Bishop Butler's Ethical Discourses; To Which Are Added Some Remains, Hitherto Unpublished. Prepared as a Text Book in Moral Philosophy

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ... biographical essay. When persons think or speak of "Bishop Butler," they do not mean, commonly, a living breathing man, but only a kind of abstraction. They have in their mind's eye the Analogy and Sermons; or rather, the mighty intellect that everywhere shines through them. Some, it is true, go further, and, with a laudable curiosity, seek to know something of the man himself, believing, and very justly, that an author and his works reflect a mutual light upon each other. But, where may such inquirers find the desired information? There is a short Memoir, ascribed to Dr. Kippis, which is prefixed to nearly all the editions of Butler. This, however, is very brief and meagre, the merest sketch of his outward history; not a line or a word relates to his inner being, to the workings of his mind, or the movement of his affections. And yet, this is all that most students know, of him who was England's most profound Philosopher, and among the number of her most Catholic divines; whose writings were well known and appreciated in his lifetime; who occupied successively two bishoprics; and whose death occurred but a single century ago! Whilst Hooker, and Donne, and Herbert, and other worthies of a remoter age, have a sort of flesh-and-blood reality in the portraitures of Walton; and whilst Dr. Johnson, who flourished but a few years later than Butler, has still an almost contemporary freshness; the great Author of the Analogy flits before us only in dim outline, his personal traits unknown, and everything about him shadowy and unreal. We naturally ask, Why is this? Have the materials for a good biography been suffered to be lost, so that it is now impossible to repair the evil: or, can it be, that such materials are indeed still extant, yet, in...