Berkeley and Percival

Front matter

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Preface

THIS volume contains the hitherto unpublished correspondence of George Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, and Sir John Percival, afterwards Earl of Egmont. The collection of manuscripts from which the correspondence was taken is in possession of the Right Honourable the Earl of Egmont. This collection was originally made by the first Earl of Egmont largely to serve as material for a history of the Percival family, that appeared in 1742 under the title of * A Genealogical History of the House of Yvery.' Those portions of the collection relating to Berkeley and Percival comprised in this present volume are found in the nine volumes of 'Letter-books,' 1697 — 1 73 1, the twelve volumes of the 'Journal of Percival,' 1731 — 1747, and the seven volumes of 'Original Letters,' 1740 — 1751. The copied letters which passed between Berkeley and Percival from the 12th of September, 1709, to the 15th of December, 1730, scattered through the ' Letter-books,' form the bulk of the present volume. The 'Journal of Percival,' which began in 1 7 3 1 , shortly before the time the ' Letter-books ' end, yield various memoranda showing the continuance of the friendly relations between them in the later years of their lives. The two letters signed by Berkeley as the Bishop of Cloyne, and the two by Kene Percival, are taken from the ' Original Letters ' of the Egmont collection.

Some account of the Egmont collection is given in the 'Appendix to the Seventh Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts' (pp. 232 — 249), printed in 1879. It contains the dates of the letters, accompanied by various brief extracts from the correspondence in the 'Letter-books' between Berkeley and Percival. Four letters from this collection, bearing date 6th Oct., 29th Nov., loth Dec. and 27th Dec. in 1709, appear also in the 'Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl of Egmont by the Manuscript Commission '

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PREFACE in 1909, vol. II, pp. 241 — 245, but the calendar of these papers ends with the reign of Queen Anne. Mr Alexander Campbell Eraser, the foremost Berkeleyian authority, had access to the 'Letter-books' of the Egmont collection and made use of such extracts^ as seemed suitable for biographical purposes in the preparation of his volume on ' Berkeley ' which appeared in 1 88 1, and of his memoir of Berkeley, prefixed to the new edition of the latter's works published in 1901. The letters between Berkeley and Percival have, however, remained, with the exceptions noted, unprinted in their entirety until the present volume. Percival's 'Journal' has also been drawn upon solely by T. Lorenz (Arch. f. Gesch. d. Philos. xiv. i) to exhibit his later relations with Bishop Berkeley.

The lives of ' Berkeley and Percival ' are presented in the form of ' A Biographical Commentary/ which precedes the ' Correspondence.' This historical narrative will be found not only to exhibit the relations of Berkeley and Percival, but also to embody at the same time all such explanations as have seemed necessary for the elucidation of the ' Correspondence ' and the ' Journal.' The foot-notes of the 'Correspondence' are thereby confined almost entirely to those marginal notes which Percival made throughout his copy-books of letters in 1736 with reference to his correspondents and to the persons mentioned in the text. No cross references have been used between the ' Biographical Commentary' and the 'Correspondence' since these follow a similar chronological order.

To the present Earl of Egmont a grateful acknowledgment is made for the courtesy he has shown in permitting the publication of these letters, which reveal the delightful intercourse and friendship of so many years between the public-spirited first Earl of Egmont and the distinguished philosopher Bishop Berkeley.

B. R.

Harvard University, June 1914.

^ Some of these extracts have been very imperfectly transcribed.