There was a young man who said, "God Must think it exceedingly odd If he finds that this tree
Continues to be When there's no one about in the Quad."
REPLYDear Sir:
Your astonishment's odd: I am always about in the Quad.
And that's why the tree Will continue to be, Since observed by Yours faithfully,
GOD.Berkeley was an Irishman, and became a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, at the age of twenty-
two. He was presented at court by Swift, and Swift's Vanessa left him half her property. He
formed a scheme for a college in the Bermudas, with a view to which he went to America; but
after spending three years ( 1728-31) in Rhode Island, he came home and relinquished the project.
He was the author of the well-known line:
Westward the course of empire takes its way, on account of which the town of Berkeley in
California was called after him. In 1734 he became Bishop of Cloyne. In later life he abandoned
philosophy for tar-water, to which he attributed marvellous medicinal properties. It was tar-water
that he described as providing the cups that cheer, but do not inebriate--a sentiment more familiar
as subsequently applied by Cowper to tea.
All his best work was done while he was still quite young: A New Theory of Vision in 1709, The
Principles of Human Knowledge in. 1710, The Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous in 1713.
His.writings after the age of twenty-eight were of less importance. He is a very attractive writer,
with a charming style.
His argument against matter is most persuasively set forth in The Dialogues of Hylas and
Philonous. Of these dialogues I propose to consider only the first and the very beginning of the
second, since everything that is said after that seems to me of minor importance. In the portion of
the work that I shall consider, Berkeley advances valid