Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/36



of Nicole's 'Essais de Morale,' which he presented to Lady Shnftesbury (edited by Thomas Hancock in 1828). A correspondence with an old college friend, William Allestree, who sent, him stories of witchcraft from Sweden, and other friends, showed his interest, in travel, or what would now be called anthropological studies (ib. i. 24, for his list of books upon the West Indies). At some date, probably about 1671 (as Lady Masham says), occurred the meeting of friends at his chamber, when a discussion suggested the first thought of his great book. His health was already weak. A friendly letter from Sydenham, probably at the end of 1674, advises him 'to go to bed early and be very temperate and cautious. He resolved to go to Montpellier, then frequently visited by invalids, and in November 1675 asked leave of absence from the dean and canons of Christ Church.

Locke left London on 15 Nov. 1675, and travelled by Paris, Lyons, and Avignon to Montpellier, which he reached on Christmas day. He stayed at Montpellier, seldom leaving it except for a trip to Marseilles, Toulon, and Avignon in the spring of 1676, until March 1677. He then travelled by Bordeaux to Paris, which he reached 23 May 1677 (, i. 131), after a delay on the road caused by a severe attack of ague. He had come to Paris in order to take charge, at the request of Shaftesbury, of a son of Sir John Hanks, one of Shaftesbury's city friends. Locke stayed with his pupil in Paris for a year, and in June 1678 started for an intended visit to Rome. On reaching Montpellier in October he was alarmed by accounts of the state of the Alpine passes, and returned to Paris in November. He stayed there till April 1679, when he returned to England, where Shaftesbury again required his presence.

Locke's letters (printed by Lord King) give some account of his occupations in France. He took a keen interest in a wide range of subjects. He wrote to Shaftesbury upon gardening, sending him choice plants, and writing an account of vine and olive growing (first published in 1766). He wrote to Boyle upon scientific instruments. He visited antiquities, and investigated the political mid other institutions of the country, attending a meeting of the states of Languedoc at Montpellier. He inquired into the rate of wages and condition of the labouring classes. At Montpellier he made the acquaintance of Thomas Herbert, afterwards eighth earl of Pembroke [q. v.], to whom he dedicated the 'Essay.' He was known to the ambassador at Paris, Ralph Montague, and his wife, the Countess of Northumberland. He attended the ambassadress in a severe attack, the French physicians having lost her confidence, and obtained an opinion on her case from Sydenham. He formed a warm friendship with Nicolas Thoynard, a man of scientific and linguistic attainments, author of a 'Harmonic de l'Écriture sainte' (not published till 1707), with whom he kept up an affectionate correspondence, now in the British Museum.

Shaftesbury, who had been in the Tower for a year from February 1677, had been made president of the privy council just before Locke's return. He was dismissed in the following October, and threw himself into the violent courses which finally ended with his flight to Holland at the end of 1682. Locke was on his old terms of intimacy during this period. He was occasionally at Christ Church or visiting his old home in Somerset. During 1679 and 1680 he spent much of his time at Thanet House, now Shaftesbury's London residence. He was employed to take lodgings for Shaftesbury at Oxford during the parliament which met there in March 1681, and it seems that he afterwards resided chiefly at Oxford, Shaftesbury having been again arrested, 2 July 1681. Locke during this period superintended the education of Shaftesbury's grandson, afterwards the third earl, who was under the immediate charge of Miss Birch, and was much occupied in Shaftesbury's business. It seems, however, to be clear that he was not privy to the plots in which Shaftesbury engaged. Although Locke was treated as a friend, and sympathised with Shaftesbury's political opinions as opposed to popery and arbitrary government, it does not appear that he was at any time in a position to share the political intrigues of his patron. The letter in which Shaftesbury explained to Locke the history of the stop of the exchequer, implies, for example, that Locke knew nothing of the affair at the time (, ii. 61-4). Locke solemnly declared that he was not the author of any of the pamphlets on behalf of Shaftesbury which had been attributed to him (ib. i. 261). Locke by residence at Christ Church chose the most unfavourable of all places for a plotter against church and king. It was, however, natural that he should be exposed to suspicion, and that anonymous pamphlets should be attributed to so able and attached a friend of an 'Achitophel.' He was, in fact, closely watched and accused at Christ Church of association with one of the agents in the Rye House plot (, Letters, p. 139).

Locke had been continuing his philosophical speculations, as appears from his 