An Edinburgh Eleven: Pencil Portraits from College LifeBarrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
General
An Edinburgh Eleven: Pencil Portraits from College Life
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
University of Edinburgh -- Biography
Fraser's great work is his edition of Berkeley, a labor of love that
should live after him. He has two Berkeleys, the large one and the
little one, and, to do him justice, it was the little one he advised us
to consult. I never read the large one myself, which is in a number of
monster tomes, but I often had a look at it in the library, and I was
proud to think that an Edinburgh professor was the editor. When Glasgow
men came through to talk of their professors, we showed them the big
Berkeley, and after that they were reasonable. There was one man in my
year who really began the large Berkeley, but after a time he was
missing, and it is believed that some day he will be found flattened
between the pages of the first volume.
The "Selections" was the text-book we used in the class. It is
sufficient to prove that Berkeley wrote beautiful English. I am not
sure that any one has written such English since. We have our own
"stylists," but how self-conscious they are after Berkeley! It is seven
years since I opened my "Selections," but I see that I was once more of
a metaphysician than I have been giving myself credit for. The book is
scribbled over with posers in my handwriting about dualism and primary
realities. Some of the comments are in short-hand, which I must at one
time have been able to read, but all are equally unintelligible now.
Here is one of my puzzlers: "Does B here mean impercipient and
unperceived subject or conscious and percipient subject?" Observe the
friendly B. I dare say further on I shall find myself referring to the
professor as F. I wonder if I ever discovered what B meant. I could not
now tell what I meant, myself.
As many persons are aware, the "Selections" consist of Berkeley's text
with the professor's notes thereon. The notes are explanatory of the
text, and the student must find them an immense help. Here, for
instance, is a note: "Phenomenal or sense dependent existence can be
substantiated and caused only by a self-conscious spirit, for otherwise
there could be no propositions about it expressive of what is
conceivable; on the other hand, to affirm that phenomenal or sense
dependent existence, which alone we know, and which alone is
conceivable, is, or even represents, an inconceivable non-phenomenal or
abstract existence, would be to affirm a contradiction in terms." There
we have it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account