known he was not a Cartesian), and that he lost a great deal of time at the commencement of his studies, because the only philosophy then known at Oxford was the peripatetic, perplexed with obscure terms and useless questions."1 He must have found some relief when, in his third year, he was allowed to study geometry under such a teacher as Dr. John Wallis, the Savilian professor from 1649 till 1703. A man of exemplary life, broad sympathies and comprehensive genius, Wallis exerted upon the young men at Oxford, and upon Locke among the number, a wider and deeper influence than grew merely out of his university lectures, although the subjects of those lectures were more deep and wide than might be supposed from the modern application of the word geometry. Besides expounding Euclid, Appolonius and Archimedes, he had to teach arithmetic, mechanics, practical geometry, and the principles of music, and, if he chose, he might lecture on what were then the intricacies of plane and spherical trigonometry. His Wednesday and Saturday lectures being in Latin, he was also required to hold a weekly class at his own lodgings, though attendance at it was optional, for teaching "practical logic or arithmetic of all kinds, which is best communicated without any formality "-a strange admission for the old statute to make, while it is almost stranger to find that he was allowed to conduct this class "in the vulgar tongue, if he think fit."2 Though Locke never paid very much attention to the mathematical sciences, he probably attended Dr. Wallis's English class in arithmetic as a step towards logic, and 1 Le Clerc,Eloge de M. Locke,' in his Bibliothèque Choisie,' tom. vi. (1705), p. 347. 2 Ward, Oxford University Statutes,' vol. i., p. 274. 1652-6. Et. 20-23.. MATHEMATICS AND GREEK." 49 from him perhaps he derived his very sensible opinion that "arithmetic is the easiest and consequently the first sort of abstract reasoning which the mind commonly bears or accustoms itself to."1 From the lectures on Greek delivered by Dr. John Harmar, who had been under-master at Westminster before he was made regius professor at Oxford, and who is described as "a most excellent philologist and a tolerable Latin poet, happy in rendering Greek into Latin, or Latin into English, or English into Greek or Latin, whether in prose or verse 2-Locke probably had not much more to learn. His Westminster training must have brought him quite up to the level requisite for his degree, and, though he was evidently a fair Greek scholar, there is nothing to show that he entered into any rivalry with Stubbe and the few others of his day who affected the severer classical studies. "No man," he said at a later day, "can pass for a scholar, that is ignorant of the Greek tongue;" but he only approved of its being studied because "amongst the Grecians is to be found the original, as it were, and foundation of all that learning which we have in this part of the world; "3 and he never had any liking at all for those minute grammatical exercises in which some of his contemporaries indulged. Latin and Greek verse-writing, for the mere pedantic exhibition of familiarity with the husks and dry bones of classical literature, he regarded as very nearly, if not quite, as wasteful of good time, and as destructive of 1Some Thoughts concerning Education,' § 180. 2 Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses,' vol. iii., col. 918. Most of the gossip about the Oxford teachers given in these paragraphs, where no other autho rity is specified, is derived from Wood. Some Thoughts concerning Education,' § 195. sound intellectual energy, as Greek and Latin declamations in fantastic support of Aristotelian and pseudAristotelian dogmas. This being so, it is somewhat curious to note that Locke's first published composition was a small piece of Latin verse. There was a reason for this, however. The defeat of the Dutch in 1653, and the beneficial treaty of peace signed by Cromwell in April, 1654, having proved that England could maintain her naval reputation as well during the Commonwealth as under any Stuart king, Cromwell's admirers and partisans used the opportunity thus afforded for singing loud his praises. Among the rest, Dr. Owen procured from the members of the university, and especially from the students of Christ Church, a string of complimentary poems, considerably over a hundred in number, and written by more than a hundred different hands. These appeared in a volume entitled, 'Musarum Oxoniensium 'Eλacopopía,' with a prose preface and some introductory verses by Owen himself. Among the contributors were both old and young members of the university, professors and scholars, honest puritans and clandestine royalists, Zouch and Bathurst, Busby and his pupil South, Philip Henry, and several other Westminster students at Christ Church. Locke contributed two pieces. The first was in Latin : "Pax regit Augusti quem vicit Julius orbem: Ille sago factus clarior, ille toga. Hos sua Roma vocat magnos et numina credit, 1 Musarum Oxoniensium 'Exautopía (1654), p. 45. 1654. Et. 21. VERSES IN PRAISE OF CROMWELL. 51 The second was in English : "If Greece with so much mirth did entertain Her Argo, coming laden home again, With what loud mirth and triumph shall we greet Glory of war is victory. But here Both glorious be, 'cause neither 's conqueror. Our re-united seas, like streams that flow We need no fire-ships now: a nobler flame Our ships are now most beneficial grown, Since they bring home no spoils but what's their own. Which gives not only gems and Indian ore, Out of the jarring chaos of the deep, Our ships do this; so that, whilst others' Their course about the world, ours a world make."1 If those exercises do not show great poetical ability, they are quite equal in merit to some contributions to the same volume by men more noted in their day as versewriters; and, which is more important, they offer far less extravagant praise of Cromwell than was here uttered by men who had less sympathy with the protector and republicanism than we must attribute to John Locke. In taking his bachelor's degree on the 14th of February, 1655-6, Locke abridged the old quadrennium, as was often done, by one term. In proceeding to the degree of master of arts, on the 29th of June, 1658,2 he adopted the less usual course of shortening his triennium by two terms. He thus completed his curriculum twelve months before the expiration of the seven years that were covered by the junior studentship conferred upon him as a Westminster scholar. At the close of that septennium his connection with Christ Church would come to an end, unless, as was the case with nearly every competent man from Westminster, he was elected to a senior studentship, which at Christ Church was equivalent to a fellowship at another college. That he was so elected is clear, and, though no record of 1 Musarum Oxoniensium 'Exauovopía' (1654), pp. 94, 95 |