A NEW

METHOD

OF A

COMMON-PLACE-BOOK.

TRANSLATED OUT OF THE FRENCH FROM THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE UNIVERSELLE.

VOL. III.

EPISTOLA.] A letter from Mr. Locke to Mr. 2. Toignard, containing a new and easy method of a common-place-book, to which an index of two pages is sufficient.

AT length, sir, in obedience to you, I publish
my "method of a common-place-book. I
am ashamed that I deferred so long complying
with your request; but I esteemed it so mean a
thing, as not to deserve publishing, in an age so
full of useful inventions, as ours is.
You may

remember, that I freely communicated it to you,
and several others, to whom I imagined it would
not be unacceptable: so that it was not to re-
serve the sole use of it to myself, that I declined
publishing it. But the regard I had to the public
discouraged me from presenting it with such
a trifle. Yet my obligations to you, and the
friendship between us, compel me now to follow
your advice. Your last letter has perfectly de-
termined me to it, and I am convinced that I
ought not to delay publishing it, when
you tell
me, that an experience of several years has
showed its usefulness, and several of your friends,
to whom you have communicated it. There is no
need I should tell you, how useful it has been to
me, after five and twenty years experience, as I
told you, eight years since, when I had the ho-
nour to wait on you at Paris, and when I might
have been instructed by your learned and agree-
able discourse. What I aim at now, by this
letter, is to testify publicly the esteem and re-
spect I have for you, and to convince you how
much I am, sir, your, &c.

Before I enter on my subject, it is fit to acquaint the reader, that this tract is disposed in the same manner that the common-place-book

3. ought to be disposed. It will be understood by

reading what follows, what is the meaning of the Latin titles on the top of the backside of each leaf, and at the bottom [a little below the top] of this page. EBIONITE.] In eorum evangelio, quod secundum Hebræos dicebatur, historia quæ habetur Matth. xix. 16. et alia quædam, erat interpolata in hunc modum: "Dixit ad eum alter divitum, magister, quid bonum faciens vivam? Dixit ei Dominus, legem & prophetas, fac. Respondit ad eum, feci. Dixit ei: vade, vende omnia quæ possides, & divide pauperibus, & veni, sequere me. Cœpit autem dives scalpere caput suum, & non placuit ei. Et dixit ad eum "Dominus: quomodo dicis, legem feci & pro

phetas? cùm scriptum sit in lege, diliges "proximum tuum sicut teipsum: & ecce multi "fratres tui filii Abrahæ amicti sunt stercore, "morientes præ fame, & domus tua plena est "bonis multis, & non egreditur omnino aliquid "ex eâ ad eos. Et conversus, dixit Simoni, discipulo suo, sedenti apud se: Simon, fili Johan

næ, facilius est camelum intrare per foramen "acûs, quam divitem, in regnum coelorum." Nimirum hæc ideo immutavit Ebion, quia Christum nec Dei filium, nec vouoférny, sed nudum interpretem legis per Mosem datæ agnoscebat.

In the Gospel of the Ebionites, which they called the Gospel according to the Hebrews, the story, that is in the xixth of St. Matth. and in the 16th and following verses, was changed after this manner: "One of the rich men said to him:

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Master, what shall I do that I may have life? "Jesus said to him: Obey the law and the prophets. He answered, I have done so. Jesus "said unto him, Go, sell what thou hast, divide "it among the poor, and then come and follow Upon which the rich man began to "scratch his head, and to dislike the advice of "Jesus: and the Lord said unto him, How can

"me.

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you say you have done as the law and the pro

V. 10.