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82 and pretends to demonstrate, that the clearest principles of human conviction, and those which have determined the judgment of men in all ages, and by which the judgment of all reasonable men must be determined, are certainly fallacious. It may, after all, be safely asserted, that Berkeley's errors were such that none but a man of the most vigorous and independent mind could have fallen into; that they demonstrate strong original powers; that they have done no harm in society-but, on the contrary, by the discussion which they excited, tended to enlarge the boundaries of human knowledge.

In 1712, by the perusal of Locke's two treatises on Government, Berkeley's attention was directed to the doctrine of passive obedience; and conceiving the opposite opinion was at the time too prevalent, he preached three sermons on the subject in the college chapel, which he committed to the press. This at a future period was likely to be injurious to his interests, as it caused him to be considered a Jacobite, and hostile to the principles which drove out the Stuarts, and brought the house of Hanover to the throne. His friend and pupil, Mr. Molineux, who had been secretary to the Prince of Wales, afterwards George II. took care to remove that impression, and was the means of making him known to Queen Caroline. In 1713 he published a defence of his System of Immaterialism. His amiable manners, his highly respectable private character, and the acuteness of his talents, established his reputation, and made his company sought even by those who opposed his metaphysical speculations. Two men of the most opposite political sentiments introduced him to the society of the learned and the great, Sir Richard Steele and Dr. Swift. He lived on terms of strict intimacy and friendship with Pope, during the remainder of that poet's life. He wrote several papers for Steele in the Guardian, and, it is said, had from him a guinea and a dinner for each. Dean Swift recommended him to Lord Berkeley; and procured for him the