d power; and for three years past has
been struck with a notion of founding a university at Bermudas by a
charter from the Crown.... He showed me a little tract which he designs
to publish, and there your Excellency will see his whole scheme of the
life academico-philosophical, of a college founded for Indian scholars
and missionaries, where he most exorbitantly proposes a whole hundred
pounds a year for himself.... His heart will be broke if his deanery be
not taken from him, and left to your Excellency's disposal. I
discouraged him by the coldness of Courts and Ministers, who will
interpret all this as impossible and a vision; but nothing will do."

The history of Berkeley's reception in London, when he came to urge his
project, shows convincingly the magic of the man's presence and
influence. His conquests spread far and fast. In a generation
represented by Sir Robert Walpole, the scheme met with encouragement
from all sorts of people, subscriptions soon reaching L5,000, and the
list of promoters including even Sir Robert himself. Bermuda became the
fashion among the wits of London, and Bolingbroke wrote to Swift that he
would "gladly exchange Europe for its charms--only not in a missionary
capacity."

But Berkeley was not satisfied with mere subscriptions, and remembering
what Lord Percival had said about the protection and aid of government
he interceded with George the First, and obtained royal encouragement to
hope for a grant of L20,000 to endow the Bermuda college. During the
four years that followed, he lived in London, negotiating with brokers,
and otherwise forwarding his enterprise of social idealism. With Queen
Caroline, consort of George the Second, he used to dispute two days a
week concerning his favourite plan.

At last his patience was rewarded. In September, 1728, we find him at
Greenwich, ready to sail for Rhode Island. "Tomorrow," he writes on
September 3 to Lord Percival, "we sail down the river. Mr. James and Mr.
Dalton go with me; so doth my wife, a daughter of the late Chief Justice
Forster, whom I married since I saw your lordship. I chose her for her
qualities of mind, and her unaffected inclination to books. She goes
with great thankfulness, to live a plain farmer's life, and wear stuff
of her own spinning. I have presented her with a spinning-wheel. Her
fortune was L2,000 originally, but travelling and exchange have reduced
it to less than L1,500 English money. I have placed that, and abo