Master of the Rolls in the Kingdom of Ireland, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and one of the Lords of Her Majesty's Most Honourable Privy-Council.

  MY LORD,

The Vertue, Learning, and good Sense, which are acknowleged to distinguish Your Character, wou'd tempt me to indulge myself the Pleasure Men naturally take, in giving Applause to those, whom they esteem and honour: And it shou'd seem of Importance to the Subjects of Great Britain, that they knew, The eminent Share You enjoy in the Favour of Your Sovereign, and the Honours She has conferred upon You, have not been owing to any Application from Your Lordship, but entirely to Her Majesty's own Thought, arising from a Sense of Your Personal Merit, and an Inclination to reward it. But as Your Name is prefixed to this Treatise, with an Intention to do Honour to myself alone, I shall only say, that I am encouraged, by the Favour You have treated me with, to address these Papers to Your Lordship. And I was the more ambitious of doing this, because a Philosophical Treatise cou'd not so properly be addressed to any one, as to a Person of Your Lordship's Character, who, to Your other valuable Distinctions, have added the Knowledge and Relish of Philosophy. I am, with the greatest Respect,

    MY LORD,

  Your Lordship's most Obedient, and
     Most Humble Servant,

      GEORGE BERKELEY.