508 



RERGSTRASSE BERKSHIRE. 



theory of the chemical relations is still e-lecincd, 

 mui, it'll lias received some new developements from 

 the further researches of Kertlmllct, it has not been 

 overthrown. The order of Gu>ia\us Vnsa was be- 

 stowed on B. He declined the invitation of Frederic 

 the Great to remove to Berlin. He died, exhausted 

 by his exertions, in 1784, in the forty-ninth ye;ir of 

 his age. Among his works, the first place is due to 

 Opitscufa /%*. et Chem. (Stockholm, 1779, 3 vols.), 

 and Physical Description of the Globe. 



BKHOSTRA.SSK (Germ., mountain road) ; a fertile 

 tract of hind on the right of the Rhine, lying west of 

 the Odenwald and Meliboeus, nnd forming a beauti- 

 ful road about thirty miles in length, planted with 

 walnut and chestnut-trees nnd vines. It extends 

 from Darmstadt to the convent ofNcuburg, about a 

 mile distant from Heidelberg. All travelers on the 

 Rhine are delighted with this road. 



BERKELEY, doctor George ; bishop of Cloyne, in 

 Ireland; celebrated for his ideal theory. He main- 

 tains that the belief in the existence of an exterior 

 material world is false and inconsistent with itself; 

 that those things which are called sensible material 

 ebjectt are not external, but exist in the mind, and 

 are merely impressions made on our minds by the 

 immediate act of God, according to certain rules 

 termed lawt of nature, from which he never devi- 

 ates ; anil that the steady adherence of the Supreme 

 Spirit to these rules is what constitutes the reality of 

 things to his creatures; and so effectually distin- 

 guishes the ideas perceived by sense from such as 

 are the work of the mind itself or of dreams, that 

 there is no more danger of confounding them toge- 

 ther on this hypothesis than on that of the existence 

 of matter. He was born at Kilcrin, Ireland, in 

 1684 ; became fellow of Trinity college, Dublin, in 

 1707 ; traveled in Italy as far as Leghorn, in 1713 

 and 1714, and, at a later period, accompanied Mr 

 Ashe, son of the bishop of Clogher, on a tour through 

 Italy, Sicily, and France. In 1721, he was appointed 

 chaplain to the lord lieutenant of Ireland, the duke 

 of Grafton. He appeared with much applause as an 

 author before he was twenty years old. His works 

 on philosophy and mathematics (among which his 

 Theory of Vision, published in 1709, is the most 

 brilliant proof of the author's acuteness) procured 

 him a wide-spread fame. By a legacy of Mrs Van- 

 homrigh, the celebrated Vanessa, who has become 

 so generally known through her love to Swift, his 

 fortune was considerably increased. In 1724, he 

 was promoted to the deanery of Derry, and resigned 

 his fellowship. He now published his Proposals for 

 the Conversion of the American Savages to Christia- 

 nity by the Establishment of a College in the Ber- 

 muda Islands. The project was very favourably 

 received, and persons of the first rank raised con- 

 siderable sums by subscription to aid it; and B., 

 having resigned his preferment, set sail for Rhode 

 Island, with several other persons of similar views, 

 to make arrangements for carrying on his college. 

 The assistance of parliament, which had been pro- 

 mised, not being afforded, his undertaking miscarried, 

 after he had spent seven years and a considerable 

 part of his fortune in his efforts to accomplish it. 

 He afterward wrote numerous philosophical, religi- 

 ous, and politico-economical works. Towards his 

 sixtieth year, he was attacked by a nervous colic, 

 which he attempted to cure by the use of tar-water, 

 whereby he was induced to publish two treatises on 

 the utility of this water. He died suddenly at 

 Oxford, in 1753. B. is said to have been acquainted 

 with almost all branches of human knowledge. His 

 character commanded the respect and love of all 

 who knew him. Pope, his constant friend, describes 

 him as possessed of "every virtue tinder heaven." 



His most celebrated philosophical works are, a Trea- 

 tise on the Principles of Human Knowledge (Lon- 

 don, 1710); Three Dialogues between Hylas and 

 Philonous (London, 1713) ; Alciphron, or the Minute 

 Philosopher (London, 1 ?:>-'). His Works appeared 

 in London, 1784, 2 vols. 4to, preceded by a biogra- 

 phy written by Arbuthnot. 



BKRKENHOCT, John ; an English physician and 

 general writer. He was born at Leeds, in York- 

 shire, about 1730, and his father, who was a Dutch 

 merchant, gave him an education suitable to the 

 same calling ; but his turn being to a military life, 

 he entered into the Prussian service, and rose to the 

 rank of captain. In 1756 he quitted that scr\irr 

 and entered into that of England, where lie obtained 

 the same rank. At the peace, in 1760, he went to 

 Edinburgh and began the study of physic; while 

 there, he published his Clavis Anglica Lingua Bota- 

 nicee, a book of great merit: in 1765, he went to 

 Leyden, and took his degree of M. D. On his return 

 to England he settled at Isleworth, in Middlesex, 

 and soon after published his Pharmacopoeia Medici, 

 which passed through three editions. In 1778, he. 

 attended the British commissioners to America, and 

 at Philadelphia he was committed to prison, but he 

 soon afterwards was set at liberty, and returned with 

 the commissioners to England, where he obtained a 

 pension. He died in 1791, aged sixty. Dr Berken- 

 liout was an industrious writer, and his publications 

 possess considerable merit : besides those mentioned 

 above, he wrote, 1. Outlines of a Natural History of 

 Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols. 1 2mo, which has 

 been since enlarged and improved. 2. A pamphlet 

 on the Bite of a mad Dog, 1773, which was ascribed 

 to Sir George Baker. 3. Symptomatology, 1774. 



4. First Lines of the Theory of Chemistry, 1788. 



5. Biographia Literaria, 4to. 6. Letters to his Son. 

 And several translations of foreign books. 



BERKSHIRE ; a county of England, bounded on the 

 N. by Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, from which 

 it is separated by the Thames ; on the E. by Surrey ; 

 on the S. by Hampshire; and on the W. by Wilts. 

 It also touches the county of Gloucester on the N. W. 

 Its shape, partly owing to the windings of the 

 Thames, is very irregular, and has been compared to 

 that of a shoe or slipper. The western and central 

 parts are deemed the most fertile, the east being 

 principally occupied by Windsor Forest and its ap- 

 pendages, together with a considerable portion of 

 uninclosed and uncultivated land. A range of chalk 

 hills, entering from Oxfordshire, crosses the county 

 in a westerly direction, and forms a boundary to the 

 fertile vale of Whitehorse, so called from the gigan- 

 tic form of a white horse having been scooped out of 

 the side of a chalk hill, so as to become conspicu- 

 ous to all the country round. The cultivated parts 

 of the county, and more especially this vale, are 

 peculiarly fruitful in barley. They also contain 

 much rich pasturage and many excellent dairy 

 farms. Timber abounds, particularly oak and beech, 

 in Windsor Forest and towards the west. Owing to 

 the extent of the forest above-mentioned, as also of 

 Maidenhead-Thicket, Tylehurst-Heath, and the nu- 

 merous commons in all directions, a very considerable 

 part of the country is unproductive of any thing but 

 wood, wild fowl, and game. No minerals of conse- 

 quence have yet been found. The rivers of Berk- 

 shire are the Thames, the Kennet, the Lambourn, 

 the Ock, and the Lodden. The Thames enters the 

 county about a mile south of Lechlade, and waters 

 in its course the towns of Abingdon, Wallingford, 

 Reading, Henley, Maidenhead, and Windsor, to the 

 great advantage of the trade of the whole of them, by 

 forming so fine a water communication with the great 

 mart of the metropolis. The Kennet enters near Hun- 



