The Analogy of Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature / To which are added two brief dissertations: I. On personal identity. II. On the nature of virtue.

THE ANALOGY OF RELIGION, TO THE Constitution and Course of Nature.
TO WHICH ARE ADDED TWO BRIEF DISSERTATIONS: I. ON PERSONAL IDENTITY.—II. ON THE NATURE OF VIRTUE.
BY JOSEPH BUTLER, D.C.L.
WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOTES, CONSPECTUS, AND AMPLE INDEX, BY HOWARD MALCOM, D.D. PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY, LEWISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.
SEVENTEENTH EDITION. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 1873.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.


Joseph Butler was born at Wantage, England, May 18th, 1692, the youngest of eight children. The biographies of that day were few and meagre; and in few cases is this so much to be regretted as in Butler’s. It would have been both interesting and profitable to trace the development and occupations of one of the mightiest of human minds. But no cotemporary gathered up the incidents of his life, and now all efforts to elicit them have been without success.
His father was a prosperous dry-goods merchant, who, at the time of his son’s birth, had retired from business with a competency, and resided in a suburban mansion called “The Priory,” still in existence.