Pille English Gheologians EDITED BY S. L. OLLARD, M.A. AND W. SPENS, M.A. BISHOP BUTLER BY ALBERT E. BAKER, M.A. Vicar of Wetwang, Formerly Exhibitioner of Trinity LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE 1923 Philos. Soth. 12-4-24 10815 PREFACE No English theologian can come to spiritual and intellectual freedom until he has made terms with Bishop Butler. Writers so different as Canon Aubrey Moore and Lord Acton, Father Tyrrell and Mr. Gladstone, Dean Wace and Cardinal Newman, Henry Scott Holland and Matthew Arnold, show the same intimate familiarity with this difficult eighteenth century writer, and the same sense of the importance of his characteristic method and spirit. These are invaluable in any modern discussion of the great commonplaces of religion and morality. It is a true instinct, indeed, which makes many Diocesan Bishops of the English Church require a knowledge of the Analogy or the Rolls Sermons from candidates for Holy Orders, and no apology is needed for this latest attempt to re-value his writings in view of the needs and problems of the present day. I have to thank the Very Rev. Father J. Moran, S. M., lately Rector of S. Mary's College, Middlesbrough, for a most valuable collection of extracts from the Ars Semper Gaudendi of Sarasa; Mr. W. W. Rouse Ball, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, for information concerning Newton's influence on the philosophy of his time; the Rev. Chancellor Wordsworth of Salisbury, Archbishop Bernard, Provost of Trinity College, Dublin; the Rev. P. P. Goldingham, the Rev. C. W. Emmet, the Rev. W. J. Brown, and the Rev. H. E. H. Staddick; and the two editors of this series, for their valuable suggestions, and especially my friend, Canon S. L. Ollard, for much generous |