Waiting for the Eschaton: Berkeley's "Bermuda Scheme" Between Earthly Paradise and Educational Utopia (1). (Essays)‪.‬

1. IT WAS IN 1725 THAT GEORGE BERKELEY published a paper entitled, not particularly concisely, "A Proposal for the better Supplying of Churches in our Foreign Plantations, and for Converting the Savage Americans, to Christianity, By a College to be erected in the Summer Islands, otherwise called The Isles of Bermuda" (VII 343-60). This title is in fact describing almost the whole project. Prior to that, the philosopher, since about March 1722, had written several private letters to friends and acquaintances on the same topic, each of them containing enthusiastic descriptions of the Bermuda islands. The letter to Lord Percival, dated March 4th 1722 (VIII 127-9), is of special interest, as in it Berkeley announces for the first time his intention to establish a "theology and fine arts college" in those remote islands, and, more than that, to spend there all the rest of his life ("It is now about ten months since I have determined with myself to spend the residue of my days in the Island of Bermuda, where I trust in Providence I may be the mean instrument of doing good to mankind [VIII 127]). (2) Finally, there are of course those famous stanzas by Berkeley dedicated to the project, confessing his lack of satisfaction, if not disappointment, with the Old World, and announcing that "Westward the Course of Empire takes its Way" (VII 373).