BER 
» natural history of those parts, but which 
were unfortunately lost in the passage to 
Naples. He arrived at London in 1721 ; 
and being much affected with the miseries 
of the nation, occasioned by the South-sea 
scheme in 1720, he published the same 
year “ An Essay towards preventing the 
ruin of Great Britain reprinted in his 
“ Miscellaneous Tracts.” 
His way was now open into the first com- 
pany. Pope introduced him to Lord Bur- 
lington, by whom he was recommended to 
the Duke of Grafton, then appointed Lord 
Lieutenant of Ireland, who took Berkeley 
over as one of his chaplains in 1721. The 
latter part of this year he accumulated the 
degrees of bachelor and doctor of divinity ; 
and the year following he had a very un- 
expected increase of fortune from the death 
of Mrs. Vanhomrigh, the celebrated Va- 
nessa, to whom he had been introduced by 
Swift. This lady had intended Swift for 
her heir ; but perceiving herself to be 
slighted by him, she left her fortune of 
8,000t. between her two executors, of 
whom Berkeley was one. In 1724 he was 
promoted to the deanery of Deny, worth 
l,100h a year. 
In 1732 he published “ The Minute Phi- 
losopher,” in two volumes 8vo., against 
Freethinkers. In 1733 he was made Bishop 
of Cloyne ; and might have been removed 
in 1745, by Lord Chesterfield, to Clogher, 
but declined it. He resided constantly at 
Cloyne, where he faithfully discharged all 
the offices of a good bishop, yet continued 
his studies with unabated attention. 
About this time he engaged in a contro- 
versy with the mathematicians, which ex- 
cited much debate in the literary world ; 
and the occasion of it was this : Addison 
had given the Bishop an account of the be- 
haviour of their common friend Dr. Garth, 
in his last illness, which was equally un- 
pleasing to both these advocates of revealed 
religion. For when Addison went to see 
the Doctor, and began to discourse with 
him seriously about another world, “ Surely, 
Addison,” replied he, “ I have good reason 
not to believe those trifles, since my friend 
Dr. Halley, who has dealt so much in de- 
monstration, has assured me, that the doc- 
trines of Christianity are incomprehensible, 
and the religion itself an imposture.” The 
Bishop therefore took up arms against Hal- 
ley, and addressed to him, as to an Infidel 
mathematician, a discourse called “ The. 
Analyst;” with a view of shewing that 
mysteries in faith were unjustly objected to 
BER 
by mathematicians, who he thought admit- 
ted much greater mysteries, and even fals- 
hoods in science, of which he endeavoured 
to prove that the doctrine of fluxions fur- 
nished a clear example. This occasioned a 
long controversy between himself and some 
eminent mathematicians. 
In 1736 Bishop Berkeley published “ The 
Querist,” a discourse addressed to ma- 
gistrates, occasioned by the enormous li- 
cence and irreligion of the times ; and 
many other things afterwards of a smaller 
kind. In 1744 came out his celebrated 
and curious book, “ Siris ; a Chain of Phi- 
losophical Reflections and Inquiries con- 
cerning the virtues of Tar-water.” July 
the same year he removed, with his lady and 
family, to Oxford, partly to superintend 
the education of a son, but chiefly to in- 
dulge the passion for learned retirement, 
which had always strongly possessed him. 
He would have resigned his bishopric for a 
canonry or headship at Oxford ; but it was 
not permitted him. Here lie lived highly 
respected, and collected and printed the 
same year all his smaller pieces in 8vo. But 
this happiness did not long continue, being 
suddenly cut off by a palsy of the heart, Ja- 
nuary 14, 1753, in the 69th year of his age, 
while listening to a sermon that his lady was 
reading to him. The excellence of Berke- 
ley’s moral character is conspicuous in his 
writings : he was an amiable as well as a 
very great man ; and in many respects wor- 
thy the character given him by Pope: 
“ To Berkeley every virtue under heaven.” 
BERMILCH, in mineralogy, called the 
agaric mineral, is yellowish white, and is 
composed of slightly cohering very fine par- 
ticles : it is dull, opake, has a meagre feel, 
soils the fingers when handled, and so light 
its nearly to float in water. It effervesces, 
and is dissolved in acids, and appears to be 
a carbonate of lime. It is found in fissures 
of secondary limestone rocks in Switzer- 
land, and at Sunderland in Durham. 
BERNACLE. See Anas. 
BERNARD (Dr. Edward), a learned 
astronomer, critic, and linguist, was born 
at Perry St. Paul, near Towcester, the 2d 
of May 1638, and educated at Merchant- 
Taylor’s school, and at St. John’s college, 
Oxford. Having laid in a good fund of 
classical learning at school, in the Greek 
and Latin languages, he applied himself very 
diligently at the university to the study of 
history, the eastern languages, and mathe- 
matics under the celebrated Dr. Wallis. 
In 1668 he went to Leyden to consult some 
