illuftration of fome difcoveries in the foregoing Effay, particularly that great and univerfal law of nature, the fupport of fo many mental powers, (v. g. that of Memory under all its modifications) and which produces equally remarkable effects in the intellectual, as that of Gravitation does in the material world;-I mean the AssoCIATION of Ideas: the firft hint whereof did not appear till the fourth edition of his Effay, and then came in as it were by the bye, under fome very peculiar circumftances, and in comparatively trivial inftances; the Author himself feeming not to be fufficiently aware of its extenfiveness, and the many ufes to which it is applicable, and has been applied of late by feveral of our own writers. The former Tract abounds with no less curious and entertaining than useful obfervations on the various tempers and difpofitions of youth; with proper directions for the due regulation and improvement of them, and juft remarks on the too vifible defects in that point; nor fhould it be looked upon as merely fitted for the inftruction of fchoolmasters or nurfes, but as affording matter of reflection to men of bufinefs, fcience, and philofophy. The feveral editions of this Treatife, which has been much efteemed by foreigners, with the additions made to it abroad, may be seen in Gen. Diet. Vol. VII. p. 145. 14. Thus much may ferve to point out the importance of fome of our Author's more private and reclufe ftudies; but it was not in fuch only that this excellent perfon exercised his learning and abilities. The public rights of mankind, the great object of political union; the authority, extent, and bounds of civil Government in confequence of fuch union; these were fubjects which engaged, as they deferved, his moft ferious attention. Nor was he more induftrious here in establishing found principles and pursuing them confiftently, than firm and zealous in fupport of them, in the worst of times, to the injury of his fortune, and at the peril of his life, (as may be feen more fully in the Life annexed); to which may be added, that fuch zeal and firmnefs muft appear in him the more meritorious, if joined with that timoroufnefs and irrefolution which is there obferved to have been part of his natural temper, Note*, p. xxi. Witnefs his famous Letter from a Perfon of Quality, giving an account of the debates and refolutions in the Houfe of Lords concerning a bill for eftablishing paffive Obedience, and enacting new Oaths to inforce it: [V. Biogr. Brit. p. 2996. N. 1.] which Letter, together with fome fuppofed communications to his patron Lord Shaftesbury, raifed fuch a ftorm against him as drove him out of his own country, and long purfued him at a distance from it. [Ib. p. 2997, &c. from A. Wood]. This Letter was at length treated in the fame way that others of like tendency have been fince, by men of the fame fpirit, who are ready to bestow a like treatment on the Authors themselves, whenever they can get them into their power. Nor will it be improper to remark how feasonable a recollection of Mr. Locke's political principles is now become, when feveral Writers have attempted, from particular emergencies, to fhake those univerfal and invariable truths whereon all juft Government is ultimately founded; when they betray fo grofs an ignorance or contempt of them, as even to avow the directly oppofite doctrines, viz. that Government was inVOL. I. ftituted b ftituted for the fake of Governors, not of the governed; and confequently that the interefts of the former are of fuperior confideration to any of the latter;-that there is an abfolute indefeafible right of exercifing Defpotifm on one fide, and as unlimited an obligation of fubmitting to it on the other: Doctrines that have been confuted over and over, and exploded long ago, and which one might well fuppofe Mr. Locke muft have for ever filenced by his incomparable Treatifes upon that fubject*, which have indeed exhaufted it and notwithstanding any objections that have yet been, or are likely to be brought against them, may, I apprehend, be fairly juftified, and however unfashionable they grow, continue fit to be inculcated; as will perhaps be fully made appear on any farther provocation. 15. Nor was the religious Liberty of mankind less dear to our Author than their civil Rights, or lefs ably afferted by him. With what clearness and precifion has he ftated the terms of it, and vindicated the Subject's juft title to it, in his admirable Letters concerning Toleration! How clofely does he pursue the adverfary thro' all his fubterfuges, and ftrip Intolerance of all her pleas! malaooft The firft Lord Shaftesbury has written a moft excellent Treatise on the fame fubject, entitled, An Effay concerning Toleration, 1667, which, tho' left unfinished, well deferves to fee the light; and, as I am affüred, in due time will be published at the end of his Lordship's Life, now preparing. 16. From one who knew fo well how to direct the refearches of the human mind, it was natural to expect that Christianity and the Scriptures would not be neglected, but rather hold the chief place in his enquiries. These were accordingly the object of his more mature meditations; which were no lefs fuccefsfully employed upon them, as may be feen in part above. His Reasonableness of Chriftianity, as delivered in the Scriptures, is a work that will richly repay the labour of being thoroughly ftudied, together with both its Vindications, by all those who defire to entertain proper notions cerning the pure, primitive plan of Chrift's Religion, as laid down by himfelf: where they will alfo meet with many juft obfervations on our Saviour's admirable method of conducting it. Of this book, among other commendations, Limborch fays, Plus veræ Theologiæ ex illo quam ex operofis mul• torum Systematibus haufiffe me ingenue fateor. Lett. March 23, 1697. In his Paraphrafe and Notes upon the Epiftles of St. Paul, how fully does our Author obviate the erroneous doctrines (that of abfolute Reprobation in particular), which had been falfely charged upon the apoftle! And to Mr. Locke's honour it should be reembered, that he was the first of our Com mentators who fhewed what it was to comment upon the Apoftolic writings; by taking the whole of an Epiftle together, and ftriking off every fignification of every term foreign to the main fcope of it; by keeping this point conftantly in view, and carefully obferving each return to it after any digreffion; by tracing out a ftrict, tho' fometimes lefs vifible, connection in that very confiftent writer, St. Paul; touching the propriety and pertinence of whose writings to their several subjects and occafions, he appears to have མ་ས * First published in 1698, the feveral Additions to which (all I believe, inferted in the fubfequent Editions) remain under his own hand in the library of Chrift's College, Cambridge. formed and formed the most just conception, and thereby confeffedly led the way to fome of our best modern Interpreters. Vide Pierce, Pref. to Calo Taylor on Rom. No. 60. DE I cannot difmifs this imperfect without giving way to a painful election; which the confideration of them naturally excites. When we view the variety of thofe very uleful and important fubjects which have been treated in fo able a manner by our Author, and become fenfible of the numerous national obligations due to his memory on that account, with what indignation muft we behold the remains of that great and good man, lying under a mean, mouldering tomb-ftone, [which but too strictly verifies the prediction he had given of it, and its little tablet, as ipfa brevi peritura] in an obfcure country church-yard by the fide of a forlorn wood-while fo many fuperb monuments are daily erected to perpetuate names and characters hardly worth preferving! account of Mr. Locke and his works, Books and Treatifes written, or fuppofed to be written, by Mr. Locke. Epiftola de Tolerantia. The Hiftory of our Saviour Jefus Chrift. Select Books of the Old Teftament and Apocrypha, paraphrafed. Exceptions of Mr. Edwards to the Reasonablenefs of Chriftianity, &c. examined. Pieces groundlefly afcribed to him, or of doubtful authority. Occafional Thoughts in Reference to a Virtuous and Chriftian Life. Right Method of fearching after Truth. Spurious Ones 200lavishdo ftapy -bremuros odio gooms, dood vid 10 Common Place-Book to the Bible. Interlineary Verfion of Efop's Fables. すざす P. S. Having heard that fome of Mr. Locke's MSS. were in the poffeffion of thofe gentlemen to whom the library at Oates belonged, on application made to Mr. Palmer, he was fo obliging as to offer that a fearch fhould be made after them, and orders given for communicating all that could be found there; but as this notice comes unhappily too late to be made ufe of on the prefent occafion, I can only take the liberty of intimating it along with fome other fources of intelligence, which I have endeavoured to lay open, and which may probably afford matter for a fupplemental volume, as abovementioned. slodw le THE XV THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR Mr. 1OHN LOCKE was the son of IOHN LOCKE, of Pensford, a market-town in Somersetshire, five miles from Bristol, by Ann his wife, daughter of Edmund Keen, alias Ken, of Wrington, tanner. He was born at Wrington, another market-town in the fame county. John Locke, the father, was first a clerk only to a neighbouring justice of the peace, Francis Baber, of Chew Magna, but by Col. Alexander Popham, whofe feat was at Hunftreet, hard by Pensford, advanced to a captain in the parliament's fervice. After the Reftoration he practised as an attorney, and was clerk of the fewers in Somersetshire. This John the father was fon of Nicholas Locke, of Sutton Wick, in the parish of Chew Magna, but a younger brother of the Lockes of Charon Court, in Dorfetfhire *. The late Mr. LOCKE's age is not to be found in the regifters of Wrington, which is the parish church of Pensford; which gave umbrage to a report that his mother intending to lie in at Wrington with her friends, was furprized in her way thither, and putting into a little house, was delivered there. Mr. LOCKE had one younger brother, an attorney, married, but died iffuelefs, of a confumption. By the intereft of Col. Popham, our Author was admitted a scholar at Westminster, and thence elected to Chrift-Church in Oxon. He took the degree of batchelor of arts in 1655, and that of master in 1658+. But though he made a confiderable progress in the ufual courfe of ftudies at that time, yet he often faid, that what he had learned there was of little ufe to him, to enlighten and enlarge his mind. The first books which gave him a relish for the ftudy of philofophy, were the writings of Des Cartes: for though he did not always approve of that author's fentiments, he found that he wrote with great perfpicuity. After fome time he applied himself very closely to the ftudy of medicine; not with any defign of practifing as a phyfician, but principally for the benefit of his own conftitution, which was but weak. And we find he gained fuch efteem for his fkill, even among the most learned of the faculty of his time, that Dr. Thomas Sydenham, in his book intitled, "Obfervationes medicæ circa morborum acutorum hiftoriam &. "curationem," gives him a high encomium in these words: "You know," fays he, likewife how much my method has been approved of by a person, *Dr. Birch's Papers in the Museum. This account is there ftated as coming from Mr. John Heal, a relation, and well acquainted with the family, a perfon ftudious in Pedigree. On the back of it is this label: Mr. Locke's Pedigree, taken from a MS. at Chipley, June 23, 1737. Frequent notice is likewife taken of Mr. LOCKE's wife, in his Letters to Mr. Clarke, (for the use of whofe fon Mr. LOCKE drew up most of the Thoughts on Education) between 1692 and 1702, ibid. In 1672, among his college or univerfity exercifes, there is a thefis under his own hand on the following question: An Jefus Chriftus fuit verus Meffias Patribus promiflus. Aff. 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