The Kevolution of 1688 restored Locke to his native land. He signalized his return by the publication of his great philosophical work. An attempt was made to prohibit its introduction into the University of Oxford. In 1690 he issued his two treatises On Government. They controverted the doctrine of the divine right of kings, and referred the origin of government to a social com- pact, which is equally disproved by theory and by his- tory. They rendered a greater service by recognising labor as the foundation of property, though the tenet was pressed too far.
Locke continued to decline diplomatic honors, but ac- cepted the place of Commissioner of Appeals, with the modest salary of £200. He directed his regards in these years to the coinage of the realm, which was much debased; and published in 1691 his Considerations on the Loiverinf) of Interest and Raisinfj the Value of Money, which was followed in 1695 by Further Consid- erations on liaising the Value cfAfoney. He was in fre- quent consultation with the earl of Pembroke on the subject of that restoration of the British coinage which was brought about by the concurrent action of lord Somers and Sir Isaac Newton.
In 1693 Locke withdrew from the dull, heavy atmos- phere of London, and accepted a pleasant retreat for his increasing asthma and advancing age at Oates, in Es- sex, the seat of Sir Francis Masham, who had married the accomplished daughter of Dr. Cudworth. It had been the fortune of Locke through life to live "quadris alienist His last quarters were at Oates. This was his home till he found a quieter home in the grave, where he waited in cold abstraction's apathy lor a mir- acle to reanimate his spirit, according to the dogma of The Reasonableness of Christianity (produced in 1G95). This work sought the union of aU Christian believers by advancing the doctrine that the only necessary arti- cle of Christian belief is comprised in the acceptance of Jesus as the Messiah, making all the requirements be- yond this to consist of 2}7-acticfd duties, of repentance for sin, and obedience to the moral precepts of the Gospel. It will be remembered that king William HI, of Eng- land, entertained the design of uniting Conformists and Dissenters on some common ground, and to further this scheme Locke wrote The Reasonableness of Chi-istianity (comp. Quarterly Review, Lond. 186-1, July). About the time of his retirement from the city Locke published his third Letter on Toleration, and in the first year of his se- clusion wrote his little tract on the Education of Chil- dren. The same year which brought out his exceed- ingly heterodox essay on Christianit}' was marked by his philosophical controversy with Dr. Stillingtieet, bish- op of Worcester.
Locke's circumstances were now rendered perfectly easy by his appointment as commissioner of Trade and Plantations, with emoluments amounting to £1000 per amium. Locke, however, had an aptitude for losing or dropping the gifts of the fairies. Increasing debility made him resign his comfortable sinecure in 1700, and.
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four years later, he died calmly at Gates, Oct. 28, 1704. lie was buried at the neighboring church of High La- yer, (^ueen Caroline, one of those fommes preeicitses who, like Christina of Sweden or Eider's princess, fol- lowed with her sympathies the studies she could not understand, placed Locke's bust with those of Bacon, Newton, and Clarke, in the mausoleum erected by her at Kiehmond Park to commemorate the glories of Eng- lish philosophy.
Locke's health was always exceedingly feeble, and his existence was prolonged only by constant vigilance and care. This doubtless contributed to his abstinence from any energetic vocation, and probably influenced his theories as well as his character and conduct. It rendered his existence a career of tranquil and learned leisure, except so far as it was interrupted by the suspi- cions and malice which civil discord directs against ev- ery man of note. The self-regarding habits of a vale- tudinarian may have impelled the thoughts of the phi- losopher to tliat continual introspection and that exag- geration of personal impressions which so strongly mark his philosophy. His love of ease and security showed itself in his general demeanor. He was cautious and retiring, affable and genial in his intercourse, kindly and affectionate in his nature, free from jiersonal ani- mosities, notwithstanding his transitory difference with Newton and his controversy with bishop StiUingfleet. He avoided the incumbrances of matrimony; and the delicient experiences of an old bachelor — the want of that most suggestive knowledge, the dawn of intelli- gence in infancy — may be noted in his whole psychol- ogy. His life was, however, worthy of his eminence, and was such as to make him a suitable compeer of thosejhrtunate nimium — those hapjn' philosophic dispo- sitions which are represented by Malcbranche, Spinoza, Leibnitz, Berkeley, and Hume.
Pliilosophy. — The philosophy of Locke is very sim- ple, if not very coherent, and very unsystematic in its treatment by himself. It consists rather of one pro- litic principle and its explanations than of any complete and orderly scheme. That principle furnishes a foun- dation for a distinctive method, which was only im- perfectly and inconsistently developed by him. That method is psychological, and Locke has been too hastily regarded as its inventor, whereas he only applied it too exclusively and within too narrow limits. Locke's con- troversial works are naturally directed to the removal of the numerous objections and misapprehensions to which his fundamental tenet and its applications are obnoxious: but even the Essay itself is mainly employ- ed in the discussion of topics which illustrate the dog- ma rather than establish a formal body of doctrine, and which belong to the preliminaries or prolegomena of philosojihy much more than to philosophy proper.