Note 230 — THE BRITISH QUARTERLY APRIL 1871 (continued 6)

There is undoubtedly one difficulty to this hypothesis, and that difficulty arises from Berkeley's mathematical opinions; for the whole question between Berkeley and Newton in the 'Analyst' may be resolved to this one particular,—in Berkeley's view a line is a series of points, in Newton's the line is not the series of separate points, but these points coalescing and arranging themselves in length. Newton says, 'Lineæ describuntur ac describendo generantur non per appositiones partium sed per motum continuum punctorum.' The difference between them was just the difference between Nominalism and Realism, and Berkeley takes the Nominalist side. This may have been due to his ignorance of mathematics.