GEORGE BERKELEY, Bishop of Cloyne, one of the most celebrated English metaphysicians, was born at Dysert Castle, near Thomastown, Ireland, March 12th, 1685. After graduating with honor from the University of Dublin and entering the ministry of the Church of England, he went to London where he became associated with Swift and other “wits” of that remarkable period. He was one of the contributors to the Guardian when it was founded in 1713, and in making acknowledgment, its publisher declared that “Mr. Berkeley, of Trinity College, Dublin, had embellished its columns with many excellent arguments in honor of religion and virtue.” Through Swift he met “Vanessa” (Miss Vanhomrigh), at whose death he found himself the legatee of half her fortune—though it is said they never saw each other after the first meeting. In philosophy Berkeley stands for the tenet that matter exists only as a manifestation of mind. His “Commonplace Book,” “The Principles of Human Knowledge,” and his “Alciphron” are his principal works, though his discourse on tar water, “Siris, a Chain of Philosophical Reflections and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar Water, etc.,” has been made celebrated by its own originality, and still more, perhaps, by the sense of humor of those who dissent from his system of metaphysics. He died at Oxford, January 14th, 1753.