24:6 THE METAPHYSICS OF SENSATION 



than an angel; whose personal influence and 

 eloquence filled the Scriblerus Club and the 

 House of Commons with enthusiasm for the 

 evangelisation of the North American Indians; 

 and even led Sir Robert Walpole to assent to the 

 appropriation of public money to a scheme which 

 was neither business nor bribery.* 



Hardly any epoch in the intellectual history of 

 England is more remarkable in itself, or possesses 

 a greater interest for us in these latter days, than 

 that which coincides broadly with the conclusion 

 of the seventeenth and the opening of the 

 eighteenth century. The political fermentation of 

 the preceding age was gradually working itself 

 out; domestic peace gave men time to think; and 

 the toleration won by the party of which Locke 

 was the spokesman, permitted a freedom of speech 

 and of writing such as has rarely been exceeded 

 in later times. Fostered by these circumstances, 

 the great faculty for physical and metaphysical 

 inquiry, with which the people of our race are 

 naturally endowed, developed itself vigorously; and 

 at least two of its products have had a profound 

 and a permanent influence upon the subsequent 

 course of thought in the world. The one of these 



* In justice to Sir Robert, however, it is proper to re- 

 mark that he declared afterwards, that he gave his assent to 

 Berkeley's scheme for the Bermuda University only be' 

 cause he thought the House of Commons was sure to throw 

 it out. 



