The Star in the West

THE NEW WINE 219 by unthinking things are thought to have a natural subsistence of their own distinct from being perceived by spirits . This ... is the very root of Scepticism ... For how can it be known that the things which are perceived are conformable to those which are not per ceived , or exist without the mind . ” ? Shortly before arriving at this conclusion , he had already stated that as “ the infinite divisibility of matter ” was now uni versally allowed by the most approved and consider able philosophers , hence it follows that there are an infinite number of parts in each particle of matter which are not perceived by sense . “ ... In proportion , therefore , as the sense is rendered more acute , it per ceives a greater number of parts in the object , that is , the object appears greater , and its figure varies . In other words the Self of the Idealist as the Not - self of the Materialist , is purely maya , i.e. , motion . But a still more important contradiction creeps in here , and curious to say , the very monster Berkeley set out with lance in rest to overthrow , proves but a Quixotic windmill which sends our gallant knight rolling in the very dust in which he had hoped to lay low the sceptical and monstrous giant . Thus in the place of disproving scepticism he unconsciously cleared the way for the greatest of all sceptics - David Hume . " 3 1 Berkeley , throughout “ The Principles ," as well as the “ Dialogues ;” overlooks the Newtonian law of gravity alto gether , though he supposes that he himself is not the only thinking entity in the world , his arguments lead one to infer that he is. As an Idealist he proves that nothing can exist except in mind ; then finding he has overlooked the question of God , as an Animist adds : that all things , he himself included , cannot exist except in the mind of some Divine Being , failing ( perhaps purposely ) to see that such a Being was also but a figment of his mind . 2 Ibid . p . 79 . 3 Ibid . p . 55 .