90 LIMITS AND FLUXIONS 



the claim made by Zeno in his " dichotomy," and 

 the claim that the actual infinite cannot be realised. 

 The modem reader may not agree vvith Berkeley 

 on this point, nor in the claim that second or 

 third fluxions are more mysterious than the first 

 fluxion. Nevertheless, a reader of Berkeley feels 

 that he spoke in the Analyst with perfect sincerity. 

 Interesting is DeMorgan's comment :■"• *'Dishonesty 

 must never be insinuated of Berkeley. But the 

 Analyst was intentionally a publication involving 

 the principle of Dr. Whately's argument against the 

 existence of Buonaparte ; and Berkeley was strictly 

 to take what he found. The Analyst is a tract 

 which could not have been written except by a 

 person who knew how to answer it. But it is 

 singular that Berkeley, though he makes his 

 fictitious character nearly as clear as afterwards 

 did VVhately, has generally been treated as a 

 real opponent of fluxions. Let us hope that the 

 arch Archbishop will fare better than the arch 

 Bishop." 



I IO. Sir William Rowan Hamilton once wrote 

 De Morgan : " On the whole, I think that Berkeley 

 persuaded himself that he was in earnest against 

 Fluxions, especially of orders higher than the first, 

 as well as against matter." To this De Morgan 

 replied : *' I have no doubt Berkeley knew that the 

 fluxions were sound enough. "^ 



^ A. De Morgan, Philosophical Magazine, 4 S., voi. iv, 1852, p. 329, 

 note. 



^ Life of Sir William Roivan Hamilton, by R. P. Graves, voi. iii, 

 1889, p. 581. 



