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be glad to come thither upon my landing, since either at a public-house or in yours, were I to stay but a night or two, I might be more lyable to be found out by those who might afterwards make me uneasy; for I must be more troublesome in this concern of my privacy than I was last time, by so much the more as I have made myself more known in the world, and have acted a more publick part, which will place a great many eyes upon 1 me that will seek for mystery where there is none, and think my retirement rather a pretext than a reality, as a certain party of men have already represented it to our superiors on a talk which it seems the suspicion of it I has occasioned.

• I shall be much oblig'd to Mons. Boyd if he can find me such a servant as you describe, of known fidelity, and I should be very glad to eat 1 with such a person as you mention'd in the last of yr three proposals: I leave you to determine for me; I desire of all things a retir'd private and quiet family, and such a one may very well receive me, tho' my outward character, and the common notion people have of one of my rank, gives but an ill impression.

'I shall see few persons besides yourself and family; and no other whatsoever at my lodging. I shall trouble a house with no more than one servant, for when I have put my servt, whome you are to take for me, into the way of serving me, I shall, in a fortnight or little more send back my English servant whom I bring over with me. I am now only thinking of a safe and good convoy, fearing nothing so much as falling alive into French hands; therefore should lay hold of any vessel of war, English or Dutch, where I was sure at least of making good resistance, and this, I think, is harder to find on our side than yours, for our Admiralty affairs grow every day so much wors, as yours I hope grow better since the vacancy of Stadtholder,* which God of his mercy long continue, as well as that happy success so remarkably appearing ever since that time, and of which your last letter of advice of forcing the French lines is a sufficient proof. Excuse the haste of this, and let me hear from you, I entreat you, concerning my lodging, board, and servant, if you have agreed it.'pp. 201-203.

Among the young persons in whose welfare the Earl of Shaftesbury took an interest, were a Mr. Wilkinson and Arent, one of Mr. Furley's sons. The solicitude which occasionally appears in his lordship's letters for the progress of these youths in the world, shews that whatever his errors were in matters of religion, his heart was nevertheless in the right place. Wilkinson was in the mercantile line; young Furley was secretary to Lord Peterborough during the operations of that nobleman in Spain, as commander in chief of Her Majesty's land forces. There is a great deal of amiable feeling in the admonitions which his patron gives to this young man, though somewhat also, too much perhaps, of the latitudinarian.

'MR. ARENT,

'St. Giles, Decem. 5, 1705.

Your former and latter advises, first of the successfull attack, and next of the surrender of Barcelona, with the whole progress of your * By the Death of King William the Third.

VOL. XIV.

2 F

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councils (wch Heaven has blessed so happily for England and Europe) were of all news I ever recd the most welcome.

To hear that you were safe and well, together with this public success, was cause enough of joy to me. But what I have heard of you by others, is over and above, for to hear as I do of your excellent behaviour, diligence, industry, and success in business, is a pleasure that none besides your good father can perhaps so sensibly be moved with as I am, since it has been no small concern to me from your childhood to bring you to act such a considerable part in the world as I always thought your genius capable of. And now I see my hopes and endeavours answered. Mr. Stanhope and others give you a deserving character, and the business you have upon you shews what you are capable of.

And now, Mr. Arent, let me intreat you, as you are more a man, to take me more and more as a friend; and, tho' I may appear still like a master or pedagogue to you, by admonishing you as I shall often do perhaps, yet consider I am not one of the severe sort.

If I talk of vertue to you, 'tis not the vertue priests talk of. Pleasures that are taken moderately and with injury to no man, are often better essayed by youth than wholly abstain'd from, for experience in such cases is to a good genius many times the best help vertue can have, and pleasure thus used becomes less considerable, and less an obstacle in the way of a good and generouse mind that has liberty, society, and mankind in view, and loves an honest fame and the love of friends and country beyond the obscure and mean pleasure of a night's debauch, in which every dull sot and insignificant drone is as considerable and as happy as the man of best sense, ability, or courage.

'However it be, I am satisfyed you were none of those who gave occasion to the Viceroy to throw that odiouse reproach upon our nation, "that he was besieged by 7000 drunkards;" and I rejoice to hear the newspapers compare the continence of some of our Generals to that we have so often read together of Scipio Africanus. But if that other reproach were just, and I hope it was not, I must be forced to suspend my belief as to the truth of this latter encomium; for, as you have often read at school, quid non ebrietas designat? I could believe the latter vice without the former, but not the former without the latter.

"But I must not pretend to engage in a letter: for what I write is but a scrawl, a line or two in such sorry manner as my eyes will bear, for tho' I gradually recover from my long feavour, which yet returns now and then upon me, my eyes are still exceedingly weak. But, as long as I have any, I shall always be provoked to use them whilst I hear well of you; nor can I forbear praising you, exhorting you, and putting you in mind of what we have studdyed together, those noble examples of vertue and love of our country, which were treasured up by you against this season, and now to be practis'd and brought in use. And since I have play'd the pedant already in this I have writt, I will end the same, and bragg of myself as well as of you in the words of one of our antients, for I may say as wellas he, "Cresco et exulto, & discussé ægruitudine viresco, quoties ex his quæ agis et scribis, intelligo quantum te ipse super grederis. Si agricolam arbor ad fructum producta delectat; si pastor ex fætu gregis sui capit voluptatem ; quid evenire credis his qui ingenia educaverunt, & quæ tenera formaverunt, adulta subito vident? Assero te mihi, meum opus es. Ego

cum vidissem indolem tuam injeci manum, exhortatus sum. Addidi stimulos; nec lente ire passus sum, sed subinde incitavi, et nunc idem facio, sed jam currentem hortor," &c.

This is all I have to give you in return, for I am now retired into the country after the first week or two of Parlemt, wch was as much as I could bear, therefore for news I refer you to Mr. Micklethwayt, who is in town, but will, together with Sr John and other friends, be with me during the adjournment of Parlt, and for a few days more, at Christmas. pp. 219 -223.

It is rather remarkable that we find in most of the letters both of Locke and Lord Shaftesbury, complaints of ill health, and distempers particularly in the limbs. It is not surprising to see Locke, who knew something of medicine, prescribing for himself and his friends. The noble Lord, however, clearly beats him out in all the resources of quackery. He was scarcely forty years of age when he appears to have been as much invalided as noblemen of sixty or seventy usually are in these days. We extract part of two letters written in 1708 and 1712, which allude to his infirmities. The first exhibits some features of his political character, which will be contemplated with a degree of curiosity.

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My love of life was never very great; even when I had vigorouse health and was the most active in business, I never thought it a matter of difficult resignation. But with the pains and distempers I have of late years contracted, 'tis well I have a thought of duty to overballance all discontent, otherwise I might soon fall into a certain negligence of my health, wch in my state wou'd soon make my dismission, and send me out of ye world: but whilst I can have any share (be it ever so little) in the service of my friends, my country, or mankind, I can be contented with any life, any health, or any constitution ever so bad, and can live as happily thus as at any time of my life: rejoycing that my days of youth are well over, and that I have passed those temptations of a more florid age, wch might have thrown me far out of the road of verture, and depriv'd me of those sentiments by which alone I can enjoy my friends or self. In the mean time it has pleas'd God, as remote as I have thought myself from business and a capacity of serving either my friends or country, to throw many opportunities across me, and to make even this scene of my life no narrow one in affairs of a public nature. All this last summer I had health enough to be about the town, and give some assistance to our best friends of greatest interest, and now in the winters that I am unable to approach London, I am employed in settling interests for the public in a part of Brittain where the most elections lie, and in a county where I have the chief influence.

'After several years of the Queen's reign, that I was ill treated and look'd upon with the utmost enmity by the Ministry, I am at last much better thought on: and they are nigh convinced that I have been no small friend to them, and unalterable by ill usage. For knowing, as I have done all along, that the Ministry, from the very first year of the Queen's reign, were at the bottom true to the interest of the common cause, and that of the mutual good correspondence between the two nations, I pass'd by all other regards, and apply'd myself to give them credit and honour

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both here and abroad with you in Holland, where I came so soon after the King's death. This you may well remember, by my conflicts with many of our mistaken Whiggs, and those who out of a false zeal arraign'd both La Marlborough and La Godolphin in the highest manner. And by the way I would beg you to call to mind one interview wch I had with Mynheer Van Wallant (at his own desire), where he himself first privately, and then others of note and interest publickly, sought to me to be well instructed of the real disposition and temper of our Ministry in those early days. They were persons who had long known me, and (by yr means and other friends whom I had lived so long with and known so intimately in Holland during the King's life) had received such an impression of me, and conceived such favourable thoughts as were above what I deserv'd. At this time I took the utmost pains (as you must well remember) to wash away all ill impressions of the Ministry, and assure Mynheer Wallant and the rest of the fidelity of our Ministry to the common cause, and their particular regard to the States, and ye maintaining a good correspondence. 'Twas then I ventur'd to give such a character of Ld Marlborough in particular, as was wonder'd at by many, and often reproached to me till the battle of Blenheim, when I left you and came over to England.

"You may remember, too, even as early as the first post after the King's death, what letters of assurance I wrote, wch were thought fit to be translated and publish'd to confirm people's minds abroad.

'You may wonder, perhaps, what all this means: that I should be thus enumerating my own merits, and looking back so far for my own commendations, but thus the case is: I have just lately experienced some particular favours, and have recd marks of such regard from our Ministry (I mean in particular our two great Lords) from whence I may be able, by improvement of my interest, to do some public service, that I am extremely willing to shew that I do not ill deserve their complimts. I am seldom behind hand in good turns with any body. But here I may truly say I have been before hand; and I should be highly pleased to shew them so much, tho', as matters stood before, when I was ill us'd, I had too much stomach, as they say, to let it be known how much I was in their interest, and by some silly mistakes of pamphlets written, and spitefull things dispers'd, I was really taken by them for an antagonist instead of a champion and stickler for them, as I had been abroad and at home.

I know not what acquaintance Mynheer Wallant has kept with our great Duke, but if they stand tolerably well together, and are upon conversing terms, I should be mighty glad if, when he comes over, a word or two could be dropt in discourse concerning ine, and that Mynheer Van Wallant would only say as by chance, what idea I very early gave him of our Queen and Ministry, and in particular of Ld Marlborough, both as to his minister and soldier capacity. The states are now, and have been long since, convinced of the sincere services he has done, and is ready to do them, and if nothing else had been able to convince them, the transactions in the House of Lords now lately might suffice; for the Ministry, and in particular that Noble Duke, has been severely question'd by the malignant party, and inveighed against for being too much Dutchmen. Thank Heaven that our Ministry cannot by their worst enemys be reproached for being Frenchmen; and for that other reproach, I hope they will ever hold it honourable. I am sure it is one of the main reasons that makes me so much their friend.'-pp. 241-246.

The second, written from Naples, shortly before his death, is at once a letter of condolence, of prescription and complaint.

‹ MR. FURLY,

'Tis a sensible grief to me that I must at one and the same time condole with you on two such melancholy subjects as that of the death of your son, and that of the life and triumph of the common enemy, his cause, and party in our native country. In the latter of those you know my concern is equal to your own; and, in the former not far behind. Besides my natural friendship for one who was your son, he was in particular, as you well know, my pupil and eleve, in whose education and advancement I took so great a part, that I may justly sympathize even in a fatherly affliction for his loss, and next to a real parent or a brother, he could have none a truer mourner, or with more reason than myself.

I am sorry withal to hear the repeated acct of your severe cough; as I have sometimes been successfull in prescribing remedys to you, and have learnt much in this kind by my own infirmitys, let me desire you to try a spoonfull of good syrop of white poppyes, or what the apothecarrys call diacodium, just on your going to bed. It must be when your stomach is empty long after supper, that you must take it. If you are apt to be loose it will be of double advantage: if bound, it will not do so well it should not be often repeated. If it be any way inconvenient you will soon find

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'If your ague or intermitting feavour should return, pray spare not to take the bark, as I formerly with good success and particular care directed you in my letters.

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My own health has been exceedingly depress'd this winter; of which this latter part has been the coldest known of a long time in this climate. My little conversation, in my chamber, whence I have not been able as yet to stirr, is with some few men of art and science, the virtuosi of this place: as in particular the family and friends of the famous Don Joseph Voletta, of whom the Bp. of Salisbury† speaks so honourably in his Travels. Medals, and pictures, and antiquities, are chief entertainments with us here. And on these subjects I shall have papers now and then to enclose to you to forward: I wish our ministers in England may not take them for politicks. They would be much deceived if they should break open my letters in that expectation. Whatever my studys and amusements are, I endeavour still to turn them towards the interests of virtue and liberty in general. As for particular engagemts in the publick or my country's cause, I am precluded. But whilst I have the least breath or life, nothing can preclude my endeavours to express to my friends, and yourself most particularly, how much I am, as of old, wth constancy and sincerity, &c. My kind remembrances to yr sons and family, and to such friends as happen to remember me.'-pp. 267-269.

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Mr. Forster has given, in a very long preface, a most elaborate analysis of the life of Mr. Locke, and of his 'religious, philosophical, and political opinions, compared with those of preceding and subsequent philosophers.' In this composition he has dis

* Mr. Arent Furly.

Burnet; his Travels were published in 1617.

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