here to have a man made than a suit. To be serious with you, they are the slowest people, and fullest of delays, that ever I have met with, and their money as bad." After all this, and premising that he did not regard skill in logic-chopping and in theological or metaphysical disputation as in themselves necessary proofs of learning, it is not strange to find Locke saying to Boyle, in the letter from which an extract has already been made, "I have not yet heard of any person here eminently learned." "There is one, Dr. Scardius," he added, "who, I am told, is not altogether a stranger to chemistry. I intend to visit him as soon as I can get a handsome opportunity. The rest of their physicians go the old road, I am told and easily -guess by their apothecaries' shops, which are unacquainted with chemical remedies. This, I suppose, makes this town so ill-furnished with books of that kind, there being few here curious enough to inquire after chemistry or experimental learning. And, as I once heard you say, I find it true here, as well as in other places, that the great cry is ends of gold and silver."2 Boyle, always anxious to collect information of every sort on every topic through every channel from every part of the world, both for his own enlightenment and for the enlightenment of the Royal Society and its Oxford branch, appears to have asked Locke to send him any news he could obtain while on the continent. Locke forwarded a list of thirteen new books on medical and kindred topics which he had met with; also a short account of some "petrifying" water. "I met with a Jesuit who had been in Hungary. I inquired whether 1 Lord King, p. 16; Locke to Strachey, 15, 22, and 24 Dec., 1665. 2 Boyle, 'Works,' vol. v., p. 565; Locke to Boyle, 12 Dec., 1665. 1665. Et. 33. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND INQUIRIES. 119 he had seen the mines. He told me that he had gone down into a copper-mine near Neisol (if I mistake not the name), six hundred fathoms deep; that at the bottom, in a hollow of some bigness, there dropped down water which they received in a wooden trough, wherein they cast pieces of old iron, which by the water would be turned into good copper; that a piece of iron of the bigness of a man's finger would be changed in three months, and the mutation began from the superficies inwards with streaks, or, to use his word, striatum; that he had a horseshoe, whose exterior part was copper, and inside iron." We shall see hereafter that Boyle had a vague, unscientific belief in the possibility of transmuting inferior into superior metals, which he was anxious that both Locke and Newton should help him to verify. Several letters that Locke is known to have written from Cleve to his friends in England have unfortunately been lost. One that he sent to Dr. Pococke, the Oxford professor, early in January,' doubtless contained matter that would have been very interesting to us. Of a series of letters that he addressed to William Godolphin, moreover, only one is extant; but their loss is less to be regretted, as, from the tenour of the one we have, it would appear that they substantially agreed with the official letters that he wrote on behalf of Sir Walter Vane to Arlington, Clarendon, and their secretaries. Of these official letters it is enough to say here that they abundantly correct any suspicion that might arise in our minds as to Locke's attention to business. The business chiefly consisted in attendance at court, along with 1 Boyle, Works,' vol. v., p. 565; Locke to Boyle, 12, Dec., 1665. 3 Foreign State Papers, German States, series i., no. 148**; Locke to Williamson, 16-26 Jan., 1665-6. J Vane, in receiving visits from the elector's agents and others, and in maintaining a correspondence with the authorities at home; but such duties as these evidently engrossed a good deal of time, and those occupations of Locke's which are most interesting to us filled up only his leisure hours. A few sentences from the only extant letter written to Godolphin-the document, indeed, being only Locke's copy or draft of it-will suffice us as illustrations of his concernments and opinions as a "secretary of legation." "I have hitherto," he wrote, on the 29th of December, concerning the elector and his advisers, "been of the mind that their councils here tend to the preserving a neutrality, and the reasons I had to think so were that I saw no preparations for war, no levies made, but only talked of; and besides, I was informed that there is a great scarcity of money, that the expenses of the court are great, the debts greater, and the revenue small. Perhaps, since money seems to me to be here, as in other places, the great solder of pacts and agreements, they delay the bargain to raise the price, and wait for the best chapman. They treat with Holland; they treat with France; and in what terms they stand with us, you will see by Sir Walter." While Sir Walter Vane was urging that the elector should be bribed to neutrality, Locke seems to have been of opinion that no bribe was needed to keep the elector neutral, though he would have been glad of some English money to spend, or pretend to spend, in military operations against Holland, in his own interests rather than in those of his ally. If that was Locke's view, events proved that it was a sound one. 1 Lord King, p. 12; Locke to " Mr. G.," [29] Dec., 1665. 1665-0.7 Et. 33. RETURN TO ENGLAND. 121 How Locke was occupied, apart from diplomatic work, during January, 1665-6, we are not told. The only extant letter written by him in that month is a short one addressed to Joseph Williamson, implying that he had not received any letters from his friends at home since his departure, and that he was much disappointed thereat. Some arrangement had been made with Godolphin for the transmission by him of Locke's letters along with the official dispatches; but, perhaps through no fault of Godolphin's, none were thus transmitted, at any rate up to the 16th of January, when Locke wrote to Williamson. "The knowledge I have of your civility," he there said, "makes me confidently desire you that, if any letters from any of my friends in England to me come to your 1 hands, you would do me the favour to send them me in the packet to Sir Walter. All other ways of conveyance hither are so utterly unknown to me, and give me so little hopes of receiving any letters, that you will pardon this request to a man that is unwilling to be deprived of the correspondence of all those friends, and the knowledge of some affairs, he left in England, and who hopes the granting of it will not cost you much trouble."" Locke had not to wait very much longer, however, to know how his friends and affairs were going on in England. With Sir Walter Vane he left, or at any rate it was arranged that he should leave, the capital of Brandenburg, on the 8th of February, and he was in London again some few days before the 22nd of the same month." 1 Boyle, Works,' vol. v., p. 565; Locke to Boyle, 12 Dec., 1665. 2 Foreign State Papers, German States, series i., no. 148 **; Locke to Williamson, 16-26 Jan., 1665-6. 8 Ibid, series i., no. 155; Vane to Arlington, 6-16 Feb., 1665-6. Lord King, p. 25; Locke to Strachey, 22 Feb., 1665-6. Locke was found to have performed so well his duties as secretary to Sir Walter Vane, that immediately after his return to London-where he met the court, which had just returned from Oxford-proposals for more important diplomatic work were made to him. "I am now offered a fair opportunity of going into Spain with the ambassador," he wrote to his friend John Strachey.1 The new ambassador to Spain was Edward Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, chiefly memorable as a naval commander he was killed while showing some desperate valour at the battle of Solebay, in May, 1672-but a useful statesman, as statesmen went in those days. France, in formal alliance with Holland, having just declared war against England, it was deemed very important to secure, if possible, the support of Spain. Accordingly, Sandwich was hastily appointed to supersede Sir Richard Fanshaw at Madrid, and William Godolphin was selected to accompany him as "assistant," in some position superior to that of a secretary. It was doubtless as secretary, and at Godolphin's instigation, that Locke was invited to join the embassy. It was indeed a "fair opportunity" of stepping forward in diplomatic life, certain, in the case of a man of ability, and not too scrupulous, to lead to very high employment in the public service. Locke so regarded it. "If I embrace it," he said, "I shall conclude this my wandering year. If I go, I shall not have above ten days' stay in England. I am pulled both ways by divers considerations, and do yet waver. intend to-morrow for Oxford, and shall there take my resolution." He did so, and posterity may be grateful to 1 Lord King, p. 25; Locke to Strachey, 22 Feb., 1665-6. I |