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written his first Letter concerning Toleration, and soon after his return to England he was gratified by the establishment of toleration by law. In 1690 he published his celebrated Essay concerning the human understanding, which he had also written in Holland, and which soon extended his reputation throughout Europe. This great work, which he was nineteen years in preparing, owes its existence to a dispute at which he was present. and which he perceived to rest entirely on a verbal misunderstanding; and conceiving this to be a common source of error, he was led to investigate the subject of the origin of our ideas &c. In the result of his investigations he gave the first example in the English language of a treatise on an abstract subject, written with simplicity and perspicuity. No author has more successfully pointed out the danger of ambiguous words, and o. having indistinct notions on the subject of judgment and reasoning; while his observations on the various powers of the human understanding, on the use and abuse of words, and on the extent and limits of human knowledge, are drawn from an attentive reflection on the operations of his own mind.

In order to study the human soul, he went neither to ancient nor to modern philosophers for advice, but he turned within himself, and after having long contemplated his own mind, he gave his reflections to the world. The effect which his writings have had upon the opinions and over the fortunes of mankind constitutes the best eulogium on his mental superiority.

In 1690 Locke published his second Letter on Toleration, and in the same year appeared his two Treatises on Government, in opposition to the principles of the passive obedience school. In 1692 he published a third Letter on Toleration, and the following year his thoughts on Education. Next to his great work on the human understanding, unquestionably stand his two Treatises on Government, in which he exposes the weakness of the theorists of divine right and passive obedience; this was a favourite work with statesmen of the American Revolution, by whom it was constantly appealed to in their con

stitutional arguments. In 1695 he published his Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptures, which from its supposed leaning to Socinianism involved him in various controversies; these, however, were distinguished by remarkable mildness and urbanity. An asthmatic complaint, to which he had long been subject, now increased so much in violence, that Locke retired from the prefer, and also resigned his public employment, observing that he could not in conscience hold a situation to which a considerable salary was attached, without performing the duties of it. From this time he lived wholly in retirement, where he applied himself to the study of the Scriptures.

Locke continued nearly two years in a declining state, and at length expired in a manner corresponding with his piety, equanimity and rectitude of life, on the 28th of October, 1704. He was buried at Oater, where there is a neat monument erected to his memory, with a modest latin inscription, indited by himself.

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The house in which Locke was born, may still be

seen adjoining the churchyard of Wrington; it is now divided into two tenements, one of which is inhabited by the sexton of the parish. Under the same roof, although in a separate part, is the Girl's National School.

The house is in a ruinous condition, but such is the reverence manifested for this great man, that it is kept in as diligent repair as is consistent with the preservation of the sameness of the building. The entry of Locke's baptism stile remains in the Parish Register of Wrington. It is as follows:

Anno Dni. 1637,

Julie, 16. John the Sonne of Jeremy Locke, and Elizabeth his wife.

THUS I THINK.

From Locke's Miscellaneous papers, published in his life by Lord King.

It is a man's proper business to seek happiness and avoid misery. Happiness consists in what delights and contents the mind; misery in what disturbs, discomposes, or torments it.

I will therefore make it my business to seek satisfaction and delight, and avoid uneasiness and disquiet; to have as much of the one and as little of the other as may be.

But here I must have a care I mistake not; for if I prefer a short pleasure to a lasting one, it is plain I cross my own happiness.

Let me then see wherein consists the most lasting pleasure of this life, and that, as far as I can observe, is in these things:

1st. Health, without which no sensual pleasure can have any relish.

2d. Reputation,-for that I find every body is pleased with, and the want of it is a constant torment.

3d. Knowledge, for the little knowledge I have, I find I would not sell at any rate, nor part with for any other pleasure.

• As opposed to intellectual.

4th. Doing good,-for I find the well-cooked meat I eat to-day does now no more delight me, nay, I am diseased after a full meal; the perfumes I smelt yesterday now no more affect me with any pleasure: but the good-turn I did yesterday, a year, seven years since, continues still to please and delight me as often as I reflect on it.

5th. The expectation of eternal and incomprehensible happiness in another world is that also which carries a constant pleasure with it.

If, then, I will faithfully pursue that happiness I propose to myself, whatever pleasure offers itself to me, I must carefully look that it cross not any of those five great and constant pleasures above mentioned. For example, the fruit I see tempts me with the taste of it that I love; but if it endanger my health, I part with a constant and lasting for a very short and transient pleasure, and so foolishly make myself unhappy, and am not true to my own interest.

Innocent diversions delight me: if I make use of them to refresh myself after study and business, they preserve my health, restore the vigour of my mind, and increase my pleasure; but if I spend all or the greater part of my time in them, they hinder my improvement in knowledge and useful arts, they blast my credit, and give me up to the uneasy state of shame, ignorance and contempt, in which I cannot but be very unhappy. Drinking, gaming, and vicious delights will do me this mischief, not only by wasting my time, but by a positive injury endanger my health, impair my parts, imprint ill habits, lessen my esteem, and leave a constant lasting torment on my conscience; therefore all vicious and unlawful pleasure I will always avoid, because such a mastery of my passions will afford me a constant pleasure greater than any such enjoyments, and also deliver me from the certain evil of several kinds, that by indulging myself in a present temptation I shall certainly afterwards suffer.

All innocent diversions and delights, as far as they will contribute to my health, and consist with my im

provement, condition, and my other more solid pleasures of knowledge and reputation, I will enjoy, but no far. ther; and this I will carefully watch and examine, that I may not be deceived by the flattery of a present pleasure to lose a greater.

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HENRY JENKINS, of the parish of Bolton, in Yorkshire, being produced as a witness, at the assizes there to prove a right of way over a man's ground, he swore to nearly 150 years memory; for at that time, he said, he well remembered a way over the ground. And being cautioned by the judge to beware what he swore, because there were two men in court of above 80 years of age each, who had sworn they remembered no such way, he replied, "That those men were boys to him." Upon which the judge asked the men how old they took Jenkins to be? who answered, they knew him very well, but not his age, and that he was a very old man when they were boys. Dr. Tancred Robinson, fellow of the college of Physicians, adds further, concerning this Henry

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