“Look! Are not the fields covered with a delightful verdure? Is there not something in the woods and groves, in the rivers and clear springs, that soothes, that delights, that transports the soul? . . . Raise now your thoughts from this ball of earth, to all those glorious luminaries that adorn the high arch of heaven. . . . How vivid and radiant is the luster of the fixed stars! How magnificent and rich that negligent profusion, with which they appear to be scattered throughout the whole azure vault!.”

—George Berkeley, from Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, 1713. Philonous speaking.