ON ANCIENT AND MODERN SKEPTICS. 



365 



by the strong-est arguments that reason alone can furnish, and arg'uments 

 which he seems to suppose unexceptionable ; yet he does not admit that they 

 amount to a full demonstration of the existence of matter. In philosophy, 

 says he, we ought to maintain our liberty as long, as we can, and to believe 

 nothing but what evidence ■ compels us to believe. To be fully convinced of the 

 existence of bodies it is necessary that we have it demonstrated to us, not 

 only that there is a God, and that he is no deceiver, but also that God has 

 assured us that he has actually created such bodies ; and this, continues 

 Malebranche, "I do not find proved in the w^orks of M. Des Cartes. The 

 faith oblig'es us to believe that bodies exist, but as to the evidence of this 

 truth, it certainly is not complete ; and it is also certain that we are not in- 

 vincibly determined to believe that any thing exists but God and our own 

 mind. It is true that we have an extreme propensity to believe that we are 

 surrounded with corporeal beings : so far I agree with M. Des Cartes : but 

 this propensity, natural as it is, does not force our belief by evidence; it only 

 inclines us to believe by impression. Now we ought not to be determined in 

 our judgments by any thing but light and evidence : if we suffer ourselves to 

 be guided by the sensible impression, we shall be almost alwaj^^s mistaken."* 

 Thus stood the question when the very learned and excellent Bishop of 

 Cloyne, Dr. George Berkeley, entered upon its investigation. For Locke, as: 

 we have already seen, boldly overleaped the Cartesian tollgate of doubting, 

 and was content to take the knowledge of our own existence upon the 

 authority of intuition, that of a God upon the authority of demonstration, and 

 that of external objects upon the authority of our senses. Berkeley had 

 minutely studied the rival systems of Des Cartes and Locke. With the latter 

 he agreed that there is no such thing as innate ideas, and with the former 

 that the creed of a philosopher should be founded upon proof. But Locke 

 had not proved the existence of an external world : he had only sent us to 

 our senses, and had left the q«uestion between ourselves and the evidence they 

 offer; and though this is an evidence which Locke had assented to. Bishop 

 Berkeley conceives it is an evidence that every man ought to examine and 

 sift for himself. Upon this point, then, he deserted Locke for his rival, and 

 commenced a chase for proofs : 



He would not with a peremptory tone, 



Assert the nose upon liis face his own ; - 



and looked around him for demonstrative evidence whether there be any 

 thing in nature besides the Creator and a created mind. And the well-known 

 result of the chase was that he could discover nothing else : he could dis- 

 cover neither a material world nor matter of any kind; neither corporeal ob- 

 jects nor corporeal senses, with which to feel about for objects; he could not 

 even discover his own head and ears, his own hands, feet, or voice, as sub- 

 stantive existences ; and the whole that he could discover was proofs to- 

 demonstrate not only that these things have no substantive existence, but 

 that it is impossible they could have any such existence : or, in other wordSy 

 that it is impossible that there can be any such thing as matter under any 

 modification whatever, cognizable by mental faculties. 



Let us, however, attend to the limitation that external objects can have no 

 substantive or material existence, for otherwise we shall give a caricature 

 view of this hypothesis (which it by no means stands in need of), and ascribe 

 to it doctrines and mischievous results which, if it be candidly examined, will 

 not be found chargeable to it. Dr. Beattie, from not adverting to this limita- 

 tion, appears, in his humorous description of the Bishop of Cloyne's prin- 

 ciples, to have been mistaken upon several points; and it is but justice to the 

 memory of a most excellent and exemplary prelate, as well as enlightened 

 philosopher, to correct the errors into which his equally excellent and en- 

 lightened opponent has fallen. When Berkeley asserts that he can prove 

 that there is nothing in existence but a Creator and created mind, and that 



♦ Recherche de la Verity, lom. in. p. 30. 39. 



