BISHOP BUTLER'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH DR. CLARKE.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:]
SIR,—I wish to point out an apparent chronological error in the review of Mr. Gladstone's edition of "Bishop Butler,' in the Spectator of February 22nd, whether due to the reviewer or to the editor of the book I cannot say, not having had an opportunity of seeing the book itself. According to the edition of the Sermons published at the Clarendon Press in 1826, which is now before me, where the correspondence with Dr. Clarke is printed, Butler's letters are dated from November 4th, 1713, to February 3rd in the- same year (old style, of course). The statement in your review that those "letters were written in 1717," therefore post-dates the letters by four years ; and in 1713 Butler was not at Oriel, nor was he "twenty-five years of age." He was still studying under Mr. Jones at Tewkesbury, and was only twenty-one, according to the Life prefixed to the Oxford edition of the " Analogy " (1820). This fact greatly enhances the "sagacity and depth of thought displayed" in these letters, when considered as the pro- duction of a lad of twenty-one. The whole tone of the- correspondence is indeed remarkable for "the candour, modesty, and good sense" (to use again the words of the- Life) with which it was carried on ; and these are qualities not often found in the theological or literary controversies- of that period, which were too often waged with no small
[The first letter to Dr. Clarke given by Mr. Gladstone is dated "Oriel, October 6th," but without the year. The second is dated "Oriel College, October 17th, 1717." But our point was the relative order of the different works, not the actual date.—En. Spectator.]
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