LOCKE, JOHN, was b. at Wrington, near Bristol, on Aug. 29,1632. His father was steward to col. Popham, and served under him as capt. in the parliamentary army dur ing the civil war. Locke was sent for his education to Westminster school, where he continued till 1651, when lie was elected a student of Christ church, Oxford. There be went through the usual studies, but seemed to prefer Bacon and Descartes to Aristotle. His tendency was towards experimental philosophy, and he chose medicine for his pro fession. In 1664 he went to Berlin as secretary to the British envoy, but soon returned to his studies at Oxford. In 1666 he made the acquaintance of lord Ashley, afterwards earl of Shaftesbury, and on his invitation went to live at his house. In 1672, when Shaftesbury became lord chancellor, Loclfg was appointed secretary of presentations, a. post which he afterwards exchanged for that of secretary to the board of traile. He was employed to draw up a constitution for the American province of Carolina, but his arti cles on religion were deemed too liberal, and the clergy got a clause inserted, giving the favor of the state exclusively to the established church. In 1675 he took up his residence at Montpellier for the benefit of his health. He had a,11 his life an asthmatic tendency, which at that time threatened to pass into consumption. At Montpellier, he formed the acquaintance of the earl of Pembroke, to whom his Egay is dedicated. In 1679 he rejoined the earl of Shaftesbury in England; but in 1682 the earl fled to Holland,' to avoid a prosecution for high treason. Locke bore him company, and so far shared with him the hostility of the government of James as to have his naine erased, by royal man date, front the list of students of Christ church. Even in Holland he was demanded of the states-general by the English envoy; but he contrived to conceal himself till tho English court ceased to trouble itself on his account. In 1687 his Essay on the Under standing, begun 17 years before, was finished; and an abridgment of it was published in French (1688) by his friend, Le Cleve, in his Ribliothegues, in which Locke had pub lished two years before his Method of a Commonplace Book. In 1689 appeared (also in
Holland) his first letter on Toleration. But in 1688, the year of the revolution, he came back to England in the fleet that conveyed the princess of Orange. He soon obtained from the new government the situation of commissioner of appeals, worth £200 a year. He took a lively interest in the cause of toleration, and in maintaining the principles of the revolution. In 1690 his Essay on the Understanding was published, and met with a rapid and extensive celebrity; and also a second letter on Toleration, and his well known Treatises on Government. In 1691 lie was engaged upon the momentous ques tion of the restoration of the coinage, and published various tracts on the subject. In 1692 he brought out a third letter on To/end/on, which, as well fIS Ille second, was a reply to the attacks made on the first. In 1693 was published his work on Education. In 1695 king William appointed him a cominissioner of trade and plantations. In the same year he published his treatise on The Reasonableness of Christianity, which was written to Promote William's favorite scheme of a comprehension of all the Christian sects in one national church. He maintained a controversy in defense of this book; he had another controversy in defense of the Essay on the Understanding, against Stilling fleet, the bishop of Worcester. His feeble health now compelled him to resign his office of commissioner of plantations, and to quit London; and he spent the remainder of his life at Oates, in Essex, at the seat of sir Francis Masham. His last years .%) ere very much occupied with the study of the Scriptures, on which he wrote several dissertations, which, with his little work, entitled On the Conduct of the Understanding, were pub lished after his death. He died Oct. 28, 1704.