to a reasonable nature. I say my being obliged, for there is
every encouragement (whether one regards interest or usefulness) now-a-
days for any to enter that profession, who has not got a way of
commanding his assent to received opinions without examination.

I had some thoughts, Sir, of paying you my acknowledgments in person for
that surprising air of candour and affability with which you have treated
me in the Letters that have passed between us. But really I could not
put on so bold a face, as to intrude into a gentleman's company with no
other excuse but that of having received an obligation from him. I have
not the least prospect of ever being in a capacity of giving any more
than a verbal declaration of my gratitude: so I hope you'l accept that,
and believe it's with the utmost sincerity I subscribe myself,

Sir,

Your most obliged, most obedient humble servant,

J. BUTLER.

Hamlin's Coffee-house,
Tuesday Morning.

II.

The original of this Letter with the answer, which is roughly written on
the blank leaf, is, I believe, now in the library of Oriel College,
Oxford. I am indebted for my copy to the kindness of the Rev. J. H.
Newman, D.D., formerly of that College.

REV. SIR,

I had long resisted an Inclination to desire your Thoughts upon the
difficulty mentioned in my last, till I considered that the trouble in
answering it would be only carrying on the general purpose of your Life,
and that I might claim the same right to your Instructions with others;
notwithstanding which, I should not have mentioned it to you had I not
thought (which is natural when one fancies one sees a thing clearly) that
I could easily express it with clearness to others. However I should by
no means have given you a second trouble upon the subject had I not had
your particular leave. I thought proper just to mention these things
that you might not suspect me to take advantage from your Civility to
trouble you with any thing, but only such objections as seem to me of
Weight, and which I cannot get rid of any other way. A disposition in
our natures to be influenced by right motives is as absolutely necessary
to render us moral Agents, as a Capacity to discern right motives is.
These two are I think quite _distinct_ perceptions, the _former_
proceeding from a desire inseparable from a Conscious Being of its own
happiness, the _latter_ being only our Understanding, or Faculty of
seeing Truth. Since a _disposition