503 



LOCKE. 



Shaftesbury, and dumrellor, appointed Mr Locke 

 srretary of presentations, which office, however, he 

 lost the following year, when the earl was obliged to 

 resign the seals, Being still president of the board 

 of trade, that nobleman then made Mr Locke secre- 

 tary to the same; but, the commission being dissolved 

 in 1674, he lost that appointment also. In the fol- 

 lowinn- year, he graduated as a bachelor of physic, 

 and, being apprehensive of a consumption, travelled 

 into France, and resided some time at Montpellier. 

 In 1679, he returned to England, at the request of 

 the earl of Shaftesbury, then again restored to power ; 

 and, in 1682, when that nobleman was obliged to 

 retire to Holland, he accompanied him in his exile. 

 On the death of his patron, in that country, aware 

 how much he was disliked by the predominant arbi- 

 trary faction at home, he chose to remain abroad j 

 and was, in consequence, accused of being the author 

 of certain tracts against the British government ; 

 and, although these were afterwards discovered to be 

 the work of another person, he was arbitrarily ejected 

 from his studentship of Christ church, by the king's 

 command. Thus assailed, lie continued abroad, nobly 

 refusing to accept a pardon, which the celebrated 

 William Penn undertook to procure for him, expres- 

 sing himself, like the chancellor L'Hopital, in similar 

 circumstances, ignorant of the crimes of which he had 

 been declared guilty. In 1685, when Monmouth 

 undertook his ill-concerted enterprise, the English 

 envoy at the Hague demanded the person of Mr 

 Locke, and several others, which demand obliged 

 him to conceal himself for nearly a year ; but, in 

 1686, he again appeared in public, and formed a 

 literary society at Amsterdam, in conjunction with 

 Limborch, Leclerc, and others. During the time of 

 his concealment, he also wrote his first Letter con- 

 cerning Toleration, which was printed at Gouda, in 



1689, under the title of Epistola de Tolerantia, and 

 was rapidly translated into Dutch, French, and Eng- 

 lish. At the revolution, he returned to England, in 

 the fleet which conveyed the princess of Orange, and, 

 being deemed a sufferer for the principles on whicli 

 it was established, he was made a commissioner of 

 appeals, and was soon after gratified by the establish- 

 ment of toleration by law. In 1690, he published his 

 celebrated Essay concerning Human Understanding, 

 which he had written in Holland. It was instantly 

 attacked by various writers. It was even proposed, 

 jit a meeting of the heads of houses of the university 

 of Oxford, to formally censure and discourage it ; 

 but nothing was finally resolved upon, but that each 

 master should endeavour to prevent its being read in 

 his college. Neither this, however, nor any other 

 opposition, availed ; the reputation, both of tiie work 

 and of the author, increased throughout Europe ; 

 and, besides being translated into French and Latin, 

 it had reached a fourth English edition, in 1700. In 



1 690, Locke published his second Letter on Tolera- 

 tion ; and, in the same year, appeared his two 

 Treatises on Government, in opposition to the prin- 

 ciples of Sir Robert Filmer, and of the whole pas- 

 sive-obedience school. He next wrote a pamphlet 

 entitled Some Considerations of the Consequences of 

 lowering the Interest and Value of Money (1691, 

 8vo), which was followed by other smaller pieces on 

 the same subject In 1692, he published a third 

 Letter on Toleration, and, the following year, his 

 Thoughts concerning Education. In 1095, he was 

 made a commissioner of trade and plantations, and, 

 in the same year, published his Reasonableness ot 

 Christianity, as delivered in the Scriptures, which 

 being warmly attacked by doctor Edwards, in his 

 Socinianism Unmasked, Locke followed with a first 

 and second Vindication, in which he defended him- 

 ielf in a masterly manner. The use made by Toland, 



and other latitudinarian writers, of the premises laid 

 down in the Essay on the Human Understanding, at 

 length produced an opponent in the celebrated 

 bishop Stillingfleet, who, in his Defence of the Doc- 

 trine of the Trinity, censured some passages in 

 Locke's Essay ; and a controversy arose, in which 

 the great reading and proficiency in ecclesiastical 

 antiquities of the prelate yielded, in an argumentative 

 contest, to the reasoning powers of the philosopher. 

 With his publications in this controversy, which were 

 distinguished by mildness and urbanity, Locke retired 

 from the press, and his asthmatic complaint increas- 

 ing, he resigned his post of commissioner of trade 

 and plantations, observing that he could not, in con- 

 science, hold a situation, to which a considerable 

 salary was attached, without performing the duties 

 of it. From this time, he lived wholly in retirement, 

 where he applied himself to the study of Scripture ; 

 while the sufferings incidental to his disorders were 

 materially alleviated by the kind attentions and 

 agreeable conversation of lady Masham, who was 

 the daughter of the learned doctor Cudworth, and, 

 for many years, his intimate friend. Locke continu- 

 ed nearly two years in a declining state, and at 

 length expired in a manner correspondent with his 

 piety, equanimity, and rectitude, October 28, 1704. 

 He was buried at Oates, where there is a neat monu- 

 ment erected to his memory, with a modest Lathi 

 inscription indited by himself. 



The moral, social, and political character of this 

 eminent man, is sufficiently illustrated by the fore- 

 going brief account of his life and labours ; and the 

 effect of his writings upon the opinions and even 

 fortunes of mankind, is the best eulogium on his 

 mental superiority. In the opinion of doctor Reed, 

 he gave the first example in the English language, 

 of writing on abstract subjects with simplicity and 

 perspicuity. No author has more successfully pointed 

 out the danger of ambiguous words, and of having 

 indistinct notions on subjects of judgment and reason- 

 ing ; while his observations on the various powers of 

 the human understanding, on the use and abuse of 

 words, end on the extent and limits of human 

 knowledge, are drawn from an attentive reflection on 

 the operations of his own mind. In order to study 

 the human soul, he went neither to ancient nor to 

 modern philosophers for advice, but, like Male- 

 branche, he turned within himself, and, after having 

 long contemplated his own mind, he gave his reflec- 

 tions to the world. Locke was a very acute thinker, 

 and his labours will always be acknowledged with 

 gratitude, in the history of philosophy ; but, at the 

 same time, it must be remembered, that, in attempt- 

 ing to analyze the human soul, as an anatomist pro- 

 ceeds in investigating a body, piece by piece, and 

 to derive ideas from experience, he has unintention- 

 ally supported materialism. His declaration, that 

 God, by his omnipotence, can make matter capable 

 of thinking, has been considered dangerous in a 

 religious point of view. Locke's great work, his 

 Essay on the Human Understanding, which he was 

 nineteen years in preparing, owes its existence to a 

 dispute, at which he was present, and which he per- 

 ceived to rest on a verbal misunderstanding, and, con- 

 sidering this to be a common source of error, he was led 

 to study the origin of ideas, &c. The influence of this 

 work has rendered the empirical philosophy general, 

 in Britain and France, though in both countries, 

 philosophers of a different school have appeared. 

 (See Cousin.} Henry Lee and Norris (in Oxford) 

 were among his earliest opponents. In France, 

 Jean Leclerc (Clericus) distinguished himself parti- 

 cularly as a partisan of Locke ; and 'sGravesande 

 spread his philosophy, by compendiums, in Holland 

 Amidst the improvements in metaphysical studies 



