to construct a philosophic religion, while Hobbes, a follower of Bacon, brought forward a destructive philosophy that at once aroused a storm of opposition. A spirit of discontent was abroad. Men were beginning to desire a beTTer philosophy, a more enlightened religion, a truer science, and a freer government, and it was into such an environment of national thought and life that John Locke was born August 29, 1632.
Though born at Urington in the north of Somersetshire, it is probable that most of Locke's early life was spent in Pensford near Bristol, where his father had a small estate. A man of some local fame as an attorney, his father early joined the Parliamentary army. This fact alone was sufficient to interest the young son in the stirring events of the time. At the age of fourteen he entered Westminster School, at which time the poet Dryden was also a pupil there. In 1652 he became a student at Christ Church, Oxford, where, it has been suggested, he obtained his first ideas of religious toleration from Dr. John Owen, the Puritan Dean of Christ Church. Locke's life at the University covered the period of the Commonwealth. Though he undoubtedly gained much while here from his opportunities for individual thought and study and for intercourse with other men, he became growingly discontented with the prescribed course of study, especially with the methods in logic and philosophy. He worked on, however, and secured his degrees of A. B. and A. M. and, in 1660, was appointed to a Greek lectureship in his own college. The same year his father died.
About this time was written the “Reflections upon the Roman Commonwealth,” though the work was not
