pears. Their lives hold nothing beyond their philosophy save the common life of every-day, the provision of food—by the polishing of lenses, or the teaching of physical geography—and its consmuption. In Berkeley, on the contrary, philosophic activity was but a part, and not always the dominant part, of a broader spiritual activity. For he was priest as well as philosopher: he was a true and ardent apostle of Christianity, a resourceful champion of morality and of Christian dogma. From the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) to the Maxims concerning Patriotism (1750) he labored with all his might, for forty years, to establish belief and to increase righteousness in England.
Those who know all the works of Berkeley know that he regarded the defense of religion as the most important of all things, and that his life was a constant battle against skeptics, atheists, nihilarians, libertins, esprits forts, "men of fashion," "minute philosophers," against all who in any way, by argument or mockery, by treatise or by apologue, offended and menaced belief in God, belief in the spirituality of the world, or Christian morals. The Principles of Human Knowledge were written—as the young philosopher proclaimed upon the title-page—to remove "the bases of atheism and of irreligion." The pamphlet on Passive Obedience (1712) is merely
