to Esther Masham, his Laudabridis, from whom during these years he was often parted for much longer periods than in the years before and after; and this letter must here be quoted, along with three that followed it at intervals. They throw too many stray gleams of light upon his life and temperament for us to be able to dispense with them.

"Upon Mr. Locke's being made a commissioner of trade, I writ him a letter to wish him joy; upon which he sent me the following letter," said Esther Masham by way of preface to the first.

"The joy which you so forwardly and so kindly wrapped up in your letter proved a fright to me when I opened it. What could a solemn joy be less to one that had before his eyes the fresh example of Mr. H——, and when I received your joy I knew not but your grandmother's prophecy was fulfilled and that I had been tumbled into the meal tub in my sleep without knowing it. But that which set the fright more on was that it came from my Laudabridis, whose business, you know, is to make joy, not to wish it. After a little time, recovering myself enough to observe some other expressions which went along with it, I began to find out the matter, and then your wishes had their effects. For, whatever I may expect from what you had in view, either satisfaction or trouble or neither, this I am sure, your taking part in what concerns me, and rejoicing in what perhaps you view but on one side, extremely pleases me. I take it as I am sure you meant it. I take it as a sincere and great mark of your kindness to me, which the more sensibly affects me by how much I more esteem and wish well to you than to all the young ladies I know. Would the time were now come that I could return you your wish and upon a better occasion! You would then see how much your Joannes was in earnest concerned for you. I am your most faithful servant, "JOANNES.

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Pray give my humble service to your grandmother and the rest at Matching Hall."1

1 Letters from Relations and Friends, in Miss Palmer's possession, vol. i., pp. 18, 19.

Locke wrote at least once again to Laudabridis before he returned to Oates.

“Dear Dab,—Your letter the last week, after so long silence, looks as if you had been bottling up kindness for your Joannes, which at last you have let run to the rejoicing of his heart more than if you had overflowed to him sack and sugar or cherry brandy. I was not a little dejected in being so long out of your thoughts, as appeared to me by your no words, which is a very ill sign in a prattle-box of your age. But in good sooth you have now made me amends, and, if what you say be but true, Joannes will perk up again and will not give place to the finest powdered spark in the town. think you know my heart pretty well, but you are a little mistaken about my head. Though it belongs now to a man of trade, and is thwacked with sea-coal and fuller's earth, lampblack and hobnails and a thousand such considerable things, yet there is a room empty and clear kept on purpose for the lady, and, if you did but see how you sit mistress there and command all the ambergris and pearls, all the fine silks and muslins which are in my storehouse, you would not complain of the filling of a place where you would sit mistress.

"I thank you for the Bible you have been at the trouble about for me, and desire it may be sent me. When I come down next, I will bring it into the country with me, and you and I will be the better for it.

"Pray present my humble service to Sir Francis and my lady, and let my lady know that, almost nobody in town paying now at sight, I hope she will not have very hard thoughts of me if I remain in her debt for a letter I received from her till the end of the week.

"Remember me very kindly to dear Totty, and, when you go to Matching Hall, pray present my most humble service there.

"I am, D. D., your most faithful humble servant,

"JOANNES." 1

Another letter, dated nearly a year afterwards, was written on the day on which Locke brought before his brother commissioners his scheme for developing the linen manufacture in Ireland. Neither that nor the great bustle in London on account of the approaching

1 Letters from Relations and Friends, vol. i., pp. 20, 21; Locke to Esther Masham, 1 Sept., 1696.

visit of the czar of Muscovy kept him from thinking of Laudabridis, and longing to be with her.

"DEAR DAB,-There was nothing wanting to complete the satisfaction your obliging letter of the 20th brought me but the motive from yourself of writing. Had inclination procured me the favour, and not the commands of another, you had made me perfectly happy. However, the good and kind things you say in it make a great amends for that defect, and I should be very unreasonable if so many good words you have put into your letter should not hinder me from complaining. They are more and better than I deserve, and you may believe they have no ordinary charms in them, since they go a great way towards reconciling me to my old and great enemy, winter. At least you wish for him with so peculiar a way of kindness to me that I cannot be angry with you for doing it; for, since you think I cannot have your company without his, I should be better pleased with his coming than the czar's, and like him better, crowned as he is with turnips and carrots, than the great duke with all his rubies and diamonds. This may convince you that, whatever keeps me in town, it is not my inclination. And the reproach of not coming to you whilst I can live here is a little beside the matter. Did I stay here no longer than I lived here, I should quickly be at your town without houses; for in this, where there are so many, too many, I do not live. To live is to be where and with whom one likes. Do not, therefore, dear Dab, any more reproach your Joannes on this point, as you will answer it another day. You huddled up the end of your letter to get to the man in black and the melon. Which you relished best, either the discourses of the one or the taste of the other, I shall know when I see you. For, if you have no sweet sayings laid up by you of that day's collection, I know what I know. I long to be examining of you because I am, dear Dab, your most humble and most obedient servant, "JOANNES.'

The next letter was written seven weeks later, after a hard day's work at the council, occupied in discussing the

1 "Mr. Locke used to laugh at Mr. Low, the minister of our parish, for calling his parish his town, when there were not two houses together in it."-E.M.'s note.

2 The man in black was Mr. Low."-E. M.'s note.

3 Letters from Friends and Relations, vol. i., pp. 23, 24; John Locke to Esther Masham, 23 August, 1697.

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trade relations between England and Norway, and while Locke was completing his scheme for the reform of the poor laws. It was provoked by some playful reproaches from Laudabridis on account of his reported civilities to a famous dowager-duchess, still handsome, though no longer in her prime. "I pretended to be jealous upon his visiting the Duchess of Grafton," said Laudabridis in explanation of it.

"Beauty and honour are two tempting things, but a heart, dear Dab, that you are possessed of is proof against all of that kind. If therefore you have any more jealousy but just so much as shows your concern for me, you are unjust to yourself and your Joannes too. The wishes I made to be with you remain the same I brought to town with me, and, if you can but defend me against your own fears, I promise you to defend you against all the duchesses and beauties in Christendom. I believe you as innocent and sincere as the country can produce, and I think I may presume I shall hold out longer against the false fashions than the ill air of the town; for my heart, I am sure, is better than my lungs; so that your part is safe. I do not much rejoice in the plump you make such show of in your letter. If you were so much concerned as you talk of, you would pine away a little in my absence. But, with all the love you brag of, there is not that sympathy should be. If there were, separation would always abate something of your good mien, as it always, you know, does of mine, and, as thin as I am when I part from you, I always return thinner. But what I am abated in bulk, I always return increased in affection. If this does not satisfy you, I will make up the rest of the account when I see you at Oates, where I long to tell you how much and how sincerely I am, dear Dab, your most humble and most affectionate servant,

"JOANNES.' 1

Locke had been very ill in the winter before those last two letters were written, and, as we have seen, had in consequence vainly sought to be discharged from his comissionership of trade. He was ill also when he wrote them, and all through the five months and more in which

1 Letters from Friends and Relations, vol. i., pp. 26, 27; Locke to Esther Masham, 13 Oct., 1697.

he toiled on at his official duties; and he greatly overworked himself in this summer and autumn of 1697. "I have had less health and more business since I writ to you last," he said in a letter to Molyneux, dated from Oates in January, 1697-8, the previous letter having been written in September, "than ever I had for so long together in my life. Business kept me in town longer than was convenient for my health. All the day from my rising was commonly spent in that, and, when I came home at night, my shortness of breath and panting for want of it made me ordinarily so uneasy that I had no heart to do anything; so that the usual diversion of my vacant hours forsook me, and reading itself was a burden to me. In this estate I lingered along in town to December, till I betook myself to my wonted refuge in the more favourable air and retirement of this place. That gave me presently relief against the constant oppression of my lungs, whilst I sit still; but I find such a weakness of them still remain, that, if I stir ever so little, I am immediately out of breath. The very dressing or undressing me is a labour that I am fain to rest after to recover my breath; and I have not been once out of the house since I came last hither. I wish nevertheless that you were here with me to see how well I am; for you would find that, sitting by the fireside, I could bear my part in discoursing, laughing, and being merry with you as well as ever I could in my life. If you were here-and if wishes of more than one could bring you, you would be here to day-you would find three or four in the parlour after dinner who, you would say, passed their afternoons as agreeably and as jocundly as any people you have this good while met with. Do not, therefore, figure to yourself that I am languishing