The Works of George Berkeley. Vol. 1 of 4 · George Berkeley
FOOTNOTES
13 Percival MSS. 14 For the letter, see Editor’s Preface to the _Proposal for a College in Bermuda_, vol. IV. pp. 343-44. 15 Afterwards Sir John James. 16 Smibert the artist, who made a picture of Berkeley in 1725, and afterwards in America of the family party then at Gravesend. _ 17 Historical Register_, vol. XIII, p. 289 (1728). _ 18 New England Weekly Courier_, Feb. 3, 1729. 19 For valuable information about Rhode Island, reproduced in _Berkeley’s Life and Correspondence_ and here, I am indebted to Colonel Higginson, to whom I desire to make this tardy but grateful acknowledgement. 20 James, Dalton, and Smibert. 21 Whitehall, having fallen into decay, has been lately restored by the pious efforts of Mrs. Livingston Mason, in concert with the Rev. Dr. E. E. Hale, and others. This good work was completed in the summer of 1900; and the house is now as nearly as possible in the state in which Berkeley left it. 22 See vol. III, Appendix C. _ 23 Three Men of Letters_, by Moses Coit Tyler (New York, 1895). He records some of the American academical and other institutions that are directly or indirectly, due to Berkeley. 24 The thought implied in this paragraph is pursued in my _Philosophy of Theism_, in which the ethical perfection of the Universal Mind is taken as the fundamental postulate in all human experience. If the Universal Mind is not ethically perfect, the universe (including our spiritual constitution) is radically untrustworthy.
30 Stewart’s _Works_. vol. I. pp. 350-1. 31 Berkeley MSS. possessed by Archdeacon Rose. 32 Pope’s poetic tribute to Berkeley belongs to this period— “Even in a bishop I can spy desert; Secker is decent; Rundle has a heart: Manners with candour are to Benson given, To Berkeley—every virtue under heaven.” _Epilogue to the Satires._ Also his satirical tribute to the critics of Berkeley— “Truth’s sacred fort th’ exploded laugh shall win; And Coxcombs vanquish Berkeley with a grin.” _Essay on Satire, _Part II. 33 Berkeley’s _Life and Letters_, p. 210. 34 Bacon’s _Novuin Organum_. Distributio Operis. 35 Section 141. 36 See “Editor’s Preface to Alciphron.” 37 Compare Essay II in the _Guardian_ with this. 38 Taylor, in later life, conformed to the Anglican Church. 39 See Berkeley’s _Life and Letters_, chap. viii. 40 The Primacy. 41 This seems to have been his eldest son, Henry. 42 His son George was already settled at Christ Church. Henry, the eldest son, born in Rhode Island, was then “abroad in the south of France for his health,” as one of his brother George’s letters tells us, found among the Johnson MSS. 43 See Appendix D. Reid, like Berkeley, held that “matter cannot be the cause of anything,” but this not as a consequence of the new conception of the world presented to the senses, through which alone Berkeley opens _his_ way to its powerlessness; although Reid supposes that in his youth he followed Berkeley in this too. See _Thomas Reid_ (1898), in “Famous Scots Series,” where I have enlarged on this.
44 Johnson MSS. 45 That Berkeley was buried in Oxford is mentioned in his son’s letter to Johnson, in which he says : “His remains are interred in the Cathedral of Christ Church, and next week a monument to his memory will be erected with an inscription by Dr. Markham, a Student of this College.” As the son was present at, and superintended the arrangements for his father’s funeral, it can be no stretch of credulity to believe that he knew where his father was buried. It may be added that Berkeley himself had provided in his Will “that my body be buried in the churchyard of the parish in which I die.” The Will, dated July 31, 1752, is given _in extenso_ in my _Life and Letters_ of Berkeley, p. 345. We have also the record of burial in the Register of Christ Church Cathedral, which shews that “on January ye 20th 1753, ye Right Reverend John (_sic_) Berkley, Ld Bishop of Cloyne, was buryed” there. This disposes of the statement on p. 17 of Diprose’s _Account of the Parish of Saint Clement Danes_ (1868), that Berkeley was buried in that church. I may add that a beautiful memorial of Berkeley has lately been placed in the Cathedral of Cloyne, by subscriptions in this country and largely in America.
46 “General ideas,” i.e. _abstract_ general ideas, distinguished, in Berkeley’s nominalism, from _concrete_ general ideas, or from general names, which are signs of any one of an indefinite number of individual objects. Cf. _Principles,_ Introduction, sect. 16. 47 Introduction to the _Principles of Human Knowledge_. 48 “co-existing ideas,” i.e. phenomena presented in uniform order to the senses. 49 Newton postulates a world of matter and motion, governed mechanically by laws within itself: Berkeley finds himself charged with New Principles, demanded by reason, with which Newton’s postulate is inconsistent. 50 He attempts this in many parts of the _Principles_ and _Dialogues_. He recognises the difficulty of reconciling his New Principles with the _identity_ and _permanence_ of sensible things. 51 He contemplated thus early applications of his New Principles to Mathematics, afterwards made in his book of _Principles_, sect. 118-32. 52 What Berkeley calls _ideas_ are either perceptible by the senses or imagined: either way they are concrete: _abstract ideas_ are empty words. 53 i.e. the existence of bodies and qualities independently of—in abstraction from—all percipient mind. While the spiritual theism of Descartes is acceptable, he rejects his mechanical conception of the material world. 54 But a “house” or a “church” includes more than _visible_ ideas, so that we cannot, strictly speaking, be said to see it. We see immediately only visible signs of its invisible qualities.
55 This is added in the margin. 56 The total impotence of Matter, and the omnipotence of Mind or Spirit in Nature, is thus early becoming the dominant thought with Berkeley. 57 This refers to an objection to the New Principles that is apparently reinforced by recent discoveries in geology. But if these contradict the Principles, so does the existence of a table while I am only seeing it. 58 Existence, in short, can be realised only in the form of living percipient mind. 59 Berkeley hardly distinguishes uncontingent mathematical _relations_, to which the sensible ideas or phenomena in which the relations are concretely manifested must conform. 60 M. T. = matter tangible; M. V. = matter visible; M. . = matter sensible. The distinctions n question were made prominent in the _Essay on Vision_. See sect. 1, 121-45. 61 Which the common supposition regarding primary qualities seems to contradict. 62 [That need not have been blotted out—’tis good sense, if we do but determine wt we mean by _thing_ and _idea_.]—AUTHOR, on blank page of the MS. 63 See Locke’s _Essay_, Bk. III. ch. 4, § 8, where he criticises attempts to define motion, as involving a _petitio_.
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