corruption. He expressed his feelings in an 'Essay towards preventing the Ruin of Great Britain' (1721), recommending sumptuary laws, the encouragement of arts, and a return to simplicity of life. He can hardly have hoped for the speedy adoption of his doctrines in England, and a new scheme now took possession of his ardent and impulsive nature. Preferments and wealth were coming to him, but he resolved to use them for his philanthropic purpose. Pope is said to have introduced him to Lord Burlington, famous for architectural tastes shared by Berkeley himself. He returned to Ireland in the autumn of 1721, and upon Burlington's recommendation was made chaplain to the Duke of Grafton, the new lord lieutenant. He applied for the deanery of Dromore, which had just fallen vacant, and the influence of his friend Percival helped to secure his appointment. The bishop of the diocese, however, claimed the nomination, and a lawsuit followed. Whilst it was still undecided, he was appointed, in May 1724, through the influence of Lady Percival, to the richer deanery of Derry, said to be worth 1,500l. a year (Fraser's Berkeley, p. 122). A strange accident had increased his fortune. Swift's Vanessa, Hester Vanhomrigh, who died in May 1723, left him half her property, having previously, it was supposed, destined it to Swift. She had never seen Berkeley, as he says (ib. p. 123), though Mrs. Berkeley, his widow, says that he once met her at dinner at her mother's house (Biog. Brit. iii. Corrigenda and Addenda). As one of her executors, Berkeley suppressed for a time the famous correspondence with Swift. Much legal trouble followed before her fortune was realised, to which there are many references in his correspondence with Prior, and the debts absorbed a considerable part of the estate.
Berkeley valued these additions to his fortunes as means for carrying out his new project. His attention had been drawn to the new world beyond the Atlantic, where, as he says in a remarkable copy of verses (of uncertain date), a new golden age might be anticipated, and a fifth act, the noblest of all, close the great drama of Time. In a proposal, circulated in 1725 (Works, vol. iv.), he explains his theories. Religion, he thought, had declined amongst the American colonists for want of a proper supply of clergy; the negroes had been left without instruction and denied baptism; whilst the conversion of the savage Americans had not been attempted. Protestantism, he said, was losing ground in Europe, whilst in America the progress made by the French and Spanish was spreading the religion of Rome through the native races, a process which 'would probably end in the utter extirpation of our colonies.' The foundation of a college for the education of the planters' children and of young savages who might be trained as missionaries, would meet these evils. A college had already been projected in Barbadoes by General Codrington, who died there in 1710 and left his estates in trust for this purpose to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Berkeley thought the Bermudas better fitted for the purpose, from the temperate climate, the greater frugality and simplicity of the colonists, and the central situation. The difficulties of local communication between the scattered settlements were great; whilst Bermuda had a trade with all the colonies, and was in the track of commerce from England.
Berkeley's project implied many misconceptions, now obvious, nor did it seem likely to commend itself to the common sense of the rulers of those days. Whilst the deanery of Dromore was still in suspense, he remained at Dublin, and held various college offices. He had been elected senior fellow in 1717; in November 1721 he was appointed divinity lecturer and senior Greek lecturer; in June 1722 Hebrew lecturer; and in November 1722 senior proctor; the income of all his college positions amounting to about 150l. He became B.D. and D.D. on 14 Noy. 1721 (Works, iv. 84, 95). He had definitely resolved to devote himself to the Bermuda scheme about May 1722 (Fraser's Berkeley, p. 120), and soon after his appointment to the deanery of Derry he set out for London to prepare for carrying out his plans. He took with him a letter from Swift to Carteret, the new lord lieutenant (dated 3 Sept. 1724) describing his zeal in humorous, though sympathetic, terms. Berkeley's heart would break, said Swift, if his deanery were not taken from him, and the exorbitant sum of 100l. a year provided for him at Bermuda.
Berkeley, on arriving in England, exerted his extraordinary powers of fascination. The impression made upon his contemporaries confirms Pope's famous attribution to him of 'every virtue under heaven' (Epilogue to Satires, ii. 73). 'So much understanding, so much knowledge, so much innocence, and such humility, I did not think had been the fashion of any but angels, till I saw this gentleman,' was Atterbury's exclamation after being introduced to him by Lord Berkeley (Hughes, Letters, ii. 2). Warton (Essay on Pope) tells us, on the authority of Lord Bathurst, that, after a dinner at his house, some of the 'Scriblerus' wits agreed to ridicule Berkeley's project; Berkeley's
