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with any advantage to the understanding of ancient writers, which I have been apt to think the ordinary way of critics leads not to.

"I cannot, nor I ought not to, find fault with this ninth tome of your 'Bibliothèque'; but yet I cannot forbear to tell you that it wants the asterisks of distinction which you have done me the favour to place at the beginning of some of the other tomes. I am, sir, your most humble and most obedient servant, "J. LOCKE." 1

"I have read with much pleasure," Locke wrote ou the same day to Limborch, "our friend Le Clerc's 'experiment,' as he calls it, on the ancient poetry of the Hebrews, and I am persuaded that by his method much light may be thrown on the Psalms and other metrical portions of the Bible. I should much like to see a complete edition of the Psalms thus arranged by him. Do urge him to undertake such a work as quickly as his other occupations will permit. When I first discussed Le Clerc's view with a friend of mine, well versed in Hebrew literature, he rejected it, but he now adopts it."2

Locke's next letter to Limborch reminds us of his old occupations as a student of medicine. In the autumn of 1688, all, or nearly all, of Limborch's children—he had several daughters, but apparently only one son—were ill. "I am truly sorry," Locke now wrote, "that you have had so much trouble in your family; but I hope your boy will soon recover, as the rest have done. As I am absent I will not venture to say much about the disease and its cure, especially as you have such kind and skilful medical friends at hand. Let me, however, recommend one thing. If, as you seem to expect, small-pox shows itself, be very careful to avoid all heating medicines, and do not load

1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Locke to [Le Clerc], [20-] 30 July [1688].

2 Familiar Letters,' p. 322; Locke to Limborch, [20—] 30 July, 1688.

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him with bed-coverings that are likely to bring on a fever which will greatly increase his danger. My love for you and all belonging to you forces me to say this; and I speak from experience." "My great anxiety has been most happily relieved," he wrote next day, "by your letter of yesterday. If I did not fear the worst from your silence, I was certainly alarmed; for people who love their friends can never believe that no news is good news; but now I rejoice that all goes well, and that nothing but care and good dieting are required to cure your son. Let me give you my advice; not because I think you can need it when such a wise and experienced doctor as Veen is by your side, but because I know you have faith in me and will listen to what I say. After this disease, most doctors are in the habit of again and again administering purgatives with the object of clearing off all remaining traces of disease, but it seems to me that they are very apt to themselves encourage the evils which they deem it necessary to purge away. Patients recovering from the small-pox generally have an enormous appetite, which, if a careful and moderate diet is not pursued, causes the stomach to be over-loaded and the blood to be brought into a condition for breeding fresh disease. Old women and doctors nearly always offend in this way, thinking that the more food they give the more the invalid will be strengthened. Now, nothing but what suits the stomach nourishes the blood, strengthens the body, and brings it into a healthy condition. Over-feeding not only does no good, but breeds vicious humours and encourages disease. I entreat you to bear this in mind.” 2

1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library (partly in the 'Familiar Letters,' p. 323); Locke to Limborch, [14-] 24 Nov., 1688.

Ibid.; Locke to Limborch, [15-] 25 Nov., 1688.

Et. 56.

That view of Locke recurring to his former studies in the medicine of common sense comes pleasantly to us at this time, when it was clear that he was busily engaged in very different sorts of work.

"I had many other things to say to you,” he had written to Limborch on the day on which he had sent off his long letter to Le Clerc, suggesting that the Psalms of David should be submitted to the same rules for arriving at a correct text as were appropriate to the Cdes of Horace; "but I am interrupted by the arrival of a friend from England." His quiet life in Holland seems to have been often broken in upon by the arrival of friends from England, who came on business that took him, as well as them, on frequent visits to the Hague, where William of Orange was at last preparing to make himself king of England. "I hope," we find him writing in July to his old friend, Nicolas Thoynard, with whom he had kept up a steady correspondence throughout these years, though very few of the letters have been preserved, "I hope before this you have understood from mine of the 29th of June why I have been so tardy in answering your former letters. I have been obliged by certain friends who arrived in this country, and whom I had hardly seen before since I left England, to go about with them, so that I only received yours of the 6th the day before yesterday, and this is the first opportunity I have for reading and answering it."2 "I have been away from home, and therefore could not possibly write to you sooner," he wrote again to the same friend on the 31st of October. That

1 Familiar Letters,' p. 323; Locke to Limborch, [10] 20 July, 1688. Additional MSS. in the British Museum, no. 28836; Locke to Thoynard, [26 July-] 5 August, 1688.

3 Ibid., no. 28753; Locke to Thoynard, [31 Oct.-] 10 Nov., 1688. VOL. II.

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was the day before the Prince of Orange made his final departure for England.

"I hope your son's health is not in such a state," Locke wrote a fortnight later to Limborch, "that I may not speak of other things, especially when it is to tell you some good news. Our friend Furly had an interview with the prince before he went away, and urged him to put a stop to the persecution that has been attempted in this province at such an especially unseasonable time. He put the case so strongly that the prince wrote a letter to the bailiff of Kammerland, who, with the sanction of the synod, had ordered Foeke Floris, the minister of the Mennonite church, to leave the country within eight days. The history of this Foeke Floris you can lea from others better than from me; for Furly knew nothing about him till this affair came to light. Believing, however, that the common interests of Christians were involved, he took up the matter with his usual zeal, and I believe the prince's letter will stop the persecution."1 The history of Foeke Floris has not come down to us, and we are told nothing more concerning the troubles of the disciples of Simon Menno in their home among the dykes and dunes and swamps of Zeeland; but as they were peaceable and devout Christians, whose only crime was their belief in the simple humanity of Christ, we can understand why Furly and Locke took so much interest in this case.

On the 1st of November, 1688, William of Orange started on his memorable voyage for England, having

1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Locke to Limborch, [14-] 24 Nov.,

been detained a fortnight by bad weather. With him went Mordaunt and Locke's other friends, as well as Burnet and all the other chief advisers of the prince. Locke remained in Holland more than three months longer, and appears to have been in frequent attendance on the Princess Mary, who waited at the Hague till her husband should inform her that the time was come for her to join him. That information reached her near the end of January, 1688-9.

"This sudden and not yet looked-for departure of the princess," Locke wrote to Limborch from Rotterdam, on the 26th of the month, "disturbs all my thoughts, and hinders that which before all things I was anxious for an opportunity of seeing you and all my other friends at Amsterdam before leaving the country. You cannot but be aware of the great advantage it would be for me to cross the channel, crowded as it is just now with ships of war, and infested with pirates, in such good company; but this would not induce me to hurry away and leave behind me the suspicion that I was unmindful of all your affection, and of the duties that I owe in return for it. A stronger reason compels me. An English nobleman " -evidently Lord Mordaunt "who went hither with the prince, has asked me to take care of his wife on her passage, with the princess, from the Hague, and I could not do less than accept the office. Neither she nor I expected that we should have to leave quite so soon. We intended to spend this week in Amsterdam. But you know what has happened, and with what incredible rapidity things are moving in England. Of the progress of these movements I was informed only three days ago, and I am as yet by no means prepared for the journey. It is necessity, not choice, that will prevent my