muda. But if this were questioned before the payment of said money, it might perhaps hinder it and defeat all our designs. I snatch this moment to write, and have time only to add that I have got a son, who, I thank God, is likely to live.'

'May 7.-This week I received a package from you via Philadelphia, the postage of which amounted to above four pounds sterling of this country money. I am worried to death by creditors, and am at an end of patience, and almost out of my wits. Our little son is a great joy to us: we are such fools as to think him the most perfect thing of the kind we ever saw.'

To the poet, scenery of picturesque beauty and grandeur is desirable, but to the philosopher general effects are more congenial. High mountains, forests, and waterfalls appeal more emphatically to the former, and luxuries of climate and atmosphere to the latter. Accordingly, the soft marine air and the beautiful skies of summer and autumn, in the region of Berkeley's American home, with the vicinity of the seacoast, became to him a perpetual delight. He alludes, with grateful sensibility, to the pleasant fields,' and ' walks on the beach,' to 'the expanse of ocean studded with fishing boats and lighters,' and the 'plane trees,' that daily cheered his sight, as awakening that sort of joyful instinct which a rural scene and fine weather inspire.' He calls Newport the Montpelier of America,' and appears to have communed with nature and inhaled the salubrious breeze, while pursuing his meditations, with all the zest of a healthy organization and a susceptible and observant mind. A few ravines finely wooded, and with fresh streams purling over rocky beds, vary the alternate uplands; from elevated points a charming distribution of water enlivens the prospect; and the shore is indented with high cliffs, or rounded into graceful curves. The sunsets are remarkable for a display of gorgeous and radiant clouds; the wide sweep of pasture is only broken by low ranges of stone wall, clumps of sycamores, orchards, haystacks, and mill towers; and over luxuriant clover beds, tasselled maize, or fallow acres, plays, for two thirds of the year, a southwestern breeze, chastened and moistened by the Gulf Stream.

Intercourse with Boston was then the chief means on the island of acquiring political and domestic news. A brisk trade was carried on between the town and the West Indies, France, England, and the Low Countries, curious memorials. of which are still visible, in some of the old mansions, in the shape of china and glass ware, of obsolete patterns, and faded specimens of rich brocade. A sturdy breed of Narraganset ponies carried fair equestrians from one to another of the many hospitable dwellings scattered over the fields, on which browsed sheep and cackled geese, still famous in epicurean reminiscence; while tropical fruits were constantly imported, and an abundance and variety of fish and fowl rewarded the most careless sportsman. Thus blessed by nature, the accidental home of the philosophic dean soon won his affection. Intelligent members of all denominations united in admiration of his society and attendance upon his preaching. With one neighbor he dined every Sunday, to the child of another he became godfather, and with a third took counsel for the establishment of the literary club which founded the Redwood Library. It was usual then to see the broad brim of the Quakers in the aisles of Trinity Church; and, as an instance of his emphatic yet tolerant style, it is related that he once observed, in a sermon, 'Give the devil his due: John Calvin was a great man.'* We find him, at one time, writing a letter of encouragement to a Huguenot preacher of Providence, and, at another, visiting Narraganset with Smibert to examine the aboriginal inhabitants. His own opinion of the race was given in the discourse on 'The Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts,' delivered in London on his return. To the ethnologist it may be interesting, in reference to this subject, to revert to the anecdote of the portrait painter cited by Dr. Barton. He had been employed by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to paint two or three Siberian Tartars, presented to that prince by the Czar of Russia; and, on first landing in Narraganset with Berkeley, he instantly recognized the In

* Updike's "History of the Narraganset Church."

dians there as the same race as the Siberian Tartars-an opinion confirmed by Wolff, the celebrated Eastern traveller.

During his residence at Newport, Berkeley became acquainted with the Rev. Jared Elliot, one of the trustees of Yale College, and with the Rev. Samuel Johnson, an Episcopal minister of Stratford, Conn., who informed him of the condition, prospects, and wants of that institution. He afterward opened a correspondence on the subject with Rector Williams, and was thus led, after the failure of his own college scheme, to make his generous donations to a seminary already established. He had previously presented the college with a copy of his writings. In 1732, he sent from England a deed of his farm in Rhode Island, and, the conditions and descriptions not being satisfactory, he sent, the ensuing year, another deed, by which it was provided that the rents of his lands should be devoted to the education of three young men, the best classical scholars; the candidates to be examined annually, on the 6th of May; in case of disagreement among the examiners, the competitors to decide by lot; and all surplus funds to be used for the purchase of classical books. Berkeley also gave to the library a thousand volumes, which cost over four hundred pounds—the most valuable collection of books then brought together in America. They were chiefly his own purchase, but in part contributed by his friends. One of the graduates of Yale, edu cated under the Berkeley scholarship, was Dr. Buckminster, of Portsmouth, N. H. Unfortunately, the income of the property at Newport is rendered much less than it might be by the terms of a long lease. This liberality of the Bishop of Cloyne was enhanced by the absence of sectarian prejudice in his choice for the stewardship of his bounty of a collegiate institution where different tenets are inculcated from those he professed. That he was personally desirous of increasing his own denomination in America, is sufficiently evinced by the letter in which he directs the secretary of the Episcopal mission there to appropriate a balance originally contributed to the Bermuda scheme. This sum had remained

at his banker's for many years unclaimed, and he suggests that part of it should be devoted to a gift of books for Harvard University, as a proper means to inform their judg ment, and dispose them to think better of our church.' His interest in classical education on this side of the water is also manifested in a letter advocating the preeminence of those studies in Columbia College.**

It is a remarkable coincidence that Berkeley should have taken up his abode in Rhode Island, and thus completed the representative character of the most tolerant religious community in New England, by the presence of an eminent Episcopal dignitary. A principal reason of the variety, the freedom, and the peace of religious opinion there, to which he alludes, is the fact that, through the liberal wisdom and foresight of Roger Williams, that State had become an asylum for the persecuted of all denominations from the neighboring provinces; but another cause may be found in the prevalence of the Quakers, whose amiable tenets and gentle spirit subdued the rancor and bigotry of fanaticism. Several hundred Jews, still commemorated by their cemetery and synagogue, allured by the prosperous trade and the tolerant genius of the place, added still another feature to the varied population. The lenity of Penn toward the aborigines, and the fame of Fox, had given dignity to the denomination of Friends, and their domestic culture was refined as well as morally superior. Enterprise in the men who, in a neighboring State, originated the whale fishery, and beauty among the woren of that sect, are traditional in Rhode Island. We were reminded of Berkeley's observations in regard to the natural productions of the country, during a recent visit to the old farmhouse where he resided. An enormous wild grapevine had completely veiled what formed the original

*"I am glad to find a spirit toward learning prevails in these parts, particularly in New York, where, you say, a college is projected, which has my best wishes. Let the Greek and Latin classics be well taught; be this the first care as to learning."-BERKELEY's Letter to Johnson.—MOORE's Sketch of Columbia College, New York, 1846.

entrance to the humble dwelling; and several ancient apple trees in the orchard, with boughs mossy with time, and gnarled by the ocean gales, showed, in their sparse fruit and matted twigs, the utter absence of the pruning knife. The dwelling itself is built, after the manner common to farmhouses a century ago, entirely of wood, with low ceilings, broad fireplace, and red cornice. The only traces of the old country were a few remaining tiles, with obsolete designs, around the chimney piece. But the deep and crystal azure of the sea gleamed beyond corn field and sloping pasture; sheep grazed in the meadows, hoary rocks bounded the prospect, and the mellow crimson of sunset lay warm on grass slope and paddock, as when the kindly philosopher mused by the shore with Plato in hand, or noted a metaphysical dialogue in the quiet and ungarnished room which overlooks the rude garden. Though, as he declares, ' for every private reason' he preferred 'Derry to New England,' pleasant was the abode, and grateful is the memory of Berkeley, in this rural seclusion. A succession of green breastworks along the brow of the hill beneath which his domicile nestles, by reminding the visitor of the retreat of the American forces under General Sullivan, brings vividly to his mind the Revolution, and its incalculable influence upon the destinies of a land which so early won the intelligent sympathy of Berkeley; while the name of Whitehall, which he gave to this peaceful domain, commemorates that other revolution in his own country, wherein the loyalty of his grandfather drove his family into exile. But historical soon yield to personal recollections, when we consider the memorials of his sojourn. We associate this landscape with his studies and his benevolence; and, when the scene was no longer blessed with his presence, his gifts remained to consecrate his memory. In old Trinity, the organ he bestowed peals over the grave of his firstborn in the adjoining burial ground. A town in Massachusetts bears his name. Not long since, a presentation copy of his 'Minute Philosopher' was kept on the table of an old lady of Newport, with reverential care. In one family, his gift