The death of Bishop Talbot, in the year 1730, did much toward the breaking up of the little circle at Durham, which had indeed commenced two years before, when Benson consented, at the earnest solicitation of Browne Willis, the antiquary, to accept the living of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire; and in the year 1733 Secker also was called away, when he became Rector of St. James'. Both, however, retained their stalls at Durham; so that, living as he had done among his old college friends, there was more wit than justice in Archbishop Blackburne's reply when Queen Caroline asked if Butler were dead," No, Madam, he is not dead, but he is buried."

In the same year that Secker removed to St. James', Bishop Talbot's eldest son was made Lord Chancellor. He at once nominated Butler as his Chaplain, and three years after appointed him to a prebend in Rochester Cathedral. These dignities he would only accept on the understanding that he was not to be too much drawn away from his parochial charge at Stanhope. On accepting the Chaplaincy he went to Oxford and took his degree of D.C.L.

Secker and Benson were both raised to the Episcopate in the year 1734; the former as Bishop of Bristol, the latter, much against his own wish, as Bishop of Gloucester: and it is curious that, in the same year, Berkeley became Bishop of Cloyne, and Rundle, Bishop of Derry, so that Butler alone remained a simple Priest.

In 1736 the Queen made him her Clerk of the Closet, and in the same year he published the "Analogy," dedicating it to Lord Talbot, who only survived until February 14 in the following year.

It is probable that the Sermons at the Rolls,

from which we are tantalizingly told that the published fifteen were chosen almost at random, may have furnished much of the material for this great work, as indeed parts of it are anticipated by parts of those Sermons, especially that on the "Ignorance of Man."

Perhaps no other controversial work was ever so free from bitterness against the persons assailed by it. Butler felt that he was secure in his own position, and that if those who doubted would but think more deeply, they would see the folly of their doubts. In the " Analogy," as in the Sermons, he strives to lay a firm foundation, rather than to set up a showy superstructure. The natural effect of this has been, that, to those who never look below the surface, he seems to have done nothing. It is a terrible reflection upon the age, that it was necessary to write an elaborate work to prove that it was not clear that there was nothing in Christianity; but, sorely tried as our faith then was, its strength only showed itself the greater; and the closer its enemies had pressed on, the more complete was their overthrow. It was not that the argument of the "Analogy" was new. The passage from Origen, on the title-page, gave it in a few words, and not long before, Berkeley, in his " Alciphron," had stated the substance of it very clearly. But for completeness, and that thorough recurrence to first principles and total absence of local and personal allusions which prevent a book from growing old, none of the other writings of the period could be compared with it.

66

No answer to the whole work was ever published; but a tract in defence of Locke's notion of personal identity was soon issued by the Rev. Vincent Perronet, Vicar of Shoreham, in Kent, and the Essay on Virtue was attacked by a clergyman

named Bott, who thought that the chief rewards of virtue would be of a temporal nature. In the main, however, the " Analogy" was, and is, unanswerable.

66

In the year 1737 Secker was translated to the See of Oxford, and Dr. Gooch succeeded him at Bristol.

In the same year Butler lost his patron, Queen Caroline, a woman remarkable for her strength of mind and her many charities—she loved to gather round her all the most able theologians and philosophers of the time; and at her decease the king continued charitable pensions to the amount of 13,000l. a year, which she had been accustomed to pay out of her own private purse. She received the Holy Communion from Butler's hands at Hampton Court shortly before her death, and recommended him strongly to the king's patronage. She died on the 20th of November, 1737.

The king soon after summoned Butler to preach before him. "He took for his subject the being bettered by affliction; and his majesty was so much moved that he desired to have the sermon, and said he would do something very good for him.""

It was a curious fulfilment of this magnificent promise, that when, about a year afterwards, the Bishop of Norwich died, Dr. Gooch was translated from Bristol, and that See, the poorest in England, worth only about 400l. a year, was given to him. Butler felt strongly that he should gain little by this promotion, as it would not enable him to leave Stanhope, and was at a most inconvenient distance from it. He told Sir Robert Walpole, in acknowledging the letter informing him of the king's

? From the Diary of Dr. Thomas Wilson, son of the Bishop of Sodor and Man, 23rd December, 1737. It is much to be wished that this Sermon could be recovered.

pleasure, that while he felt very grateful for his Majesty's kindness, he did not think the Bishopric of Bristol very suitable, either to the condition of his fortune, or the circumstances of his preferment, neither was it exactly what might have been expected from the Queen's recommendation. However, a better provision was made for the new Bishop about eighteen months afterwards, when he was nominated Dean of St. Paul's. He then at once resigned his Rectory of Stanhope and his Prebend at Rochester, where he had just been elected Vice-Dean.

Not only was the endowment of the See of Bristol very small, but the palace was in an exceedingly dilapidated condition, so much so that during the first eight years of Butler's episcopate he spent nearly the whole of his income upon the restoration of it. When that indefatigable antiquary, the Rev. Wm. Cole, visited Bristol, in 1746, he remarked with especial praise how careful the Bishop had been in preserving whatever could be retained of the old buildings, and especially the old chapel, which had in the east window a representation of the Crucifixion in ancient stained glass, and below it the Bishop had set up a new altar-piece, inlaid with a plain milk-white marble cross.3 This altar-piece

"Having done with what is in the Cathedral, let us just step into the Bishop's Palace on the south side of it: and here we cannot help observing the generous Temper of the present worthy prelate; who in a poor Bishoprick of about 500l. per ann. has already laid out on building an entire new Palace in the room of the old one which was gone to decay, above 3,000l. The small Chapel belonging to the old one is standing; but entirely new fitted up, furnished in an elegant Taste and newly wainscoted and a Tribune from one of his Lordship's rooms to look into it at the west end, over the door which is entirely new. The altar piece is of black marble

rather shocked the narrow taste of the age; and when Dr. Young was Bishop of Bristol, Lord Chancellor Hardwicke urged him to have it taken down.

inlaid with a milk-white cross of white marble; which is plain and has a good effect. In the East window over it is a small Crucifix with the B. Virgin and St. John under the Cross weeping, of old glass; and not very curious. Over the new Door into the Chapel from the Hall, in a void space made on purpose, is a very old Coat of Glass of the Arms of Berkly ensigned with a mitre : and this is another reason to make one think that the old Abbey of Bristol gave these arms to their Founder, for their own Coat. I was pleased to find the present Bishop paid such a regard to the memory of the ancient Abbey and its Founders, as to preserve this old memorial of them with so much care and precaution. A pattern worthy to be imitated in an age, that to my knowledge, in certain places, has not only had such marks of their benefactors taken away in order to get up modern crown glass; but has also given away and destroyed such memorials of them, as the care of their predecessors for three or four hundred years have with the utmost gratitude and veneration preserved.

"Over the Hall chimney-piece, which is preserved with equal care by his Lordship, are the arms of Bishop Wright impaled by his See, and a mitre over them, and R. W. on each side of them; as also Wright impaling per Pale undé six martlets counterchanged for Fleetwood.

"I don't see his Lordship's Arms in any part of the Palace, which has so just a title to have them in every part of it; but, however, I shall give them a place here in gratitude to his memory who so well deserves of this place, which, though I have no concern in, nor no acquaintance with his Lordship, yet one always has a value for a grateful and benevolent mind.

"The arms of Joseph Butler, Lord Bishop of Bristol and Dean of St. Paul's, are :-A. three covered Cups on Bend S, inter two Bendlets engrailed G.

"His Lordship was, on the decease of the late Lord Bishop of Hereford, by his Majesty appointed Clerk of the Royal Closet; and it is said that he has also a promise, on the next vacancy, of a translation to the rich See of Durham, which will be well bestowed on a person of his Lordship's large and universal benevolence."- From the MS. Collections of the Rev. W. Cole, now in the British Museum, vol. x. p. 92, taken at Bristol A. D. 1746.