complain of the cruelty of fortune, or of the

selfishness of his fellow men.

Vigorous and almost uninterrupted health was his, and circumstances independent, if not affluent. And yet his life was useless to any good or beneficial purpose, and his death a frightful spectacle of well-founded fears. No enviable fame is his. Throughout his lengthened existence he had been a rebel to his greatest benefactor. His life was one lengthened scoff at man's brightest hopes. The sole object for which he lived was to persuade his fellows that death reduces all men to the condition of the beasts that perish.

What did he effect for his kind? Nought but evil. He left behind him writings which have wrecked the faith of thousands; writings to which the pure and simple-minded allude only with a shudder or a sigh; and a name which the upright and high principled mention only to execrate. What did he effect for himself? Nothing that will bear the test of reflection. His principles failed him in the hour of his utmost need. His "lamp went out in obscure darkness."

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CHAP. II.

The Christian Philosopher.

JOHN LOCKE.

"Nothing can be plainer than that ignorance and vice are two ingredients absolutely necessary in the composition of free thinkers, who, in propriety of speech, are no thinkers at all." - DEAN SWIFT.

JOHN LOCKE, the eminent philosopher, was born at Wrington, in Somersetshire, August 29th, 1632. He was educated at Westminster and Oxford. In 1664 he went abroad as secretary to Sir William Swan, envoy from Charles II. to the Elector of Brandenburg. In 1670 he began to form the plan of his Essay on the Human Understanding," and about the same time was made a fellow of the Royal Society.

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Lord Shaftesbury had befriended him, and in 1682, when that nobleman was obliged to

retire to Holland, Locke accompanied him in his exile. On the death of his patron in that country, aware how much he was disliked by the predominant arbitrary faction at home, he chose to remain abroad; and was, in consequence, accused of being the author of certain tracts against the British Government. These were afterwards discovered to be the work of another person; but Locke was arbitrarily ejected from his studentship of Christchurch by the King's command. At the revolution in 1688, he returned to England in the fleet which conveyed the Princess of Orange, and being deemed a sufferer for the principles on which it was established, he was made a commissioner of appeals, and was soon after gratified by the establishment of toleration by law. In 1690 he published his celebrated Essay concerning the Human Understanding," which he had written in Holland. was instantly attacked by various writers. The heads of houses in Oxford met formally to censure and discourage it. Nothing, however,

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It

was finally resolved on, but that each master should endeavour to prevent it being read in his college. Neither this, however, nor any other opposition, availed. The reputation both of the work and the author increased throughout Europe. It was translated into French and Latin, and reached a fourth English edition in 1700. In 1690 Locke published his second" Letter on Toleration," and in the same year, two "Treatises on Government." In 1692, he published a third letter on Toleration, and during the following year, "Thoughts concerning Education." In 1695, he was made a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, and in the same year, published his "Reasonableness of Christianity," as delivered in the Scriptures. This work was warmly attacked by Dr. Edwards and other writers; among them the celebrated Bishop Stillingfleet. Locke vindicated his principles ably; and with his publications in this controversy, which were distinguished by mildness and urbanity, Locke retired from the press.

His asthmatic complaint increased, and he resigned his post of Commissioner of Trade and Plantations, with the characteristic observation "That he could not in conscience hold a situation to which a considerable salary was attached, without performing the duties of it." From this time he lived wholly in retirement, devoting himself exclusively to the study of Scripture. He died, October 28th,

1704.

The testimony to the truth and value of revelation, borne by so acute a thinker, and so dispassionate a reasoner as Locke, is important. He showed his zeal for the Christian religion; first, in his middle age, by publishing a discourse on purpose to demonstrate the reasonableness of believing Jesus to be the promised Messiah; and after that, in the latter years of his life, by a very judicious commentary upon several of the epistles of the Apostle Paul. The Scriptures are everywhere mentioned by him with the greatest reverence; and he exhorts Christians "to betake themselves in

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