nister, preached, in February, 1732, before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. During the course of the same year appeared, in the publication of the Minute Philosopher, the result of his leisure hours while resident in America. It is written in the form of dialogue, and for the purpose of refuting the pernicious systems of the atheist, the fatalist, and the sceptic. The attempt was equally laudable and successful; and convinced the world, that however singular and visionary the Dean might appear in his philosophical reveries, he was a firm believer in the truths of christianity, and a most able defender of its divine origin and evidences. The style and manner of this work are built on the model of Plato, and may be justly deemed one of the most happy imitations of the Grecian philosopher, of which our language can boast. There was in Berkeley, indeed, much of the sublimity, the imagination, and enthusiasm, which characterize the genius of Plato.

It was, probably, in a great degree owing to the impression which the Minute Philosopher made upon Queen Caroline, who had previously, however, held the character of our author in high estimation, that Dr. Berkeley obtained his further preferment. After reading that work, which had been presented to her by Dr. Sher

lock, she nominated him to the rich deanery of Down in Ireland; but, owing to some want of formality in acquainting the Lord Lieutenant with her purpose, an opposition on the part of the viceroy took place; and the Queen, not willing to press the matter, declared, that, since they would not suffer Dr. Berkeley to be a Dean in Ireland, he should be a Bishop. On the first vacancy, therefore, which occurred, he was promoted to this high dignity, and on the 19th of May, 1734, consecrated at St. Paul's Church in Dublin, Bishop of Cloyne.

On this see, with the exception of one winter occupied by parliamentary business in Dublin, he constantly resided for eighteen years, and until the bad state of his health compelled him to relinquish its duties for the shades of retirement. His episcopal functions he discharged with all the zeal and unwearied assiduity characteristic of the primitive ages of christianity; and early after his admission to the Prelacy he formed, and adhered to, the resolution of never changing his see. Temptations were not wanting to seduce him from his purpose; for“ humble and unaspiring as was the Bishop of Cloyne," observes Mrs. Berkeley, "the Earl of Chesterfield sought him out ;" and when, as a tribute to exalted merit, that nobleman offered to him the

see of Clogher, where he was told he might immediately receive fines to the amount of ten thousand pounds, he consulted Mrs. Berkeley, as having a family; and, with her full approbation, not only declined the Bishopric of Clogher, but the offer which accompanied that proposal, of any other translation which might become feasible during Lord Chesterfield's administration.

The primacy was vacated before the expiration of that period. On that occasion, the Bishop said to Mrs. Berkeley, "I desire to add one more to the list of churchmen who are evidently dead to ambition and avarice *.

Though fully occupied by ecclesiastical affairs, the Bishop ceased not to employ his pen in support of religion, patriotism, or science. Shortly after his arrival at Cloyne, he produced his Analyst, an attack upon the scepticism of Dr. Halley, which was followed the succeeding year by Queries for the good of Ireland; and in 1735, by A Discourse addressed to Magistrates, all strongly tending to promote the welfare and happiness of society.

The sedentary life which, compared with his former activity, our author now passed at Cloyne unfortunately brought on, in the course of a short

* Vide Corrigenda to vol. iii. of the Biographia Britannica.

period, and about the sixtieth year of his age, a nervous colic, from which he suffered severely. Having received much benefit, however, from the use of Tar-water, his benevolence led him to wish its virtues more known; and in 1744, he published his Siris, a Chain of Philosophical Reflections and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tarwater. This work is singularly curious for the multifarious erudition that it embraces, and for the art with which the Bishop has contrived to introduce the most profound philosophical and religious speculations. "Many a vulgar critic has sneered at it," says Dr. Warton, "for beginning at Tar and ending with the Trinity; incapable of observing the great art with which the transitions in that book are finely made, where each paragraph depends upon and arises out of the preceding, and gradually and imperceptibly leads on the reader, from common objects to more remote, from matter to spirit, from earth to heaven*." The immediate consequence of this pamphlet was, that Tar-water became extremely popular and fashionable; but time discovering its effects not to be adequate to the eulogium which the good Bishop had bestowed, it has since experienced a total neglect, perhaps as unmerited as was its former exaggerated reputation.

* Warton's Essay on Pope, vol. ii.

During the rebellion of 1745, his lordship addressed a Letter to the Roman Catholics of his diocese; and in 1749, another to the clergy of that persuasion; they were both received with the most marked cordiality and attention; and the respectable body to whom the latter was addressed, not only returned him their public thanks, but expressed the highest sense of the worth and utility of his character. To these publications he added, in 1750, Maxims concerning Patriotism; and in 1752, Further Thoughts on Tarwater, being the last production that issued from

his pen.

The infirm state of health under which Dr. Berkeley now laboured, induced him to wish for a retreat from the cares and business of life; and he had for some years fixed upon Oxford, as the place best calculated to gratify a literary leisure. In this choice he was still further confirmed by the opportunity which it would now afford him of superintending the education of one of his sons, recently admitted a student of Christchurch. Averse, however, to the idea of nonresidence, which he deemed it incumbent upon every prelate to avoid, he offered to exchange his bishopric for a canonry or headship at Oxford. Not succeeding in this attempt, he had recourse to an expedient which no person, perhaps, save