BISHOP BERKELEY, AND AMERICAN EDUCATION. GEORGE BERKELEY, D.D., Bishop of Cloyne, but better known in this country as Dean Berkeley, because he was so designated during his residence in Rhode Island from 1729 to 1731, and at the time he founded the Scholarship which bears his name in Yale college—was born at Kilcrin, near Thomastown, County of Kilkenny, Ireland, on the 12th of March, 1684. He entered Trinity college in 1699, was elected a Fellow in 1707, and became Senior Fellow in 1717, which he resigned when consecrated Bishop of Cloyne in 1733. In 1713, Berkeley removed to London, where his learning-at once exact and varied, his refined taste, his speculative philosophy, benevolent aspirations, and his fine coloquial powers, won the admiration and friendship of the most eminent men of letters in the metropolis.* In 1714, he accompanied Lord Peterborough as chaplain to Italy; and in 1724, was made Dean of Derry, at an income of £1,100 a year. About this time he matured his scheme for training pastors for the colonies, and missionaries and teachers for the American Indians, by a college at Bermudas. To carry it out, he devoted his own time and means, and strove to enlist the contributions and personal efforts of his friends. Having secured the promise of £20,000 from the government, and married a wife (the accomplished daughter of Chief Justice Forster of Ireland), he set out with a few friends for Newport early in September, 1728, but did not reach there till the 23rd of January, 1729. After waiting three years of deferred hope for the funds from the English ministry to enable him to prosecute his educational enterprise, the Dean returned to England in 1781, where the magnetism of his personal presence was soon felt at court, and he was promoted to the bishopric of Cloyne. During his nine years of residence in his diocese, his pen and voice were exerted to relieve the distress of the people, to induce habits of profitable industry, and to induce the government to include not the nobility and the protest. ants only, but the whole people of Ireland in the privileges of the British constitution. The Querist, published in 1785, anticipates, in its suggestions of reform, most of the ameliorations of the last half century in English legislation. His later philosophical speculations were more in accordance with those of Plato, but all his writings early and late in life, were designed to inspire lofty conceptions of the being and attributes of the Deity, and a profound sense of devotion and duty, as well as to rid • Sir James Mackintosh, in his Progress of Ethical Philosophy, says: 'Adverse factions and hostile wits concurred only in loving, admiring, and contributing to advance him. The severe sense of Swift endured his visions; the modest Addison endeavored to reconcile Clarke to his ambitious speculations. Character converted the satire of Pope into fervid praise; even the discovering. fastidious, and turbulent Atterbury said, after an interview with him, "so much understanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and such humility, I did not think had been the portion of any but angels till I saw this gentleman." His works are, beyond dispute, the finest models of philosophical style since Cicero. Perhaps they surpass those of that orator in the wonderful art by which the fullest light is thrown on the most minute and evanescent parts of the most subtle of human conceptions.' the literary world of atheism and irreligion. 'Truth is the cry of all, but the game of a few. He who would make real progress in knowledge, must dedicate his age as well as his youth, the later growth, as well as the first fruits, at the altar of Truth.' He died in Oxford, Jan. 28, 1758. Dr. Berkeley's love of classical learning is perpetuated in Trinity college, Dublin, by his foundation of an annual prize for Greek scholarship, and in Yale college by the scholarship and prizes which bear his name. Berkeley published in 1707, his Arithmetica absque Algebra aut Euclide demonstratione; in 1709, a New Theory of Vision; in 1710, his treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge; in 1718, Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonorus in defense of his theory of Ideas as opposed to Material Objects; in 1732, the Minute Philosopher, composed in Rhode Island; in 1785, the Analyst, and Visual Language; in 1741, the Querist, to express his views of the evils and the remedies for the disturbed condition of Ireland; in 1742, A Word to the Wise, addressed to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland, exhorting them to urge and encourage their people to more systematic and persistent industry by which a fertile soil and benign climate can be made a universal blessing; and in 1744, Siris or the virtues of Tar-water. Destiny of America, The Muse, disgusted at an age and clime In distant lands now waits a better time In happy climes, where, from the genial sun In happy climes, the seat of innocence, Where nature guides, and virtue rules; There shall be sung another golden age, Not such as Europe breeds in her decay: Westward the course of empire takes its way: A fifth shall close the drama with the day, DR. JOHNSON AND DEAN BERKELEY-1729-1731. Dr. Beardsley, in his Life and Correspondence of Samuel Johnson, D.D., First President of King's (now Columbia) College, introduces several interesting letters which passed between Dr. Johnson and Dean Berkeley. We extract such portions as relate to the Dean's benefactions to Yale College, and to his views on the erection of a college in New York, which were also communicated to Dr. Franklin, at the time he was maturing his plan for an academy in Philadelphia. One of the most interesting portions of Johnson's life was from the beginning of 1729 to the autumn of 1731,—the period covered by the residence of Dean Berkeley at Newport, in Rhode Island. Before that dignitary came to America, he had read his 'Principles of Human Knowledge,' and had not only formed a high estimate of the ability and character of the author, but had become, in a measure, a convert to his metaphysical opinions. Desirous of conversing with so extraordinary a genius and so distinguished a scholar, he made a visit to Newport soon after his arrival, and through his friend, the Rev. Mr. Honyman, Missionary of the Church of England in that place, he was introduced to the Dean, and admitted to a free and full discussion of his philosophical works, and of the benevolent scheme which brought him to this country. It was gratifying to Johnson that in this first interview he was received with such marked kindness and confidence, besides being presented with those of the Dean's publications which had not fallen under his eye. The personal acquaintance thus begun laid the foundation of a life-long friendship and correspondence between two great thinkers. There are glimpses of Berkeley among the wits of the Court of Queen Anne, and he was intimate with Steele and Addison, and a companion of Swift and Pope. He had been Senior Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, in official employment as Lecturer in Divinity, and preacher for the University, but resigned his Fellowship in 1724, on being preferred to the Deanery of Derry,—an important living in the Irish Church, with an annual income of about eleven hundred pounds. A romance, connected with Dean Swift, caused him to be remem. bered in the will of a lady of Dutch descent (Miss Vanhormigh), but as he was an 'absolute philosopher in regard to money, titles, and power,' the fortune which came to him so unexpectedly appears to have only ripened his conception of the plan of erecting a college at Bermuda for better supplying the plantations with clergymen, and converting the savage Americans to Christianity. It was about this time that he published a tract in defense of the enterprise. It had taken such shape in his mind, that he pleaded for it with wonderful power, and was resolved to dedicate his life and fortune and energies to its prosecution. An extract from the humorous letter of Dean Swift to Carteret, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, dated September 3, 1724, may furnish the best account of his enthusiasm: For three years past he has been struck with a notion of founding a University at Bermudas by a charter from the Crown. He has seduced several of the hopefulest young clergymen and others here, many of them well provided for, and all in the fairest way of preferment; but in England his conquests are greater, and I doubt will spread very far this winter. He showed me a little Tract which he designs to publish, and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme of a life academico-philosophical (I shall make you remember what you were) of a college founded for Indian scholars and missionaries, where he most exorbitantly proposes a whole hundred pounds a year for himself, forty pounds for a Fellow, and ten for a Student. His heart will break if his Deanery be not taken from him and left to your Excellency's disposal. I discouraged him by the coldness of courts and ministers who will interpret all this as impossible and a vision; but nothing will do. And, therefore, I humbly entreat your Excellency either to use such persuasions as will keep one of the first men in the kingdom for learning and virtue quiet at home, or assist him by your credit to compass his romantic design. No discouragements checked the efforts of Berkeley. By his persuasive eloquence he converted ridiculers into friends and supporters, and obtained, toward the furtherance of his object, private subscriptions of more than five thousand pounds. He approached the throne for a charter, which was finally granted, and then his influence at Court secured the promise of an endowment of £20,000-a fraction of the value of certain lands which the French, by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713, had ceded to the British Crown, and the proceeds of which, to the amount of £80,000, the good Queen Anne had designed as a fund for the support of four bishops in America. Her death, the next year, prevented the execution of her charitable design, and Berkeley felt that he had a moral claim upon it for his own kindred scheme. Preparations for his voyage across the Atlantic were at last completed, and a business letter to his friend, Thomas Prior, dated Gravesend, September 5, 1728, opens with a paragraph which has fixed historically several matters,—' To-morrow, with God's blessing, I set sail for Rhode Island with my wife and a friend of hers, my Lady Handcock's daughter, who bears us company. I am married since I saw you to Miss Forster, daughter of the late Chief Justice, whose humor and turn of mind pleases me beyond any thing that I know in her whole sex. Mr. James, Mr. Dalton, and Mr. Smibert go with us on this voyage. We are now altogether at Gravesend, and are engaged in one view.' Berkeley was in middle life when he landed at Newport, on the 23d of January, nearly five months after sailing from Gravesend, and 'was ushered into the town with a great number of gentlemen, to whom he behaved himself after a very complaisant manner.' Here he rested to think over, under new circumstances, the romantic enterprise which had absorbed his energies for seven long years, and purchasing a tract of land in a sequestered spot, he built a commodious house, which, in loyal remembrance of the English palace, he named Whitehall, and waited the tardy movements of Sir Robert Walpole, the prime minister, to send him the funds which had been promised by the Government. Johnson was at Newport and preached November 1, 1730, and he may have taken an earlier opportunity for the 'four or five days' conversation.' Whenever the interview was held, other subjects besides philosophy must have entered into their discussions. For Berkeley had already begun to realize the painful uncertainty which hung over his prospects, and to feel that the crisis of the Bermuda college was approaching. The money promised by the Government had not been sent, and he wrote a letter to Prior on the 7th of May, 1730, manifesting much solicitude about the Ministerial delays, and intimating that he had no intention of continuing in these parts, if the grant of £20,000 was in the end to be positively refused. At one time he entertained the thought of applying for permis sion to change the original plan and transfer the College to Rhode Island, where he had expended largely for lands and buildings, and where the chief objections raised against placing it in Bermuda would be obviated. But he quickly relinquished this idea, and at length his hopes were entirely crushed when the conclusive answer came from Walpole, ‘advising him by all means to return home to Europe, and give up his present expectations.' He bore his great disappoint. ment like a philosopher, and a good picture of his feelings is given in the work which he wrote 'in this distant retreat, far beyond the verge of that great whirlpool of business, faction, and pleasure, which is called the world:' I flattered myself, Theages, that before this time I might have been able to have sent you an agreeable account of the success of the affair which brought me into this remote corner of the country. But instead of this, I should now give you the detail of its miscarriage, if I did not rather choose to entertain you with some amusing incidents which have helped to make me easy under a circumstance I could neither obviate nor foresee. Events are not in our power; but it always is, to make a good use even of the very worst. And I must needs own, the course and event of this affair gave opportunity for reflections that make me some amends for a great loss of time, pains, and expense. A life of action, which takes its issue from the counsels, passions, and views of other men, if it doth not draw a man to imitate, will at least teach him to observe. And a mind at liberty to reflect on its own observations, if it produce nothing useful to the world, seldom fails of entertainment to itself. It is due to Johnson that the self-sacrificing and missionary enterprise of Berkeley was not wholly a failure, or rather that his name was held in grateful remembrance in America after his return to England. When it had been decided to break up and leave Whitehall and the country, he paid him a final visit and received from him many valuable books, and, to use his own words, 'they parted very affectionately.' Nor was this all. Both were deeply interested in the cause of learning, and Johnson took the liberty of commending to his friendly notice the institution where he had himself been educated, notwithstanding the continued hostility of the authorities to the Church of England. [In a letter dated September 7, 1731, the Dean writes:-] My endeavors shall not be wanting, some way or other, to be useful; and I should be very glad to be so in particular to the College at New Haven, and the more as you were once a member of it, and have still an influence there. Pray return my service to those gentlemen who sent their compliments by you. I have left a box of books with Mr. Kay, to be given away by you,-the small English books where they may be most serviceable among the people, the others as we agreed together. The Greek and Latin books I would have given to such lads as you think will make the best use of them in the College, or to the school at New Haven, I pray God to bless you and your endeavors to promote religion and learning in this uncultivated part of the world. Berkeley's gifts to Yale College were through the agency of Johnson. To him was transmitted from England the instrument by which he conveyed to the corporation his farm at Whitehall of ninety-six acres, the annual proceeds to be used for the purpose of encouraging Greek and Latin scholarship; and he so interested some of his Bermuda subscribers in the American College, that with their assistance he was enabled to send over, in 1733, a donation to the library of nearly one thousand volumes, valued at about £500: 'The finest collection of books,' according to President Clap, 'which had then ever been brought to America.' |