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not altogether new to them, cannot fail of being acceptable, as they may now depend on their credibility.

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In his fecond excurfion to the continent, Mr. Berkeley vifited Paris, and took care to pay his refpects to his rival in metaphyfical fagacity, the illuftrious Pere Malebranche. He found this ingenious Father in his cell, cooking, in a small pipkin, a medicine for a disorder with which he was then troubled, an inflammation on the lungs. The conversation naturally turned on our Author's fyftem, of which the other had received fome knowledge from a tranflation just published. But the iffue of this debate proved tragical to poor Malebranche. In the heat of difputation he railed his voice fo high, and gave way fo freely to the natural impetuofity of a man of parts, and a Frenchman, that he brought on himself a violent increase of his disorder, which carried him off, a few days after *.'

In the interval between his return from abroad, after an abfence of four years, and his promotion to the Deanery of Derry, worth 1100l. per ann. Berkeley's mind had been employed in conceiving that benevolent project, which alone entitles him to as much honour as all his learned labours have procured him, the Scheme for converting the Savage Americans to Chriftianity, by a. College to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called the Iles of Bermuda, He publifhed a propofal for this purpose, London, 1725, and offered to refign his own opulent preferment, and to dedicate the remainder of his life to the inftructing the youth in America, on the moderate subsistence of 100 I. yearly. Such was the force of this difinterefted example, fupported by the eloquence of an enthusiast for the good of mankind, that three junior Fellows of Trinity College, Dublin, the Rev. William Thompson, Jonathan Rogers, and James King, Mafters of Arts, confented to take their fortunes with the Author of the project, and to exchange for a settlement in the Atlantic Ocean, at 401. per ann. all their prospects at

home.'

This fcheme was fuccefsfully recommended to George I. and a charter was procured for erecting a college by the name of St. Paul's College in Bermuda, to confift of a Prefident and nine Fellows, who were obliged to maintain and educate Indian fcholars at the rate of 10 l. per ann. for each. The first Prefident, Dr. George Berkeley, and firft three Fellows named in the charter (being the gentlemen above-mentioned) were licenfed to hold their preferments in thefe kingdoms till the expiration of one year and a half after their arrival in Bermuda." The fum of 10,cool. was promifed by the Minifter, and several private fubfcriptions were immediately raised for promoting

• He died October 13, 1715.

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fo pious an undertaking,' as it is tiled in the King's answer to the addrefs of the Commons. Thus encouraged, the Dean fet fail in the execution of his project for Rhode-Ifland in September 1728, carrying with him a large fum of his own property, aud a collection of books for the ufe of his intended library. However fome ministerial neceffities and manoeuvres at home prevented the remittance which the Dean expected: after various excufes Bishop Gibfon applied to Sir Robert Walpole the Prime Minifter, and obtained at length the following honest answer: "If you put this queftion to me, as a Mini❝fter, I must and can affure you that the money shall moft "undoubtedly be paid as foon as fuits with public convenience: but if you ask me as a Friend, whether Dean Berkeley fhould continue in America, expecting the payment of 10,000 1. I advise him by all means to return home to Eu"rope, and to give up his prefent expectations." The Dean being informed of this conference, by his good friend the Bishop, and thereby fully convinced that the bad policy of one great man had rendered abortive a scheme whereon he had expended much of his private fortune, and more than feven years of the prime of his life, returned to Europe. Before he left RhodeIfland, he diftributed what books he had brought with him among the clergy of that province; and immediately after hist arrival in London, he returned all the private fubfcriptions that had been advanced for the fupport of his undertaking.' Dr. Berkeley's first introduction to Queen Caroline was as early as the year 1712. The Queen, it is well known, delighted much in attending to philofophical converfations between learned and ingenious men for which purpofe, fhe had, when Princess of Wales, appointed a particular day in the week, when the most eminent for literary abilities at that time in England were invited to attend her Royal Highness in the evening a practice which the continued after her acceffion to the throne. Of this company were Doctors Clarke, Hoadley, Berkeley, and Sherlock. Clarke and Berkeley were generally confidered as principals in the debates that arose upon thefe occafions; and Hoadley adhered to the former, as Sherlock did to the latter. Hoadley was no friend to our Author: he affected to confider his philofophy and his Bermuda project as the reveries of a vifionary. Sherlock (who was afterwards Bishop of London) on the other hand, warmly efpoufed his caufe; and particularly when the Minute Philofopher came out, he carried a copy of it to the Queen, and left it to her Majefty to determine whether fuch a work could be the production of a difordered understanding.'

By the favour of her Majefty he was nominated foon after his return from Rhode-land to the rich Deanery of Down in

Ireland;

Ireland; but on account of a neglect of form in giving timely notice to the Lord Lieutenant, it was thought proper to let him afide. Upon which his Majefty declared," that fince they "would not fuffer Dr. Berkeley to be a Dean in Ireland, he fhould be a Bishop ;" and accordingly in 1733, the Bishopric of Cloyne becoming vacant, he was promoted to that fee. After this preferment, he conftantly refided at Cloyne, and applied himself with vigour to the faithful discharge of all epifcopal duties.'

He continued his ftudies, however, with unabated attention, and about this time engaged in a controverfy with the mathematicians of Great Britain and Ireland, which made a good deal of noife in the literary world. The occafion was this: Mr. Addifon had given the Bishop an account of their common friend Dr. Garth's behaviour in his laft illness, which was equally unpleafing to both those excellent advocates for revealed religion. For when Mr. Addison went to fee the Doctor, and began to difcourfe with him seriously about preparing for his approaching diffolution, the other made answer, "Surely, Addifon, I have good reason not to believe those

trifles, fince my friend Dr. Halley, who has dealt fo much "in demonstration, has affured me, that the doctrines of Chriftianity are incomprehenfible, and the religion itself an im"posture." The Bishop therefore took arms against this redoubtable dealer in demonftration, and addreffed the Analyft to him, with a view of fhewing, that myfteries in faith were unjustly objected to by mathematicians, who admitted much greater myfteries, and even falfehoods in fcience, of which he endeavoured to prove that the doctrines of fluxions furnished an eminent example.' This work was answered by Dr. Jurin, under the fignature of Philalethes Cantabrigienfis, in a letter, entitled, Geometry no Friend to Infidelity: to which the Bishop replied with his Defence of Free-thinking in Mathematics: Philalethes published a fecond answer in 1735, under the title of, The Minute Mathematician; or, the Free-thinker no juft Thinker.

The ingenious Mr. Robins, in the fame year, published his Anfwer, intitled, A Difcourfe concerning the Nature and Certainty of Sir Ifaac Newton's Method of Fluxions, and of prime and ultimate Ratios. And to this controverfy we likewife owe Maclaurin's complete Treatife on the Subject of Fluxions.

In July 1752 he removed, though in a bad state of health, with his lady and family to Oxford, in order to fuperintend the education of one of his fons.He had taken a fixed refolution to spend the remainder of his days in this city, with a view of indulging the paffion for a learned retirement, which had ever ftrongly poffeffed his mind, and was one of the motives that led him to form his Bermuda project. But as nobody

could

could be more fenfible than his Lordship of the impropriety of a Bishop's non-refidence, he previously endeavoured to exchange his high preferment for fome canonry or headship at Oxford. Failing of fuccefs in this, he actually wrote over to the Secre tary of State, to request that he might have permiffion to refign his Bishopric, worth at that time at least 1400 l. per ann. So uncommon a petition excited his Majefty's curiofity to inquire, who was the extraordinary man that preferred it; being told that it was his old acquaintance Dr. Berkeley, he declared that he should die a Bifhop in fpite of himself, but gave him full liberty to refide where he pleafed. The Bishop's laft act before he left Cloyne was to fign a lease of the demefne lands in that neighbourhood, to be renewed yearly at the rent of 2001. which fum he directed to be diftributed every year until his return, among poor housekeepers of Cloyne, Youghall, and Aghadda.

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On Sunday evening, Jan. 14, 1753, as he was fitting in the midst of his family, liftening to a fermon of Dr. Sherlock's which his lady was reading to him, he was feized with what the phyficians termed a pally in the heart, and instantly expired. -His remains were interred at Chrift-church, Oxford, where there is an elegant marble monument erected to his memory by his lady.

The excellence of his moral character, if it were not so confpicuous in his writings, might be learned from the bleffings with which his memory is followed by the numerous poor of his neighbourhood, as well as from the teftimony of his yet furviving acquaintance, who cannot to this day fpeak of him without a degree of enthufiafm, that removes the air of hyperbole from the well-known line of his friend Mr. Pope:

"To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."

Our Author has, in a feries of notes, after the manner of Mr. Bayle, or of the Biographia Britannica, given a brief account of Bishop Berkeley's writings. His firft work was intitled, Arithmetica abfque Algebra aut Euclide demonftrata, and written before he was 20 years old. In 1709 he published his Theory of Vifion; and in the next year, the Principles of Human Knowledge. In 1712 he was employed in examining Mr. Locke's Two Treatifes of Government, and then published a difcourfe tending to favour the doctrine of paffive obedience. In 1713 be published a farther defence of his fyftem of immaterialism, in Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous. His tract de Motu, drawn up at Lyons, and prefented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, was published in 1721 and in the fame year, An Effay towards preventing the Ruia of Great Britain, occafioned by the fatal South-Sea fcheme in 1720. In 1732 was published The Minute Philofopher, in which he attacks the Free-thinker under REV. Dec. 1776.

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the various characters of atheift, libertine, enthusiast, scorner, critic, metaphyfician, fatalift, and fceptic. His Analyst has been already mentioned. His Difcourfe addreffed to Magiftrates -His Maxims concerning Patriotifm-Word to the Wife in 1745 -and his Siris, a Chain of philofophical Reflections and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar-Water in 1744, with his Farther Thoughts on Tar-Water in 1752, complete the lift of his publications. His Letters to Pope, &c. and his papers in the Guardian, are well known.

We thought that it would not be unacceptable to our Readers to close this Article with the above catalogue of Berkeley's writings. With refpect to his celebrated System of PhilaSophy, it is too well known to require any particular difcuffion in the prefent Article. Our Author has thrown a sketch of it into the notes, which are printed separately, at the end of the narrative.

ART. VIII. Eai fur les Principes politiques de L'Economie publique, par M. D. Browne Dignan.-Effay on the political Principles of public Oeconomy. 12mo. 3 s. Hooper.

TH

HE fubject of the Effay before us, has employed many pens, and almost every body's thoughts; which may be one reason why we give fo little credit to the many arguments advanced in favour of it. In viewing any object, no two men fee it in the fame line of direction: it is thus, that various opinions on public ceconomy, differing from each other in fome effential points, can never convince or fatisfy the judgment of the many, who fee no immediate intereft from investigating the truth of either. Befide, we enter upon the subject with every prejudice against it, from the character of those advocates who, with no other fee than perfonal refentment, retain themfelves in this national caufe. It is truly ridiculous to hear the prodigal, who has no idea of economy in the management of his own private concerns; who with unrelenting heart can look on, and fee the old manfion, perhaps the memorial of fome virtuous action, crumbling to decay! who can with torpid indifference hear the unmannerly railings of angry creditors: we fay it is ridiculous to hear fuch a man, in melting accents of diftrefs, deplore the ruin of his country, and arraign the conduct of our delegated truftees for profufion in the management of their trust. It is really ftrange, how much public ceconomy poffeffes every man's thoughts, and how little it directs his actions! every man affects to be impatient for a reformation, and yet we find not one who will venture at a beginning! the truth is, we have many private virtues, but public virtue is almoft a kranger among us.

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