During these years of public employment, Locke's pen was by no means idle. In 1695 had appeared his ' Reasonableness of Christianity,' a work in which, while assuming the infalli- bility of the Scriptures and the supernatural character of Christ's mission, he attempts to limit as far as possible INTRODUCTION. XIX the essential articles of the Christian faith. The views of religion and religious controversy adopted in this book have a general affinity with those of the Arminian or Re- monstrant divines, among whom Locke had mixed in Hol- land. But, in some particulars, they approach the doctrines of Faustus Socinus, and hence a cry of Socinianism was not unnaturally raised against the author, who, though the work was published anonymously, was soon known to be Locke. The attack was commenced by a Cambridge clergy- man named John Edwards, and for some years Locke was engaged in a bitter controversy both with him and with Stillingfiect, Bishop of Worcester, who endeavoured to excite theological prejudices against many passages in the Essay. Polemics of this character, so fashionable in that age, were against the whole bent of Locke's nature, and we may be cer- tain that he was forced to take part in them most unwil- lingly. A far more congenial employment was the preparation of the Fourth Edition of the Essay, which, incorporating many additions and corrections, was issued in the autumn of 1699, and was the last published during its author's life-time. The tractate here re-published, on the Conduct of the Un- derstanding, was designed to form a chapter in this new edition, but it seems to have grown so much on its author's hands, that he reserved it either for the next edition or for separate publication. The only other literary work of any importance, apart from controversial pamphlets, which occu- pied Locke's later years was the paraphrase and commentary on some of St. Paul's Epistles. He appears to have under- taken this work more for his own satisfaction, and as a kind of religious exercise in which he might spend his declining years, than w-ith the view of instructing the public. These notes, which were not published till after his death, abound in good sense, but, as we might expect from the time at which they were written, they have little critical value.
After his resignation of his place on the Board of Trade, Locke seems to have lived a peculiarly quiet, and, at the same time, notwithstanding the increasing feebleness of XX INTRODUCTION.
his health, a peculiarly happy life. His cheerfulness and gaiety of temper never deserted him. The Mashams were indefatigable in their attention to all his wants, whether physical or intellectuah' And, Gates being only about twenty miles from London, he was entertained by a constant flow of visitors. Amongst those who came down to see him, on single occasions, were Newton, the famous Earl of Peterborough, and William Molyneux, a clever and patriotic Member of the Irish House of Commons, with whom he had corresponded in familiar terms on a great variety of subjects for many years, but whom he had never before seen. The most con- stant visitor to Gates, however, was Peter King, a young kins- man of his own, who, having been taken out of his father's shop at Exeter by Locke, had been educated at Leyden, and was now rising rapidly at the English bar. King, who was an admirable lawyer, though not a brilliant speaker, afterwards became successively Recorder of London, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Lord High Chancellor of England. It is to his great-grandson, Peter, the seventh Lord King, father of the present Earl of Lovelace, that we owe the biography, which, previously to the publication of Mr. Fox- Bourne's Life, was the great authority for Locke's personal history. There seems to have been a strong mutual re- gard between the two cousins (King was Locke's first cousin once removed), and there can be no doubt that King owed his professional advancement to his elder relative, who not only introduced him to the bar but procured for him a seat in Parliament. When Locke died, the greater part of his property was divided between Peter King and Frank Masham, the son of Sir Francis and Lady Masham, who, like King, was a kind of adopted child. ' Gne of Locke's main characteristics was the attraction he always exercised on young people, and the kindness and consideration which he always showed to them.
The winter of 1703-4 seems to have aggravated the symp- toms of his disease, and the return of summer did not bring its usual relief. He lingered on, however, during the autumn, INTRODUCTION. XXI retaining his faculties and his cheerfulness to the last. On the afternoon of the 28th of October, 1704, he passed quietly away, Lady Masham reading the Psalms to him almost up to the moment of his death. ^-^e is buried in the church-yard of High Laver. The epitaph on the wall above his tomb was composed by himself.
;- tocke's character was a peculiarly amiable one. He was eminently cheerful, kindly, and good-natured. With children and young people he was always an especial favourite^ Few men of letters probably have possessed so much geniality combined with so much humour." He had rare powers of con- versation, and was always acceptable in companies of all ranks, ages, and professions. Whatever the pursuit of the person he was conversing with, he had a happy knack of interesting himself in it, and was usually able to impart as well as receive information, whatever might be the subject of discourse. Hence, perhaps, the singular power of illustration and expo- sition which marks his works. He always writes like a man of the world, who draws from a varied stock of know- ledge not of books only but of men. " Another trait which distinguishes both his writings and his life is his transparent candour and his simple love of truth. The words of the epitaph which he designed for himself — ' Litcris innutritus eousque tantum profecit, ut veritati unice litaret' (Brought up among letters, he advanced just so far as to make an acceptable offering to truth alone) — well explains the main character and purpose of his career.^ The treatise Of the Conduct of the Understanding, here re-published, was, as I have already stated, originally designed as an additional chapter to the Essay. Writing to William IMolyneux, April 10, 1697, Locke himself gives the following account of the occasion of his writing on the subject. * I have lately got a little leisure to think of some additions to my book, against the next edition, and within these few days have fallen upon a subject, that I know not how far it will XXU INTRODUCTION.
XXU INTRODUCTION.
lead me. I have written several pages on it, but the matter, the farther I go, opens the more upon me, and I cannot yet get sight of any end of it. The title of the chapter will be " Of the Conduct of the Understanding," which if I shall pursue as far as I imagine it will reach, and as it deserves, will, I conclude, make the largest chapter of my Essay.' The chapter did not, however, appear in the Fourth Edition of the Essay, nor was it published, or even revised, during its author's life-time. It was included in the ' Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke,' edited anonymously, though probably by Peter King, in 1706. Of these treatises generally the editor says that 'for the greatest part they received not the author's last hand, being in a great measure little more than sudden views, intended to be afterwards revised and farther looked into, but by sickness, intervention of business, or preferable enquiries, happened to be thrust aside, and so lay neglected.' The account given of this treatise in particular will help to explain some of its peculiarities and defects: ' The Conduct of the Understanding he ' (the Author) * always thought to be a subject very well worth consideration. As any miscarriages in that point accidentally came into his mind, he used sometimes to set them down in writing, with those remedies he could then think of. This method, though it makes not that haste to the end which one would wish, is yet perhaps the only one that can be followed in the case; it • being here, as in physic, impossible for a physician to describe a disease, or seek remedies for it, till he comes to meet with it. Such particulars of this kind as occurred to the author at a time of leisure he set down in writing, intending, if he had lived, to have reduced them into order and method, and to have made a complete treatise; whereas now it is only a collection of casual observations, sufficient to make men see some faults in the conduct of their understanding, and suspect there may be more, and may perhaps serve to excite others to enquire farther into it than the Author hath done.'
Not only is the treatise irregular and incoinplctc, as a whole, but some of the individual sentences have never been hewn INTRODUCTION. XXlii into shape. Locke's customary style, like that of most authors of his time, is much less finished and correct than what we should expect from any writer of the present day, but we can hardly suppose that even he, on revision, would have allowed many of the sentences in this treatise to go into print without some attempt to remodel them. Another defect is the large amount of repetition. These drawbacks, however, are of comparatively little importance, as the meaning is almost always clear, and the terse brevity of the book as a whole, as well as the many racy passages in which it abounds, offer ample amends to the reader for the tediousness of some few sections.
No one acquainted with Bacon's writings can read this book, without perceiving Locke's obligations to the first book of the Novum Organum. This fact is the more remarkable, as, with one or two exceptions (See Essay, Bk. II, Ch. 12, § i, Bk. IV, Ch. 17, § 4, and my introduction to the Novum Or- ganum, § 14, ad init.), there are no specific traces of Bacon's influence in the Essay. It might, however, be justly said that Locke's whole mode of treating philosophical ques- tions is thoroughly imbued with the spirit of tiie Baconian method.
What is specially remarkable in the mode of handling logical questions in this treatise is the emphasis laid on what may be called the moral causes of fallacious reasoning: pre- 1 judice, haste, mental indolence, over-regard for authority, love of antiquity or novelty, self-sufficiency, despondency, and the various other conditions of mind which are quite as effec- tive in barring the way to truth as any sophisms, however skilful, which others may attempt to impose upon us.
The relation of the treatise on the Conduct of the Under- standing to the Essay is that of a sort of practical appendix. The one book enquires into the constitution and history of the Human IMind, the other attempts to suggest rules and cautions for guiding or controlling its operations in the search for knowledge. Locke's design, like Bacon's, was to supple- ment and enlarge the logic of the schools by the addition of XXIV INTRODUCTION.
practical precepts and warnings, which should be instrumental in leading to the discovery of truth rather than in helping to secure victory in disputation. The more special object of Bacon's method, however, was to overcome the subtlety of nature, and extort from it some account of its secrets; while the scattered hints contained in this treatise of Locke have for their object rather to produce a vigorous understanding, and to suggest improved modes of study and reasoning generally. The treatise abounds in robust common-sense, and, notwith- standing a few flat or tedious passages, it can hardly fail to repay the student for the short time consumed in its perusal.
OF CONDUCT U NDERSTANDI NG.
Quid lam temerarium tamque indignum sapienlis gravitate atque constantia, quam aut falsum sentire aiit quod non satis exploratc perceplum sit et cognitum sine ulla dubitatione defendere!— Cic. De Natitra Deorum, Book I, Chap. I.
OF THE UNDERSTANDING. 5 the real performances of nature, and, catching at what it cannot reach, has served to confirm and establish errors, rather than to open a way to truth.' And therefore a little after he says, ' That it is absolutely necessary that a better and perfecter use and employment of the mind and understanding should be introduced.' Necessario reqiii- ritur ut melior et pcrfcclior mentis et intdkctus humani usus et adoperatio introducalur, SECTION II.
PARTS.
SECTION II.
PARTS.
There is, it is visible, great variety in men's under- standings, and their natural constitutions put so wide a difference between some men in this respect, that art and industry would never be able to master; and their very natures seem to want a foundation to raise on it that which other men easily attain unto. — Amongst men of equal education there is great inequality of parts. And the woods of America, as well as the schools of Athens, produce men of several abilities in the same kind. Though this be so, yet 1 imagine most men come very short of what they might attain unto in their several degrees by a neglect of their understandings. A few rules of logic are thought sufficient in this case for those who pretend to the highest improvement; whereas I think there are a great many natural defects in the understanding capable of amendment, which are overlooked and wholly neglected. And it is easy to perceive that men are guilty of a great many faults in the exercise and improvement of this faculty of the mind, which hinder them in their progress and keep them in ignorance and error all their lives.
5 OF THE CONDUCT Some of them I shall take notice of, and endeavour to point out proper remedies for in the following discourse.
SECTION III.
REASONING.
Besides the want of determined ideas, and of sagacity and exercise in finding out and laying in order interme- diate ideas, there are three miscarriages that men are guilty o& in reference to their reason, whereby this faculty is hindered in them from that service it might do and was designed for. And he that reflects upon the actions and discourses of mankind, will find their defects in this kind very frequent and very observable.
1. The first is of those who seldom reason at all, but do and think according to the example of others, whether parents, neighbours, ministers, or who else they are pleased to make choice of to have an implicit faith in, for the saving of themselves the pains and trouble of thinking and examining for themselves.
2. The second is of those who put passion in the place of reason, and, being resolved that shall govern their actions and arguments, neither use their own nor hearken to other people's reason, any farther than it suits their humour, interest, or party; and these one may observe commonly content themselves with words which have no distinct ideas to them, though, in other matters, that they come with an unbiassed indifferency to, they want not abilities to talk and hear reason, where they have no secret inclination that hinders them from being tractable to it.
3. The third sort is of those who readily and sincerely OF THE UNDERSTANDING. 7,, follow reason, but, for want of having that which one may call large, sound, round-ahout sense, have not a full view ol all that relates to the question and may be of moment to decide it. We are all short sighted, and very often see but one side of a matter; our views are not extended to all that has a connection with it. From this defect I think no man is free. We see but in part, and we know but in part, and therefore it is no wonder we conclude not right from our partial views. ii^This might instruct the jiroudest esteemer of his own parts, how useful it is to talk and consult with others, even such as come short of him in capacity, quickness and penetration: for ^ince no one sees all, and we generally have different prospects of the same thing, according -to our different, as I may say, positions to it, it is not incongruous to think nor beneath- any man to try, whether another may not have notions of things which have escaped him, and which his reason would make use of if they came into his mind. <-4-The faculty of reasoning seldom or never deceives those who trust to it; its consequences from what it builds on are evident and certain, but that which it oftenest, if not only, misleads us in is that the principles from which we conclude, the grounds upon which we bottom our reasoning, are but a part, something is left out which should go into the reckoning to make it just and exact. Here we may imagine a vast and almost infinite advantage that angels and separate spirits may have over us; who, in their several degrees of elevation above us, may be endowed with more comprehensive faculties, and some of them perhaps have perfect and exact views of all finite beings that come under their consideration, can, as it were, in the twinkling of an eye, collect together all their scattered and almost boundless relations. A mind so furnished, what 8 OF THE CONDUCT reason has it lo acquiesce in the certainty of its conclu- sions!
In this we may see the reason why some men of study and thought, that reason right and are lovers of truth, do make no great advances in their discoveries of it. Error and truth are uncertainly blended in their minds; their decisions are lame and defective, and they are very often mistaken in their judgments: the reason whereof is, they converse but with one sort of men, they read but one sort of books, they will not come in the hearing but of one sort of notions; the truth is, they canton out to them- selves a litde Goshen in the intellectual world, where light shines, and, as they conclude, day blesses them; but the rest of that vast Expansinn they give up to night and darkness, and so avoid coming near it. They have a pretty trafifick with known correspondents in some little creek; within that they confine themselves, and are dex- terous managers enough of the wares and products of that corner with which they content themselves, but will not venture out into the great ocean of knowledge, to survey the riches that nature hath stored other parts with, no less genuine, no less solid, no less useful, than what has fallen to their lot in the admired plenty and sufficiency of their own little spot, which to them contains whatsoever is good in the universe. Those who live thus mued up within their own contracted territories, and will not look abroad beyond the boundaries that chance, conceit, or laziness has set to their enquiries, but live separate from the notions, discourses and attainments of the rest of mankind, may not amiss be represented by the inhabi- tants of the Marian islands; who, being separated by a large tract of sea from all communion with the habitable parts of the earth, thought themselves the only people of OF THE UNDERSTANDING. 9 the world. And though the straitness of the conveniences of hfe amongst them had never reached so far as to the use of fire, till the Spaniards, not many years since, in their voyages from Acapulco to Manilia brought it amongst them; yet in the want and ignorance of almost all things, they looked upon themselves, even after that the Spaniards had brought amongst them the notice of variety of nations abounding in sciences, arts and con- veniences of life, of which they knew nothing, they looked upon themselves, I say, as the happiest and wisest people of the universe. But for all that, no body, I think, will imagine them deep naturalists, or soHd metaphysicians; no body will deem the quickest sighted amongst them to have very enlarged views in ethics or politics, nor can any one allow the most capable amongst them to be advanced so iar in his understanding as to have any other knowledge but of the few little things of his and the neighbouring islands within his commerce, but far enough from that comprehensive enlargement of mind which adorns a soul devoted to truth, assisted with letters, and a free consider- ation of the several views and sentiments of thinking men of all sides. Let not men therefore that would have a sight of, what every one pretends to be desirous to have a sight of, truth in its full extent, narrow and blind their own prospect. Let not men think there is no truth but in the sciences that they study, or the books that they read. To prejudge other men's notions before we have looked into them is not to shew their darkness, but to put out our own eyes. (Try all Ihings, hold fas I thai ivhich is i^ood, is a divine rule coming from the Father of light and until; and it is hard to know what other way men can come at truili, to lay hold of it, if they do not dig and search for it as for gold and hid treasure; but he that lO OF THE CONDUCT does so must have much earth and rubbish before he gets the pure metal; sand, and pebbles, and dross usually lie blended with it, but the gold is nevertheless gold, and will enrich the man that employs his pains to seek and sepa- rate it. Neither is there any danger he should be deceived by the mixture. Every man carries about him a touch- stone, if he will make use of it, to distinguish substantial gold from superficial glitterings, truth from appearances. And indeed the use and benefit of this touchstone, which is natural reason, is spoiled and lost only by assumed prejudices, overweening presumption, and narrowing our minds. The want of exercising it in the full extent of things intelligible, is that which weakens and extinguishes this noble faculty in us. Trace it, and see whether it be not so. The day labourer in a country village has com- monly but a small pittance of knowledge, because his ideas and notions have been confined to the narrow bounds of a poor conversation and employment; the low mechanic of a country town does somewhat outdo him; porters and cobblers of great cities surpass them. A country gentleman, who, leaving Latin and Learning in the university, removes thence to his mansion house, and associates with neighbours of the same strain, who relish nothing but hunting and a bottle; with those alone he spends his time, with those alone he converses, and can away with no company whose discourse goes be- yond what claret and dissoluteness inspire. Such a patriot, formed in this happy way of improvement, can- not fail, as we see, to give notable decisions upon the bench at quarter sessions, and eminent proofs of his skill in politics, when the strength of his purse and party have advanced him to a more conspicuous station. To such a one truly an ordinary coffee-house gleaner of the city is OF THE UNDERSTANDING. I 1