Fourteenth objection. (Sect. 82-84.) Although we cannot, in opposition to the new Principles, infer by reasoning the independent or absolute existence of Matter, according to any possible conception, either positive or negative, of what Matter is; and although we may be unable even to understand what the word means, yet, Holy Scripture is sufficient to convince every Christian of the existence of an external material world-as an object of faith. Answer. The absolute or independent existence of a material world is nowhere affirmed in Scripture, which employs language in its popular and practical meaning. In what I have called the Third Division of the Treatise (sect. 85156), the new Principles, thus guarded against objections, are applied to invigorate belief, which was suffering from the paralysis of metaphysical Scepticism. They are also employed to purify and simplify the sciences which relate to the ideal world of the senses-the Physical Sciences; and those which relate to spirits, by whom ideas are sustained, and their changes determined-the science of Minds, and Theology. It may be thus subdivided:: I. (Sect. 85-134.) Application of the new Principles, concerning Matter, Mind, Substance, and Cause, to our knowledge of the objective and physical world of ideas 1. To the refutation of Scepticism, as to the existence of sensible things (sect. 85-91); and of God (sect. 92-96); 2. To the liberation of Thought from the bondage of unmeaning abstractions (sect. 97-100); 3. To the purification of Natural Philosophy, by correcting paradoxical conceptions of Time, Space, and Motion (sect. 101116); 4. And of Mathematics, through criticism of our notions of Number and Extension, and by the abolition of the contradictions involved in the common doctrine of Infinites (sect. 117-134). II. (Sect. 135-156.) Application of the new Principles to our notions of Mind or Spirit 1. To explain and sustain our faith in our natural Immortality (sect. 137-144); 2. To explain and vindicate the belief which each man has in the existence of other men (sect. 145); 3. To vindicate belief in the existence of Supreme Mind (sect. 146-156). K It was only by degrees that this scheme of Berkeley's philosophy attracted the attention due to so original and ingenious a mode of conceiving the Universe. A fragment of metaphysics, by a young and almost unknown author, published at a distance from the centre of English intellectual life, was apt to be overlooked. In connection with the Essay on Vision, however, it drew enough of regard to carry its author with éclat on his first visit to London, three years after the publication of the Principles. He then published the immortal Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in which the absurdity of Absolute Matter is illustrated, and the doctrine defended against objections, in a manner meant to recommend to popular acceptance what, on the first statement, seemed an unpopular paradox. A TREATISE CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE. [1PART I.] WHEREIN THE CHIEF CAUSES OF ERROR AND DIFFICULTY IN THE SCIENCES, WITH THE GROUNDS OF SCEPTICISM, ATHEISM, AND IRRELIGION, ARE INQUIRED INTO. First Printed in the Year 1710. 1 Omitted on the title-page, but retained in the body of the work in the second or 1734 edition. THOMAS, EARL OF KNIGHT OF THE MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER, AND ONE OF THE LORDS OF HER MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL. MY LORD, You will perhaps wonder that an obscure person, who has not the honour to be known to your lordship, should presume to address you in this manner. But that a man who has written something with a design to promote Useful Knowledge and Religion in the world should make choice of your lordship for his patron, will not be thought strange by any one that is not altogether unacquainted with the present state of the church and learning, and consequently ignorant how great an ornament and support you are to both. Yet, nothing could have induced me to make you this present of my poor endeavours, were I not encouraged by that candour and native goodness which is so bright a part in your lordship's character. I might add, my lord, that the extraordinary favour and bounty you have been pleased to shew towards our Society2 gave me hopes you would not be unwilling to countenance the studies of one of its members. These considerations determined me to lay this treatise at your lordship's feet, and the rather because I was ambitious to have it known that I am with the truest and most profound respect, on account of that learning and virtue which the world so justly admires in your lordship, My Lord, |