GENERAL PREFACE.

N giving to the public a new edition of Bishop Butler's Sermons, it has been the wish of the publishers to put forth such a volume as with their previous edition of the " Analogy" might embrace the whole of his recoverable works, together with a summary of what is known concerning his personal history. I have been greatly indebted, in editing this volume, to the kindness of many friends; among whom I must particularise, in the first place, the Rev. John E. B. Mayor, of St. John's College, Cambridge, who procured me a copy of the unpublished Fragment of the Charge at Bristol," which is the gem of our edition, as well as furnishing several valuable hints and notices; and in the second, the Rev. M. Benson, who most kindly allowed me the use of a MS. biography of his great namesake the Bishop of Gloucester, from which I have drawn such notices of his life as are worked into my Memoir. I would gladly mention other friends also, but space

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would fail me to do them all justice, so that I trust they will accept this general acknowledgment of their great and spontaneous kindness.

With the exception of what refers to Bp. Benson, I have done little more than re-arrange the materials already collected by Mr. Bartlett and by the Bishop of Cork, in his admirable edition of the " Analogy," so that I have thought it unnecessary to burden my pages with frequent references to authorities. I believe the series of Letters is much more complete than any hitherto published; the "Fragment of the Bristol Charge" I have already referred to. The only other new features are the small Remains I first published in 1853, the attempt to follow Dr. Whewell in marking out the "Fifteen Sermons" into paragraphs, and the Index, for which I must ask the indulgence of the learned, who will allow for the difficulty of the work in judging of the manner of its performance.

Little Steeping,

Aug. 1861.

EDWARD STEERE.

A MEMOIR OF BISHOP BUTLER.

HE Church of England has had many prelates of whose wisdom, piety, and learning she might be justly proud, yet few of these have exhibited at the same time so much wisdom and so

much piety as the subject of our present memoir. Modesty and sober truthfulness were among the chief features of his character. He left the dissenting community in which he was brought up, without any of a convert's rancour. He was a Whig in politics, and yet he stood forward manfully on behalf of comely old Church usages. Without any display or boast of asceticism, he spent most liberally upon Church works, while he was a pattern of moderation in his own style of living.

Very much of the same sobriety and truthfulness mark his published works. There is no display, no showy theorizing. It was said of him that he read every book he could meet with, and the fruits of this extended reading are to be found not in margins overloaded with citations, but in that clear fulness of thought which large and well-digested reading alone can give. The avoidance of some common word, or the mere turn of a phrase will