in revealed theology are equalled by the difficulties of natural religion. It is a retort, not an explanation, and therefore sceptical in essence. This was the view taken by James Mill, in whose mental history the study of the ‘Analogy’ was a turning point, according to his son (J. S. Mill's Autobiography, p. 38). A similar view is stated by Mr. James Martineau, who says (Studies of Christianity, p. 93) that Butler has unintentionally ‘furnished … one of the most terrible persuasives to atheism ever produced.’ A different view is expressed by Cardinal Newman, who says (Apologia, part iii.) that the study of the ‘Analogy’ formed an ‘era in his religious opinions.’ He learnt from it the view that the world is a ‘sacramental system’ in which ‘material phenomena are both the types and instruments of the things unseen;’ and he was deeply impressed by Butler's characteristic doctrine that ‘probability is the guide of life.’ Other references may be found in Mr. Hunt's ‘History of Religious Thought in England;’ Mr. Pattison's essay on the ‘Tendencies of Religious Thought in England (1688–1750);’ Hennell's ‘Sceptical Tendency of Butler's “Analogy,”’ 1865; Mr. Matthew Arnold's ‘Butler and the Zeitgeist’ in ‘Last Essays on the Church and Religion;’ and Mr. Lucas Collins's ‘Butler’ in Blackwood's ‘Philosophical Classics’.
Butler's works are:
- ‘Fifteen Sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel,’ 1726 (dedicated to Sir Joseph Jekyll).
- ‘The Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature. To which are added two brief dissertations: (1) Of Personal Identity; (2) Of the Nature of Virtue,’ 1736.
- ‘Six Sermons preached upon Public Occasions,’ viz.: (1) before the Society for Propagating the Gospel, 16 Feb. 1739; (2) before the lord mayor, aldermen, and sheriffs, and the governors of the several hospitals of the city of London, Monday in Easter Week, 1740; (3) before the House of Lords, 30 Jan. 1740–1; (4) at the annual meeting of the charity children at Christ Church, 9 May 1745; (5) before the House of Lords, 11 June 1747; (6) before the governors of the London Infirmary, 31 March 1748.
- ‘A Charge at the Primary Visitation of Durham in 1751.’
These, together with the correspondence with Clarke, form Butler's works. The first collected edition was published at Edinburgh in 1804. It contains a Life by Kippis from the ‘Biographia,’ and a preface and notes by Halifax, bishop of Gloucester. It has been reprinted, at Oxford in 1807 and subsequently. An edition of the ‘Analogy,’ with a careful collation of the first editions, was published at Dublin in 1860 by W. Fitzgerald, bishop of Cork. A sermon attributed to Butler was first printed in the appendix to Bartlett's ‘Life.’ An ‘Enquiry concerning Faith,’ London, 1744, has been attributed to him, but without probability (Notes and Queries, 1st ser. vi. 198). A list of writings upon the Bangorian controversy by a Mr. Herne says that ‘a letter of thanks from a young clergyman to the Rev. Dr. Hare for his visitation sermon at Putney in 1719’ was written by the author of some papers in the ‘Freethinker,’ including No. 125 (1 June 1719) upon ‘Optical Glasses.’ In the reprint of this list in Hoadly's ‘Works’ (1761) this author is identified with Butler. In all probability this is due to some confusion with Archbishop Boulter of Dublin, bishop of Bristol 1719–24, who helped Ambrose Philips in the ‘Freethinker.’
[The first Life of Butler is in the supplement to the Biog. Britannica (1753), with information from a nephew; a further Life by Kippis in his edition of the Biographia is prefixed to Butler's Works; Rawlinson MSS. fo. 16144, 8vo, v, 221, vi. 63; the Life by Thomas Bartlett (1839) gives the fullest information and refers to unpublished documents; see also Some Remains (hitherto unpublished) of Bishop Butler, 1853 (preface by E. Steere, chiefly from MSS. in the British Museum); Stanhope Memorials of Bishop Butler, by W. M. Egglestone, which adds very little; Porteus's Life of Secker; Le Neve's Fasti (Hardy), ii. 403, 584, 667.]
BUTLER, Sir PIERCE or PIERS, eighth Earl of Ormonde and first Earl of Ossory (d. 1539), was descended from the Butlers, baronets of Poolestown, and was the son of Sir James Butler and Sawe (Sabina), daughter of Donnell Reogh MacMurrough Cavenagh, prince of his sept. He succeeded Thomas, seventh earl of Ormonde, in 1515. He took a prominent part in suppressing the Irish rebellions, and when the Earl of Surrey, who was his intimate friend, left the
