It was characteristic of the new age, anxious to fix the grounds of opinion Locke and base thought in each province exactly, that it should turn to the phenomena of the human mind and inquire into the sources of knowledge. This work fell particularly to the share of that candid and independent philosopher JOHN LOCKE, and the

celebrated Essay Concerning the Human Understanding (1690), in which he elaborates the thesis that all knowledge is derived from experience, marks a crisis in psychological literature. Locke derived all our ideas from sensation and reflection, believing the mind to be a passive recipient of simple ideas, which it cannot in the first instance create, but can retain, and can so modify and multiply as to form that infinity of complex ideas which we call the Understanding. In short, he protested against the intuitionist doctrine of "innate notions" being brought into the world by the soul at birth. Where Locke's method and teaching, however, were pecu

John Locke

liarly useful was in their admirable challenge to those pedantic assumptions and baseless propositions which had up to his time disturbed philosophy. Locke refuses to parley with the obscurities of the schools, and he sits bravely in the dry and searching light of science.

Locke's contributions to theology are marked by the same intense determination to arrive at truth, and he was accused of having been the unconscious father of the deists. But, in fact, in religion, as in philosophy, his attitude is not so much sceptical as scrupulous. He ardently desires to get rid of the dubious and the non-essential. His candour is not less displayed in his tractates on education and government. Everywhere Locke is the embodiment of enlightened common-sense, toleration, and clairvoyance. He laid his hand on the jarring chords of the seventeenth century, and sought to calm and tune them, and in temperament, as in influence, he was the inaugurator of a new age of thought and feeling. He was the most

liberally-minded man of his time, and in his modesty, candour, and charity, no less than in the astounding reverberations caused by his quiet philosophical utterances, Locke reminds us of Charles Darwin. As a writer he is not favourably represented by the Essay, which is arid in form, and at no time was he in possession of an attractive style; but in some of his more familiar treatises we see how lucid and simple he could be at his best, and how completely he had exchanged the ornate manner of the Commonwealth for a prose that was competent to deal with plain matters of fact.

John Locke (1632-1704), the son of a country attorney of the same name, was born at Wrington, near Bristol, on the 29th of August 1632. The elder John Locke

joined the Parliamentarian party
in 1642, as the captain of a troop
of horse. His son went to West-
minster in 1646, and to Christ
Church College, Oxford, in 1652.
Locke early began to reflect upon
philosophy, and to prepare for his
life's work. In 1660 he was
appointed Greek lecturer at his
college, and in 1661 the deaths
of his father and his only brother
He
left him alone in the world.
held in succession various offices
at the university, and in 1665 he
travelled in Germany. During

the next year he met accidentally
the famous Lord Ashley (after-
wards the first Earl of Shaftes-
bury), with whom he formed an
instant friendship-"if my lord
was pleased with the company
of Mr. Locke, Mr. Locke was
yet more so with that of my Lord
Ashley." This was an epoch in

the life of the philosopher, who shortly afterwards took up his residence with Lord Ashley, and became a recognised member of his family. It is believed that Lord Ashley urged Locke to put down his reflections on paper, and that it is to him that we owe the early writings of the philosopher. He published nothing, however, until

twenty years later than this. In June 1668, he removed a tumour in Lord Ashley's chest, which was threatening his life; a little later he went round the country

to search for a wife for young Anthony Ashley; in 1671 he attended Lady Dorothy Ashley, and helped to bring into the world the child who became famous as the third Earl of Shaftesbury. In short, as the latter says, "all was thrown upon Mr. Locke,” who was factotum to the family. All this time, however, although Locke was immersed in medical studies, he was not a qualified practitioner, nor did he ever proceed beyond Bachelor of Medicine. As Ashley rose to the highest offices in the state, Locke's responsibilities and emoluments increased; at one time the colony of Carolina was wholly under his charge (1670), and after Shaftesbury (as Ashley became in 1672) was made Lord High Chancellor of England, Locke administered his ecclesiastical patronage. But when Shaftesbury fell, Locke "shared with him in dangers, as before in honours and advantages," retaining, however, after the fall of his patron, the nominal post of Secretary to the Board of Trade, which Shaftesbury had secured for him in 1673. As, however, his salary was never paid, he was glad to resign this office in 1675. His health was now giving him

anxiety, and in November of that year he left England to settle at Montpellier, which he left for Paris in 1677. He travelled considerably in France, and did not return to England until 1679, when Shaftesbury was restored for a short time to power. During the events which led to Shaftesbury's indictment and flight, Locke lived "a very cunning and unintelligible life," but after his master's fall, settled quietly

in Oxford, and then retired to his family estate in Somersetshire. In the autumn of 1683 he seems to have thought it necessary to escape to Holland, where he began to plan his essay on the Human Understanding. During his absence, he was expelled from his studentship at Christ Church College. He lived an obscure and inconvenient life, sometimes in considerable danger, until 1689, when he was able to return to England. In 1690 he published his Essay in folio form, and an English version of his Epistola de Tolerantia in 1689. He thus, at the age of nearly sixty, began his literary career, and now proceeded to publish abundantly. These early works, which attracted a great deal of controversial interest, were strictly anonymous. Locke settled at first in Westminster, where, however, his delicate chest suffered seriously from the fog (malignus fumus) of the town. The death of Shaftesbury had almost coincided with the formation of Locke's other great life-intimacy, that with Damaris Cudworth, Lady Masham, whom he had known before he left for Holland. He was in 1691 persuaded to make Oates, Sir Francis Masham's manor-house at High Laver, his home. Retreating to this quiet place, Locke devoted himself for the next five years with astonishing energy to literary work, but after this was drawn more and more into practical administration. He was a member of the Council of Trade from 1696 to 1700, and carried out many important reforms. After the latter year he

VOL. III.

retired from public life, and lived mainly at Oates, surrounded by a devoted affection and friendship, in active mental employment, and here he resisted as well as he could. his increasing weakness of body. He remained cheerful, but, as he said, "the dissolution of the cottage was not far off." On the 28th of October 1704, Locke died peacefully in the arms of Lady Masham, who had for so many years been like a daughter to him. He was buried in the churchyard of High Laver, under a sententious Latin epitaph composed by himself. His posthumous writings were collected in 1706. His work consists of a series of treatises on psychology, religion, education, government, and finance, each bearing a close relation to the others, and all in combination having exercised a remarkable influence on the progress and civilisation of Europe. It has been observed that, to give a just idea of the influence of Locke, it would be necessary to write the history of philosophy from his time to our own.

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FROM THE "ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING." To those who are willing to get rid of this great hindrance of knowledge-for to such only I write to those who would shake off this great and dangerous impostor Prejudice, who dresses up falsehood in the likeness of truth, and so dexterously hoodwinks men's minds, as to keep them in the dark, with a belief that they are more in the light than any that do not see with their eyes, I shall offer this one mark whereby prejudice may be known. He that is strongly of any opinion, must suppose-unless he be self-condemned -that his persuasion is built upon good grounds, and that his assent is no greater than what the evidence of the truth he holds forces him to; and that they are arguments, and not inclinations or fancy, that make him so confident and positive in his tenets. Now if, after all his profession, he cannot bear any opposition to his opinion, if he cannot so much as give a patient hearing, much less examine and weigh the arguments on the other side, does he not plainly confess it is prejudice governs him? And it is not evidence of truth, but some lazy anticipation, some beloved presumption, that he desires to rest undisturbed in. For if what he holds be as he gives out, well fenced with evidence, and he sees it to be true, what need he fear to put it to the proof. If his opinion be settled upon a firm foundation, if the arguments that support it, and have obtained his assent, be clear, good, and convincing, why should he be shy to have it tried whether they be proof or not? He whose assent goes beyond his evidence, owes this excess of his adherence only to prejudice, and does, in effect, own it when he refuses to hear what is offered against it; declaring thereby, that it is not evidence he seeks, but the quiet enjoyment of the opinion he is fond of, with a forward condemnation of all that may stand in opposition to it, unheard and unexamined.

The "witty" Dr. Robert South (1634-1716) was the son of William South, South a wealthy London merchant, in

whose house in Hackney the future divine was born on the 4th of September 1634. That the boy was precocious and daring is shown from the anecdote that, on the day when Charles I. was executed, South, whose turn it was to read the Latin prayers in Westminster School, took occasion to pray for the king by name. He was a prime favourite with the formidable Dr. Busby, who sent him, an advanced scholar, to Christ Church, Oxford, in 1651. South entered into holy orders in 1658, being privately ordained by one of the deprived Bishops, and in 1660 he was elected Public Orator to his university. His promotion in the Church was steady and rapid. In 1676 he was sent on an embassage to Poland, where he saw much to gratify "his naturally curious and inquisitive temper." In 1678 South received the valuable rectory of Islip, where, and at Caversham, he resided, wealthy, much respected, and intellectually active,

for many years. In 1685 he refused an Irish archbishopric. He was so much excited

*