The Querist Containing Several Queries Proposed to the Consideration of the Public — Background and Themes

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In Category - Metaphysics

Authors: Berkeley, George, 1685-1753 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2003 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Great Britain -- Economic policy; Wealth; Great Britain -- Economic conditions -- 18th century Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Words 29,786

Reading time 130 min

Text sections 4

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Source: Project Gutenberg record #4543

George Berkeley's 1735 work poses a series of rhetorical queries on Irish economic policy, industry, and national character. The author employs a distinctive interrogative structure to challenge assumptions about wealth, labor, and governance, blending moral philosophy with practical political economy.

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The Querist Containing Several Queries Proposed to the Consideration of the Public

Whether there ever was, is, or will be, an industrious nation poor, or an idle rich?

2. Qu. Whether a people can be called poor, where the common sort are well fed, clothed, and lodged?

3. Qu. Whether the drift and aim of every wise State should not be, to encourage industry in its members? And whether those who employ neither heads nor hands for the common benefit deserve not to be expelled like drones out of a well-governed State?

4. Qu. Whether the four elements, and man's labour therein, be not the true source of wealth?

5. Qu. Whether money be not only so far useful, as it stirreth up industry, enabling men mutually to participate the fruits of each other's labour?

6. Qu. Whether any other means, equally conducing to excite and circulate the industry of mankind, may not be as useful as money.

7. Qu. Whether the real end and aim of men be not power? And whether he who could have everything else at his wish or will would value money?

8. Qu. Whether the public aim in every well-govern'd State be not that each member, according to his just pretensions and industry, should have power?

9. Qu. Whether power be not referred to action; and whether action doth not follow appetite or will?

10. Qu. Whether fashion doth not create appetites; and whether the prevailing will of a nation is not the fashion?

11. Qu. Whether the current of industry and commerce be not determined by this prevailing will?

12. Qu. Whether it be not owing to custom that the fashions are agreeable?

13. Qu. Whether it may not concern the wisdom of the legislature to interpose in the making of fashions; and not leave an affair of so great influence to the management of women and fops, tailors and vintners?

14. Qu. Whether reasonable fashions are a greater restraint on freedom than those which are unreasonable?

15. Qu. Whether a general good taste in a people would not greatly conduce to their thriving? And whether an uneducated gentry be not the greatest of national evils?

16. Qu. Whether customs and fashions do not supply the place of reason in the vulgar of all ranks? Whether, therefore, it doth not very much import that they should be wisely framed?

17. Qu. Whether the imitating those neighbours in our fashions, to whom we bear no likeness in our circumstances, be not one cause of distress to this nation?

18. Qu. Whether frugal fashions in the upper rank, and comfortable living in the lower, be not the means to multiply inhabitants?

19. Qu. Whether the bulk of our Irish natives are not kept from thriving, by that cynical content in dirt and beggary which they possess to a degree beyond any other people in Christendom?

20. Qu. Whether the creating of wants be not the likeliest way to produce industry in a people? And whether, if our peasants were accustomed to eat beef and wear shoes, they would not be more industrious?

21. Qu. Whether other things being given, as climate, soil, etc., the wealth be not proportioned to the industry, and this to the circulation of credit, be the credit circulated or transferred by what marks or tokens soever?

22. Qu. Whether, therefore, less money swiftly circulating, be not, in effect, equivalent to more money slowly circulating? Or, whether, if the circulation be reciprocally as the quantity of coin, the nation can be a loser?

23. Qu. Whether money is to be considered as having an intrinsic value, or as being a commodity, a standard, a measure, or a pledge, as is variously suggested by writers? And whether the true idea of money, as such, be not altogether that of a ticket or counter?

24. Qu. Whether the value or price of things be not a compounded proportion, directly as the demand, and reciprocally as the plenty?

25. Qu. Whether the terms crown, livre, pound sterling, etc., are not to be considered as exponents or denominations of such proportion? And whether gold, silver, and paper are not tickets or counters for reckoning, recording, and transferring thereof?

26. Qu. Whether the denominations being retained, although the bullion were gone, things might not nevertheless be rated, bought, and sold, industry promoted, and a circulation of commerce maintained?

27. Qu. Whether an equal raising of all sorts of gold, silver, and copper coin can have any effect in bringing money into the kingdom? And whether altering the proportions between the kingdom several sorts can have any other effect but multiplying one kind and lessening another, without any increase of the sum total?

28. Qu. Whether arbitrary changing the denomination of coin be not a public cheat?

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George Berkeley's The Querist (1735) is structured entirely as a sequence of numbered questions, a rhetorical choice that forces readers to engage actively with each proposition rather than passively receive argument. The queries range from broad axioms—'Whether there ever was, is, or will be, an industrious nation poor, or an idle rich?'—to pointed critiques of Irish social conditions, such as the observation that the 'old native Irish are not the most indolent and supine people in Christendom.' This form allows Berkeley to insinuate conclusions while maintaining a tone of open inquiry.

The work's diction reflects its dual purpose: philosophical abstraction ('Whether power be not referred to action') sits alongside blunt economic advice ('Whether hearty food and warm clothing would not enable and encourage the lower sort to labour'). The queries often pivot from general principles to specific Irish circumstances, creating a layered argument about national prosperity and moral responsibility.

The Interrogative Method as Argument

Berkeley's choice of the query form is not merely stylistic but strategic. By framing assertions as questions, he avoids dogmatic declaration while guiding the reader toward his conclusions. For instance, Query 3 asks whether those who 'employ neither heads nor hands for the common benefit deserve not to be expelled like drones out of a well-governed State'—a moral judgment embedded in a question. The repetition of 'Whether' across hundreds of queries creates a rhythmic, almost liturgical cadence that reinforces the work's persuasive intent.

This method also allows Berkeley to juxtapose contradictory ideas without resolving them. Query 19 calls the Irish natives 'cynical content in dirt and beggary,' yet Query 185 asks 'Whether this be altogether their own fault?' The unanswered question leaves space for the reader to consider systemic causes, a subtlety that a direct assertion might foreclose.

Diction of Industry and Moral Judgment

Berkeley's vocabulary consistently links economic activity with moral worth. Words like 'industry,' 'labour,' 'idle,' and 'sloth' recur, framing poverty as a failure of character as much as of policy. Query 4 declares that 'the four elements, and man's labour therein, be not the true source of wealth,' grounding value in physical work. Yet he also acknowledges the role of 'fashion' and 'custom' in shaping economic behavior, as in Query 10: 'Whether fashion doth not create appetites; and whether the prevailing will of a nation is not the fashion?'

The language is often blunt and evaluative. The Irish are described as 'indolent and supine,' their dwellings 'more sordid than those of the savage Americans.' Such comparisons reveal Berkeley's Enlightenment assumptions about civilization and progress, while his call to 'create wants' among peasants (Query 20) suggests a paternalistic view of economic development.

Structure and Thematic Progression

The work is divided into three parts, though the excerpts show no clear thematic break between them. The queries move from general economic principles (Part I) to specific applications for Ireland (Part II) and finally to questions of governance and education (Part III). This progression mirrors the classical rhetorical structure of moving from universal to particular.

Within this framework, Berkeley interweaves recurring motifs: the comparison of Ireland to China (Queries 186, 191), the role of women in fostering industry (Queries 188, 190), and the critique of the gentry's education (Queries 163, 170). The final queries in Part III turn to the responsibilities of legislators, urging them to 'understand the true nature and interest of mankind'—a call that unites the work's economic and moral concerns.

Recurring Details and Local References

Berkeley anchors his abstract queries in concrete Irish references. Query 182 contrasts 'one acre about the Tholsel' (Dublin's city hall) with 'ten thousand acres in Connaught,' highlighting regional disparities. Query 174 notes that 'our men of business are not generally very grave by fifty,' a wry observation on the effects of Irish drinking habits. Such details ground the philosophical argument in lived experience.

The excerpts also reveal Berkeley's interest in the psychology of economic behavior. Query 189 asks 'Whether idleness be the mother or the daughter of spleen?'—a question that blurs the line between economic analysis and medical theory. Similarly, Query 172 warns against 'additional stupefier' for a nation already prone to 'natural phlegm,' using physiological language to discuss national character.

Readers approaching The Querist should attend to the tension between Berkeley's moralizing tone and his pragmatic proposals. The query form rewards slow, reflective reading: each question invites a pause for consideration. Because the excerpts are incomplete, the full arc of Berkeley's argument—particularly his solutions for Irish economic distress—remains partially obscured. Yet the work's distinctive voice, blending philosophical inquiry with sharp social observation, offers a revealing window into eighteenth-century debates on wealth, work, and national character.

That damp afternoon, Berkeley’s pointed questions about Irish idleness lingered longer than the rain itself, chasing some quiet unease about what truly counted as useful work. My gaze drifted to the window, then to the shelf, and somehow I pulled down The Beauties of Nature, and the Wonders of the World We Live In — A Closer Reading, its calm observations a soft counterweight to all that civic insistence.