and affection. It was in remembrance of this conduct that Locke dedicated to Lord Pembroke his Essay on the Human Understanding. In Vol. i. p. 357, is a letter of Mr. Tyrrell to Locke, wherein he informs him of the following facts: all the heads of the University of Oxford had united and proposed to enjoin upon all the tutors not to read to their pupils the Essay on the Human Understanding, and the philosophy of Leclerc. This resolution was like, at first, to have passed, but Dr. Dunstan remarked that in proscribing these books they would but excite the curiosity of the pupils. At another meeting they resolved that instead of proscribing these books, that all the heads of the houses should give the tutors private instructions not to read those books to their pupils, and to prevent their doing it by themselves, as much as lay in their power. In reading this letter, Locke might have been reminded that in the journal of his travels in France, he wrote these words under date of March 22, 1676: "The new philosophy of Descartes prohibited to be taught in the universities, schools, and academies." Pages 388-434, may be found different letters of Newton, among which is the extraordinary letter to which Locke made such an admirable reply. This letter of Newton must be attributed to the disordered state of mind in which this great man had fallen. It is of the 16th September, 1693. It must be observed especially with what candor Newton confesses and asks pardon for his evil thoughts. This candor is his own; the rest is his disorder. So when he received Locke's letter, he could not even remember what had occasioned it. He answers from Cambridge, the 5th of October: "Sir, the last winter, by sleeping too often by my fire, I got an ill habit of sleeping; and a distemper, which this summer has been epidemical, put me farther out of order,* * In regard to the undeniable derangement of Newton, see in the Universal Biography, the article of M. Biot, and the articles of the same ingenious and skilful writer, Journal des Savants, June, 1882, and May, 1834. so that when I wrote to you, I had not slept an hour a night for a fortnight together, and for five nights together not a wink. I remember I wrote to you, but what I said of your book I remember not. If you please to send me a transcript of that passage, I will give you an account of it if I can. I am your most humble servant, Is. Newton." Locke did not preserve any remembrance of this affair, and throughout all his correspondence was ready to yield homage to the genius of Newton. On page 39 of the second volume, in a letter to his cousin, Peter King, afterwards Lord Chancellor, and which is dated the 30th of April, 1703, may be found the following lines, which prove what reputation Newton enjoyed as a theologian: “Mr. Newton is really a very valuable man, not only for his wonderful skill in mathematics, but in divinity too, and his great knowledge in the Scriptures, wherein I know few his equals." Among the philosophical pieces published for the first time by Lord King, there are some truly precious. We will mention particularly, 1st vol. p. 134, a few pages dated in the year 1696, and which are an examination of the Cartesian proof of the existence of God, deduced from the idea of a necessary being. Locke rejects this proof, which, for our part, we regard as excellent, though very incomplete. We think that this fragment should be translated and referred to that part of the Essay on the Human Understanding, where Locke himself produces his proof of the existence of God. This fragment is posterior and very superior to the passage of the Essay. We will close these extracts by expressing our regrets at not having found in these two volumes more details in regard to the intimate friendship between Locke and Lady Masham, the daughter of Cudworth, with whom he passed the last years of his life. It appears that she was a person as remarkable for her mind as she was for the charms of her manners. Several writings attributed to Locke are really by this lady, among others a treatise on divine love, translated into French by Coste, and printed at Amsterdam in 1705. Lord King reproduces the passage from the biography of Leclerc, in which are related the last moments of Locke, and his pious and calm death, as it were in the arms of Lady Masham. "In October, 1704, his disorder greatly increased: on the 27th of that month, Lady Masham, not finding him in his study as usual, went to his bedside, when he told her that the fatigue of getting up the day before had been too much for his strength, and that he never expected to rise again from his bed. He said that he had now finished his career in this world, and that in all probability he should not outlive the night, certainly not be able to survive beyond the next day or two. After taking some refreshment, he said to those present that he wished them all happiness after he was gone. To Lady Masham, who remained with him, he said that he thanked God he had passed a happy life, but that now he found that all was vanity, and exhorted her to consider this world only as a preparation for a better state hereafter. He would not suffer her to sit up with him, saying, that perhaps he might be able to sleep, but if any change should happen, he would send for her. Having no sleep in the night, he was taken out of bed and carried into his study, where he slept for some time in his chair: after waking, he desired to be dressed, and then heard Lady Masham read the Psalms apparently with great attention, until perceiving his end to draw near, he stopped her, and expired a very few minutes afterwards, about three o'clock in the afternoon of the 28th October, in his seventythird year." Locke was buried in a small church in the village of HighLaver. On his modest tomb, now in ruins, was placed this epitaph, which he himself had composed : Hic juxta situs est Se vixisse respondet. Tantum profecit Ut veritati unice litaret. Hoc ex scriptis ejus disce, Quæ quod de eo reliquum est Majori fide tibe exhibebunt, Quam epitaphii suspecta elogia. Virtutes si quas habuit, Minores sane quam sibi laudi Duceret, Tibi in exemplum proponeret: Vitia una sepeliantur. Morum exemplum si quæras, Tu Evangelia habes, Vitiorum utinam nusquam ! Mortalitatis certe (quod prosit) Hic et ubique. Natum anno Domini MDCXXXII, Mortuum XXVIII Octobris MDCCIV. Memorat hæc tabella Brevi et ipsa interitura. LECTURE XVI.* ESSAY ON THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. ITS SPIRIT, ITS METHOD. General spirit of the Essay on the Human Understanding.-Its method: study of the human understanding as the necessary foundation of all true philosophy. Study of the human understanding in its phenomena or ideas.--Division of inquiries with respect to ideas, and determination of the order in which these inquiries should be made. To postpone the logical and ontological question of the truth or falsity of ideas, of the legitimacy or illegitimacy of their application to such or such objects, to adhere to the study of ideas in themselves, and in that to commence by establishing the actual characters of ideas, and then to proceed to the investigation of their origin. -Examination of the method of Locke. Its merit: he postpones and places last the question of the truth or falsity of ideas; its fault: he entirely neglects the question of the actual characters of ideas, and he starts by that of their origin. First error of the method; chances of errors which it involves; general tendency of the school of Locke. THE first question which we shall put in regard to the Essay on the Human Understanding is: Upon what authority does it rest in the last analysis? Does the author search for truth at his own risk and peril by the single force of reason, such as it has been given to man, or does he recognize a foreign and superior authority to which he submits, and from which he borrows the motives of his judgments? In fact, this is, you know, the question upon which it is necessary to interrogate at first every philosophical work, in order to determine its most general character, and its place in the history of philosophy, and even in that of civilization. Now, a single glance at the Essay on the Human Understanding, is sufficient to show that Locke is a free seeker of truth. Everywhere he addresses himself to reason; he * The third volume of the 1st Series contains a lecture devoted to the examination of the philosophy of Locke, p. 85-76. |