665 



BERKELEY, GEORGE. 



BERKELEY, GEORGE. 



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the theory of crystallisation afterwards developed by Haiiy ; he made 

 a considerable number of experiments on silver, and his analyses of the 

 precious stones, though far from accurate, were among the first attempts 

 to ascertain the composition of these bodies. 



In 1775 Bergman published his important ' Essay on Elective 

 Attractions ;' it was improved and augmented in the third volume of 

 his 'Opuscula,' published 1783, and was translated into English by 

 Dr. Beddoes. In this treatise Bergman considers every substance as 

 possessed of a peculiar attractive force for every other substance with 

 which it unites, a force capable of bein represented numerically : he 

 also considered decomposition as complete ; that is, whenever a third 

 body c, is added to a compound a b, for one of the constituents of 

 which it has a stronger attraction than that which exists between the 

 two, the compound body will be decomposed, and the whole of one of 

 its elements transferred to the body added. Thus, suppose the attrac- 

 tion of a for b to be represented by 1, and of a for c by 2, then the 

 addition of c to a b will produce the compound a c, and 6 will be 

 separated : thus, when lime-water is added to muriate of magnesia, 

 the magnesia is precipitated and a solution of muriate of lime is 

 obtained ; and hence when muriatic acid is poured upon a mixture of 

 lime and magnesia, it dissolves the lime and leaves the magnesia. 

 From these and numerous similar facts Bergman called this kind of 

 attraction or affinity 'elective.' This work contains a vast number of 

 experiments ; and though the accuracy of his researches and opinions 

 have been called in question, and in many cases upon good ground, 

 the work will long remain a monument of his sagacity and industry. 



BERKELEY, GEORGE, son of William, of Thomastown, in the 

 county of Kilkenny, was born at Kilcrin, near Thomastown, on the 

 12th of March, lt>84. He received his early education at Kilkenny 

 school under Dr. Hinton, was admitted a pensioner of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, at the age of fifteen, and having stood successfully an examina- 

 tion, he was admitted a Fellow on the 9th of June, 1707. In the 

 same year he published his first work, ' Arithmetica absque Algebra 

 aut Euclide demonstrata,' written before he was twenty years of age, 

 and chiefly remarkable as showing the early bent of his mind and 

 studies. His next work, published in 1709, was ' The Theory of 

 Vision ; ' in the following year ' The Principles of HuAan Knowledge ' 

 appeared. The perusal of Locke's two treatises on government having 

 turned the attention of Berkeley t;> the doctrine of passive obedience, 

 he published in 1712 a discourse in favour of it, being the substance 

 of three sermons delivered by him iu that year in the college chapel, 

 which passed through several editions. In order to publish his 

 ' Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous,' he left Ireland in 1713 and 

 went to London, where be was introduced to literary and fashionable 

 society by two men very opposite in their political principles Sir 

 Richard Steele and Dr. Swift. He wrote several papers in the 

 ' Guardian ' for the former, and in his house formed a friendship with 

 I'ope, which continued during the remainder of his life. Berkeley 

 was recommended by Swift to the celebrated Earl of Peterborough, 

 with whom he set out as chaplain and secretary, iu November 1713, 

 on his embassy to Sicily. His lordship however left his chaplain and 

 part of his retinue at Leghorn, and proceeded on his embassy. After 

 his return to England, in August 1714, with Lord Peterborough, he 

 became companion to Mr. Ashe, son of Dr. St. George Ashe, bishop of 

 Clogher, on a tour through Europe, which occupied more than four 

 yean. At Paris he visited Malebranche, and entered into a discussion 

 with him on tho ideal theory, which was conducted with so much 

 heat that the excitement is said to have hastened the death of the 

 French philosopher. When in Sicily he compiled materials for a 

 natural history of the island, but these papers, together with his 

 journal, were lost during his journey to Naples. On hia way home 

 he wrote bis tract ' De Motu,' at Lyon, sent it to the Royal Society of 

 Paris, and printed it in London in 1721. Seeing the misery produced 

 about this tune by the South Sea scheme, he published ' An Essay 

 towards preventing the Ruin of Great Britain.' 



He was now received into tho first society. Pope introduced him 

 to Lord Burlington, by whom he was recommended to the Duke of 

 Grafton, lord-lieutenant of Ireland. On becoming chaplain to this 

 nobleman he took the degrees of Bachelor and Doctor in Divinity of 

 Trinity College, Dublin. 



About this time his fortune was unexpectedly enlarged. On his 

 first visit to London, Swift had introduced him to Mrs. Esther Van- 

 homrigh, the celebrated ' Vanessa.' When this lady became dissatisfied 

 with Swift, she altered her will, and left the 80002. which she intended 

 for him, to Mr. Marshal and Dr. Berkeley, her executors. Berkeley 

 did not however publish her correspondence with Swift, though she 

 left this injunction iu her will, but committed the letters to the flames. 

 In 1724 Dr. Berkeley was made dean of Deny a place worth HOOi 

 and he resigned his fellowship in consequence. 



Ever since Berkeley's return to England he had occupied himself 

 with a scheme for the conversion of the North American savages by 

 means of a missionary college to be erected in the Bermudas. He 

 published his plan in London iu 1725, and offered to resign his prefer- 

 ment and dedicate his life to this benevolent project on an income of 

 lOOt a year. Having prevailed on three junior fellows of Trinity 

 College, Dublin, to accompany him on incomes amounting to 402. pur 

 annum, and obtained, by showing the political advantages likely to 

 result from his scheme, a charter for his college, and a promise of 



20,000. from the minister, he resisted the temptation of an English 

 mitre offered him by Queen Caroline ; and though he married in 

 August 1728, Anne, eldest daughter of Mr. Forster, the Speaker of the 

 Irish House of Commons, he sailed in the middle of the ensuing 

 month for Rhode Island with his wife, a Miss Handcock, two gentle- 

 men of the names of James and Dalton, a valuable library of books, 

 and a large sum of his own property. He took up his residence at 

 Newport, in Rhode Island, and for nearly two years devoted himself 

 indefatigably to his pastoral labours. The government however disap- 

 pointed him, and he was compelled, after spending much of his fortune 

 and seven years of the prime of his life on forwarding his scheme at 

 home and in America, to leave the scene of his philanthropic enterprise 

 and return to England. Before he left, however, he presented his 

 books to the clergy of the province, and on reaching London took the 

 whole loss upon himself by returning all the subscriptions which he 

 had received. In February 1732, he preached before the Society for 

 the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The same year he 

 published his ' Minute Philosopher,' a series of dialogues on the model 

 of Plato. Of this work Bishop Sherlock of London presented a copy 

 to Queen Caroline, with whom Berkeley had many interviews after his 

 return, and by whose patronage he was promoted on the 17th of 

 March 1734 to the vacant bishopric of Cloyne, a see to which he was 

 consecrated by the Archbishop of Cashel on the 19th of May following. 

 He repaired immediately to the residence at Cloyne, and to the exem- 

 plary discharge of all his episcopal duties. Hearing from Addisou 

 that their common friend Dr. Garth on his death-bed attributed his 

 infidelity to the opinions of Dr. Halley, whose mathematical education 

 had much influenced Garth, the bishop was induced to write the 

 ' Analyst,' a work addressed " to an infidel mathematician," which 

 excited a good deal of controversy. In 1735 appeared his ' Queries,' 

 proposed for the good of Ireland, and next year his ' Discourse addressed 

 to Magistrates.' 



Having received benefit from the use of tar-water when ill with the 

 colic, he published iu 1744 ' Siris,' a work on the virtues of tar-water, 

 on which he said he had bestowed more pains than on any other of 

 his productions : he published a second edition with emendations and 

 additions in 1747. During the Scotch rebellion in 1745 he addressed 

 a letter to the Roman Catholics of his diocese, and iu 1749 another to 

 the clergy of that persuasion in Ireland, entitled ' A Word to the 

 Wise,' distinguished by so much good sense, candour, and moderation, 

 that he received the thanks of the parties whom he addressed. When 

 Lord Chesterfield, in 1745, offered him the see of Clogher, worth 

 twice as much as the one he held, he refused it because he had already 

 enough to satisfy his wishes. His ' Maxims concerning Patriotism ' 

 appeared in 1750. His last work was 'Further Thoughts on Tar- 

 Water,' published in 1752. In July this year he determined on going 

 with his family to Oxford, to superintend the education of his sou 

 and enjoy the learned retirement to which he was attached. He w;is 

 however so impressed with the evils of non-residence that he actually 

 petitioned the king for leave to resign his see, but his Majesty was 

 determined he should die a bishop in spite of himself, and refused his 

 application, giving him at the same time permission to reside wherever 

 he pleased. 



In July 1752 he removed to Oxford, where he was treated with 

 great respect. On Sunday evening, January 14, 1753, he was seized 

 with what his physicians called a palsy of the heart, and expired so 

 suddenly and quietly that it was only when his daughter went to give 

 him a cup of tea that she perceived he was quite dead. His remains 

 were interred in Christ church, Oxford, and an elegant monument was 

 erected to his memory by his widow. He had three sons and a 

 daughter. Besides the works already mentioned he wrote some 

 smaller pieces, which appeared in a collection printed in Dublin iu 

 1752 under the title of 'Miscellanies.' 



The writings of Berkeley, which contain his peculiar opinions, 

 consist in an attack upon the anti-Christian tenets which began to 

 prevail before his time. To look upon his literary labours as a whole, 

 it will be necessary to remember 1, the consequences of the court of 

 Charles II. ; 2, the shock which had been given to all prevailing 

 notions of mental philosophy by the introduction of the writings of 

 Locke; 3, the new view of the power of natural philosophy consequent 

 upon the mathematical discoveries of Newton ; 4, the extensive rem- 

 nants of the old philosophy, which insinuated themselves more or less 

 into the newly cultivated branches of science. Tho ' Minute Philoso- 

 pher' is addressed to the infidel man of pleasure; the 'Analyst' to 

 the infidel mathematician; the 'Principles of Human Knowledge,' 

 and the ' Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous,' to the infidel metaphy- 

 sician. We shall take them in order of publication : 



' Principles of Human Knowledge ; ' ' Dialogues of Hylas and 

 Philonous.' The" prevailing notion of matter, from the earliest ages 

 downwards, had been that of a substance possessing an existence 

 independent of faculties capable of perceiving it. The atheism of 

 several ancient sects was entirely based upon a notion that matter 

 might exist without a God, or in conjunction with, though inde- 

 pendently of, a God. The argument of Berkeley may be divided iuto 

 two parts : in tho first he attacks the common notion of matter by the 

 assertion that there is no proof of its existence anywhere but in our 

 own perceptions ; in the second he asserts the impossibility of any such 

 independent existence. The first point is, and always will be, mis- 



