irreligion of the times. The Siris (1744), though devoted in particular to the praise of tar-water, ends with a metaphysical and religious portion in which the writer resumes one of the favorite theses of the Renaissance: the marvelous agreement between the philosophy of Plato and the Christian revelation. The list might easily be continued, but as it stands it includes all the important works of Berkeley; and in every one of them the attack on irreligion, even if it does not afford the subject matter, is the moving principle of the work.
Berkeley was not content to watch life from a window, or to withdraw into the world of thought in the pure search for truth. He was a practical man who used theoretical means. As a priest he believed in Christianity; and as a practical man he saw that morality was based upon Christianity, and that a morality based upon religion is necessary for any society that is to escape an evil end. He therefore considered as his personal enemies all those who attacked the faith and the morals of the people and the prosperity of the nation. Atheists, to his mind, were not merely superficial thinkers and cheap philosophers, but also, and primarily, enemies to humanity and traitors to their fatherland. As a shepherd of souls and as a citizen he felt that his first duty was to harass, to pursue, and to attack such enemies.
