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fubif.!\s of more apparent utility; and printed, in ty^i ^'"s 

 " Queiie'," for the gooj of Irdand; in 1756, liis " Dif- 

 coiirfe addreffcd to Magiftratts;" and in 1750, his " Maxims 

 Concerning Palriotifm ;" all of which evince his knowledge 

 of mankind, and his zeal for the fervite of true religion, and 

 of his country. In 1745, during the Scots' rebellion, he 

 addrelTcd a " Letter to the Roman Catholics" of his dioceft; 

 and in 1749, another to the clergy of that perfuafion in 

 Ireland, under tlie title of " a Word to the Wife," which 

 was fo well received by tlicni, that tliey returned him their 

 public thanks with cxprcffions of marked cllcem and re- 

 fped, which dcfcribe him as " the good man, the polite 

 gentleman, and the true patriot." That he difcovertd this 

 chariitter in a very eminent degree, was very generally ac- 

 knowledged; and particularly by lord Chellcrneld, who as 

 foon as he was advanced to the government of Ireland, in 

 1745, offered him the fee of Cloglier, then vacant, and the 

 \^]\xe of which was double that of Cloync. This offer the 

 biihop, moderate in his views, diiinterelted in his fupport ot 

 fOTtrnment, and particularly attached to his cullomary 

 place of refidence at C'loyne, and to the connections and 

 duties attending it, refpettfully declined. Towards the clofe 

 of his life he laboured under a nervous colic, the effect of 

 his fcdcntary courfe of living, in which he found coni'ider- 

 able relief from the ufe of tar-water; and he therefore 

 communicated his thoughts on this celebrated medicine to 

 the public in a treatifc, entitled " Siris, a Chain of Philo- 

 fophical Reflexions and Enquiries concerning the Virtues of 

 Tar-water," printed a fecond time in i 747, and followed in 

 1752, by " Farther Thoughts on Tav-water," which was 

 his laft performance. 



In 1752, he removcdjwith his lady and family, to Oxford, 

 for the purpofe of fuperintending the education of one of his 

 fons, who was admitted a lludent at Chrlftchurch college, in 

 thatuniverfity : butfeiifible ina high degree of the impropriety 

 of non-refidence, he endeavoured tirll to procure an exchange 

 of his high preferment for fome canonry or headfhip at Ox- 

 ford; and failing of fuccefs, he afterwardp, by a letter to the 

 fccrctary of (late, requefled permifTion to reiign his bifhopric, 

 worth at that time not Icfs than 14C0I. /rr annum. When 

 the petition for this purpofe was prefented to his majclty, 

 he declared he (hould die a bifhop in fpite of himfelf, and 

 gave him full liberty to refide wherever he pleafed. Before 

 he left Cloync, he llgned aleafe of the demefne lands in that 

 neighbourhood, renewable yearly at the rate of 200I. and 

 direded this fum to be annually diilributed, until his return, 

 among poor houfe-keepers of Cloyne, Youghall, and Ag- 

 hadda. At Oxford, he was highly refpecled by the mem- 

 bers of the univerGty ; but his refidence among them was of 

 no long duration. On Sunday evening, January 14th, 175J, 

 whilft he was furrounded by his family, and his lady was 

 reading to him one of Dr. Sherlock's fermons, he was fud- 

 denly feized with a difordcr, called the pally of the heart, 

 and inllantly expired. His remains^were interred at Chrift- 

 church Oxford, and a marble monun;ent was ere£ted to his 

 memory by his widow, with a Latin infcription, drawn up 

 by Dr. Markham, head-maftcr of Weftminiter fchool, and 

 now archbifhop of York. In this infcription he is faid to have 

 been born in 1679, ^""^ ^'^ ^S*^ '° ^'^ 73 > whereas his bro- 

 ther, who furnifhed the particulars of his hfe, ftates the year 

 of his birth to have been 1684, and of courfe he died at the 

 age of 69. 



The perfon of bifhop Berkeley was handfome, his coun- 

 tenance exprefTive and benign, and his conftitution rebuff, 

 till it was impaired by his fedentary hfc. At Cloyne he con- 

 ftantly rofe between three and four in the morning ; and 

 often fpent the greater part of the day in ftudy ; hisi favourite 



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author, from whom many of his notions were boirowcd, was 

 Plato. The enthuliafm of his private chnrafter, which was 

 fingularlv excellent and air.iable, entered into his literary 

 one : and it was manifefted m his public works, as well as 

 in his life and convcrfation. Few pcrfons were ever held, 

 by tliofe who knew his worth, in higher eilimation than bi- 

 fhop Berkeley. When biihop Attci-bury was introduced to 

 him, he lifted up his hands in aftonithmcnt, and exclaimed, 

 " So much underftanding, fo much knowledge, fo much 

 innocence, and fuch humility, I did not think had been 

 the portion of any but Angels, till I faw this gentleman." 

 This teftimony ferves to remove the air of hyperbole ,irora 

 the well-known line of his friend Mr. Pope : — 



" To Berkeley every virtue under heaven." 

 In matters of fpeculation, his natural ardour might, pof- 

 fibly, have led him to imbibe fome notions that are more 

 fanciful than jufL It has been faid, that towards the clofe 

 of his life, he began to doubt the folidity of metapliylical 

 fpeculations, and that he therefore turned his thoughts to 

 the more beneficial ftudics of politics and medicine. He has 

 been charged by fome conhderable pcrfons, and particularly 

 by bifhop Hoadly, with coiTupting the native flmplicily of 

 religion, by blending with it the lubtilty and obicurity of 

 nietaphyfics ; and Mr. Hume afferts, that his writings fornj 

 the befl leffons of fcepticifm which are to be found either 

 among the ancient or modern philofophers, Bayle not ex- 

 cepted ; that " all his arguments," againft Sceptics, as well 

 as againft Atheifts and Free-thinkers, fays Hume, " though 

 otherwife intended, are, in reahty, merely fceptical, appear 

 {rQWilMii, that iae\ admit of no anfiuer, and produce no convidion." 

 That his knowledge extended to the minutefl objefts, and 

 included the arts and bufinefs of common life, is tcftilied by 

 Dr. BlackwtU, in his " Court of Augullus." The induftry 

 of his refcarch, and the acutentfs of his obfervations, compre- 

 hend not only the mechanic arts, but the various departments 

 of trade, agriculture, and navigation; and that he poficffed. 

 poetical talents in a cnutiderable degree, is evident from the 

 animated letters that are found in the colleftion of Pope's 

 Works, and alfo from feveral compofitions in verfe, particu- 

 larly the beautiful flanzas written on the profpeft of realiz- 

 ing his noble fcheme rtlatii/g to Bermuda. The claffical 

 romance, entitled " The Adventures of Signior Gaudentio 

 di Lucca," has generally been attributed to him. 



Beiides the wruings already mentioned, biffiop Berkeley 

 publifhed, at Dublin, in 1735, a fmall pamphlet relating to 

 the dottrine of fluxions, entitled " Realons for not reply- 

 ing to Mr. Walton's full Anfwer," &c. His fmaller pieces 

 were colle£led and printed under his infpciition 'at Dublin in 

 1752, under the title of " Mifcellanies." " The works of 

 George Berkely, D. D. late bifhop of Cloyne; to which is 

 added an account of his life, and -feveral letters, fee." were 

 publiihed in 2 vols. 4to. in 1784. Biog. Brit. 



BERKENHOUT, John, fon of a refpettable merchant 

 of Leeds in Yorkfhire, but originally from Holland, was bora 

 about the year 1730. Being intended by his father for mer- 

 chandize, after receiving a fchool education at Leeds, he was 

 fent to Germany, to acquire a knowledge of that language. 

 Paying a vifit to the baron de Bielfeldt, a relation of his 

 father, refiding at Berlin, he was, through the influence of 

 that nobleman, firfl made a cadet, and, in progreffion, aa 

 enfign, and afterwards a captain in the Pruflian army ; but 

 on the breaking out of a war between England and France, 

 he obtained his difmiffion from the Pruflian fervice, and was 

 preferred to the command of a company here. On the re- 

 turn of peace, in 1762, he went to Edinburgh, where he 

 commenced ftudent in medicine, and after a ftioit refidence 

 there, he removed to Leyden, and in the year 1 7 65, took his 



degree 



