natural and the moral world than we are apt to take notice
of.' His aim is to show that the difficulties which meet us in
Revelation are to be found also in nature, that as our happiness or
misery in this world largely depends upon conduct, so it is reasonable
to suppose, apart from what Revelation teaches, that we are also in a
state of probation with regard to a future life. As youth is an
education for mature age, so may the whole of our earthly life be an
education for a future existence.

'And if we were not able at all to discern how or in what way
the present life could be our preparation for another, this
would be no objection against the credibility of its being so.
For we do not discern how food and sleep contribute to the
growth of the body; nor could have any thought that they would
before we had experience. Nor do children at all think on the
one hand that the sports and exercises, to which they are so
much addicted, contribute to their health and growth; nor, on
the other, of the necessity which there is for their being
restrained in them; nor are they capable of understanding the
use of many parts of discipline, which, nevertheless, they must
be made to go through in order to qualify them for the business
of mature age. Were we not able, then, to discover in what
respects the present life could form us for a future one, yet
nothing would be more supposable than that it might, in some
respects or other, from the general analogy of Providence. And
this, for aught I see, might reasonably be said, even though we
should not take in the consideration of God's moral government
over the world. But, take in this consideration, and
consequently, that the character of virtue and piety is a
necessary qualification for the future state, and then we may
distinctly see how and in what respects the present life may be
a preparation for it.

Butler's style is uniform throughout, and if it have no other merit, may
be praised for honesty. It is wholly free from the artifices of the
rhetorician; if it is wanting in charm, it is never weak; if it is
sometimes obscure, it must be remembered that the author does not write
for readers who find it a trouble to think. The bishop's obscurity was
not due to negligence. 'Confusion and perplexity in writing,' he says,
'is indeed without excuse; because anyone may, if he pleases, know
whether