9 oS BERK 
which, in the ordinary courfe of his government, he never 
deviates; and that the fteady adherence of the Supreme 
Spirit to tbefe rules is what confiitutes the reality of things 
to his creatures. Tliefe works are declared to have been 
written in oppofition to fceptics and atheifts ; and herein 
is inquired into the chief caufe of error and difficulty in 
the fciences, with the grounds of fcepticifm, atheifm, 
and irreligion: which caufe and grounds are found to be 
the doctrines of the exigence of matter. He feems per- 
fuaded, that men never could have been deluded into a 
falfe opinion of the exigence of matter, if they had not 
fancied themfelves invefted with a power of abftrafting 
fiibftance from the qualities under which it is perceived ; 
and hence, as the general foundation of his argument, is 
led to combat and explode a dodtrine maintained by Locke 
and others, of there being a power in the mind of abftraCt- 
ing general ideas. Mr, Hume, having regard to thefe 
writings, fays, that they “form the bed leftons of fcepti¬ 
cifm, which are to be found either among the ancient or 
modern philofophers, Bayle not excepted.” He profefles, 
however, in his title-page, and undoubtedly with great 
truth, to have compofed his books againft the fceptics, 
as well as againfl the atheifts and freethinkers : but that 
all his arguments, though otherwife intended, are, in re¬ 
ality, merely fceptical, appears from this, that they “ad¬ 
mit of no anfwer, and produce no conviction.” Their 
only effeCt is, to caufe that momentary amazement and ir- 
refolution and confufion, which is the refult of fcepticifm. 
It may juft be obferved, that Berkely had not reached his 
37th year, when he publifhed this fingular fyftem. 
In 1712, he publifhed three fermons in favour of pafTive 
obedience and non-refiltance, which underwent at lead 
three editions, and afterwards had nearly done him fome 
injury in his fortune. They caufed him to be reprefented 
as a Jacobite, and flood in his way with the houfe of Ha¬ 
nover, till'Mr. Molineux took off the impreftion, and firft 
made him known to queen Caroline, whofe fecretary, 
when princefs, Mr. Molineux had been. Acutenefs of 
parts and beauty of imagination were fo confpicuous in bis 
writings, that his reputation was now eftablilhed, and his 
company courted, even where his opinions did not find 
admiffion. Men of oppofite parties concurred in recom¬ 
mending him; fir Richard Steele, for inftance, and Dr. 
Swift. For the former he wrote feveral papers in the 
Guardian, and at his houfe became acquainted with Pope, 
with whom lie always lived in friendfhip. Swift, recom¬ 
mended him to the celebrated earl of Peterborough, who, 
being appointed ambaffador to the king of Sicily, took 
Berkeley with him as chaplain in November 1713. He 
returned to England with tills nobleman in Augult 1714, 
and towards the clofe of the year had a fever, which gave 
occafion to Dr. Arbuthnot to indulge a little pleafantry on 
Berkeley’s fyftem. Poor philofopher Berkeley, fays he 
to his friend Swift, has now the idea of health, which was 
very hard to produce in him; for he had an idea of a 
ftrange fever on him fo ftrong, that it was very hard to 
deflroy it by introducing a contrary one. 
His hopes of preferment expiring with the fall of queen 
Anne’s miniftry, he fome time after embraced an otter, 
made hi nr by Aflie, bilhop of Clogher, of accompanying 
his Con in a tour through Europe. In this he employed 
four years; and, befides thofe places which fall within 
the grand tour, vilited fome that are lefs frequented. He 
travelled over Apulia (from which he wrote an account 
of the tarantula to E)r. Friend), Calabria, and the whole 
ifiand of Sicily. This laft country engaged his "attention 
lo ftrongly, that lie had witli great indufiry collected very 
c.o:*.fiderable materials for a natural hiftory of it, but un¬ 
fortunately loft them in the pallage to Naples; and what 
an injury the literary world has fuitained by this mifchance 
may be collected from the fpecimen of his talents for this 
fort of work, in a letter to Mr. Pope concerning the ifiand 
of Inarime (now Ifcliia) dated October 22, 1717 ; and in 
another from the fame city to Dr. Arburfinot, giving an 
account of an eruption of Vefuviiis. His way was now 
E L E Y. 
open to the very fir ft company. Mr. Pope introduced 
him to lord Burlington, and lord Burlington "recommended 
him to the duke of Grafton j who, being lord-lieutenant 
of Ireland, took him over as one of his chaplains in 1721. 
NovemberAhis year, he accumulated the degrees of bache¬ 
lor and doftor in divinity. The year following fie had a 
very unexpected increafe of fortune from Mrs. Vanhom- 
rigli, the celebrated VanefTa, to whom hfe had been intro¬ 
duced by Swift: this’lady had intended Swift for iier 
heir; but, perceiving lierfelf to be flighted by him, ftie 
left near 8000I. between her two executors, of whom 
Berkeley was one. May 18, 1724, he was promoted to 
the deanery of Derry, worth 1100I. per annum. 
In 1725, he publifhed A Propofal for converting the 
Savage Americans to Chriftianity, by a College to be 
erected in the Summer Iflands, otherwife called" the IJIes 
of Bermuda : a fclieme which employed his thoughts for 
three or four years; and it is furprifing to confider how 
far lie carried it. He offered to refign all his preferment,, 
and to dedicate the remainder of his life to inftruft the 
American youth, on a ftipend of 100I. yearly : lie pre¬ 
vailed witli three junior fellows of Trinity college, Dub¬ 
lin, to give up all their, profpefts of preferment at home, 
and to exchange their fellowfhips for a fettlementin the 
Atlantic Ocean at 40I. a-year; he procured his plan to be 
laid before George I. who commanded Sir Robert Wal¬ 
pole to lay it before the commons; and further granted 
him a charter for ereCting a college in Bermuda, to confifl 
of a prefidentand nine fellows, wiio were obliged to main¬ 
tain and educate Indian fcholars at iol. a-year each. He 
obtained a grant from the commons of a fum to be deter¬ 
mined by the king; and accordingly io,oool. was promif- 
ed by the minifter, for the purchafe of lands and erecting 
the college. He married the daughter of John Forfter, 
Efq. fpeakerof the Irifh houfe of commons, on the ift of 
Auguft, 1728 ; and actually fet fail in September follow¬ 
ing for Rhode-ifland, whiclt lay neareft to Bermuda, fak¬ 
ing with him his wife, a ftngle lady, and two gentlemen 
of fortune. The fcheme, however, entirely failed ; and 
Berkeley was obliged to return, after refiding near two 
years at Newport : the reafon given is, that the minifter 
never heartily embraced the project, and the money was 
turned into another channel. 
In 1732 he pubiiftted The Minute Philofopher, in two 
volumes 8vo. This mafterly work is written in a feries of 
dialogues on the model of Plato, a philofopher he is faid 
to have been very fond of; and in it lie purfues the free¬ 
thinker through the various characters of atheift, liber¬ 
tine, entlutfiaft, fcorner, critic, metaphyfician, fatal ift, and 
fceptic. The fame year he printed a lermon, preached 
before the fociety for propagating the gofpel in foreign 
parts. In 1733, he was made bifttop of Cloyne, and 
might have been removed in 1745, by lord Chefterfield, 
to Clogher, but declined ir. He refided conftantly at 
Cloyne, where he faithfully difeharged all the offices of 
a good bifhop, yet continued his ftudies with unabated at¬ 
tention. 
About this time he engaged in a controverfy with the 
mathematicians, which made a good deal of noife in the 
literary world ; and the occafion of it is faid to have been 
this : Mr. Addifon had given the bifixsp an account of 
their common friend Dr. Garth’s behaviour in his laft ill- 
nefs, which was equally unple.fong to both thefe advo¬ 
cates of revealed religion. For, when Addifon went to 
fee the doftor, and began to difepurfe with him ferioufly 
about another world, “Surely Addifon,” replied he, “I 
have good reafon not to believe thofe trifles, fince my 
friend Dr. Halley, who has dealt fo much in demonftra- 
tion, has aflured me, that the doftrinesof Chriftianity are 
incomprehenfible, and the religion itfelf an impofture.” 
The bifttop, therefore, addrefted to him, as to an infidel 
mathematician, a difeourfe called the Analyft; with a 
view of (hewing, that ntyfteries in faith were unjuftly ob¬ 
jected to by mathematicians, who admitted much greater 
myfteries, and even falfehoods in fcience, of which he en¬ 
deavoured, 
