210 



Monthhf Review of Literature, 



[Aug. 



the Popish Plot. The truth must be — 

 Locke at the commencement was flattered 

 by the attentions and the confidence of so 

 conspicuous and so commanding a person- 

 a^'e ; Shaftesbury became his patron, and, 

 when Chancellor, gave him two appoint- 

 ments of some value ; and good feehng, 

 and moreover party-feeling, made him wink 

 at his grosser offences. He, doubtless, also 

 considered it justifiable to conceal the frail- 

 ties and faults of a patron and a friend ; 

 and the reader wiU recollect, it is quite a 

 modern conviction that truth ought to be 

 told even in biography, and that instances 

 are still rare where it has been honestly 

 pursued. It must be difficult too ; the fit- 

 test writers, apparently — those who know 

 the individual best — are generally the 

 friends, and friends will not, and cannot see 

 with the same eyes as indifferent persons — 

 nor scan closely what a lurking conscious- 

 ness whispers will not bear scanning. 



Locke's " Letter from a Person of Qua- 

 lity," detailing the parliamentary proceedings 

 of 1C75, was written at the request, and 

 under the direction of Shaftesbury, and gave 

 so much offence to the Lords— it was or- 

 dered by them to be burnt by the common 

 hangman — as to make it exjiedient for the 

 author to withdraw to the Continent. In 

 1670, Shaftesbury came again into office, as 

 President of the Clouncil, and Locke, as 

 soon as he found his patron in a state to 

 protect him, returned to England. This, 

 however, was attended with no apparent ad- 

 vantage — Shaftesbury soon broke with the 

 Court, was committed to tlie Tower, tried 

 for treason, and died in Holland early in 

 1C83 ; and in the course of the same year, 

 Locke was again an exile in Holland, nor 

 did he return till he came with the Dutch 

 fleet, and landed with William. 



Locke's talents and value were now duly 

 appreciated — an embassy to any court in 

 Europe was at his command, but he de- 

 clined active and above all foreign em- 

 ployment, and confined his public services 

 to the labours of his pen. Though nearly 

 sixty, he had hitherto published nothing 

 but the letter alluded to ; but feehng him- 

 self now at perfect liberty, he brought out, 

 in quick succession, his Essay, which had 

 engaged his best thoughts for years — his 

 Letters on Toleration (by the way, he had 

 published the first letter, Ijatine, in Holland) 

 — his Essays on Civil Government — on the 

 State of the Coin, &c. In lt!96, when his 

 old friend Somers was in office, he was made 

 a Commissioner of the Board of Trade, with 

 a salary of £1000, which, however, he re- 

 signed the followingyear, from the state of his 

 healtli, and then withdrew to the seat of his 

 friends, the Blashams, at Oates, in Surrey, 

 where his last years were spent in peaceful 

 retireinent — engaged still, for he could not 

 be idle, in composing his Reasonableness of 

 Christianity, and in defending both that 

 and his other works at great length. He 

 left a Commentary on some of St. Paul's 



Epistles, ready for publication, at his death, 

 which, of course, first appeared as a posthu- 

 mous work. He died in 1704, at 72 — dates 

 are indispensable in the history of persons 

 connected v/ith political history. 



Among the correspondence, now pub- 

 lished, are some letters from Newton, one 

 of which, for the sake of Locke's gentlemanly 

 reply, was printed once by Dugald Stewart. 

 In matters of opinion, Newton was narrow 

 and unenhghtened, but desirous of being 

 just. He had taken alarm at some of 

 Locke's doctrines, but feehng some remorse 

 for hasty expressions on that and other 

 accounts, he made the following amende 

 honorable. 



Sir— Being of opinion tliat yon endeavoured to 

 embroil me with women (what in the world coyld 

 he imagine Locl;e had done ?), and by otlier 

 means, I was so much affected with it, as that, 

 when one told me you were sickly and would not 

 live, I answered, 'Twere better ifvou were dead. , 

 I desiie you to forgive me this unchaiitableness. 

 For I am iinw satisfied that what you have done 

 is just; and I beg your pardon for having hard 

 thoughts of you fur it, and for representing that 

 you struck at the root of morality, in a principle 

 you laid down in your book of ideas, and de- 

 signed to pursue in anotlier book, and that I took 

 you for a Hobbist. I beg your pardou also for 

 saying or thinking that there was a design to sell 

 me an office, or to embroil me. — I am, &c. 



I. NEWTON. 



Locke had put his paraphrase of the Co- 

 rinthians into Newton's hands, to give an 

 opinion upon the unbehevinglmsband being 

 sanctified by the wife — and had some diffi- 

 cidty in getting either his opinion or the 

 papers again. The following directions, 

 unique in their kind, are given concerning 

 the matter to his cousin. King ; he desires 

 to discover the reason of Newton's long si- 

 lence about them : — • 



I have several reasons to think him truly my 

 friend, but he is a nice man to deal with, and a 

 little apt to raise in himself suspicions where there 

 is no ground ; therefoie, wlien you talk to him of 

 my papers, and of his opinion of them, pray do 

 it with all the tenderness in the world, and dis- 

 cover, if you can, why he kept them so long, and 

 was so silent. But this you must do without 

 asking why he did so, or discovering in the least 

 that you are desirous to know. You will do well 

 to acquaint him that you intend to see me at Whit- 

 suntide, and shall be gUad to bring a letter to me 

 from him, or any thing else he will please to 

 send ; this perhaps may quicken him, and make 

 him despatch these papers, if he has not done it 

 already. It may a little let you into the freer dis- 

 conrse with him, if you let him know that when 

 you have been here with me, you have seen me 

 busy on them, and the Romans, too, &c. Mr. N. 

 is really a valuable man, &c. ; and, therefore, 

 pray manage the whole matter so, as not only to 

 preserve me in Iiis good opinion, but to increase 

 me in it ; and be sure to press him to nothing but 

 what he Is forward in himself to do. 



This is choice ! 



