5 - The opportunities of dialogue

Summary

In Dublin, late in the spring of 1710, Jeremy Pepyat published the first edition of the Principles. By July, a shipment of the book was under way to London, there to be sold at the Churchills' shop in Paternoster Row. Berkeley felt he had managed, in conversation, to convince many of his Dublin friends, but he knew that London remained the test of his difficult thesis, and so took all practical steps to ease its reception. He arranged for two copies of his book to be sent to Percival, with the request that he present one of these to the Earl of Pembroke, the book's dedicatee. Berkeley also urged Percival to pass his own copy amongst his ‘ingenious acquaintances’ in London (VIII.35). Percival complied, but had to report to Dublin that the capital remained unperturbedly materialist:

‘Tis incredible what prejudices can work on the best geniuses, nay and even on the lovers of novelty, for I did but name the subject matter of your book to some ingenious friends of mine and they immediately treated it with ridicule, at the same time refusing to read it, which I have not yet got one to do, and indeed I have not yet been able to discourse myself on it because I had it so lately, neither when I set about it may I be able to understand it thoroughly for want of having studied philosophy more. A physician of my acquaintance undertook to describe your person, and argued you must needs be mad, and that you ought to take remedies. […]