11 



LOCKE, JOHN. 



LOCKE, JOHN. 



created Earl of Shaftesbury and made lord chancellor, Locke was 

 appointed Moratory of presentation*. This aituation be held until 

 Shaftebury resigned the great teal, when he exchanged it for that 

 of secretary to the Board of Trade, of which the earl still retained 

 the post of prv'iiU ut. 



In 1675 Locke was admitted to the degree of Bnchelor in Medicine, 

 and in the summer of the same year visited France, being apprehen- 

 sive of consumption. At Wontpelier, where he ultimately took up 

 his resilience, lie formed the acquaintance of the Earl of Pembroke, 

 to whom be afterwards dedicated his 'Essay concerning Human 

 Understanding.' In 1679 Locke was recalled to England by the Earl 

 of Shaftesbury, who had been restored to favour and appointed pre- 

 sident of the council. Six months afterwards however he was again 

 disgraced, and, after a short imprisonment in the Tower, was ulti- 

 mately compelled to leave England in 1682, to avoid a prosecution 

 for high treason. Locke followed his patron to Holland, where, even 

 after the death of Sbaftesbury, be continued to reside ; for the hostility 

 of the court was transferred to Locke, and notwithstanding a weak 

 opposition on the part of the dean, his name was erased, by royal 

 mandate of the 16th of November 1684, from the number of the 

 students of Christohurch. But the rancour of the court party ex- 

 tended its persecution of Locke even into Holland, and in the follow- 

 ing year the English envoy demanded of the States-General the delivery 

 of Mr. Locke, with eighty-three other persons, on the charge of parti- 

 cipating in the expedition of the Duke of Monmouth. Fortunately 

 Locke found friends to conceal him until either the court was satisfied 

 of his innocence or the fury of persecution had passed away. During 

 his residence in Holland be became acquainted with Limborch, Leclerc, 

 and other learned men attached to the cause of free inquiry, both in 

 religion and politics. Having completed his ' Essay concerning Human 

 Understanding' in 1687, he made an abridgement of it, which was 

 translated into French by Leclerc, who inserted it in one of his Biblio- 

 theques. In that of 1686 he had already published his ' Adversariorum 

 Methodus, or a New Method of a Common-place Book,' which was 

 originally written in French, and was afterwards first published in 

 Enelish among his posthumous works. In the ' Bibliotheque ' of 

 1688 appeared his ' Letter on Toleration,' addressed to Limborcb, 

 which was soon translated into Latin, and published the next year at 

 Qouda. 



On the Revolution of 1688, Locke returned to England in the fleet 

 which conveyed the Princess of Orange. In reward for his sufferings 

 in the cause of liberty, Locke now obtained, through the interest of 

 Lord Morrfaunt, the situation of commissioner of appeals, with a 

 salary of 200/. a-year. In 1690 his reputation as a philosophical 

 writer was established by the publication of his ' Essay concerning 

 Human Understanding,' which met with immense success. Inde- 

 pendent of the merits of the work itself as an attempt to apply the 

 Baconian mtthod of observation and experience to establish a theory 

 of human knowledge, many circumstances contributed to its success : 

 among others, the personal celebrity of the author ns a friend of civil 

 and religious liberty, and the attempt made at Oxford to prevent its 

 being read in the colleges, a measure which could not fail to have a 

 contrary effect Numerous editions pasted rapidly through the press, 

 and translations having bten made of it into Latiu and French, the 

 fame of the author was quickly spread throughout Kurope. In the 

 same year Locke published a second letter on ' Toleration,' in answer 

 to an attack on bis first letter by Jonas Proast, a clergyman of Queen's 

 College, Oxford, as well as two treatises on 'Government.' These 

 essays were intended generally to answer the partisans of the exiled 

 king, who called the existing government a usurpation, but particu- 

 larly to refute the principles advanced in the 'Patriarcha' of Sir 

 Robert Kilmer, who had maintained that men are not naturally free, 

 and therefore could not be at liberty to choose either governors or 

 forms of government, and that all legitimate government is an abso- 

 lute monarchy. The first essay is devoted to the refutation of the 

 arguments by which Sir Robert supports these principles, and which 

 are ultimately reduced to this, that all government was originally 

 vented by God in Adam as the father of all mankind, and that kings, 

 as the representatives of Adam, are possessed of the same unlimited 

 authority as parents exercise over their children. In the second 

 eteay Locke proceeds to establish, what bad been the leading dogma 

 of the Puritans and Independents, that the legitimacy of a govern- 

 ment depends solely and ultimately on the popular sanction or the 

 consent of men making use of their reason to unite together into a 

 society or societies. The philosophical basis of this treatise formed a 

 model for the ' Central Social ' of Rousseau. 



The air of London disagreeing with Locke, who suffered from a 

 constitutional complaint of asthma, he accepted the offer of apart- 

 ments in the bouse of bis friend Sir Francis Masham, at Oates in 

 Essex, where be resided for the remainder of his life. In this retire- 

 ment he wrote his third letter on ' Toleration,' which called forth a 

 reply from Locke's former antagonist on the subject ; in answer to 

 whom a fouith letter, in an unfinished state, was published after the 

 death of Locke. In 1C93 be first gave to the world his ' Thoughts 

 upon Education,' to which likewise Rousseau is largely indebted for 

 his ' Kmilc.' Though appointed one of the commissioners of trade 

 and plantations in 1695, Locke still found leisure for writing. The 

 treatue, which was published in this year, ' On the Reasonableness of 



Christianity,' was intended to facilitate the execution of a design 

 which William III. had adopted to reconcile and unite all sects of 

 professing Christians, and accordingly the object of the tract was to 

 determine what, amid so many conflicting views of religion, were the 

 points of belief common to all. This work being attacked by Dr. 

 Kilwardc, in his ' Sociuiauism unmasked,' Locke published in 

 of it a h'r.-t and a second ' Vindication of the Reasonableness of 

 Christianity,' Ac. In 1697 Locke was again engaged in the contro- 

 versy, in consequence of the publication of a ' Defence of the Doctrine 

 of the Trinity, by Stillingfleet, bishop of Worcester, in which the 

 bishop had censured certain passages in the ' Essay concerning 

 Human Understanding,' as tending to subvert the fundamental 

 doctrines of Christianity. Against this charge Locke ably vin.i 

 his Kssay; and the controversy, after having been maintained for 

 some time, was at length terminated by the death of Stilling!' 



Locke's health bad now become so impaired, that he determined 

 to resign his office of commissioner of trade and plantation*. Ho 

 refused to receive n pension which was offered him, an 1 whi.-h his 

 services in the public cause bad amply merited. From the time of 

 his retirement ho resided always at 'Oates, and devoted the remainder 

 of his life to the study of the Holy Scriptures. Among others of big 

 religious labours at this period, a 'Discourse on Miracles,' and 

 ' Paraphrases, with notes, of the Epistles of St. Paul,' together 

 an ' Essay for the Understanding of St. Paul's Epistles by consulting 

 St. Paul himself,' were published among his posthumous papers. 

 These contained also the work, ' Of the Conduct of the I 

 standing,' and an ' Examination of Father Malebranche's opinion of 

 Seeing all things in God.' He died on the 28th of October 170 1, in 

 the seventy-third year of bis age, and was buried in the tomb of the 

 Masham family at High Laver Church, where 19 a marble tablet, on 

 the outside of the church wall, to his memory. The mansion of 

 Oates, which was in High Laver parish, was pulled down several 

 years ago. 



The personal character of Locke was iu complete harmony with 

 the opinions which ho so zealously and so ably advocated. Truly 

 attached to the cause of liberty, be was also willing to suffer for it. 

 Perfectly disinterested, and without any personal objects at stake in 

 the political views which lie adopted, he never deviated from modera- 

 tion, and the sincerity of his own profession rendered him tolerant of 

 what he believed to be the conscientious sentiments of others. 



As a writer Locke has a happy facility in expressing his meaning 

 with perspicuity in the simplest and most familiar language. Clear- 

 ness indeed is the loading character of his composition, which is a 

 fair specimen of the best prose of the period. His style however is 

 rather diffuse than precise, the same thought being presented under 

 a great variety of aspects, while bis reasonings are prolix, and his 

 elucidations of a principle occasionally unnecessarily prolonged. 

 These are faults however which, though they may materially detract 

 from the merits of his composition as a model of critical correctness, 

 nevertheless greatly tended to make his ' Essay concerning Human 

 Understanding ' a popular work : though they must necessarily 

 interfere with its permanent value. 



A rapid analysis of this Essay is necessary to enable us to form 

 a right estimate of the philosophical merits of Locke. 



As all human knowledge ultimately reposes, both iu legitimacy and 

 extent, on the range and correctness of the cognitive faculty, which 

 Locke designates by the term ' understanding,' Locke proposes to 

 determine what objects our understanding is and is not fitted to 

 deal with. With this view ho proposes in the first place to inquire 

 into the origin of ideas ; in the next place, to show the nature of that 

 knowledge which is acquired by those ideas, and its certainty, evidence, 

 and extent ; and lastly, to determine the nature and grounds of 

 assent or opinion. 



Before entering upon this investigation Locke gets rid of a sup- 

 position which, if once admitted, would render all such inquiry 

 The refutation, of the theory of innate ideas and principles of know- 

 ledge is the subject-matter of the first book of the Essay. Generally, 

 he observes, the common assent of men to certain fundamental prin- 

 ciples may be explained otherwise than by the supposition of their 

 being innate ; and consequently the hypothesis is unnecessary. But, 

 in particular, he denies that there are any such universal and primary 

 principles as are admitted by all men, and known as soon as developed, 

 for to these two heads he reduces all the arguments usually advanced 

 in support of this hypothesis. Thus of speculative principles bo 

 bikes the principles of contradiction and identity, and shows, by an 

 inductive appeal to savages, infants, and idiots, that they aro not 

 universally acknowledged; and as to their beiug primary, lie appeals 

 to observation of the infant mind, as proving that they are far from 

 beiug the first ideas of which the human mind is conscious. The 

 principles of morals are next submitted to a similar examination; 

 and la tly, he shows that no ideas are innate; for this purpose he 

 selects the ideas of God and substance, which, by a like appeal to 

 savage nations and children, he proves to lie neither universal nor 

 primary, and arrives at the conclusion that neither particular ideas 

 nor general principles of knowledge or morals are antecedent to 

 experience. 



The only source of human knowledge is experience, which is two- 

 fold, cither internal or external, according as it is employed about 



