Introduction

Since their first publication Butler's major works, Fifteen Sermons and The Analogy, have probably never been out of print somewhere in the anglophone world. In Butler's lifetime The Analogy was printed, with his own emendations, in 1736 (twice in London, once in Dublin), 1740 and 1750. Fifteen Sermons was printed in 1726, 1729, 1736 and 1749, all in London.

In the second half of the eighteenth century The Analogy was published in London, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Boston (USA) and Fifteen Sermons in London and Glasgow. In the nineteenth century there was a spectacular increase in editions, probably exceeding the reissues of all other eighteenth-century British divines put together. Throughout the nineteenth century the two books were variously set texts in the universities and theological colleges of the three kingdoms and influential in the established Episcopalian and Presbyterian Churches, as well as in the USA and the colleges of the British colonies. They were also stocked by the working-class reading rooms and night-schools and, whether actually read or not, must consequently have been accepted as authorities in the co-operatives and trade unions. Thus, Butler was inescapable for virtually anyone who attended a British university (and increasingly an American theology, divinity or philosophy school), who was ordained in the worldwide Anglican communion, who was trained in the Protestant ministry of virtually any denomination, who did philosophy or was an educationalist, activist or simply a well-educated person. He attracted a number of biographies, usually prefixed to his works, notably by Hallifax, Andrew Kippis and, above all, Thomas Bartlett. He was also translated into Welsh, Hindustani, Tamil and French. For the use of teachers, and possibly of students too, there were some thirty ‘cribs’ published – volumes which gave a more or less detailed précis, analysis or index of The Analogy, sometimes with the addition of specimen examination questions. The following table, which is almost certainly incomplete, gives some idea of his printing history up to 1900, but including only the two major volumes and recording only ‘[British] + [American]’ editions.