874 LOG 
1672, lord Alhley was created earl of Shaftelbury, and ap¬ 
pointed lord high chancellor of England. His lordlhip 
immediately made Mr. Locke his fecretary of the prefen- 
tations; but he held that place only till the end of the 
following year, when the earl was obliged to refign the 
great feal. After this, lord Shaftelbury was prelident of 
the board of trade, and Mr. Locke was appointed fecre¬ 
tary to the fame. The commiflion being dilfolved in 
1674, he was again at leifure, was admitted to the degree 
of bachelor of phyfic, and began to turn his attention to 
that faculty, as the means of future fupport. He was at 
this time in the higheft eftimation with feveral perfons of 
eminence in the medical profeliion : Dr. Sydenham, among 
others, fpeaking of him, fays, “ If we confider his ge¬ 
nius, and penetrating and exaft judgment, or the 
nefs of his morals, he has fcarcely any fuperior, and few 
equals, now living.” In 1675, Mr. Locke fought relief 
from a pulmonary complaint by travelling to the fouth of 
France ; he afterwards fettled at Paris, where he obtained 
the friendlhip of feveral men of letters. In 1679, the earl 
of Shaftelbury, being reftored to favour at court, and 
made prefident of the council, fent to requeft that Mr. 
Locke would return home without delay. He inftantly 
complied ; but within fix months that nobleman was again 
difplaced, and in 1682 found it necellary to retire to the 
continent, to avoid a profecution for high treafon. Mr. 
Locke, fteadily attached to his patron, followed him into 
Holland ; and upon his lordlhip’s death, which happened 
foon afterwards, did not think it fafe to return to his na¬ 
tive country, where his intimate connection with lord 
Shaftelbury had created him fome powerful and malignant 
enemies. Their malice purfued him to the utmoft extent 
of their means; and. the dean of Chrift-church had orders 
from the king to ej eft Mr. Locke from his Undent’s place; 
which was accordingly done. On the accefiion of James II. 
William Penn, the quaker, who was the friend of Locke 
in his adverfity, ufed his intereft with the king to procure 
a pardon for him ; and would have obtained it, had not 
Mr. Locke declined the acceptance of fuch an offer, de¬ 
claring that he had no occafion for a pardon, having never 
been guilty of any crime. 
In 1685, when the duke of Monmouth and his party 
were making preparations in Holland for his ralh and un¬ 
fortunate enterprife, the Englilh envoy at the Hague de¬ 
manded that Mr. Locke, among others, Ihould be given 
up, on fufpicion of being actively engaged in the un¬ 
dertaking. ’ This fufpicion, though entirely groundlefs, 
obliged him to lie concealed nearly a year; till it was 
rendered perfectly evident, even to his enemies and their 
i'pies, that he had no concern whatever in the bufinefs. 
Towards the end of the year 1686 he appeared again in 
public, and foon afterwards was the principal agent in 
forming a literary iociety at Amfterdam, of which Lim- 
borcli,"Leclerc, and other learned men, were members, 
who met together weekly for converfation upon fubjefts 
of univerfal learning. In the following year he finilhed 
his great work, the Effay concerning Human Underftand- 
ing, which had been the principal objeH of his attention 
feveral years, and which proves how well he fpent the pe¬ 
riod of his exile from England. That the public might 
be apprized of the outlines of his plan, he himfelf made 
an abridgment of it, which his friend Leclerc tranflated 
into French, and inlerted in one of his Bibliotheques. 
This abridgment was lb highly approved by the literati of 
that period, and by thole who were fincerely attached to 
truth and juft principles, that they took every opportu¬ 
nity of exprefling the ftrongeft defire to fee the complete 
work in its original ftate. During his concealment, he 
wrote his Firft Letter concerning Toleration, which was 
firft publifned in the Latin language at Gouda, in 1689-5 
but afterwards tranflated into Englilh, and publifiied in 
London in the year 1690. It was fpeedily tranflated into 
the Dutch and French languages, and has been exceed¬ 
ingly popular with liberal people of all countries from 
that, period to the prefezrt. It has been frequently rc- 
K E. 
printed in forms adapted for general circulation ; and has 
been diftributed by perfons of fortune and rank, among 
whom may be mentioned, in our own country, his grace 
the late duke of Grafton. This epiftle was followed by 
two others on the fame fubjeft; and A Fourth Letter 
concerning Toleration, was left unfiniftied ; but the frag¬ 
ment has been publifhed among his pofthumous works. 
To return, however, to the narrative of Mr. Locke’s 
life, in the order of time. The revolution of 1688 opened 
a way for his return into his own country, whither he came 
in the fame fleet which conveyed the princefs of Orange; 
and, upon the reftoration of public liberty, he did not he- 
fltate to affert his own private rights, and accordingly put 
in his claim to the ftudent’s place in the college of Chrift- 
church, of which he had been unjuftly deprived. For the 
fake of peace, he was advil’ed to defile from his claim. As 
he was confidered to be a fufferer for the principles of the 
revolution, he might have obtained fome very confidera- 
ble poft under government; but he contented himfelf with 
that of commiflioner of appeals, worth about 200I. per 
annum. In the year 1689, Mr. Locke had an offer to go 
abroad in a public character; but he declined the honour 
and advantages attached to fuch a fituation, on account of 
the infirm ftate of his health; and in the following year 
he publifiied his “ Effay,” which has given him an immor¬ 
tal reputation; and which, at the time, though it had 
many enemies, was ftyled “one of the nobleft, molt ufe- 
ful, and mod original, books the world ever faw.” Thofe 
who difliked every thing like innovation, oppofed the 
progrefs of our philofopher’s principles as laid down in his 
Effay. It was even propofed, at a meeting of the heads 
of the houfes of the univerfity of Oxford, to cenfure and 
difeourage the reading of it; and after long and warm 
debates among themfelves, it was agreed that each indi¬ 
vidual, at the head of a college, Ihould endeavour to pre¬ 
vent it from being read by the ftudents; a fure method 
of rendering every fpirited young man anxious to perufe 
it, and even to imbibe its principles. Mr. Locke’s next 
publication was his Two Treatifes on Government; in 
which he vindicated the principles upon which the re¬ 
volution was founded, and completely demoliflied fir Ro¬ 
bert Filmer’s falfe principles; pointing out, at the fame 
time, the true origin, extent, and end, of civil govern¬ 
ment. About this period, the public coin of the kingdom 
was known to be in a very bad and depreciated Hate, 
having, by being clipped and fweated, loft one-third of 
its weight. The magnitude of this evil, and the mifehiefs 
which it threatened, called for the attention of parliament; 
and Mr. Locke, with the view of afiifting thole who were 
at the head of affairs to form a right underftanding of 
this matter, and to excite them to rectify fuch abufes, 
printed a trafl, entitled Some Conliderations of the Con- 
fequences of lowering the Intereft, and railing the Value 
of Money. He publifhed other trafts on the fame fub- 
je6f, by which he convinced the world that he was as able 
to reafon on trade and bufinefs as on the moft abftraft 
quellions of fcience. He was accordingly conlulted by 
the miniftry relative to a new coinage of lilver. With the 
earl of Pembroke, then lord keeper of the privy feal, he 
was accuftomed to hold weekly conferences; and he was 
in habits of intimacy and friendlhip with the earl of Pe¬ 
terborough, at whofe houfe, at Fulham, he always met 
with a hofpitable and kind reception, when the delicacy 
of his health obliged him to quit the metropolis. When 
he was at length obliged to leave London entirely, he 
accepted of the generous offer of fir Francis Mafham, at 
Oates in Effex, to become a refident in his houfe, where 
he fpent the remainder of his life. Here he was received 
on his own terms, that he might have his entire liberty, 
and look upon himfelf as at his own home; and here he 
chiefly purlued his future ffudies, being leldom abfent, 
becaule the air of London grew more and more trouble- 
lonie to him. 
In 1693 he publifned his Thoughts on Education, which 
he improved in foine liibfequent editions; and in 1695 he 
was 
