in Clarke, who would not own himself to be convinced where he was unable to answer. At this time of day, when the ideal theory of Berkeley is thoroughly in disrepute, if it be not exploded, one does not wonder at the result of the discussion, or the inability of Dr. Clarke to answer his opponent; the system being one, the falsehood of which is from its very nature as impossible to demonstrate as its truth. It is not a little remarkable, that while Berkeley wrote these treatises for the purpose of detecting and exposing the fallacies of those who deny divine revelation, the effect of them has been to encourage scepticism, and afford weapons of argumentation to doubters and disbelievers. Berkeley was not, however, entirely absorbed in the pursuit of metaphysics. In 1712 he published three sermons in favour of passive obedience and non-resistance. These subsequently caused him some inconvenience with George I., to whom he was represented as holding Jacobite opinions; but Molyneaux, who was his pupil, corrected this error, and vouched for his loyalty to the house of Hanover. The writings of Berkeley had by this time established for him a high reputation amongst men of letters in England, who courted his acquaintance. Swift, Arbuthnot, Addison, and Steele, were his friends. For Steele he wrote several papers in the Guardian, and introduced him to Pope, with whom he formed a strong and lasting friendship. Swift, who was then on terms of intimacy with the earl of Peterborough, introduced Berkeley to that nobleman, who, upon his appointment as ambassador to the Italian states shortly after, took Berkeley with him as his secretary and chaplain. In 1714 he returned to England with Lord Peterborough, and shortly after he accepted the proposal of Dr. Ashe, bishop of Clogher, to accompany his son upon a tour through Europe. It was while upon this tour that he made the acquaintance of Malebranche in Paris. Berkeley paid the great French metaphysician a visit while the latter was labouring under an inflammation of the lungs, and a discussion took place between them which appears to have been carried on with a heat and violence that probably hastened the death of the Frenchman, who survived it only a few days. His travels in Italy and Sicily were extensive, and from the few portions that he published (the greater part having been lost in passing from Naples), especially a description of an eruption of Vesuvius, there is great reason to regret that he did not turn his genius to historical and descriptive writing, for which his acute and observant mind, and lively and poetic imagination, eminently fitted him. He would, as has been observed by one of his biographers, have been the Humboldt of his age. While at Lyons upon his return, he composed an essay upon a subject proposed by the Royal Academy of Paris, upon the "Principle and Cause of Motion." The tract is in Latin, and was published in London in 1721. Shortly after his return to England, Pope introduced him to the earl of Burlington; a congenial taste for architecture commended him strongly to the friendship of that nobleman, who recommended him to the duke of Grafton, then appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and with him Berkeley returned as chaplain to his native country, having during his absence become senior fellow of the college, and immediately on his arrival took his degree of D.D. Through Swift he had made the acquaintance of the celebrated Vanessa, Mrs. Hester Van Homreigh, who, upon discovering Swift's marriage with Mrs. Johnson, bequeathed to Berkeley and Mr. Marshall her fortune, consisting of £8000 equally, which they received upon her death. The duke of Grafton conferred the deanery of Derry upon Berkeley in 1724, when he resigned his fellowship. But church-preferment or worldly aggrandizement could not fill the noble and philanthropic heart of Berkeley, and he willingly relinquished home, with its ease and affluence, to organize and promote the great missionary work originated by him for the conversion of the American Indians to christianity, by means of a college to be established at Bermuda. To raise funds for this project, in which he was joined by many young clergymen, including three junior fellows of his college, Berkeley proposed that the proceeds of certain lands in St. Christopher's, then about to be sold by the government, should he applied for the founding of the college. The proposal was approved of, a charter granted, and £20,000 promised. Berkeley accordingly set sail in September, 1728, for Rhode island, accompanied by his wife (the daughter of the speaker of the Irish house of commons), whom he had recently married. This noble and philanthropic scheme of one of the most single-minded and self-denying of men was doomed to failure, owing principally to the total breach of faith of the minister, Sir R. Walpole, who applied the money to other purposes; and eventually, after spending all the funds he could raise from his deanery and other private sources, Berkeley was forced to abandon his project and return to England. Almost immediately after his return, Berkeley published the most useful of his works, "The Minute Philosopher," in which he adopted the ancient method of Socratic and Platonic dialogue, and with rare felicity follows all the windings of scepticism through the different fields of fallacy in which it has from time to time taken refuge. Of this work Dr. Clarke speaks in terms of high praise, and Dr. Sherlock took it to the queen, with whom Berkeley soon became a great favourite. Through her influence he was appointed to the deanery of Down, and in 1736 promoted to the see of Cloyne. From this period the life of Berkeley was one of retirement, devoted to the discharge of his duties as a christian prelate, the regulation of his household, the pursuits of literature and science, and the exercise of the charities of life in their largest sense. And it may be observed, that so little worldly ambition had this good man, that he resisted all the solicitations of his friends to put forward a claim for the vacant primacy, a claim which could scarcely have been disregarded, and he refused in 1745 the see of Clogher, which would have doubled his income. In addition to his correspondence with the learned and eminent men of the day, Berkeley continued from time to time to publish pamphlets and treatises on various subjects, including his celebrated treatise "On the Virtues of Tar-water." At length his health beginning to fail, and being deeply impressed with the responsibilities of his station as a bishop, he retired to Oxford, and, solicited permission to resign his see, and obtained a canonry in that city. The king, however, declined to accept his resignation, and declared "That Berkeley should die a bishop in spite of himself," but gave him permission to reside wherever he pleased. His last act at Cloyne was to make over £200 a year rents, arising out of see lands, to poor housekeepers in his diocese. On Sunday the 14th January, 1753, when in his 69th year, death came to this great and good man, almost robbed of its terrors. He was seated amongst his family, listening to a sermon, and expired so quietly that his decease was not known till his daughter taking to him a cup of tea, found him stiff and cold. He was interred in Christ church, Oxford. In person, Berkeley is described as "a handsome man with a countenance full of meaning and benignity, remarkable for great strength of limbs; and, till his sedentary life impaired it, of a very robust constitution." In his life and conversation he was a bright example. Pious, simple-hearted, and benevolent, humble, unambitious, and honourable—he was adorned with all Christian graces and noble qualities.—J. F. W.
[One word more about Berkeley's peculiar metaphysics:—Berkeley's immaterialism, bizarre though it is apt to appear, was nevertheless an essential and inevitable step in the history of English philosophy, after the period of Lord Bacon. It has been stated under our notice of that illustrious thinker, that although the charge of materialism so often urged against himself is a false charge, the principles established and illustrated throughout the Instauratio, might, and assuredly would—if applied without restriction or limit—lead to a psychology purely empirical, and ultimately to a scheme of thought purely materialistic. The logical but hard intellect of Hobbes indeed, pushed at once, and without stop or misgiving, to the term in question. Locke went backward a step or two in theory, and a long way in practical belief; but the cardinal error remained in his rejection of the true idea of Substance, and generally of every notion not traceable directly or mediately to the action of external impressions on a comparatively passive or purely receptive thinking faculty. The certain consequences of such a fundamental position will surprise no one conversant with the history of philosophy at any one of its critical epochs:—deny the existence of a Faculty in the Mind itself to construct universal ideas from the facts offered by experience, and the whole list of conceptions related to the idea of Substance dwindle into mere names; nor can objective or absolute reality of any sort be logically predicated concerning them. Berkeley discerned these consequences, and recoiled from them. But he did not discern the cause of the disaster. On the contrary, he merely contended for one downward consequence of the prevailing philosophy, and imagined very vainly that he had thereby saved much that seemed to him very precious. Urged in this direction, also, by several truths that appeared demonstrated by his new Theory of Vision, he reached the conclusion, that there are no qualities
