Berkeley's epistemological position held that one can never know the nature of the external world because one can never be certain of one's own perceptions. The metaphysical implication of that is that the external world may not even exist—that, in fact, nothing exists outside one's own perceptions. Solipsism. I'm not too sure that the good bishop fully realized that. But he must have had a faint glimmer of the implication, because he had to posit God to keep existence together. Essentially what he wound up saying was that what we call Reality is a dream in the mind of God. Very Eastern. And I'm sure he didn't realize that.

And the "Check you premises" thing. Some wag was once heard to say, "Ms. Rand, should I get my flashlight first?" I think she responded with some comment like, "We are not amused!"

Don Firth