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down as they occurred to his memory. The editor of his posthumous works informs us, that he would have gone on farther if time and health had permitted him; but that he was interrupted by death before he could make any great progress.

The few particulars which he has written must give every reader a high idea of his lordship. It is a great misfortune that Mr. Locke did not finish his life, as he was so long and so intimately acquainted with him.

Mr. P. Coste, who lived many years in the same family with Mr. Locke, in his character of him has the following passages :—

"Mr. Locke loved to confirm his opinion on any subject by that of the famous Earl of Shaftesbury, to whom he took a delight to give the

♦ These are called " Memoirs relating to the Life of Anthony first Earl of Shaftesbury," and are printed in the fourth volume of the 4to edition of Locke's Works: there are also some further particulars contained in the tract called "A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country," by the same author, and printed in the same volume. The court party ordered this letter to be burnt by the common hangman, and so it was. "But," says Andrew Marvel," the sparks of it will eternally fly in their faces." I mention this tract more particularly because it was at the time supposed to have been in a great measure dictated by Lord Shaftesbury. Wood and Walpole reckon it among his works.

honour of all the things which he thought he had learnt from his conversation."

"Nothing ever gave him a more sensible pleasure than the esteem which that earl conceived for him, almost the first moment he saw him, and which he afterwards preserved as long as he lived; and, indeed, nothing sets Mr. Locke's merit in a brighter light, than his having had the constant esteem of my Lord Shaftesbury, the greatest genius of his age, who was superior to so many eminent and able men that shone at the same time in the court of Charles the Second, not only for his resolution and intrepidity in maintaining the true interests of his country, but also for his great abilities in the conduct of the most knotty affairs. When Mr. Locke studied at Oxford, he fell by accident into his company in the manner already mentioned; and one single conversation with that great man won him his esteem and confidence to such a degree, that soon afterwards my Lord Shaftesbury took him to be near his person, and kept him as long as Mr. Locke's health or affairs would permit. That earl particularly excelled in the knowledge of men. It was impossible to catch his esteem by moderate qualities: this his enemies themselves could never

deny. I wish I could, on the other hand, give a full notion of the idea which Mr. Locke had of that nobleman's merit. He lost no opportunity of speaking of it, and that in a manner which sufficiently showed he spoke from his heart. Though my Lord Shaftesbury had not spent much time in reading, nothing, in Mr. Locke's opinion, could be more just than the judgment he passed upon the books which fell into his hands. He presently saw through the design of a work; and without much heeding the words, which he ran over with vast rapidity, he immediately found whether the author was master of his subject, and whether his reasonings were exact. But, above all, Mr. Locke admired in him that penetration, that presence of mind, which always prompted him with the best expedients in the most desperate cases; that noble boldness which appeared in all his public discourses,—a boldness ever guided by a solid judgment, which, never allowing him to say anything but what was proper, regulated his least word, and baffled the untiring vigilance of his enemies." 5

5 Coste proceeds to ascribe to the patronage of Lord Shaftesbury that knowledge of the world and leisure for study which enabled Locke afterwards to enrich our literature and immortalize himself.

M. Le Clerc, in his eulogium upon Mr. Locke, says, that "to the end of his life he recollected with the greatest pleasure the delight which he had found in the conversation of Lord Shaftesbury; and when he spoke of his good qualities, it was not only with esteem, but even with admiration. If those who knew the penetration and sincerity of Mr. Locke conceived a high idea of Lord Ashley, those who have had any acquaintance with this last cannot doubt but Mr. Locke was a man of an uncommon genius, when they think of the esteem which this lord had for him." *

He was, says M. Le Clerc, "a nobleman that had an uncommon vivacity and penetration, a solid judgment, an excellent memory, and a great and generous way of thinking; and with all this, a gay and lively temper, which he pre

*"M. Locke a rappellé pendant toute sa vie avec beaucoup de plaisir la mémoire de la satisfaction qu'il avoit eue dans la conversation de ce seigneur; et lorsqu'il parloit de ses bonnes qualités, non seulement il en parloit avec estime, mais encore avec admiration. Si ceux qui ont bien connu la pénétration et

VOL. I.

la sincérité de M. Locke conçoivent par là une haute idée de Milord Ashley, ceux qui ont eu quelque commerce avec ce dernier ne peuvent pas douter que M. Locke ne fût un homme d'un génie peu commun, lorsqu'ils pensent à l'estime que ce seigneur avoit pour lui."-Le Clerc, Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. vi. p. 355.

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served in the greatest perplexity of his affairs. He had read much, but had still more knowledge of the world; so that he acquired in a short time a very great experience, and became the greatest statesman in England, and at an age in which others only begin their acquaintance with public affairs. The posts which he was in, from the time King Charles the Second employed him, prevented his application then to much reading; but he had such an apprehension, that in a cursory view of a book, he would discover the strength and weakness of it, in a better manner than others who read it at leisure. He was easy and open in his behaviour, a great enemy to compliments, and had not the least formality in him; so that one was not under any constraint with him, but had all the liberty to be wished. He could familiarize himself with all the world, without any meanness, or doing anything unworthy of his rank. He could not bear any servility, not only in himself, but even in his inferiors.” *

Though Lord Shaftesbury was affable in his temper, and free from pride towards his inferiors, yet where he entertained contempt for an

*Bibliothèque Choisie, tom. vi.

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