IV.—Berkeley As A Moral Philosopher.

In his polemic against Abstract Ideas and Atheism, Bishop Berkeley presents the curious with a critical problem of a certain historical importance. An attentive criticism may show, more fully, the connexion of these principles with one another; and establish a still closer and more curious resemblance between Berkeley the moralist and Berkeley the metaphysician. An eager preacher of the eighteenth century may turn a vigorous appeal upon the rewards offered in a future life; and yet it need not follow that he is to be classed as a mercenarian of the nineteenth century. The danger of applying the catchwords of the present to the thought of the past, has never been better illustrated than by the inappropriateness of the title ‘Theological Utilitarian’ to Berkeley as a moralist. One of the foremost issues was the debate, as to the faculty which apprehends moral truth. In morality the eternal rules of action have the same immutable universal truth with propositions in geometry.