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LOC Cartesianism, he admired their freedom from verbal disputations and wrangling, and also their clearness, which suggested to him that it might be the fault of their authors, as much as his own, that he had failed to gain insight through the scholastic text-books. And withal he owed much in the end to the retirement, the libraries, and the friendships of Oxford. Le Clerc mentions that his friends and contemporaries there were among the lively and agreeable, more than the learned; and in his later correspondence with them, he cultivates wit and irony rather than academic pedantry. He even distinguished himself by an epigram on Cromwell's peace with the Dutch in 1653; but any poetical genius he was endowed with was neglected in later life, when his works appeal to the understanding much more than to the imagination. Having taken the degree of bachelor in 1655, and of master of arts in 1658, he entered on the study of medicine, and went through the usual course preparatory to practice. Many years afterwards, February, 1674, he took the degree of bachelor of medicine, and continued through life addicted to chemical and medical researches. His social and psychological philosophy thus rested on a large preliminary training in physical science. For many years he kept a regular journal of the weather. The results of his meteorological observations appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, and also in Boyle's History of the Air, which contains his register of changes in the air, observed in Oxford by the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer, from June, 1660, till March, 1667. His letters to Boyle abound in experiments and speculations regarding medicine and chemistry. In connection with Locke's university studies, that prejudiced churchman, Anthony Wood, mentions that he himself pursued a course of chemistry under the famous Rosicrucian, Peter Stael of Strasburg (who was brought to Oxford by Boyle), in company with some others, "one of whom was John Locke of Christ Church, now a noted writer." "This same John Locke," he adds, "was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous and discontented; while the rest of our club took notes from the mouth of their master, the said Locke scorned to do this, but was ever prating and troublesome." During the Protectorate Locke seemed to have lived much at Oxford, and also for some years after the Restoration, having, according to Wood, "entered on the physic line, and got some business at Oxford." But with the natural aversion of a philosophical mind for professional life, and the weakness of his constitution, his practice seems to have been intermittent, and was in time abandoned. Sydenham, the great physician of that age, in the dedication to his History of Acute Diseases, published in 1676, boasts of the approbation bestowed on his "method by Mr. J. Locke, who had examined it to the bottom, and who, if we consider his genius, and penetration, and exact judgment, has scarce any superior and few equals now living." This early relation of Locke to medical study and practice is not irrelevant to his main work in life. "No science," as Dugald Stewart remarks, "could have been chosen more happily calculated than medicine, to prepare such a mind as that of Locke for the prosecution of those speculations which have immortalized his name; the complicated and fugitive and often equivocal phenomena of disease, requiring in the observer a far greater portion of discriminating sagacity than those of physics, strictly so called, and resembling in this respect much more nearly the phenomena about which metaphysics, ethics, and politics are conversant." In 1664 Locke accompanied, as secretary, Sir Walter Vane, envoy to the elector of Brandenburg and other German princes. In the course of this early connection with diplomatic life he visited Cleves and other places on the Rhine and in Holland. He returned to Oxford and to physic in the following year. In 1666 a friend in Dublin offered to procure for him, through the duke of Ormond, the lord-lieutenant, some preferment in the Irish church. In a characteristic letter he declined to avail himself of this opportunity of becoming a clergyman, on which Lord King remarks, "Had he even risen to the highest station, he might have acquired all the reputation which belongs to a divine of great talent and learning, or the still higher distinction of great moderation, candour, and Christian charity, but most certainly he could never have attained the name of a great philosopher, who has extended the bounds of human knowledge." Three different roads to professional preferment were opened to Locke in the course of his life—the church, the practice of medicine, and diplomatic engagements. Happily for the progress of knowledge he resisted these temptations, and maintained an independence of circumstances so apt to divert his thoughts from the high destiny of his life, as the free and fearless investigator of truth.

The year 1666, when he had reached the age of thirty-four, was an era in the life of Locke. He was then introduced to his early patron. Lord Ashley, afterwards first earl of Shaftesbury, one of the greatest statesmen of his age, who about that time visited Oxford in ill health. His physician. Dr. Thomas, happening to be in London, sent his friend Locke in his room, and in this circumstance originated the well-known friendship of Locke and Shaftesbury. From 1666 till 1689 his time was passed, sometimes at Oxford in his chambers; often in London with Lord Ashley (by whom he was introduced to Buckingham, Halifax, and others distinguished in public affairs); and for several years, first in France, and afterwards in Holland. In this period, and onwards for the greater part of his life, "he enjoyed the society of great wits and ambitious politicians, was often a man of business and always a man of the world, without much undisturbed leisure, and probably with that abated relish for speculation, which is the inevitable result of converse with society and experience of affairs." About 1669 he accompanied the earl and countess of Northumberland to France, where he stayed with the countess while the earl went to Rome. The earl died at Turin, and Locke returned to England with the countess, to resume his life at Exeter house with Lord Ashley. And when that nobleman soon after obtained the grant of Carolina, Locke was employed to prepare a constitution for the province, which he did in a spirit too liberal to satisfy the clergy, by whose influence the original draft was modified. In 1672, Ashley, then earl of Shaftesbury and lord chancellor, appointed Locke his secretary, and the year after secretary to the board of trade, with an annual income of £500—an office which, in consequence of the dissolution of the commission, he did not long retain. In the meantime he kept possession of his student's place at Oxford, to which he was accustomed to resort from time to time for the use of books and for his health, as the air of London did not suit his delicate lungs. In the summer of 1675 he visited France, and remained in that country for nearly four years, partly at Montpellier, then the most famous school of medicine in Europe, and afterwards at Paris and elsewhere. At Montpellier he met Thomas Herbert, afterwards earl of Pembroke, to whom he communicated his design of the "Essay on Human Understanding," projected some years before, published more than twelve years after, and dedicated to Lord Pembroke. At Paris he associated with M. Justel, M. Gúenelon of Amsterdam, and other men of letters and science. In June, 1677, he wrote to his friend Dr. Mapletoft, then physic professor at Gresham college, that he was willing to succeed him as professor in the possible event of a vacancy. The opportunity did not occur, but the letter indicates that Locke was then ready to teach medicine. In 1679 he returned to England, Lord Shaftesbury having recovered the favour of the court, and been nominated president of the council, from which he was soon afterwards removed. The policy of the English government became more and more stringent; the martyrdoms of Russell, Argyll, and Sidney soon followed, and in 1682 the earl returned to Holland, where he died a few months after. In August, 1683, a few months after the death of Lord Shaftesbury, Locke himself, who during the three preceding years lived much in London, took refuge in Holland—then the European asylum of men whose opinions differed from the dominant authorities in church and state, where Des Cartes and Spinoza long pursued their speculations, the home of Erasmus and Grotius, and then the refuge of Bayle. Locke had hardly been in Holland for a year, when he was falsely accused at the English court of having written against the government; and, being also observed in the company of persons said to be ill-disposed to the reigning despotism at home, information was given by the British resident at the Hague to the earl of Sunderland, then secretary of state. In November, 1684, he was accordingly deprived of his studentship in Christ Church college, by an illegal order of the king, executed through Dr. Fell, then dean of Christ Church and bishop of Oxford. He was obliged for a time to live in concealment in Holland, and the English minister at the Hague even demanded that, with some others, he should be given up to the authorities of his country. He afterwards declined an offer of pardon, obtained for him by William Penn the Quaker. He was charged with complicity in the duke of Monmouth's rebellion,