Sight and Touch: An Attempt to Disprove the Received; Or Berkeleian, Theory of Vision

Excerpt from Sight and Touch: An Attempt to Disprove the Received; Or Berkeleian, Theory of Vision
The question discussed in the following pages is one of small compass, but no one versed in philosophy will estimate its importance by its extent. The theory assailed is in fact the stronghold of scepticism; for if consciousness is once proved to be delusive, there is an end to all appeals to its authority: doubt must reign supreme. It is to no purpose to say that it is not consciousness that is proved to be delusive, but an inveterate belief which is mistaken for a deliverance of consciousness; for it is practically the same thing whether consciousness itself deceives or something which is undistinguishable from it. It is of little use to prove that a certain witness is trustworthy, if in doing so we also prove that his evidence is falsified before it reaches us.
There is indeed only one dogmatic system consistent with the Berkeleian theory of Vision, and that is the Berkeleian Idealism. Yet dogmatists of all schools have accepted the theory.
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