B E R 
ground in Quarendon in the county of Bucks, known by 
the name of Mr\jit Id. And, though thefe meads have 
been interpreted dcmcfne or manor meadows, yet they were 
truly any flat or open meadows that lay adjoining to any 
villa or farm. 
BpjRl BE'RT, f. [This word in the Indian language 
means a fheep. ] A fort of palfy of. the extremities, com¬ 
mon in the Indies; fo called,, becaufe perfons afflicted with 
it imitate fheep in their walking. 
BERIE'ZEN, a town of Rufiia, in the government of 
Tchernigov,- on the Defna : twenty-four^miles eaft-north- 
eaft of Tchernigov, and 516 fouth of Peterlburg. 
BER 1 GAN', a town of Africa, in the kingdom of Al¬ 
giers, and capital of the country of Beni-Mezzab. Lat. 
32.15.N. Ion. 20. 45.'E. Ferro. 
BERIGA'RD (Claude), born at Moulins in 1573, 
taught philofophy at Eifa, and Padua, where lie died of 
an umbilical hernia in 1663, at the age of eighty-five. 
We have by him, 1. Circulus Pifanus, printed in 1641 at 
Florence, 4to. This book treats of the ancient philofophy, 
and that of Ariftotle. 2. Dubitationes in dialogum Gali- 
l;ei pro Terra; immobilitate, 1632, 4t'o. a work which 
brought upon him the charge of pyrrhonifm and mate- 
rialifm, not without foundation. He has been reproached 
with acknowledging no other moving principle of the world 
than primitive matter. The real name of this phiiofopher 
is, Claude Guillerrnet de Beauregarde. 
BERINBAL', a town of Egypt, on the weft branch of 
the Nile : feven miles fouth-eaft of Rofetta. 
BE'RING (Vitus), profelTor in poetry at Copenhagen, 
•and hiftorographer to the king of Denmark about the mid¬ 
dle of the 36th century, left a great number of Latin po¬ 
ems of all kinds. Such as read other Latin poetry than 
that of the ancients, elteem his lyrics. Several of his 
pieces have been collected in the 2d vol. of the Beauties 
of the Danifh poets. 
BERIN'GEN, a town of Germany, in the circle of 
Weftphalia, and bifliopric of Liege : eighteen miles north- 
weft of Maeftricht. 
BER 1 NGOU', or Kamandars'koi. See BeeringN 
ISLAND. 
BERINSCHUL', a rocky ifland in the Mediterranean, 
near the coaft of Algiers. 
BE'RITH,/. A Ample mentioned in Scripture, ufed 
for clearing or taking out fpots, (Jer. ii. 22 ) Some will 
have it to he the kali or falt-wort, from the allies of which 
foap is made ; and in our verlion it is rendered Joap : o- 
thers, after Rudbeck, fuppofe it to be the dye of the pur¬ 
ple-filli. 
BER'KA, a town of Germany, in the circle of Upper 
Saxony, and principality of Weimar, on the Ilm: fix miles 
feuth-fouth-weft of Weimar. 
Berka, a town of Germany, in the circle of Upper 
Saxony, and principality of Eilenach, on the Werra: nine 
miles weft of Eifenach. 
BERKASZES'TI, a town of European Turkey, in the 
province of Moldavia, on the Berbecz : fifty-fix miles 
north-weft Galatz. 
BERKE'LEY, [ beorcean , probably of bcorce, a beech- 
tree, and Ian for leag, a field, Sax. by reafon of plenty of 
beech-trees growing there.} A market-town in Gloucef- 
terftiire, pleafantly fituated on a branch of the Severn'. It 
is a very-ancient corporated town, under the government 
of a mayor and twelve aldermen. The caftle is a noble 
Gothic ftrudture, and has been for feveral centuries the 
refidence of the earls of Berkeley. It was begun to be 
built in the reign of Henry I. in 1108, and finiflicd in 
that of Stephen, and was enlarged and repaired in the 
xeign of Henry II. Its hall is very large and much ad¬ 
mired. It (lands on a riling ground among the meadows, 
commanding a delightful view of the furrounding county 
and river Severn. In the civil wars it (iifTered conlide- 
rably ; as it did a few years (inee by an accidental fire. 
The prefent building confifts of a range of apartments 
round an irregular court. The roonvin which Edward II. 
3 - 
B E R 907 
was imprifoned is ftill to be feen. The town confifts chief¬ 
ly-of one fitreet of mean buildings. The church is a large 
handfotne edifice ; the tower, which is new, (lands at a 
diftance from it. In the church are fome elegant monu¬ 
ments of the Berkleys, who have a vault built for the fa¬ 
mily. The Severn for almoft fix miles, runs by this pa- 
rifh, which lies fo low, that it is reckoned neither plea- 
fant nor healthy, but it is famous for producing good 
'cheefe. The town carries on a coufiderable trade in tim¬ 
ber, coal, malt, and cheefe : it has a weekly market on 
Tuefdays, and an'annual fair on the 14th of May. At 
one mile diftant is the village of Newport, through which 
paffes the great road from Bath, Briftol, Sec. to the north 
of England, via Gloiicefter. Port in and out every day. 
In this parifh are very extenlive linfeed-oil mills. Berke¬ 
ley has feveral (loops that navigate the Severn, but none 
that are any ways conftant in their pafifage to or from any 
particular place. The living of Berkeley is in rlie gift of 
earl Berkeley; it is worth about 300I. per annum. It is 
the largeft parifh in the county ; and confifts chiefly of rich 
meadow-grounds ; above thirty parifhes depend on this 
manor, for which a fee-farm rent was paid, in Henry IPs 
time, of 500I. 17s. 2d. which (hews the vaft extent and 
value of his eftate. Berkeley is 113 miles from London, 
Briftol 18, Gloucefter 16, Dudley 5, and Thornbury 8. 
Berkeley, Earls of. See Hera ldr y. 
Berkeley (George), the learned and moft ingenious 
bilhop of Cloyne in Ireland, was born in that kingdom, 
at Kilcrin, near Thomaftown, the 12th of March 1684. 
He was the fun of William Berkeley of Thomaftown, in 
the county of Kilkenny ; whofe father, the family having 
fufiered for their loyalty to Charles I. went over to Ireland 
after the reftoration, and there obtained the col lector (hip 
of Belfaft. George had the firft part of his education at 
Kilkenny fchool; was admitted penfioner of Trinity col - 
lege, Dublin, at the age of .fifteen, under Dr. Hifton 
and chofen fellow of that college June 9, 1707, and placed 
under the tutition of Dr. Hall. 
The firft public proof lie gave of his literary abilities 
was, Arithmetica abfque Algebra aut Euclide demon- 
ftrata ; which, from the preface, he appears to have writ¬ 
ten before he was. twenty years old, though he did not 
publifti it till 1707. It is dedicated to Mr. Pallifer, fort 
to the arehbifhop of Cafhel ; and is followed by a mathe¬ 
matical mifcellany, containing obfervations and theorems 
inferibed to his pupil M‘‘- Samuel Molineux, whofe fa¬ 
ther was the friend and correfpondent of Locke. In 1709, 
came forth the Theory of Villon, which, of all his works, 
feems 'to do the greateft honour to his fagacity ; being the 
firft attempt that ever was made to diftinguilh the imme¬ 
diate and natural objects of fight from the conclufions we 
have been.accuftomed from infancy to draw from them. 
The boundary is here-traced between the ideas of touch 
and fight; and it is (hewn, that, though habit has fo con¬ 
nected thefe two chides of ideas in our minds, that they 
are not without a ftrong effort to be feparated from each 
other, yet originally they have no fuch connection ; info- 
much, that a perfon born blind, and fuddenly made to 
fee, would at firft be utterly unable to tell how any objedt 
that affedted his fight would affedt his touch ; and parti¬ 
cularly would not from fight receive any idea of diftance, 
outnels, or external fpace, but would imagine all objedts 
to be in his eye, or rather in his mind. This was furpri- 
fingly confirmed in the cafe of a young man born blind, 
and couched at fourteen years of age by Mr. Chefeldeniu 
1728. A Vindication of the Theory of Vilion was pub- 
lifhed by him in 1733. 
In 17 io.appeared The Principles of Human Knowledge; 
and, in 1713, Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous 
the objedt of both which pieces is, to prove that the com¬ 
monly-received notion of the exiftence of.matter is falfe ; 
that fenfible material objedts, as they are called, are not 
external to the mind, but exift in it, and are nothing more 
than imprefiions made upon it by the immediate act of 
God, accordingto certain rules termed laws of nature, from 
