throwing up huge spouts of fire and burning stones, which, falling down again, resembled the stars in our rockets. Sometimes I observed two, at others three distinct columns of flames; and sometimes one vast one, that seemed to fill the whole crater. These burning columns, and the fiery stones, seemed to be shot one thousand feet perpendicular above the summit of the volcano." The eruption continued, with various changes of appearance, until the eighteenth, during which he continued to watch it with unwearied interest, and to note every incident that occurred. As may be anticipated, he formed a theory to account for volcanoes. He supposed a vacuum to be made in the "bowels of the earth, by a vast body of inflammable matter taking fire, the water rushed in and was converted into steam; which simple cause was sufficient to produce all the wonderful effects of volcanoesas appears from Savery's fire-engine for raising water, and from the Æolipile."* We believe the great question, thus hastily solved, remains yet to exercise the research and skill of geologists-Whether the volcanic elements are directly thrown from the great reservoir of molten elements far down towards the mass of central heat-or the infusion of water upon some local accumulation of similar materials, is not, and perhaps cannot, be ascertained with the certainty of science. Nor can we here dwell upon a question so far beyond our knowledge.

On his return to England, Berkeley composed, at Lyons, an essay upon a question proposed by the Royal Academy of Paris. The subject was on the principle and cause of motion; the tract is in Latin in his works: he published it on his arrival in London in 1721. In this tract, he arrives with infinite art at the same conclusion which he had already put forth in his great metaphysical theory. As we propose to give the reader a full account of this, it will be unnecessary to anticipate it here.

From such speculations he was happily diverted, from time to time; and at last altogether, by the active benevolence of his disposition. In 1720, the country sustained great suffering from the South Sea scheme. Berkeley wrote and published a tract, in which he endeavours to point out the sources of the national suffering and its remedies. His discourse displays all the character of a humane and elevated spirit, with much sound thinking on the general principles of social welfare. There is, at the same time, perceptible in it, a tone of observation remote from the actual temper of human life, and a want of perception of the more detailed workings of society-he soars in a lofty region of primary truths and general principles, and seems to consider a great moral reform, and something like a system of sumptuary regulations, to be the great remedy for the existing evils. And there can, indeed, be little doubt of the vast accumulation of evils which arise in the social system, from the intemperance, profligacy, luxury, irreligion, and immorality; or, in one word, the corruption of society: nor can we hesitate to agree with Berkeley, that the most beneficial changes would be the result of a great and general reform. But such statements have small weight upon the foaming torrent of life; and this can only

*Clarke's note.

See from sect. 34 to the end.-Works, 8vo., vol. ii. p. 385.

be derived from a cautious, close, and specific method of application, which, having laid down general maxims, pursues them with a view to the practical and possible. Yet, in a moment of nearly unexampled suffering and terror, it may be assumed, that the national spirit might be more than usually alive to those impressions which are mostly so difficult to convey. That a sober and moral tone of public feeling, and, still more, a due sense of Christianity, from which such impressions have their best and most legitimate source, ought to have the good effects implied by Berkeley, we have no doubt,-but such impressions are the slow growth of time, and only to be developed from the fullest practical operation of the cause itself. No reasoning from consequences is, under any circumstances, likely to have any effect. No one will mend his ways because the nation might be improved by a general reform. All such expedients begin at the wrong end.

Shortly after his return, Berkeley was introduced by Pope to the accomplished earl of Burlington, whose name is so familiar to the architectural student. Berkeley had himself cultivated this art, and, during his travels, had become extensively and accurately acquainted with the best existing specimens, ancient and modern. His knowledge of the subject, set off as it must have been by his discursive talent and his ingenuity and enthusiasm, attracted the admiration of the noble earl, who introduced him with strong encomiums to the duke of Grafton, then about to come over as lord-lieutenant to Ireland. The duke took him with him, as chaplain, in 1721, when he had been six years away from his native country. He had, in the mean time, become a senior fellow, and now took his degree of doctor in divinity, November 14.

In the next year he obtained a large bequest from Mrs Hester Vanhomrigh, amounting to about £4,000. We have already had to state the particulars in our memoir of Swift. It is asserted, on good authority, that he had only once met this unfortunate lady at dinner. But he must have been well known to her by reputation; and, besides, the high admiration which his singularly pure character was likely to make on one so alive to impressions, many influential causes were not unlikely to have intervened, though of so slight a nature, as to leave no record.

In 1724 he was preferred by the duke of Grafton to the deanery of Derry, on which he resigned his fellowship. The deanery was worth £1,100 a-year; but the heart of Berkeley was high above the lower influences of life. The same spirit which impressed him with a notion that the state of the nation might be bettered by lofty expositions of general truths, operated on him as a governing influence. While he had been on his travels, his imagination had been captivated by the splendour and beauty of foreign scenery,—with which he naturally associated visions of human happiness. The notion of a purer and better form of society, founded on the perfect basis of Christianity, was a natural fruit of such a mind, and it became his favourite project. For him, the factitious splendour and the enervating luxury-the pomp and vanity, which are so much of life to common minds, were utterly devoid of charms-in these there was nothing to resign. A course of conduct, hard to the conception of ordinary mortals, was, with these

dispositions, natural; his heart, in which no sordid feeling had place, was filled with the lofty and holy design of "converting the savage Americans to Christianity, by a college to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called the isles of Bermuda." We shall offer no extracts from the proposal which he published on the occasion; because, as was to be expected from one of his earnest and sincere temper, the reasons, which he would himself feel the weight of, are all obvious enough. It is not until a man doubts the efficacy of the main reasons, that he will think it necessary to look for new and deep arguments for the recommendation of good deeds. A poem, otherwise of no value, will offer some view of the impressions of his own mind.

The muse, disgusted at an age and clime,
Barren of every glorious theme,

In distant lands now waits a better time,
Producing subjects worthy fame.

In happy climes where, from the genial sun
And virgin earth, such scenes ensue,
The force of art, by nature seems outdone,
And fancied beauties by the true.

In happy climes-the seat of innocence,
Where nature guides, and virtue rules;

Where man shall not impose, for truth and sense,

The pedantry of courts and schools.

There shall be sung another golden age,

The rise of empire and of arts,

The good and great inspiring epic rage

The wisest heads and noblest hearts.

Not such as Europe breeds in her decay,
Such as she bred when fresh and young,
When heavenly flame did animate her clay,
By future poets shall be sung.

Westward, the course of empire takes its way,
The four first acts already past;

A fifth shall close the drama with the day,
Time's noblest offspring is the last.

To this testimony of Berkeley's muse, we shall here add dean Swift's very remarkable letter to lord Carteret, 1724:—

He

"There is a gentleman of this kingdom gone for England, it is Dr George Berkeley, dean of Derry; the best preferment among us, being worth £1,100 a-year. He takes the Bath in his way to London, and will, of course, attend your excellency, and be presented, I suppose, by his friend, lord Burlington; and because I believe you will choose out some very idle minutes to read this letter, perhaps you may not be ill entertained with some account of the man, and his errand. was a fellow of the university here, and, going to England very young, about thirteen years ago, he became the founder of a sect there called the immaterialists, by the force of a very curious book upon the subject. Dr Smaleridge, and many other eminent persons, were his proselytes. I sent him secretary and chaplain to Sicily with my lord Peterborough; and, upon his lordship's return, Dr Berkeley spent

above seven years in travelling over most parts of Europe, but chiefly through every corner of Italy, Sicily, and other islands. When he came back to England, he found so many friends that he was effectually recommended to the duke of Grafton, by whom he was lately made dean of Derry. Your excellency will be frighted when I tell you all this is but an introduction, for I am now to mention his errand. He is an absolute philosopher with regard to money, titles, and power; and, for three years past, has been struck with a notion of founding a university at Bermudas, by a charter from the crown. He has seduced several of the hopefullest young clergymen, and others here, many of them well provided for, and all of them 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 £100 a-year for himself, £40 for a fellow, and £10 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 do humbly entreat your excellency either to use such persuasions as will keep one of the first men in this kingdom, for learning and virtue, quiet at home, or assist him by your credit to compass this romantic design; which, however, is very noble and generous, and directly proper for a great person of your excellent education to encourage."

It would not, indeed, in the records of eminent men, be easy to find a parallel instance, in which a genuine and devoted regard to the higher and truer interests of mankind appears unadulterated with any of those baser elements which it is seldom difficult to detect in all human conduct. The love of money, "the root of all evil," did not, even in its least degree, adulterate the fervent charity that offered to relinquish £1,100 a-year for a salary of £100. Ambition seeks to sun itself in the smile of public life, and the sunshine of courts; but these allurements were as remote from the savage nature of the Summer Isles, as from a conventual cell. In adopting such a speculation, Berkeley resigned the pomps and vanities of earth, and elected a noble course of self-devotion to the good of mankind and the service of God, at the moment that fame, wealth, and preferment, were unfolding the most splendid prospects. The dean of Derry, with the universal favour and growing reputation of Berkeley, might well expect the utmost elevation of which his calling admitted. Nor to those who have rightly estimated the intellectual aspirations of a mind so speculative, will it be much to affirm, that the exchange of philosophical leisure for ardent practical labour in the cause of human welfare, indicates the vigour of the sentiments by which it was dictated. If these considerations be duly entertained, there is a singular interest in the contemplation of the long continued and strenuous exertions which Berkeley made for this strange plan of self-resignation. It is also not without interest to notice the effect of such a character in communi

cating its warmth-three junior fellows in Trinity college entered with zeal into the scheme, and consented to exchange their hard-won prospects of independence for £40 a-year, and settlements in the Summer Isles.

To raise funds for his project, Berkeley sent a proposal to the king, George I., stating the value of certain lands in the island of St Christopher's, which were then about to be sold by government, and proposed that the proceeds of the sale might be applied to the foundation and building of his college. This was conveyed to the king by the Abbé Gualtiere, an eminent Venetian, with whom Berkeley had formed an intimacy during his travels. The king laid his commands on Walpole to introduce and conduct the proposal through the commons, and granted a charter for its institution, by the name of St Paul's college. The fate of this proceeding may be partly followed out by extracts from those letters in which it was mentioned by Berkeley. The college was to consist of a president and nine fellows, at £100, and £40, per annum, respectively, and to educate the Indians at the rate of £10 per scholar. The first president and fellows were to retain their preferments in England, or Ireland, for a year and a half from the date of their arrival in Bermuda. The matter was accordingly moved in the house of commons; and, on the 11th May, 1726, a vote was carried, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, that out of the lands in St Christopher's, yielded by France to Great Britain by the treaty of Utrecht, his majesty would be graciously pleased to make such grant for the use of the president and fellows of the college of St Paul's in Bermuda, as his majesty shall think proper." The king answered favourably, and £20,000 were promised by Walpole, in advance, on the security of the expected grant.

While matters were in this state, Berkeley married Miss Anne Forster, eldest daughter to the speaker of the Irish house of commons. This marriage occurred, 1st August, 1728, and, on the following month, he sailed with his wife for Rhode Island. He was also accompanied by a Mr Smilert, an artist; two gentlemen of fortune, Messrs James and Dalton; and a young lady of the name of Hancock. He had also raised a considerable sum of money from means or property of his own, and brought out a considerable library. It was his design to purchase what lands he could, on the nearest part of the continent, for the endowment of the new university; and these were to be paid for from the grant which he was assured should be forthcoming, so soon as the lands were selected, and the agreement completed for them. He took up his residence at Newport in Rhode Island, where he continued two years; during which time he occupied himself in preaching for the clergyman there.

From the correspondence of Berkeley with Prior, it first appears with what cost and exertion the charter had been obtained. By the time it had passed all the offices, it had cost him £130 in fees, "besides expedition-money to men in office." He was, at the same time, encumbered with some obstacles and delays about Miss Vanhomrigh's bequest, which appear to have been managed for him by Prior, and, after urging him to increased exertion, he adds-"I thank God I