The Analogy Of Religion; Natural And Revealed, To The Constitution And Course Of Nature. Butler, Joseph Philosophy & Religions

Octavo : pp. [2, blank] [v] vi-liv, [2, Advertisement] [4, Contents] [1] 2-408 [2, blank] : plan e.p.s : polished calf decorated and lettered in gilt to the spine with two red leather panels for title and author name : armorial bookplate of Henry Lee Warner Esq. of Walsingham Abbey : acquisition note in Henry Lee Warner's hand dated March 5, 1835. Sections of the calf missing from top board along joint and tail; foxing to first and last leaves. During his lifetime and for long after Joseph Butler was well remembered for his critique of Deism, and the ideas of Locke and Hobbes in The Analogy of Religion. He influenced thinkers David Hume and Adam Smith among others and is commemorated in the Anglican Church calendar on June 16. A note on provenance: The Lee Warner family repeated names every generation, from the first Henry Lee Warner (1688-1760) to the one that selected this volume as a keepsake from the library of his "dear Uncle the late Rev'd James Lee Warner". In between another Henry Lee Warner of Walsingham Abbey was described thus, " Henry Lee-Warner, Esq., a late proprietor of Walsingham Abbey, was a polite scholar and a complete gentleman, but was remarkable for several eccentricities. His custom was to sleep during a great part of the day, rise in the evening, breakfast at midnight and dine at four or five in the morning. His dress was a gold-laced coat and waistcoat, with deep slash-worked sleeves, and richly embroidered buttons, a deep chitterlin of rich yellow-lace, curved-toed shoes, and oblong buckles. He so far suffered inroads on his property, as to call out to a depredator on his walls, "to take care how he got down, for fear of hurting himself;" and by such depredations, he is said to have lost no less than £20,000. He died in 1804, aged 82, and was buried with much pomp in the abbey church." (William White's History, Gazetteer, and Directory of Norfolk 1845). The family had a long history with Walsingham Abbey. Henry Lee Warner (1688-1760) inherited it from his uncle and settled there with his father after a grand tour of the continent in 1716. There is a photographic portrait of Rev'd James Lee Warner (1777-1834) together with his wife taken by Camille Silvy and held in the National Portrait Gallery, London. His nephew Henry Lee Warner Esq. of Walsingham Abbey, whose bookplate is at the front paste down, lived from 1805-1885.