1710

            A TREATISE CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN KNOWLEDGE

                               by George Berkeley

                       TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

                    THOMAS, EARL OF PEMBROKE, &c.,

             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 show
towards our Society 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,

                                    Your lordship's most humble

                                            and most devoted servant,

                                                    GEORGE BERKELEY
PREFACE

                               PREFACE

  WHAT I here make public has, after a long and scrupulous inquiry,
seemed to me evidently true and not unuseful to be known- particularly
to those who are tainted with Scepticism, or want a demonstration of
the existence and immateriality of God, or the natural immortality
of the soul. Whether it be so or no I am content the reader should
impartially examine; since I do not think myself any farther concerned
for the success of what I have written than as it is agreeable to
truth. But, to the end this may not suffer, I make it my request
that the reader suspend his judgment till he has once at least read
the whole through with that degree of attention and thought which
the subject-matter shall seem to deserve. For, as there are some
passages that, taken by themselves, are very liable (nor could it be
remedied) to gross misinterpretation, and to be charged with most
absurd consequences, which, nevertheless, upon an entire perusal
will appear not to follow from them; so likewise, though the whole
should be read over, yet, if this be done transiently, it is very
probable my sense may be mistaken; but to a thinking reader, I flatter
myself it will be throughout clear and obvious. As for the
characters of novelty and singularity which some of the following
notions may seem to bear, it is, I hope, needless to make any
apology on that account. He must surely be either very weak, or very
little acquainted with the sciences, who shall reject a truth that
is capable of demonstration, for no other reason but because it is
newly known, and contrary to the prejudices of mankind. Thus much I
thought fit to premise, in order to prevent, if possible, the hasty
censures of a sort of men who are too apt to condemn an opinion before
they rightly comprehend it.
INTRODUCTION

                             INTRODUCTION

  1. Philosophy being nothing else but the study of wisdom and
truth, it may with reason be expected that those who have spent most
time and pains in it should enjoy a greater calm and serenity of mind,
a greater clearness and evidence of knowledge, and be less disturbed
with doubts and difficulties than other men. Yet so it is, we see
the illiterate bulk of mankind that walk the high-road of plain common
sense, and are governed by the dictates of nature, for the most part
easy and undisturbed. To them nothing that is familiar appears
unaccountable or difficult to comprehend. They complain not of any
want of evidence in their senses, and are out of all danger of
becoming Sceptics. But no sooner do we depart from sense and
instinct to follow the light of a superior principle, to reason,
meditate, and reflect on the nature of things, but a thousand scruples
spring up in our minds concerning those things which before we
seemed fully to comprehend. Prejudices and errors of sense do from all
parts discover themselves to our view; and, endeavouring to correct
these by reason, we are insensibly drawn into uncouth paradoxes,
difficulties, and inconsistencies, which multiply and grow upon us
as we advance in speculation, till at length, having wandered
through many intricate mazes, we find ourselves just where we were,
or, which is worse, sit down in a forlorn Scepticism.