parent in Locke, who, from a false theory, studiously, during many years, laboured to deprive his works of the advantage and charm derived from the judicious use of tropes and figures.

To proceed, however, with our outline of his life. "The occupations which now engaged the attention of this great man," says Lord King, were of the most varied and opposite description. He was at the same time a practical politician, and a profound speculative philosopher; a man of the world, engaged in the business of the world, yet combining with all those avocations the purity and simplicity of a primitive Christian. He pursued every subject with incredible activity and diligence; always regulating his numerous inquiries by the love of truth, and directing them to the improvement and benefit of his country and of mankind."

He now, in defence of the rights of the people, published his work on Government; and in the following year, 1690, a Second Letter on Toleration, in which he further developed the principles of religious liberty. About this time, it is supposed, he became acquained with Newton, Sir John Somers, and the celebrated Earl of Peterborough, with whom, when either happened to be absent from London, he kept up a regular correspondence. With Newton also he occasionally corresponded; and there have been preserved and

published several letters of this great man, partly relating to his "Account of the Corruptions of Scripture," which prove at once the irritability, goodness of heart, ingenuousness, and constitutional timidity of that Lux altera gentis.

In 1691 Locke published his "Considerations on the Lowering of Interest," to which, in 1695, further considerations, forming a second part, were added. His object, in this work, was to demonstrate the injustice of raising the denomination and lowering the standard of the currency; and in the great recoinage of 1695 his advice was followed, and the current money of the realm restored to the full legal standard. He at the same time anticipated the conclusion, if not the arguments, of Bentham, in his " Defence of Usury;" showing that all attempts at regulating the rate of interest increase the difficulty of borrowing, while they prejudice none but those who need assistance. He was in this year, rather as a compliment than as a reward for his labours, nominated a member of the Council of Trade; an honour which, on account of his increasing infirmities, he during the following year resigned.

Though the feebleness of his constitution was incompatible with that continued residence in London, which the duties of a public office might have required, it seems by no means to have interfered with his literary labours; for in 1695 ap

d

peared his Reasonableness of Christianity;" and in the following year, his First and Second Vindications of this work, together with his then celebrated Letters to Stillingfleet, in defence of the Essay on the Human Understanding. Locke now resided with Sir F. and Lady Masham, at Oates, near Ongar, in Essex; where he enjoyed, what he appears always to have highly valued, the society of an intellectual and fascinating woman. Lady Masham was the daughter of Cudworth, author of the "Eternal Principles of Morality;" and there had subsisted for many years an intimacy between the philosopher and this amiable family, as appears from a letter addressed, in 1683, to her Ladyship's brother in Hindoostan. Locke's fondness for Voyages and Travels is well known. He in fact preferred them to almost every other kind of books; and, in this letter, we find him inquiring curiously about the tricks of the Indian jugglers, "which," says he, "must needs be beyond legerdemain ;" the notions of the Brahmins, concerning spirits and apparitions; and their religious opinions and ceremonies, of which he had obtained a tolerably correct idea from Bernier, with whom he was personally acquainted. He also desired to learn whether any copies of the Old or New Testament, in any language, existed among the oriental nations, previous to their communications with Europeans, consequent upon the

discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope.

In this agreeable retirement he spent the last four years of his life, engaged in the study of St. Paul's Epistles, on which he composed a commentary, published among his posthumous works. Though struggling with an incurable disease, his temper continued calm and unruffled. His interest in the welfare of his friends was unabated. Cheerful, but resigned to his fate, he saw death approach without perturbation he had lived like a Christian, and hoped to meet, in another world, with a Christian's reward. In the month of October, 1704, it became evident that his dissolution was at hand; and on the 27th, Lady Masham, not meeting with him in his study, went to his bedside, where she found him worn down and exhausted, and never expecting to rise again. He told her his earthly career was now terminated, and that in comparatively few hours he should be To those present he wished all felicity; and to Lady Masham, who lingered in his chamber longer than the rest, he expressed his gratitude to God for the great happiness he had tasted in his life; but added that he now found all here below was vanity; exhorting her to consider this world only as a state of preparation for a better. He overruled her desire to sit up with him, observing, that he might perhaps be able to sleep, and

no more.

would send for her, if any change should happen. Continuing awake all night, however, he in the morning was removed into his study, where he enjoyed a short sleep in his chair. He then desired to be dressed, and Lady Masham again coming to him he heard her, with great attention, read a portion of the Psalms; but feeling the near approach of death, stopped her, and a few minutes afterwards breathed his last, about three o'clock of the 28th of October, aged seventy-two years and two months.

Le Clerc, who, in the French manner, composed the eloge of Locke, concludes it with the character of the philosopher, derived from a person who knew him well, probably Lady Masham herself. This, with Lord King, we adopt as a judicious and excellent portraiture of the man :-" He was," says she, (and I can confirm her testimony in great measure, by what I have myself seen here,) "a profound philosopher, and a man fit for the most important affairs. He had much knowledge of belles lettres, and his manners were very polite and particularly engaging. He knew something of almost every thing which can be useful to mankind, and was thoroughly master of all that he had studied; but he showed his superiority by not appearing to value himself in any way on account of his great attainments. Nobody assumed less the airs of a master, or was less dogmatical; and he