John locke an essay concerning human understanding 01

HISTORICAL.PAGE AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMANE UNDERSTANDING, BY JOHN LOCKE.. art of education, political thought, theology, and bore the stamp of the Essay, or of reaction against it, to In

AN ESSAY CONCERNING

JOHN LOCKE

PROLEGOMENA, BIOGRAPHICAL, CRITICAL, AND HISTORICAL

PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS

BV HOKACE HAKT PRINTER TOTHEUNIVERSITY

Although more yearsago, by release from the pnhlic duties of theEdinburgh

lecture-room, may have hardly compensated for abatement

ofstrength in the evening oflife, I have gladly devoted

In each undertaking I have been encouraged by the

Idesire in particularto thank the Delegates, the

distin-guished successor in the University of Edinburgh, for reading the proofs ofthegreaterpart ofthepresent work,

assistanceof Mr Henry Barker.

A. C F

Fehi-uary 9, 1894.

I. What gave rise to the Essay(1670) xvi

II. Preparation tor theEssay: Locke'sEarlyLifein set, Oxford, and London (1632-70) xviii

Somer-III. PreparationOFTHEEssay; inLondon,France,andHolland

V. LockeatOates: ContemporaryCritics ofthe Essay

III. Connexion or Repugnance of Ideas, «. second Element Ixxv

V. Human Knowledge of Real Existences: Self, God, and

VI. HumanKnowledge of Ideasco-existingas Attributesand

VII. Human Knowledge of Ideas in theirAbstractRelations cviii

(C.) HISTORICAL.

PAGE

AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMANE

UNDERSTANDING,

BY JOHN LOCKE.

BOOK I.

NEITHER PRINCIPLES NOR IDEAS ARE INNATE.

CMM'.

HI. Otherconsiderations concerning Innate Principles,both

BOOK II.

166 183 193

Of

CHAP.

XII. Of Complex Ideas .

—

and First, of the Simple Modes of

XIX. Of the Modes of Thinking .

XX Of Modes of Pleasure and Pain

xxiiL Of our Complex Ideas of Substances

XXIV. Of Collective Ideas of Substances

XXVI. Of Ideas of Cause and Effect, and other Relatiok.s

XXVII. [Of Ideas of Identity and Diversity]

XXIX. Of Clear and Obscure, Distinct and Confused Ideas

XXXI. Of Adequate and Inadequate Ideas

XXXII. Of True and False Ideas

IX

PACE213

218238

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439' 471

486497502514527

Page6y,/i>r§70 feaii § 72

5

3o8\ yir' Inquiry, sect, vi.' zYcfi? ' Inquiry, sect, vii.'

art of education, political thought, theology, and

bore the stamp of the Essay, or of reaction against it, to

In the fourteen years that elapsed between its first Editions

forty in the course of last century, and by many since,

besides abridgments, and translations into Latin and

inter-pretations have been put upon its doctrines by its

innu-merable critics, from Stillingfleet and Leibniz in Locke's

Coleridge, Cousin, and Green, who treat the Essay as an

dealt with it largely at second hand; without that candid

which is necessary in the case of a book that deals with

composed by a man of affairs, who discussed questions

immediate interestsofhumanlife,as his occasional

It has been remarked as curious that there should be

no collated and annotated edition of this English sophical classic, notwithstanding the successive changesintroduced in the four English editions published under

was madethe subject of elaborate comment, by HenryLee,

Anti-Scepticism: orNotesiipon each chapterofMr LockesEssay,

with in controversial writers' ; and, according to the

judgment of Sir James Mackintosh, Lee 'has stated the

even Leibniz.' A more celebrated commentary on theEssay was that of Leibniz, in his posthumous Nonveaiix

form of dialogue, the doctrines of the Essay arehere

the

of the preface:—

'The Essay on the Understanding' he

says, 'by an illustrious Englishman, being one of the

Editions and Interpretations of the Essay, xiii

beautiful and esteemed works of the time, I have resolved

to make Remarks on it, because, having myself long

1 have hoped also that I might be able to profit by the

work of this author, not only in the way of relieving my

something to what he has done, which is less formidable

have cleared up some difficulties which he left

unin-vestigated It is true that I often differfrom him; but, so

far from denying the merit of famous writers, one bears

why, one differs from their opinions ; because we ought

to prefer reason to even their authority on questions

says a thousand things of which I approve, our systems

and mine to Plato; whilewe both diverge in many ways

Essay adapts his style more to the general reader than I

presses more strongly than Leibniz, when he mentions

'a natural elegancy of style; an unaffected beauty in his

as, 'above all,' the qualities which brought Locke'sEssay intopopularity—ajudgment which

readers may regard as an exaggeration of its literary

merits

Among more recent criticisms of the Essay the most Cousinand

celebrated are contained in Cousin's Ecole Sensualiste:

and

xiv Prolegomena.

sophical works of David Hume, by the late Mr Green,

Essayto the canons ofNeo-Hegelian dialectic

The The present work is meant partly as homage to its work." author's historical importance, as a chief factor in the

development of modern philosophy during the last two

those who, interested in the philosophical and theological

exclu-sively by its spirit and maxims They may thus study

intervening period The text has been prepared after

was alive, and also with the French version of Co.ste,

are bracketed, many of them significant, especially those

—

EssayconcerningHumane Understanding

—isretainedonthetitle-pageof theEssay,butisexchanged

in the body of the work for the modern form On the

'

and (occasionally) 'hath' of the earlyfolios I have also

analyseshavebeen removed from thebodyof the text to

ones annexed to sections where they were want'ino-.

theology, as well as in philosophical physics, is suggested

tothe ^^j^i,

offered arefor the most part intendedto keep the point fviewand leading purpose of theEssay steadily before thp

contemporaries, and his immediate predecessors and

Editions and Interpretations of the Essay, xv

philosophical or theological thought,towhich the

develop-ment through controversyof what was latent in the Essay

may havecontributed Thecorresponding portionsof the

Nouveaux Essais are often quoted, in the interest of thecontrast, and of the speculative insight of the German

philosopher In the Prolegomena Locke's individuality,

by constructive criticism oftheEssayitself, as a 'historical

invited to two opposite directions into which the Essay

(A.) BIOGRAPHICAL.

I. WHAT GAVE RISE TO THE ESSAY (1670)

Locke's TointerprettheEssayonemust rememberthe personality

to the in a singular degree the reflex of its author It has been

his Essay, the Essay, were '

prevailing obstacles to civil, religious, and intellectual

with some of the stormiest and most momentous in the

history of England, and then with the compromise andpeaceful settlement in which he bore an influential part

The Essay itself was the issue of an accident, and in

Amemor Here is his own explanation of the way in which, when

entered on his fifty-eighth year :—=Were it fit to trouble

thee withthe history of this Essay, I should tell thee that

on a subject very remote from this, found themselves

quickly at a stand, bythe difficulties that arose on every

side. After we had a while puzzled ourselves, withoutcommg anynearer a resolution ofthose doubts which per-

course; and that before we set ourselvesupon inquiries o'f

and see what objects our understandings were or werenot fitted to deal with This I proposed to the company

whoall readily assented; and thereupon itwas agreed

that

What gave rise to the Essay. xvii

I set downagainstour next meeting,gave the firstentrance

parcels; and, after long intervalsofneglect,resumed again,

aretirement, where an attendance on myhealth gave me

it.' Locke does not mention the subject which, on this

memorable occasion,puzzled theassembledfriends,and led

him to make an inquiryinto the constitution and limitsof

not left quite in the dark James Tyrrell, one of the

party, not unknown afterwards as a political and historical

Thedifficulties,accordingto this record,arose in the course

of a discussion about the 'principles of morality and

mixes itself up with all pi'ofound ethical and religious

thought; andLocke's undertakingwasthusassociatedfrom

At thetime of this fruitful reunion Locke was living in Locke'sLondon, inthe house ofthe first Earl ofShaftesbury,ashis

stances

confidential secretary and friend, a sharer in the public whenthis

work of the most remarkable statesman in the reign of took'place

middle life, in the vortex of politics, this man of affairs

history of Locke's mind may help to explain how Lord

xvlii Prolegomena:

II. PREPARATION FOR THE ESSAY: LOCKE'S

EARLY LIFE IN SOMERSET, OXFORD,

AND LONDON. (1632-70.)

^^^^ ^^ August 29, 1632, at Wrington, under the shadow

of the Mendip hills—that his boyhood was spent at

Pensford, in the fertilevalley of the Chew,six miles

was several years older than his father, 'pious and

attorney, 'kept his eldest son, when he was a boy, in much

awe and at adistance, but relaxing still by degrees ofthatseverity as he grew up to be a man,till he, beingbecome

home trainingat Beluton must have been often interrupted,inasmuch as the fatherjoined the army of the Parliament,

in which, after two years' service, he rose to be captain,andintheendso sufferedinthose troubled timesthatheleft

incidents oftheboyhood ofJohn Locke We seeaslender

whichhis fatherwas for a time an actor As Locke wrote

the fatherfound a place for theboy, when he was fourteen,

years at Westminster Little that is significant has been

among his schoolfellows It was in those

Preparation for the Essay xix

CalvinistictheologyintheJerusalem Chamber; and in one

In 165a Locke gained a scholarship at Christ Church Lockeat

^^/s^fifj'''^'

now becomes more distinct We see him in Cromwellian

CromwellChancelloroftheUniversity,withJohn Owen,the

famous Puritan divineand apostle of a political toleration

Vice-Chancellor The idea of toleration professed by Owen

and the Independents was probably not without influence

on theyoungscholarfromWestminster Buthishereditary

sympathywith thePuritans seems to haveabated at Christ

'what was called general freedom was general bondage

It was true that even in Cromwellian Oxford the Aristotle

ofthe Schoolmen still determined the studies of theplace,

which wereuncongenial to Locke, because 'perplexed with

intercoursewithpersonsto intercoursewith books ' I have

often heard him say,' Lady Masham reports,'that he had

little light broughtthereby to his understanding; that he

becamediscontented withhismanneroflife,andwishedthat

his father had rather designed him for anything else than

what he wasthere destined to.' He sought the company

of pleasant and witty men, whom he delighted to meet,

after-wardsdescribed'JohnLockeofChrist Church, nowa noted

spirit, clamorous and discontented While the rest of our

XX Prolegomena Biographical.

the said Locke scorned to doso, butwas ever prating andtroublesome.' Nevertheless, in 1658 he took his master'sdegree, on the same day asJoseph Glanvill, who was akin

of the Vanity of Dogmatisitig and the Scepsis Scientifica,

works probably notwithout influenceupon theEssay

Awakened The year of the Restoration was an important one in

lifeby Christ Church Soon after, by the death of his father, heDescartes.

The modern disposition to free inquiry was finding its

the colleges; and self-education was thus encouraged in

a strong personality The chief philosophical works of

were awakening intellect in the universities of Europe

The Human Nature and Leviathan of Hobbes, and the

Syntagma Philosophicum of Gassendi followed, during

with the works of Hobbes, and is silent about Gassendi

But he was strongly attracted to Descartes 'The first

books, as Mr Locke has told me,' Lady Masham writes,

'which gave him a relish of philosophical thingswerethose

of Descartes He was rejoiced in reading these, because,though he very often differed in opinion from this writer,

whence he was encouraged to think that his not having

in his understanding.' Descartes, often named in Locke's

says that any man who loves truth must examine once at

knowledge nothing beingmoreabsurd thantoargue about

Preparation for the Essay xxi

relative competencyof the mind ofman.

a^^^^'"''

sympathy with free inquiry, in reaction against scholastic of

research became fashionable in England afterthe Restora- medicine.

Royal Society was founded in 1660 at Oxford Wallis

Barrow and Newton, at Cambridge, were helping to make

investigation ofnature take the place ofthe 'vermiculate

questions of medieval philosophy About 1664 theyoung

a sort of amateur practice in Oxford Although he never

took a doctor's degree, he was in later life familiarly

to a variety of interests Besides, he inherited a delicate

constitution, unfavourable to practice as a physician, and

consumption and asthma But to the end he was fond

of the art of healing, and was ready on occasion to give

friendly medical advice

Locke early applied himselfto questions of social polity,

Investi-as well as to medicine The constitution of society, the

que"tfonci

relations of Church and State, and above all theright and of social

in sympathy with individual freedom, and in a spirit of

prudential utilitarianism His commonplace-books

be-tweenhistwenty-eighth and thirty-fourth year prove this.

Among them a fragment on the 'Roman Commonwealth,'

Oxford years isinan 'Essayconcerning Toleration,' foundamong his papers It anticipates principles on behalf of

essay is partly a plea for promoting a comprehensivenational church, by restoring Christianity to its original

and partly a vindication of civil and ecclesiastical liberty,

on the ground that it is foolish to employ persecution

as a means forproducing reasonable beliefs.

aca-demical, even in those early Oxford years Unexpectedly

of 1665, by an engagement of some months in diplomatic

secretary to Sir Walter Vane This introduced him to

life out of England and to business, but could hardly

have been meant as afirst step in adiplomatic career; for

gotoSpain, as secretaryof theembassy —'pulledboth ways

by divers considerations,' before he finallyresolved Thisaptly expressesLocke'sstateofmindinthese ChristChurch

years—pulleddifferentways bydivers tastesand ready

persistentintellectual purpose—Descartes,amateurmedical

inter-coursewith men inpublic affairs, each in turn

forsixteenyears of middle lifehis home was chiefly there,

'in the society of great wits and ambitious politicians,'

a manofaffairsandof the world,withoutmuch undisturbed

leisure. All this cameaboutthrough ameeting with Lord

due to the accidental absenceofDr.Thomas,the physicianfor whose advice that statesman was

Preparation for

the care of his patient, and the intercourse thus brought

about between the versatile statesman and the Christ

Churchstudent, with his many-sided interests, ripenedinto

friendship 'Soon after, my lord, returning to London,

desired Mr Lockethat from thattimehe would lookupon

him there in London as soon as he could.' So we are

toldby Lady Masham. Accordingly,in1667, ChristChurch

was exchanged for 'Exeter House in the Strand,' and

Lockehec2im.efactotumofthemoststrikingpolitical

person-agein the reign of Charlesthe Second

, , and was also encouraged m experiments, medical and ings.

surround-meteorological, by intercourse, amongst physicians and

experimentalists,with Sydenham and Boyle Sydenham's

approved of by an intimate and common friend of ours,

and one who has closely and exhaustively examined the

subject—I mean Mr John Locke; a man whom, in the

of our own time, few equals and no superior.' Locke's

in 1691, when Locke, addicted to kindred pursuits, edited

when Exeter House was his London home were chiefly

physicists and politicians We do not see him much in

the society ofmenofletters or moral philosophers There

isnotraceofintimacy with his formerschoolfellowDryden,

He met Evelyn occasionally, but there is no report of

may have him from Hobbes, who

fame

reunion

XXiv Prolegomena: Biographical.

St Lawrence Jewry from 1668 till 1683, a clerical moralist

famous^

took place which has made his name famous, and that

human life, nowthe secretary and friend of the intriguing

Understanding

tilOUEntS

sentenceslike these:—

regular formof a science, tottim,teres, atquerotundum, has

and history of diseases, with the safe and discreet way of

a map of the country True knowledge grew first in the

andthenvainlyexpectthat nature, or in truth God,should

prescribed to him whereas narrow and weak

Preparation for the Essay xxv

in a way utterlybeyond the reach of his apprehension;

—

curious fabric of the world, the workmanship of the

Almighty, cannot be perfectly comprehended by any

affecting-something of Deity, laboured by hisimagination to supply

parts of natural philosophy; and by how muchthe more it

seemed subtle, sublime, and learned,by so much the more

it proved pernicious and hurtful, byhindering the growth

of practical knowledge.' It was with this modest ideal of

humanknowledge,andsenseofthedependenceofour ideas

of things onour experienceof what things are, andnot on

'

a real knowledge of the actual attributes and powers of

empty phrases, the offspring of a vain conceit of innate

humanunderstandingupon experience, in ourinquiriesinto

the qualities and behaviour of the substances, material or

shows also a disposition to look to prudent action as thechief end of intellectual exertion; to clip the wings ofspeculation; and to disparage, as idle amusement, know-

xxvi Prolegomena

III. PREPARATION OF THE ESSAY: IN LONDON,

&5«,f

"'^

would be contained on one sheet ofpaper,' but that 'the

further he went the larger prospect he had,' till, in the

course of years, the work gradually 'grew to the bulk it

he 'set down against thenext meeting,' were perhaps

con-tained in the following sentences, found among his

Locke, anno 1671 Intellectus hnmanus, cum cognitionis

knowledge is founded on, and ultimatelyderives itselffromSense, or something analogous to it ; and may be calledSensation Whichis done by our senses, conversant about

particularobjects,whichgives us the simpleideasorimages

of things; and thus we come to have ideas of light and

motion or otherwise,it matters not here to consider: and

things which wecallsensible qualitiesare the simplest ideas

we have, and the first objects of the understanding.'— The

inquiryinwhich Locke nowengaged,ofwhichthis

accus-tomed to in his investigation of natural phenomena, or, as

observation, as the

investigating faculty Heturned to the study ofa human

amongotherfacts—thesupremefactindeed—thefactoffacts,which illuminatedall other facts, bybringing them into the

Preparation of the Essay. xxvii

the universe, and the extenttowhich intelligencecan with

of the actual behaviour of the human mind It was the

knowledgeofthings that meji arecapableof,and itssource

the human; not an a priori criticism either of infinite

Locke undertook to present—at a point too of extreme

opposition to the blind obedience to human authority,

which spoiled the medieval ideal of intellectual system,

verbally consistent with itself, but deduced as it seemed

only from definitions of words Independence of books

and tradition was the new ideal: ail in the individualistic

-temper favoured in England, where,as Humeremarks, 'the

great liberty and independence which every man enjoys,

allows himto display the manners peculiar to himself; so

'Intervals of neglect' must have often interrupted this Aretreat

f^^.^^^universe,in the five years that immediately followed the andstudy.memorable reunion in 1670 Earlyin 1672, Lord Ashley,

Shaftes-bury In the same year he became head of the Board

of Trade and Lord Chancellor This brought Lockeinto

closer relationwithpublic affairs, andin the following year

he was advanced to the Board ofTrade secretaryship Its

records illustrate the diligence, prudence, and methodical

of his weak health: the asthma from which he suffered

much in middle life, and more afterwards, was a trouble

xxviii Prolegomena :

France, wherehe lived for nearly four years, seekinghea

^^

and engaged in studying 'human understanding, par y^^

^_^

daily history may betraced in the circumstantial record o

vicrilant observation of the societyandpolitical institutions

of France, and interest in its natural curiosities ; lucid

imagina-tion. The most significant particulars are those whichpresent the Essayin process of formation At Montpellier

he was busied for months in revising and expandingmaterials which seem to have accumulated in the busy

waswith physicians, naturalists, jurists, and travellers; not

much, if at all, with metaphysicians Yet that was the

by Nicole, Arnauld, and Malebranche ; Leibniz coming

into view in Germany, and when Spinoza was

with-drawn bydeathin Holland Itdoes not appearthatLocke

the personal regard for the French philosopher that is

is mentioned amongst Locke's occasional associates.

Progress It is difficult to say how far the Essay had advanced

^eilie'r.

'book was completed,' he added, that he 'thought too

well of it to let it then go out ofhishands.' Itwas keptthere for ten other years, for more mature considerationthe additions and transformations the occasion of much

Preparation of

journals Thescientific rather than themetaphysicalhabit

of mind —the movement of events as determined by their

experi-mental medicine; observation of 'what is,' not ultimateinquiry'why it is,' is prevalent The aptness ofa human

blindsubmissiontoauthority,withoutseeingforthemselves ;

abstract maxims, and unwarranted assumptions, apt to

with oversight of man's appointed state of intellectual

mediocrity, and of the fact that a human understanding

is 'disproportionate to theinfinite extent of things' men

over-comethe disproportion; escapingthepainwhichsubmission

wordsvoid ofideas, and bybuildingon assumptions about

which the words relate, or even for forming probable sumptions about the behaviour of things; so that the first

pre-step to knowledge ofanything in the world isto admit theactual ideas in whichtheworld revealsitself to our senses

cometo be our own? In what cases are theycomplete?

inwhat must they remain for everincomplete and obscure,

diseases ofa human understanding; especially to abate its

vain pretensions; its indolent surrender ofitselftomaxims

XXX Prolegomena:

P^;f4^7JT„SLctS

ofknowledge—allwith intenttopromote usei

exercise in'the daily lifeof experience "^ tojolve p.re^y

speculative problems of kno-ng -'^ ^e^n

^ P y

•

official work A time of plots and counterplots followed.England seemed about to plunge into another civil war

enthu-siasm, to use his liberty in support of the Duke of

Monmouth, with the zeal of a partisan, contrary to the

and died at Amsterdam early in thefollowing year

in the four which Were spent by Locke first with his hands full in

followed his country seat of St Giles, again with his friend

Tyrrell in Oxfordshire, or at Christ Church, or with the

afterwards the authorofthe Chai'acteristics The news of

he was undera cloud; suspected and watched as thefriend

of the exiled statesman, although there is presumptive

daysin town and three out, and no one knows where he

the Dean of Christ Church'confidently affirms that

there

Preparation of the Essay xxxi

both in public and in private, discourses have been

be provoked to take anynotice,or discoverin word orlook

a physician'splace,whichfrees him fromthe exercise of thecollege/ The historyofhis studies inthe four years, spent

the early medical years at Oxford more than the

specu-lationsabout human understanding at Montpellier

Indif-ferenthealth and official lifehad interrupted the practice of

recordsofpatients in town andcountry,and the intercourse

and State, the difference between civil and ecclesiastical

church,but with 'a heart truly charitable to all pious andsincere Christians,' and so indifferent to questions oftheological controversy that no organized religious com- munitycanlayanexclusiveclaimtohim; but with a gravi-tation to the national church of England, as that in which

the freedom of thought he supremelyloved could best be

found There are signs now andthen that the Essay was

not forgotten Its essenceand spirit appear in the ing sentences, for instance, written in 1681 :—'All general

follow-knowledge is founded only upon true ideas, and so far as

we have thesewe are capable of demonstration, or certainknowledge: for he that hath the true idea of a circle ortriangleiscapableofknowing anydemonstration concerning

thesefigures; butifhe havenot thetrueideaofa scalenus,

not knowledge And the mind being capable of thus

xxxii Prolegomena

if men would employ their understanding to think mor

way of talkingoneafteranother The knowledgeoi natural

perfect ideas of theways and manners theyare produced

management of public or private affairs, depending upon

the various and unknown interests, humours,and capacity

that Physics, Polity, and Prudence are not capable of

the history of matter of fact, and a sagacity in inquiring

operationsandeffects. Knowledgethendepends upon rightand true ideas: opinion upon history and matter of fact.Hence it comes to pass that our general knowledges areaeternae veriiates, and depend not upon the existence oraccidents of things; for the truths of mathematics and

For that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two

right ones is infallibly true, whether there be any such

And it istrue that it is everyone'sdutyto bejust,whetherthere be anysuch thing as ajust man in the world or no.But whether this particular course in public or in private

affairs will succeed well; whether rhubarb will purge, or

therefore is but probability, grounded on experience oranalogical reasoning, butis nocertainknowledgeordemon-stration.' Human understanding, in short, cannot rise

conclusions regardingthebehaviour oftheactualsubstances

that compose the universe, or reach absolute certainty as

to any general propositions regarding their laws

which

Preparation of

been wellthought outwhen the last-quoted sentenceswere

written The 'survey ofthe extent ofhuman knowledge'

ground that unlesswe have ideas of things there is nothing

forthe mind toknow, and thereforeno knowledge

piatonigtsand philosophical theologian oftheAnglican Churchin the

Cam-bridge HisIntellectualSystemoftheUniversehadappeared

in 1678, when Locke was in France But members of the

Cudworth familynow figure in hislife, and wereassociated

with him to the end The association would be

philo-sophically interesting if the influence of Cudworth and of

CambridgerationalismcouldbetracedintheEssay Direct

learningofCudworth hadlittleincommonwith the'ideism'

andindividualism ofLocke Thereis no record ofpersonal

intercourse between them, and the Intellecttial System is

'the one which is most in fashion' and to 'the modern

would look further back, and acquaint himself with the

that I know' (§ 193) This was written when Locke was

an inmate in the family ofLady Masham, thedaughter of

Cudworth From Whichcote, another representative ofthe

sameschool,ifnotfromCulverwell,Lockeprobablyborrowed

tellsStillingfleetthat 'whether they come into view ot e

known bytheirnativeevidences.' Fowler,afterwards liishop

of Gloucester,anotherCambridgelatitudinarian,was one ot

incommonwiththeCambridgethinkersthan withanyother

Hertling, in hiselaboratevolume,JohnLockeunddieSchulevon Cambridge{\^'i). He suggests that Locke'sjuvenile

of Cambridge when the Essay was approaching

to speculate upon the consequences to philosophy, in

England and in Europe, if Locke had spenthis academical

life at Cambridge instead ofOxford, and had breathed itsatmosphere of Platonism, instead of pursuing physical

its Royal Society In that case the Essay might have

beenpervaded bya higher conception of the capacities ofmanthan thatwhich itsauthorisapt to find in the common

sense ofordinary human intelligence

country Earlier in the century Descartes made it his

Amsterdam six years before Locke found a home there

gloomy autumn of 1683 in England This was '

retire-mentinwhichattendanceon hishealthgave himleisure,'so

its readers received it on appearance LockeHolland.

Preparation of the Essay xxxv

the fine air of Montpellier, he had full leisure to prosecute

a work,' she adds, 'which in all probabilityhe would never

havefinishedhad he continued in England.' Curiosity and

'withall thebooks and other luggage that I brought from

England'—not to liveundisturbed even in this retirement

He was watched bythe authorities in England, where the

DeanofChristChurch, Dr Fell,in this sameyear deprived

of State—

belonged to the Earl of Shaftesbury, has upon several

tothe government,is a Student of ChristChurch'—desired

fromafriend ofthe Dean,'that nothinghad ever happened

which had troubled him more than what he had been

asincere respect, and whom he believed to be of as

the world.'

In Holland Locke founda friend in Philipvon Limborch, Limborch

lucid and learned, the leaderofliberaltheologyinHolland,

^heoi^l"'

successor of Episcopius as Remonstrant professor, andthe

friend of Cudworth, Whichcote, and More The copious

Christianity in its original simplicity In a letterto

Lim-borch, Lady Masham remarks that 'Mr Locke was born

and had finished his studies at a timewhen Calvinism was

infashioninEngland But these doctrines,'she adds, 'had

come to be little thought of before I came into the world^

' LadyMashamwasbornin 1659.

xxxvi Prolegomena

and Mr Locke used to speak of the opinions I had beenaccustomed to at Cambridge, even amongthe clergy there,

before he went to Holland, he had verylittle in common

his inherited Puritanism, and always with aversion to thesacerdotal form of Christianity, to which he was not

naturally attracted by historic sentiment or imagination,

in the history ofChristendom

LeCierc Le Clcrc was another of his Dutch friends, then the

rocke's youthful representative of letters and philosophy in the

of

author-withdrawn from Geneva and Calvinism into the milder

Le Clerc is associated with Locke's first appearance as

an author The Bibliothkque Universelle, commenced in

1686, under Le Clerc's auspices, soon became the chief

now in his fifty-fifth year, and afterwards a voluminousauthor, these occasional essays were his first contributions

to Lord Pembrokea few months before—

'that I did getthe reputation of no small writer without having done

that reputation Batingthese, I do solemnlyprotestinthe

libel,but notany pamphlet ortreatisewhatever, good, bad,

or indifferent.' The 'verses' had appeared in a volumein

praise ofCromwell, brought out byDr.John Owen in 1654,

in which Locke and other Oxford men figured As one might expect, those by Locke contain no poetry Histardiness as an author is significant It agrees with the

of xxxvii and is a contrast to the impetuous ardour which hurried

youth their bolder and more comprehensive speculations

inJanuary 1688

the famous Earl of Peterborough, with whom Berkeley

travelled in Italy a quarter of a century later. Locke was

known in Holland also to William of Orange William

then consummated in the compromise of the Revolution

settlement, ofwhich Locke, now rising into popular fame,

became the intellectual representative and philosophical

defender

IV PUBLICATION OF THE ESSAY: LONDON. (1689-91.)

Locke was busyin authorshipafter hisreturnto England TwoyearsAccording to Lady Masham, 'he continued for more than '"London,

all the pleasure there thatany one can find,who,afterbeing

longin a manner banished from his country, unexpectedly

dissatisfac-tion in this time, it could only be, I suppose, from the ill

success now and then of our publicaffairs ; for his private

nonegreaterthan that ofspending onedayeveryweekwith

my Lord Pembroke, in aconversation undisturbed bysuch

minds —free discourse concerning useful truths His old

enemy, the town air,did indeed sometimes make war upon

now Earl

Peter-xxxviii Prolegomena

boroughand his ladyafforded himpleasingaccommodation

on these occasions, at a house of theirs atParsons Green,

Mr Locke always took pleasure in.' Those two years in

London were spent in hired apartments, in the house of

On the plea ofhealth, in the month after his return from

Branden-burg,contented withamodest CommissionershipofAppeals,

as an official recognition by the new government

Pioneers Locke now worked diligently through the press, in

at Gouda, in 1689, a few weeks after he landed in England, and translated into English in the following summer by

William Popple, vindicated freedom of opinion in religion

economy and jurisprudence which anticipated Hume and

also written in Holland, which came out early in the

following year

Publica- These twowere pioneers of theEssayconcerningHuman

March March 3690 It proposed a way of escape from the

' ^°'

bondage of too easilycredited maxims that were supposed

multitude, or to sustain rash excursions of philosophers

'into the vast ocean of being'; without due regard to

understanding, when man seeks to know the qualities

and powers of existing things. The Essay was the first

pru-dential or other reasons he resumed the veil in most of

and Le Clerc in 1689 shows him in all that year busied in

carrying theEssay through the press Weare told thathe

got ^30 for the copyright, about the same sum as Kant

Locke Oates: Critics ofthe Essay, xxxix

received, ninety-one years after, for the philosophical

com-plement of theEssay —theKritik of PureReason

V LOCKE AT OATES: CONTEMPORARY CRITICS

OF THE ESSAY. (1691-1704.)

The Epistola de Tolerantia, followed, in October 1690, The Manor

bya Secojid Letteron Toleration—the Treatiseon Govern- JJ°"=^Oates =>'ment — and the Essay concerning Human Understanding, andthe

con-victionsgraduallyformed byobservationofthe collisions of

increased in London. Itwas early in 1691 that the home

ofhisold age,the brightest ofhis homes,opened to receive

him This wasthe retired manor house of Oatesin Essex,

between Ongar and Harlow,thecountryseat of SirFrancis

Masham Lady Masham, married when Locke was in

diedthreeyears beforeLocke wentto liveat Oates In the

Masham told LeClerc, Locke had, 'by some considerably

is some twenty miles from London, and he thought none

would be more suitable for him His companycould not

butbe verydesirable for us, and he had all the assurance

so on his own terms, which Sir Francisat last assentingto,

he then believed himself at homewith us, and resolved,if

Esther Masham, a bright girl then about sixteen, who

became Locke'sfavouritecompanion in thesimplepleasures

remaining years presents as much domestic happinessand

' Dr.Cudworthdied in 1688.

xl Prolegomena

particularly in 1696 and the four following years, when,as

a Commissioner of the Board of Trade, with an income of

^1000 a year,he became again involved in official cares.Onerelaxationwasthe society ofvisitorswho wereattracted

on his way to or from Cambridge, Molyneux from Dublin,

Fowler, the latitudinarian Bishop of Gloucester, and the

free-thinkingAnthony Collins, then ayoung Essex squire

^hical°' industryand method assoonasLocke was settledatOates,

Essay. Essay,sooninvolved him in controversieswhich lastedwith

1695 and 1700, with important changes and new chapters

by Norris, Thomas Burnet, Lowde, Sherlock, Sergeant,

Leibniz, and Lee; the famous controversy with

Stilling-fleet ; the posthumous tractate on the Condiict of the

the Essay; the Examination of Malebranche, and the

Remarks on Norris, both posthumous — formed the sophical work at Oates, in these fourteen years, along

Limborch, and latterly Anthony Collins The spondence between Locke and Molyneux throws light on

corre-many parts of the Essay It arose incidentally In

December 1692 abook reached Locke at Oates, presented

by its author, William Molyneux, an eminent young

Dioptrica Nova. In its preface Molyneux wrote, with

reference to logic, that 'to none do we owe more for

a greater advancement of this part of philosophy than tothe mcomparable Mr Locke, who in his Essay concerning

Human Understanding, hath rectified more

received

on

m the prosecution of knowledge, than

are to be met

Locke Oates Critics ofthe Essay. xli

in all thevolumes ofall theancients Hehas clearly

over-thrown all those metaphysical whimsies which infected

aknowledge when theyhad none, by making a noise with

sounds, without clear and distinct significations.' The

of an affectionate interchange of thoughts between its

improvements in the successive editions of theEssay, and

till the unexpected death of Molyneux, in October 1698,

a few weeks after his visit to Oates Through him the

Essay made way in Dublin, as it had made wayat Oxford,

with thehelp ofWynne'sAbridgment, published in 1696

The Essay rapidly attained a wide popularity, unpre- Popularity

The French versionappeared soon after the fourth English

edition of theEssay, and has itself passed through several

Contro-place among the memorable controversies of the philoso- stiUm™'phical world Itarosein thisway:—Toland,theIrish Pan- fleet.

somedoctrines in theEssay, and then adopted them thus

1696, Bishop Stillingfleet, a learned ecclesiastic more than

a philosophical reasoner, in a Vindication of the Trinity,

revelation Locke replied, early in the next year, in

a Letter of 227 pages, defending his ideas of substance

aReply or Second Letterfrom Locke,in August, nearly as

longas the first,in which he insists on the wide meaning

'thegreatest part ofa book treating ofthe Understanding

are '

respects obscureand mysterious; and then returns to our

ideas of 'substances,' of •'

essences 'real and nominal.' The Bishop answered this

in 1698 Locke's elaborate Reply was delayed till 1699

In it he pursues, with immense expenditure of vigorous

lordship has said concerning certainty by reason, certainty

same body; the immateriality of the soul ; the sistency of Mr Locke's notions with the articles of theChristian faith, and their tendency to sceptism {sic) is ex-amined.' The death of Stillingfleet inthe same year ended

incon-this trial ofintellectualstrength

The Essay had encountered criticism almost as soon as

form ofan assault on 'innate ideas andprinciples,' shockedthose who had been accustomed to defer to authority, and

to feed theirminds on abstractions In 1690 John Norris,afterwards a successor of George Herbert as Rector ofBemerton, an English mystic, the friend of Henry More

and of Lady Masham, and a disciple of Malebranche,

innate or natural principles,' and for then '

inconsistentlygranting that '

there are self-evident propositions to which

that It is not consciously given in many cases; '

a contradiction to assert,' so Locke argued, 'that there can

be anytruths imprinted on the soul of which the soul is

unconscious.' This brochure of Norris is interesting for

a recognition thusearly,byan English writer, of the cation oflatent or unconscious reasonin human experience