Butler, Francis E., a Presbyterian minister and martyr to the cause of liberty, was born in Suffield, Conn., February 7, 1825. He engaged in mercantile business in New York at an earl)' age, and was mark- ed for his piety and for his active services in all benev- olent enterprises. At 29 he abandoned business and entered Yale College, where he graduated in 1857. He studied theology at Princeton, and in 1862 became chaplain of the 25th N. J. Volunteers. His labors were unprecedentedly successful. He organized a flourishing regimental church. To this, during the last three months of his life, no less than thirteen were added on confession of their faith, while a still larger number were seeking Christ. Some of these cases were of great interest, and it is only the want of space that prevents their insertion here. His whole time anil thoughts were given to the men, in caring both for their temporal and eternal interests. He believed it his duty to go wherever the men were called to go. In the battle of Fredericksburg he was at his post car- ing fnr the wounded, though the bullets were flying thick around him. About noon he learned that some of his own men, wounded while skirmishing at some distance from the place occupied by the chaplains and surgeons, were suffering for the want of immediate care. He volunteered to go with a surgeon to their relief. In order to do this duly, they had to cross an open field which was exposed to'the lire of the enemy's sharp-shooters, lie was told of the danger, but his sense of duty was not to be overcome by the fear of death. While crossing this field a minie-ball struck him and passed through his body. In twenty-four hours he was dead.— Wilson, Presbyt. Historical Alma- fuze, vol. vi, p. 100.
Butler, Joseph, LL.D., bishop of Durham, was
born at Wantage, in Berkshire, in 1092, and brought up as a Presbyterian, his father being a respectable shopkeeper of that persuasion. He was educated by a Presbyterian named Jones, who kept a school first at Gloucester and afterward at Tewkesbury, and who numbered among his students, at the same time, Seek- er and Butler. Here his aptitude for metaphysical speculations and accuracy of judgment first manifested themselves. He finally determined to conform to the Church of England, and on the 17th of March, 1714, removed to Oriel College, Oxford. In 1718 he was appointed preacher at the Rolls, where he continued until 1726. In the mean time he was presented to the rectory of Houghton, near Darlington, and to that of Stanhope (in 1725), to which he retired when he re- signed the preachership of the Rolls Chapel, and lived there seven years. About 1732 the Lord Chancellor Talbot, at the instigation of Seeker, appointed Butler his chaplain, and four years afterward he became clerk of the closet to Queen Caroline, in which year he pre- sented to her his celebrated work, The Analog;/ of Re- liffion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and \ Course of Nature, previously to its publication. In 11738 he was raised to the see of Bristol; and, after various other preferments, was translated to Durham in 1750, upon the death of Chandler, who had also been !his fellow-pupil at the Dissenting academy at Tewkes- bury. Owing to a charge which he delivered to his clergy of the diocese of Durham, in which he exhorted them to be careful to maintain the outward form and jface of religion with decency and reverence, he was foolishly charged with " Romanizing tendencies ;" and one anonymous writer did not scruple, fifteen years af- ter the good bishop's death, to slander him as having died in the Romish communion. He died June 16, 1752. Besides the immortal "Analogy," he left a volume of Sermons, in which the true theory of ethics was first fully set forth. His contributions to a cor- rect theory of morals consist, 1. In his distinction be- tween self-love and the primary appetites ; and, 2. In jhis clear exposition of the existence and supremacy of conscience. The objects of our appetites and pas- sions are outward things, which are sought simply as ends; thus food is the object of hunger, and drink the object of thirst. Some of the primary desires lead di- rectly to our private good, and others to the good of the community. Hunger and thirst, above cited, are instances of the former; the affection for one's child is an instance of the latter. They may be considered ;as so many simple impulses which are to be guided and controlled by our higher powers. Pleasure is the concomitant of their gratification, but, in their original | state, is no separate part of the aim of the agent. All these primary impulses are contemplated by self-love, as the material out of which happiness is to be con- structed. Self-love is a regard for our happiness as a whole : such a regard is not a vice, but a commenda- ble quality. Self-love is not selfishness. Selfishness is destructive of human happiness, and, as such, self- love condemns it. The so-called benevolent affections are consequently disinterested, as likewise are (in their incomplex manifestations) our physical appetites and malevolent feelings. But, besides these principles of our nature, there is one which is supreme over all oth- ers— this is conscience. Shaftesbury had before point- ed out the emotional character of conscience under the term moral sense, but its distinguishing attribute of supremacy he had failed to notice. Butler, acknowl- edging the correctness of his lordship's partial view, combined with it the element necessary to make an entire truth — the character of conscience, as the high- est tribunal of man's nature, "which surveys, ap- proves, or disapproves the several affections of our mind, and passions of our lives." The practical weak- ness of conscience does not destroy its authority, and, though its mandates are often disregarded, yet the ob- ligations to render it obedience remain unimpaired.