LIFE AT OATES.--FRIENDSHIPS.--FURTHER PUBLICATIONS.
Shortly after Locke returned to England, he settled down in lodgings
in the neighbourhood of what is now called Cannon Row, Westminster.
But the fogs and smoke of London then, as now, were not favourable
to persons of delicate health, and he seems to have been glad of any
opportunity of breathing the country air. Amongst his places of resort
were Parson's Green, the suburban residence of Lord Mordaunt, now Earl
of Monmouth, and Oates, a manor-house, in the parish of High Laver, in
Essex, the seat of Sir Francis and Lady Masham, situated in a pleasant
pastoral country, about twenty miles from London. Lady Masham had
become known to him as Damaris Cudworth, before his retreat to Holland,
and it is plain that from the first she had excited his admiration and
esteem. She was the daughter of Dr. Ralph Cudworth, Master of Christ's
College, Cambridge, author of _The True Intellectual System of the
Universe_, and of a posthumous work, still better known, _A Treatise
concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality_. The close connexion
which, in the latter years of his life, subsisted between Locke, the
foremost name amongst the empirical philosophers of modern times, and
the daughter of Cudworth, the most uncompromising of the _a priori_
moralists and philosophers of the seventeenth century, may be regarded
as one of the ironies of literary history. Damaris Cudworth, inheriting
her father's tastes, took great interest in learning of all kinds, and
specially in philosophy and theology. There was one point of community
between her father and Locke besides their common pursuits, namely,
the wide and philosophical view which they both took of theological
controversies. Cudworth belonged to the small but learned and refined
group of Cambridge Platonists or Latitudinarians, as they were
called, which also numbered Henry More, John Smith, Culverwell, and
Whichcote. Liberal and tolerant Churchmanship in those days, when it
was so rare, was probably a much closer bond of union than it is now,
and the associations which she had formed with her father's liberal,
philosophical, and devout spirit must have helped to endear Locke to
the daughter of Dr. Cudworth. During Locke's absence from England,
Damaris Cudworth had married, as his second wife, Sir Francis Masham,
an amiable and hospitable country gentleman, who seems to have occupied
a prominent position in his county. With them lived Mrs. Cudworth, the
widow of Dr. Cudworth, one little son, Francis, and a daughter by the
former marriage, Esther, who was about fourteen when Locke commenced
his visits to the family. From the first he seems to have had some idea
of settling down at Oates, "making trial of the air of the place," than
which, as Lady Masham tells us, "he thought none would be more suitable
to him." After a very severe illness in the autumn of 1690, he spent
several months with the Mashams, and appears then to have formed a more
definite plan of making Oates his home. But, though his hospitable
friends gave him every assurance of a constant welcome, he would only
consent to regard it as a permanent residence on his own terms, which
were that he should pay his share of the household expenses. With true
kindness and courtesy, Sir Francis and Lady Masham, at last, in the
spring of 1691, agreed to this arrangement, and "Mr. Locke then," says
Lady Masham, "believed himself at home with us, and resolved, if it
pleased God, here to end his days--as he did." Devoted and sympathetic
friends, a pleasant residence, freedom from domestic or pecuniary
cares, and the pure fresh air of the country seem to have afforded him
all the enjoyment and leisure which we could have wished for him. After
having had more than his share of the storms of life, he had at last
found a quiet and pleasant haven wherein to enjoy the calm and sunshine
of his declining years. Occasionally, and especially during the summer,
he visited London, where, at first, he retained his old chambers at
Westminster, moving afterwards to Lincoln's Inn Fields. But Oates was
now his home, and it continued to be so to the end of his life.
Locke was always an attached friend, and we have seen already how many
warm friendships he had formed in youth and middle age. At the present
time, besides Limborch, Le Clerc, Lord Monmouth, and the Mashams,
we may mention among his more intimate friends Lord Pembroke, the
young Lord Ashley, Somers, Boyle, and Newton. Lord Pembroke (to whom
the _Essay_ is dedicated in what we should now regard as a tone of
overwrought compliment) opened his town house for weekly meetings in
which, instead of political and personal gossip, things of the mind
were discussed. These conversations, "undisturbed by such as could not
bear a part in the best entertainment of rational minds, free discourse
concerning useful truths," were a source of great enjoyment to Locke
during his London residence. It was through his introduction that
Lord Pembroke, when sent on a special mission to the Hague, made the
acquaintance, which afterwards ripened into friendship, of Limborch and
Le Clerc.
The correspondence between Locke and Limborch, while Lord Pembroke was
in Holland, reveals to us the curious fact that there was no organized
carrying trade between England and Holland at that time. On returning,
the Earl, or his Secretary, was commissioned to bring back a pound of
tea and copies of the _Acta Eruditorum_. The tea must be had at any
price. "I want the best tea," Locke writes to Limborch, "even if it
costs forty florins a pound; only you must be quick, or we shall lose
this opportunity, and I doubt whether we shall have another." The price
that he was ready to pay for a pound of tea would be about 9_l._ at the
present value of money. But tea at that time was regarded rather as a
medicine than a beverage.
Young Lord Ashley, it will be recollected, had, like his father, been
under the charge of Locke when a child. After being at school for
some years at Winchester, and spending some time in travelling on the
Continent, he was now again in London, living in his father's house at
Chelsea. It is plain that the young philosopher saw a good deal of his
"foster-father," as he called him, and they must often have discussed
together the questions which were so interesting to them both. Ashley,
moreover, who was already beginning to solve the problems of philosophy
in his own way, addressed a number of letters to Locke, freely, but
courteously and good-humouredly, criticising his master's views.
Sir John Somers, now Solicitor-General, and successively
Attorney-General, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, and Lord Chancellor,
with the title of Lord Somers, had been known to Locke before
his retirement to Holland. They were both of them attached to the
Shaftesbury connexion, and hence, though Somers was nearly twenty years
the junior, they had probably already seen a good deal of each other
when William ascended the throne. On Locke's return to England, he
found Somers a member of the Convention Parliament. The younger man,
both when he was a rising barrister and a successful minister, seems
frequently to have consulted the elder one, and Locke's principles
of government, finance, and toleration must often have exerted a
considerable influence both on his speeches and his measures. Nor had
Locke any reason to be ashamed of his teaching. "Lord Somers," says
Horace Walpole, "was one of those divine men who, like a chapel in a
palace, remain unprofaned, while all the rest is tyranny, corruption,
and folly." It was, perhaps, through Somers that Locke made the
acquaintance of another great and wise statesman, Charles Montague,
subsequently Lord Halifax, with whom, at least during the later years
of his life, he had much political connexion, and by whom he was
frequently called into counsel.
The acquaintance between Locke and Newton, of whom Newton was the
junior by more than ten years, most probably began before Locke's
departure to Holland. Both had then for some time been members of the
Royal Society, and both were friends of Hoyle. The first positive
evidence, however, that we have of their relations is afforded by a
paper, entitled "A Demonstration that the Planets, by their gravity
towards the Sun, may move in Eclipses," and endorsed in Locke's
handwriting, "Mr. Newton, March, 1689." In the summer or autumn of the
same year, probably, was written the epistle to the reader prefixed
to the _Essay_. In that occurs the following passage, expressing no
doubt Locke's genuine opinion of the great writers whom he names:--"The
Commonwealth of learning is not at this time without master-builders,
whose mighty designs in advancing the sciences will leave lasting
monuments to the admiration of posterity; but every one must not
hope to be a Boyle or a Sydenham, and in an age that produces such
masters as the great Huygenius and the incomparable Mr. Newton, with
some other of that strain, 'tis ambition enough to be employed as
an under-labourer in clearing ground a little, and removing some of
the rubbish that lies in the way to knowledge." Locke interested
himself long and warmly in attempting to obtain for Newton some
lucrative appointment in London. Newton's letters occasionally betray
querulousness, but there can be no reason to suppose that Locke at all
flagged in his efforts, and ultimately, with the assistance of Lord
Monmouth, Lord Halifax, and others, they proved successful. Newton was,
in course of time, appointed Warden, and then Master of the Mint. In
January, 1690-91, the philosopher and the mathematician met at Oates.
Their conversation there probably turned chiefly on theological topics,
as was the case with most of their correspondence afterwards. Newton
was greatly interested not only in theological speculation, but in the
interpretation of prophecy and Biblical criticism, on both of which
subjects works by him are extant. In 1690 he wrote a manuscript letter
to Locke, entitled "An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions
of Scripture in a Letter to a Friend," the texts criticised being 1
John v. 7, and 1 Timothy iii. 16. The corruption of the former of these
texts is now almost universally, and that of the latter very generally,
acknowledged; but so jealous of orthodoxy, in respect of anything which
seemed to affect the doctrine of the Trinity, was public opinion at
that time, that Newton did not dare to publish the pamphlet. Locke,
who was meditating a visit to Holland, was, by Newton's wish, to have
taken it over with him, and to have had it translated into French, and
published anonymously. But the intended visit fell through, and Locke
sent the manuscript over to Le Clerc. So timid, however, was Newton,
that he now tried to recall it. "Let me entreat you," he writes to
Locke, "to stop the translation and impression of the papers as soon
as you can, for I desire to suppress them." Le Clerc thought more
nobly and more justly that "one ought to risk a little in order to be
of service to those honest folk who err only through ignorance, and
who, if they get a chance, would gladly be disabused of their false
notions." The letter was not published till after its author's death,
and at first it appeared only in an imperfect form. In Bishop Horsley's
edition of Newton it is printed complete. Newton's unpublished writings
leave no doubt that he did not accept the orthodox doctrine of the
Trinity, and it may have been his consciousness of this fact which made
him so afraid of being known to be the author of what was merely a
critical exercitation. But we must recollect that at this time Biblical
criticism was unfamiliar to the majority of divines, and that to
question the authenticity of a text was generally regarded as identical
with doubting the doctrine which it was supposed to illustrate. One of
the other subjects on which Locke and Newton corresponded was a parcel
of red earth which had been left by Boyle, who died on Dec. 30, 1691,
to Locke and his other literary executors, with directions for turning
it into gold. Locke seems to have had some faith in the alchemistic
process, but it is plain that Newton had none. He was satisfied that
"mercury, by this recipe, might be brought to change its colours
and properties, but not that gold might be multiplied thereby." Some
workmen of whom he had heard as practising the recipe had been forced
to other means of living, a proof that the multiplication of gold did
not succeed as a profession. Occasionally, owing to Newton's nervous
and irritable temper, which at one time threatened to settle down into
a fixed melancholy, there seems to have been some misunderstanding of
Locke on his part, but it is satisfactory to know that the two greatest
literary men of their age in England, if not in Europe, lived, almost
without interruption, in friendly and even intimate relations with each
other.
The close intercourse between Boyle and Locke, which dated from their
Oxford days, seems to have been kept up till the time of Boyle's death.
Locke made a special journey to London to visit him on his death-bed,
and was, as we have seen, left one of his literary executors. The
editing of Boyle's _General History of the Air_ had already been
committed to Locke, and seems to have occupied much of his time during
the year 1691.
Of Locke's less-known friends, Dr. David Thomas must have died between
1687, when there is a letter from him to Locke, and 1700, when Locke
speaks of having outlived him. Sir James Tyrrell, another old college
friend, usually spoken of in Locke's correspondence as Musidore, was in
communication with him as late as April, 1704, the year of his death.
He had, as already stated, been present at the "meeting of five or six
friends" in Locke's chamber, which first suggested the composition of
the _Essay_.
Edward Clarke, of Chipley, near Taunton, was another friend of old
standing. He was elected member for Taunton in King William's second
parliament, and from that time forward resided much in London. This
circumstance probably deepened the intimacy between the two friends; at
all events, during the remainder of Locke's life they are constantly
associated. Locke advised Clarke as to the education of his children,
one of whom, Betty, a little girl now about ten years old, seems to
have been regarded by him with peculiar affection; in his letters he
constantly speaks of her as "Mrs. Locke" and his "wife." The playful
banter with which Locke treated his child friends affords unmistakable
evidence of the kindness and simplicity of his heart.
William Molyneux, who for many years represented the University of
Dublin in the Irish parliament, referred to in the second edition of
the _Essay_ as "that very ingenious and studious promoter of real
knowledge, the worthy and learned Mr. Molyneux," "this thinking
gentleman whom, though I have never had the happiness to see, I am
proud to call my friend," first became acquainted with Locke in 1692.
In his _Dioptrica Nova_, published in that year, he had paid Locke a
graceful, if not an exaggerated, compliment. "To none do we owe, for
a greater advancement in this part of philosophy," he said, speaking
of logic, "than to the incomparable Mr. Locke, who hath rectified more
received mistakes, and delivered more profound truths, established on
experience and observation, for the direction of man's mind in the
prosecution of knowledge, which I think may be properly termed logic,
than are to be met with in all the volumes of the ancients. He has
clearly overthrown all those metaphysical whimsies which infected men's
brains with a spice of madness, whereby they feigned a knowledge where
they had none, by making a noise with sounds without clear and distinct
significations." Locke was pleased with the compliment, and a letter
acknowledging the receipt of Molyneux's book was the beginning of a
long correspondence between them, which ended only with the early death
of Molyneux, at the age of forty-two, in 1698. For nearly six years the
friends, though in constant correspondence, had never seen each other,
Molyneux residing in Dublin, and suffering, like Locke, from feeble
health, which prevented him from crossing the Channel. But the feeling
of affection seems soon to have become as intense, notwithstanding
Aristotle's dictum that personal intercourse is essential to the
continuance of friendship, as if they had lived together all their
lives. In his second letter to Molyneux, dated Sept. 20, 1692, Locke
says:--"You must expect to have me live with you hereafter, with
all the liberty and assurance of a settled friendship. For meeting
with but few men in the world whose acquaintance I find much reason
to covet, I make more than ordinary haste into the familiarity of a
rational inquirer after and lover of truth, whenever I can light on
any such. There are beauties of the mind as well as of the body, that
take and prevail at first sight; and, wherever I have met with this,
I have readily surrendered myself, and have never yet been deceived
in my expectation." Molyneux had thought of coming over to England on
a visit to Locke in the summer of 1694. Locke, in a letter written
in the following spring, after deprecating the risks to which his
journey might expose him adds:--"And yet, if I may confess my secret
thoughts, there is not anything which I would not give that some
other unavoidable occasion would draw you into England. A rational,
free-minded man, tied to nothing but truth, is so rare a thing that I
almost worship such a friend; but, when friendship is joined to it,
and these are brought into a free conversation, where they meet and
can be together, what is there can have equal charms? I cannot but
exceedingly wish for that happy day when I may see a man I have so
often longed to have in my embraces.... You cannot think how often
I regret the distance that is between us; I envy Dublin for what I
every day want in London." In a subsequent letter, written in 1695, he
writes:--"I cannot complain that I have not my share of friends of all
ranks, and such whose interest, assistance, affection, and opinions
too, in fit cases, I can rely on. But methinks, for all this, there is
one place vacant that I know nobody would so well fill as yourself; I
want one near me to talk freely with "de quolibet ente," to propose to
the extravagancies that rise in my mind; one with whom I would debate
several doubts and questions to see what was in them." Thomas Molyneux,
the brother of William, a physician practising in Dublin, had met
Locke during his stay in Holland. They shared a common admiration for
Sydenham, and the correspondence with William Molyneux revived their
friendship, though it never attained to nearly the same proportions
as that between Locke and the other brother. A passage on what may
be called the Logic of Medicine, in one of Locke's letters to Thomas
Molyneux, is worth quoting:--"What we know of the works of nature,
especially in the constitution of health and the operations of our own
bodies, is only by the sensible effects, but not by any certainty we
can have of the tools she uses or the ways she walks by. So that there
is nothing left for a physician to do but to observe well, and so,
by analogy, argue to like cases, and thence make to himself rules of
practice."
* * * * *
Nov. 7, 1691, is the date of the dedication of the Tract entitled
"Some considerations on the Lowering of Interest and Raising the
Value of Money in a letter sent to a Member of Parliament, 1691." This
letter was published anonymously in the following year. The member of
Parliament was undoubtedly Sir John Somers, who had "put" the author
"upon looking out his old papers concerning the reducing of interest
to 4 per cent., which had so long," nearly twenty years, "lain by,
forgotten." The time to which Locke refers must be the year 1672, when
the Exchequer was closed, that is to say, all payments to the public
creditors suspended for a year, and the interest on the Bankers'
advances reduced to six per cent. This nefarious act of spoliation,
which caused wide-spread ruin and distress, was devised while
Shaftesbury was Chancellor of the Exchequer, but the main blame in the
transaction probably attaches to Clifford. "The notions concerning
coinage," which are embodied in the second division of the pamphlet,
had been put into writing and apparently shown to Somers about twelve
months before the date of the letter. On the occasion and contents of
this pamphlet, as well as of Locke's other tracts on Finance, I shall
have an opportunity of speaking in subsequent chapters.
Many of my readers will sympathize with Locke in his complaints of
the waste of his time during this autumn. Writing to Limborch on
Nov. 14, he says, "I know not how it is, but the pressure of other
people's business has left me no time or leisure for my own affairs.
Do not suppose that I mean public business. I have neither health, nor
strength, nor knowledge enough to attend to that. And when I ask myself
what has so hampered and occupied me during the last three months, it
seems as if a sort of spell had been thrown on me, so that I have got
entangled first in one business and then in another, without being
able to avoid it, or, in fact, to foresee what was coming." Locke was
pre-eminently a good-natured man, and, like many other men before and
since, he had to pay the penalty of good-nature by doing a vast amount
of other people's business, often probably with scant acknowledgment.
One of the occupations in which he was engaged may have been doctoring
the household at Oates and advising medically for his friends at a
distance; but in business of this kind, though he may have grudged the
time it consumed, he seems always to have taken special delight.
In the summer of 1692 he spent a considerable time in London. His
main business there seems to have been to see the _Third Letter on
Toleration_ through the press. But he was now, as ever, ready to do
work for his friends. Thus he obtained for Limborch the permission to
dedicate the book which he had so long been preparing, the _Historia
Inquisitionis_, to Tillotson, then Archbishop of Canterbury. Limborch
evidently set great store on this privilege. Of Tillotson, Locke seems
to have entertained a very high opinion; which, indeed, was thoroughly
well deserved. "In proportion to his renown and worth is his modesty."
Tillotson was not one of those liberal Churchmen whom promotion
makes timid, or cold to their former friends. He was maligned by an
unforgiving and unscrupulous faction, more, perhaps, than any other man
of that age, but he always retained the courage of his opinions.
Locke's health seems to have suffered much during the winter of
1692-93. But he still occupied himself with literary work. While in
Holland, he had corresponded frequently with Clarke on the education
of his children. Yielding to the solicitation of many of his friends,
especially William Molyneux, he now reduced the letters to the form
of a treatise, which was published in July, 1693, under the title
_Some Thoughts Concerning Education_. The dedication to Clarke bears
date in the previous March, and is signed by Locke, though his name
does not appear on the title-page. The most serious work, however,
in which he was now engaged, was the preparation of a second edition
of the _Essay_. The first edition seems to have been exhausted in
the autumn of 1692. On the alterations and additions introduced into
the second edition, there is an interesting correspondence with
Molyneux, ranging from Sept. 20, 1692, to May 26, 1694, when the new
edition, notwithstanding the "slowness of the press," was "printed
and bound, and ready to be sent" to Locke's Dublin correspondent.
Besides suggestions in detail, such as those touching the questions
of liberty and personal identity, Molyneux urged Locke to undertake a
separate work on Ethics, a suggestion which for a time he entertained
favourably, but which, owing partly, perhaps, to his idea that
the principles and rules of morality ought to be presented in a
demonstrative form, was never carried out. Though he does not seem
to have doubted that "morality might be demonstrably made out," yet
whether he was able so to make it out was another question. "Every
one could not have demonstrated what Mr. Newton's book hath shown to
be demonstrable." He was, however, ready to employ the first leisure
he could find that way. But the treatise never proceeded beyond a few
rough notes. Another reason assigned, at a later period, for not more
seriously setting about this task was that "the Gospel contains so
perfect a body of ethics, that reason may be excused for that inquiry,
since she may find man's duty clearer and easier in revelation than
in herself." This argument shows at once the sincerity of Locke's
religious convictions, and the inadequate conception he had formed
to himself of the grounds and nature of Moral Philosophy. Another
suggestion made by Molyneux was that, besides a second edition of the
_Essay_, Locke should bring out, in accordance with the main lines of
his philosophy, another work forming a complete compendium of logic
and metaphysics for the use of University Students. No one can regret
that the author of the _Essay_ did not adopt this advice. Apropos of
this suggestion, Molyneux tells Locke that Dr. Ashe, then Provost of
Trinity College, Dublin, "was so wonderfully pleased and satisfied
with the work, that he has ordered it to be read by the bachelors in
the college, and strictly examines them in their progress therein."
From that time onwards the _Essay_ seems to have held its ground as a
class-book at Dublin. The reception which it met with at first from the
authorities of Locke's own University, as we shall see presently, was
widely different. In May, 1694, the second edition was on sale, and
was quickly exhausted. The third edition, which is simply a reprint
of the second, appeared in the following year. One more edition, the
fourth, dated 1700, but issued in the autumn of 1699, appeared during
Locke's lifetime. In it there are important alterations and additions,
including two new chapters--that on Enthusiasm, and the very important
one at the end of the second book, on the Association of Ideas. A Latin
translation of the _Essay_ by Richard Burridge, an Irish Clergyman,
was published at London, in 1701; and a French translation by Pierre
Coste, who was a friend of Le Clerc, and had been acting for some time
as tutor to young Frank Masham at Amsterdam, in 1700. John Wynne,
Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and subsequently Bishop of St. Asaph,
published an abridgment for the use of University Students, in 1696.
Wynne had a large number of pupils, and the compendium of Locke's
philosophy appears to have obtained rapid circulation among the younger
students in Oxford, only, however, as we shall soon see, to encounter
the opposition of the authorities.
It is notable that all the important alterations and additions made in
the second edition of the _Essay_ were printed on separate slips, and
issued, without charge, to those who possessed the first. Sir James
Tyrrell's copy of the first edition, with these slips pasted in, is in
the British Museum; and that of William Molyneux in the Bodleian. In
sending to Molyneux the second edition, Locke had also forwarded the
slips to be pasted in the first, which would "help to make the book
useful to any young man;" but whether Molyneux gave the copy now in the
Bodleian to "any young man," and, if so, who the fortunate young man
was, we do not learn.
The first writer who had taken up his pen against Locke was John
Norris, the amiable and celebrated Vicar of Bemerton, a religious and
philosophical mystic, whose works are even still in repute. Norris
was a disciple of Malebranche, and his attack seems to have had the
effect of leading Locke to make a careful study of the theories of the
French philosopher. The result was two tractates--one entitled _Remarks
upon some of Mr. Norris's Books_; the other, _An Examination of Père
Malebranche's Opinion of seeing all things in God_. The latter is much
the more considerable production of the two, and is mainly remarkable
as showing that Locke saw clearly that the conclusions, subsequently
drawn by Berkeley, must follow from Malebranche's premises. Neither
of these tracts was published till after Locke's death. The reasons
assigned by him for not publishing his criticisms of Malebranche are
characteristic: "I love not controversies, and have a personal kindness
for the author."
Locke's literary activity during the years 1689-95 appears excessive;
but we must recollect that he had already accumulated a vast amount
of material, and that, during the latter part of that time at least,
he must have enjoyed considerable leisure in his country retirement.
In the early months of 1695 he was mainly occupied with a new
subject--the _Essay on the Reasonableness of Christianity as delivered
in the Scriptures_. Though this work was designed to establish the
supernatural character of the Christian revelation, and its importance
to mankind, it by no means satisfied the canons of a strict orthodoxy.
Some of the more mysterious and less intelligible doctrines of
the Christian Church, if not denied, were at least represented as
unessential to saving faith. Hence it at once provoked a bitter
controversy. "The buz, the flutter, and noise which was made, and the
reports which were raised," says its author, "would have persuaded the
world that it subverted all morality, and was designed against the
Christian religion. I must confess, discussions of this kind, which I
met with, spread up and down, at first amazed me; knowing the sincerity
of those thoughts which persuaded me to publish it, not without some
hope of doing some service to decaying piety and mistaken and slandered
Christianity." The first assailant was John Edwards, a former Fellow
of St. John's College, Cambridge, who in a violent pamphlet, entitled
_Thoughts concerning the Causes and Occasions of Atheism_, included
the _Reasonableness of Christianity_ in his attack, and insinuated
that Locke was its author by affecting to disbelieve it. The book
was described as "all over Socinianized," and a Socinian, if not an
atheist, is, according to Edwards, "one that favours the cause of
atheism." That there was much similarity between the apparent opinions
of Locke and the doctrines of Faustus Socinus himself, though not
of Socinus's more extreme followers, who were also popularly called
Socinians, admits of no doubt. But the charge of favouring atheism can
only have been brought against a man who regarded the existence of God
as "the most obvious truth that reason discovers," and who appears
never to have questioned the reality of supernatural intervention, from
time to time, in the world's history, because it happened to be the
roughest stone that could be found in the controversial wallet. Locke
replied to Edwards with pardonable asperity, in a tract entitled _A
Vindication of the Reasonableness of Christianity_. Edwards, of course,
soon replied to the reply, and attacked Locke more violently than ever
in his _Socinianism Unmasked_. No rejoinder followed, but the adversary
was not to be let off on such easy terms. Another shot was fired,
and _The Socinian Creed_, as venomous and more successful than the
_Socinianism Unmasked_, provoked _A Second Vindication_. This lengthy
pamphlet, far more elaborate than the first, must have occupied much
of Locke's time. It did not appear till the spring of 1697. Edwards
returned to the charge; but, fortunately, Locke had the wisdom and
courage to refrain from carrying on the fight. Bitter as the feeling
against Locke must have been in many clerical circles at this time,
there were not wanting, even amongst the clergy, those who sympathized
with his views. Mr. Bolde, a Dorsetshire clergyman, came forward to
defend him against Edwards. And Molyneux, writing on the 26th of
September, 1696, says, "As to the _Reasonableness of Christianity_,
I do not find but it is very well approved of here amongst candid,
unprejudiced men, that dare speak their thoughts. I'll tell you what a
very learned and ingenious prelate said to me on that occasion. I asked
him whether he had read that book, and how he liked it. He told me very
well; and that, if my friend Mr. Locke writ it, it was the best book
he ever laboured at; 'but,' says he, 'if I should be known to think
so, I should have my lawns torn from my shoulders.' But he knew my
opinion aforehand, and was, therefore, the freer to commit his secret
thoughts in that matter to me." We may not be disposed to think highly
of the "very learned and ingenious prelate;" but the story shows, as
indeed we know from other sources, to what a volume of opinion, both
lay and clerical, on the expediency of presenting Christianity in
a more "reasonable" and less mysterious and dogmatic form, Locke's
treatise had given expression. Men were anxious to retain their beliefs
in the supernatural order of events, but they were equally anxious to
harmonize them with what they regarded as the necessities of reason.
The current of "Rationalism" had set in.
It is satisfactory to know that, amidst all these controversial
worries, which must have been most distasteful to a man of his habits
and temper, Locke enjoyed the solace of pleasant companionship and
domestic serenity. He was thoroughly at home at Oates, and Lord
Monmouth and his other friends in and near town seem always to have
been ready to accord him a hearty welcome, whenever he cared to pay
them a visit. His little "wife," Betty Clarke, and her brother used
occasionally to come on visits to him at the Mashams, and he seems to
have taken great delight in the society of Esther Masham, who was now
rapidly growing up to womanhood. "In raillery," wrote this lady many
years afterwards, "he used to call me his Laudabridis, and I called
him my John." The winters of 1694-95 and 1695-96 were unusually long
and severe, and in both of them Locke appears to have been under
apprehensions that his chronic illness might terminate in death.
It may here be noticed that in the summer of 1694 Locke became one of
the original proprietors of the Bank of England, which, having been
projected by a merchant named William Paterson, had been established
by Act of Parliament in April of that year, and invested with certain
trading privileges, on condition that it should lend its capital to
the Government at eight per cent. interest. The plan had encountered
great opposition, especially among the landed gentry, and had only been
carried through the strenuous exertions of Montague and the Whig party.
Locke subscribed 500_l._, a considerable sum in those days.