City
Charter: History of Bishop Berkeley
"Westward
the course of empire takes its way
The four first acts already past,
A fifth shall close the drama with the day:
Time's noblest offspring is the last."
George Berkeley, Bishop of
Cloyne, a
distinguished Irish philosopher and writer, after whom Berkeley California is named, was
born at Dysert Castle, near Thomastown, Ireland, March 12, 1685. Educated in Trinity
College, Dublin, he was appointed in Episcopal prelate, and devoted himself to literature
and to philanthropic efforts to establish in America a college for the education and
conversion of the Indians to Christianity. He lived nearly four years in Rhode
Island, respected, esteemed and beloved by the people of early New England. The
British government neglected to furnish the promised funds for the college, and, having
exhausted much of his own fortune in his benevolent design, Bishop Berkeley was compelled
to return to his native land. So powerfully impressed had he become with the great
future of the American colonies that he wrote the famous poem, "Destiny of
America," the concluding stanza of which is quoted above. Alexander Pope, his
intimate friend, declared he was "possessed of every virtue." He died January
14, 1753, at Oxford, England.
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