B E R 



BERISA, a town of Africa, in KafTina, weft of tl'.e to'vn 

 of Kalfiua, fe;ilcd on tlie river Neel Abecd, or Guin. N. lat. 

 16'^ 4?'. E. long. 9" 10'. 



BKRITH, a fimple mentioned in Scripture, ufcd for 

 cieanlini; or talcing out fpots. ji'reni. chap. ii. ver. 22. 

 Some will have it to be tlic kali, or fuit-wort, from the alhcs 

 of which foap is made ; and in our verfion it is rendered /a;/'; 

 Others, after Kudbcck, make it to be the dye of the purple fifh. 



BERKA, in Gio^raphy, i town of Germany, in the ciicle 

 ot Upper Saxony, and principality of Weimar, on the Ilm ; 

 (i miles S.S.W. of Weimar. — Alfo, a town of Germanyi in 

 the fame circle, and principahty of Eilciibach, on the Werra, 

 9 miles W. of Eifenbach. 



BERKA, or Berku. Sec Barracoo. 



BERKASZESTI, a town of European Turkey, in the 

 province of Moldavia, on the Berbccz, j6 miles N.W. of 

 Galatz. 



BERKELEy, Dr. Gforge, in Biography, the learned 

 and ing^euious biihop of Cloyne in Ireland, was born March 

 12, l6i>4., at Kiicrin, near Thomallown, in the county ot 

 Kilkenny ; and having received his preparatory education 

 at Killcenny fchool, undtr Dr. Hinton, was admitted at the 

 a}ie of fifteen, a penfioner of Trinity collcg^c, Dublin, of 

 which he became a fellow, June 9, 1707. In this year he 

 publilhed his lirft literary cifay, written before he was 20 

 years of age, entitled " Arithmetica abfque Algebra aut 

 Euclide demonftrata," and evincing his talents for thofe fub- 

 tile metaphyfical lludies, by which he was afterwards fo 

 eminently dillinguifhed. In 1 709 was publiihed his " Theory 

 of Vifion," being the firfl attempt that \»'as ever made to 

 diftinguilfi the immediate and natural objefts of our fenfes 

 from the conclufions which we have been accuftomed from 

 infancy to draw from them, and to trace the boundary that 

 divides them. For this purpofe he (licws, that although 

 habit hath connefted the ideas of fight and touch, fo that 

 they arc called by the fame names, they have originally no fuch 

 councttion; inlomuch that a perfon horn blind, and fuddenly 

 made to fee, would, at firlf, be unable to tell how any objeft 

 that affefted his fight would affect his touch, and from light 

 could not derive any ideas of diftance or external fpace, but 

 would imagine that all the objefts he faw were in his eye, 

 or rather in his mind. In proof of this affertion, the cafe of 

 u young man born blmd, and couched at the age of 14, by 

 Mr. Chefelden, mentioned at the clofe of his anatomy, has 

 bvcn adduced. Tiiis work was fucceeded in the following 

 year by the " Principles of Human Knowledge," in which 

 Berkeley controverted Mr. Locke's account ot abdrafl ideas 

 and ge:;eral names, and attempted to prove, that the com- 

 monly received notir>n of the cxillence of matter is falfe, and 

 j^conriftent with itfelf ; that thofe things which are called 

 ftnfible material objcfis arc not external, but e>;ift in the 

 mmd, and are merely imprefilons made upon our minds by 

 the immediate att of God, according to certain rules, term- 

 ed laws of nature, from which, in the ordinary courfe of his 

 government, he never deviates ; and that the fteady adherence 

 of the Supreme Spirit to thefe rules 13 what conftitutes the 

 rfuhty of things to his creatures, and fo effedUially diftin- 

 guifiits the ideas perceived by fenfe fr'nn fuch as are the 

 work of the mind itfelf, or of dreams, that there is no more 

 danger of confounding them together on this hypotheils 

 than on the common fuppofition of matter. See Abstrac- 

 •. ION, Body, Existesce, and Matter. 



lo the year 17 12, Berkeley's attention was direfted, by 

 'ixe. perufal of Locke's " two Trcatifes of Government,' to 

 the doiflrine of paffive obedience ; ifi fupp&rt of which he 

 printed tlie fubitance of three common-puxes or fermons, 

 ijelivered in the college chapel, la coufe-j.tr.cc of this pub- 



B E R 



lication,he was reprefented as a Jacobite, and prevented from 

 obtaining fome piefcrment in tlie church of Ireland, fo wliich 

 he had been recommended ; but the unfavourable impreffion 

 that had been thus made on the mind of the prince of \Valc's, 

 afterwards G^-orge II., was removed by Mr. Molyneur., 

 who took occafion of introducing Berkeley to queen Caro- 

 line. In I7i2,he publifhcd, in London, a farther defence 

 of his fyrtem of immaterialifm, in " Three Dialogues be- 

 tween Hylas and Plnlonous." Such was the reputatior* 

 which he had now acquired by his writings, for acutenefs 

 of parts, and a beautiful imagination, that his company was 

 courted even by thoie who did not embrace his opinions ; 

 and he was introduced to the acquaintance of perfons of 

 rank and learning, by two gentlemen of oppofite principles. 

 Sir Richard Steele, and Dr. Swift. For the former, he 

 wrote feveral papers in the " Guardian," and at his houfc 

 formed an intimacy with Mr. Pope, which lafted during his 

 whole life. Dean Swift alfo introduced himtoLord Berke- 

 ley of Stratton, and to other valuable acquaintance ; and 

 procured for him the appointment of chaplain and lecretary to 

 the earl of Peterborough, w^ho being appointed ambaflador to 

 the king of Sicily, and to the other Italian Hates, took Berke- 

 ley with him, in November 1 7 1 3. On his return to England, 

 in 17 14, he found that his hopes of prelerment had expired 

 with the fall of queen Anne's miniftry ; and he therefore 

 accepted the offer of accompanying the fon of Dr. A(he, 

 bifhop of Clogher, in a tour through Europe. At Paris he 

 vifited the illullrious father Malebranche, whom he found 

 in his cell, cooking, in a fmall pipkin, a medicine for an in- 

 flammation of the lungs, with which he was afflifted ; and as 

 they engaged in a converfation on Berkeley's fyftem, Male- 

 branche, in the heat of difputation, raifed his voice fo high^ 

 and indulged the natural impetuofity of his temper to fuch 

 a degree, that he brought on an increafe of his diforderj^ 

 which carried him off a few days after, viz. Oftober 13, 

 1715. During four years' abfence from England, Mr. 

 Berkeley not only profecuted, what is ufually called by tra- 

 vellers, the grand tour, but he vifited Apulia, Calabria, and 

 Sicily. The materials he colletled, with a view to the na- 

 tural hlftory of the latter country, were unfortunately loft in 

 his pafTage to Naples ; and this circumftance is the more to 

 be regretted, as he has given to the world fatisfaftory fpeci- 

 mens of his talent for lively dcfcription, in his letters to Mr.. 

 Pope and Dr. Arbuthnot. At Lyons, in his way home, he 

 drew up a curious traft, " De Motu," which he fent to the 

 royal academy of fcicnces at Paris, and which he committed 

 to the prefs foon after his arrival in London, in 1721. The 

 difaflrous South Sea fcheme of 1720, engaged his attention 

 at this time, and he wrote " an Eftay towards preventing 

 the ruin of Great Britain," wliich was printed at London, 

 in 1721. By his travels, his natural politenefs, and his talents 

 for converfation were fo m.uch improved, that he found eafy 

 accefs to the beft company ; and he was introduced by Mr. 

 Pope to lord Burlington, who conceived for him a very high 

 efteem on account of his diflinguiflied tafte and fiiill inarchi- 

 tefture, which had been the objeft of his particular ftudy 

 in Italy. By this nobleman he was recommended to the 

 duke of Grafton, lord lieutenant of Ireland, and accom- 

 panied liim thither in 1721. Having been elefted fenior fel- 

 low of his college, in 1 71 7, he now took the degrees of ba- 

 chelor and doftor in divinity. By the death of Mrs. Van- 

 homrigh, the celebrated " Vaneffa," to whom he was in- 

 troduced by Dean Swift, in 1713, and who altered, her pur- 

 pofe of making the dean her heir, in confeqnence of dif- 

 coverir.g his connexion with " Stella," Dr. Berkeley became 

 pofltfled of half her property, amounting to about 4COCI. 

 a.'.d in the difcharge of his office, as one of her executors, 



committed 



