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its ideas, until it resolves them into those clear and distinct simple ones out of which they are compounded, and to see which, amongst his simple ones, have, or have not, a necessary connection and dependence one upon another. Until a man doth this in the primary and original notion of things, he builds upon floating and uncertain principles, and will often find himself at a loss." 1

Had Locke been careful to observe his own canon, he might have saved himself from much controversy in later years, or at least have compelled those opponents who built frivolous arguments upon his verbal inconsistencies to find some better groundwork for their attacks.

Though much hindered by other work which he deemed more urgent, and also by the damage which that work caused to his health, Locke was anxious, after his return to England, to publish the essay which he had been so

1. Concerning Human Understanding,' b. ii., ch. xiii., § 28. It would be hypercritical to make much complaint about Locke's uncertain use even of the most important word in the title of his work; but this illustrates the frequent vagueness of his phraseology. His purpose was evidently to make a searching inquiry "concerning human understanding," that is, concerning man's faculty or faculties of receiving and forming ideas and thus acquiring knowledge; but his treatise is made one "concerning the human understanding," that is, the mind or intellect, the thing that understands. Some psychologists, of course, would say that there is no difference between "understanding" and "the understanding," that the mind is simply a bundle of ideas, and only comes into existence by the aggregation of thoughts and feelings derived from bodily sensations; but Locke did not think so the mind to him was at starting a "tabula rasa," or a "yet empty cabinet," a something capable of taking in ideas, and he ought therefore to have steadily discriminated in his book between the understanding and its powers of understanding.

long in writing. He wrote his "epistle dedicatory" to the Earl of Pembroke, in May, 1689,' and he set the printers to work as soon as he could.

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Very little is doing now among us in the republic of letters," he wrote to Limborch in August; "we are all so busy about politics; but in this dearth of books I am submitting my treatise de intellectu' to the criticism of those friends who are weak enough to read it. I have sent "-evidently the proof-sheets of "the first book to Mr. Le Clerc." 2 To-day," he wrote on the 3rd of December, "I hope that the last sheet will be in type: so at least the printers have promised, but whether any reliance is to be placed on the word of these sort of men I cannot say. I wish the work were written in such a language that, now that it is in a complete form, you could pass judgment upon it: for I know your perfect honesty and wonderful acuteness. If it comes to be translated into Latin, I fear you will find many faults in it. But the die is cast, and I am now launched on the wide ocean." "I sent Mr. Le Clerc," he added in the same letter, "my second and third books, as well as I can recollect, in September. I shall send him the rest very soon, and I hope he will return the proofs as quickly as he can, in order that I may adopt his corrections. 'Finito jam termino exspecto,' as our special pleaders say.

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1 The dedication is not dated in the first edition, but "Dorset Court, 24th of May, 1689," appears in the second and later editions. According to Ruffhead, Pope's biographer, "Mr. Pope used to say the only thing he could never forgive his philosophic master was the dedication to the 'Essay.'" Seeing how much it was the rule to write fulsome dedications, Locke may certainly be forgiven; but every one must regret that he thought fit to publish such exaggerated compliments.

2 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Locke to Limborch, 7 Aug., 1689.

soon as I receive the proof of the table of contents I shall write to Mr. Le Clerc."1

Those sentences show with what careful interest Locke was arranging for the publication of his 'Essay concerning Human Understanding.' The first edition was in the booksellers' shops early in 1690. Locke's name was not on the title-page, but appended to the dedication. It was "printed by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Basset, at the George in Fleet Street, near St. Dunstan's Church."

For the copyright of the work which he had been preparing during so many years Locke received £30.2

1 MSS. in the Remonstrants' Library; Locke to Limborch, 3 Dec. [1689]. Lord King, p. 265.

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CHAPTER XI.

IN AID OF THE REVOLUTION.

[1689-1692.]

ANDING at Torbay on the 5th of November, 1688, William of Orange came ostensibly only to persuade his father-in-law, at the point of the bayonet, to rule England according to law; but no one was deceived as to his intentions. It was clear that he either must be driven back as a usurper, or must drive the traitor-king from the throne. James the Second did not wait for much pressure, and William had little more to do than leisurely to march up to London, and there make terms with the irregular parliament that he had convened.

Some very useful and some rather discreditable diplomacy had to be gone through between the day of William's arrival and the day on which his wife joined him at Whitehall; but with the history, well known in the outline and in many of its details, of those three months we need not here concern ourselves, especially as we know nothing of Locke's connection with it. We can do little more than guess as to the extent of Locke's share in the earlier stage of the Revolution, though that he had some considerable share therein is quite certain; and it seems clear that he had no direct share at all in this second stage. Any advice he may have given to Lord Mordaunt

Et. 56..

and others must have been given before the prince and his chief advisers left Holland, and, whatever that advice, whether followed or neglected, he only came to participate personally in the work after the prince had virtually become king. The part waiting to be taken by him, however, was a large one, and more was expected of him than he felt able to do.

On Wednesday, the 13th of February, 1688-9, the day after the Princess Mary's arrival, with Locke as one of her company, she and her husband were visited at Whitehall by the lords and commons, who formally tendered to them the throne that had been vacated by James the Second; and on the same day the new sovereigns were proclaimed. Within a week of that memorable turningpoint in our history, Locke received a remarkable proposal from King William.

William's first business was to fill up the ministerial and other offices through which public affairs were to be conducted, and not the least of his early difficulties was the selecting from the clamorous crowd of influential men who had helped him to success, and who now looked for rewards, of persons suitable for the vacant posts. He certainly was at no loss for candidates, and he seriously embarrassed his prospects by selecting from them, as he felt it necessary to do, many whose claims were based upon their influence in the country rather than upon their fitness for responsible public work. He offended many by taking upon himself the management of foreign affairs, and he must have given further offence by offering one of the most important positions under him to a man-one who, as a popular politician, was so insignificant, and indeed so utterly unknown as Locke. That he should have done this is certainly a very notable evidence of the

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