clare to have amongst the men of our own time few equals and no superior.” Jean Le Clere wrote of him: “He was a profound philosopher, and a man fit for the most important affairs. He had much knowledge of belles lettres, and his manners were very polite and particularly engaging. He knew something of almost everything which can be useful to mankind, and was thoroughly master of all that he had studied, but he showed his superiority by not appearing to value himself in any way on account of his great attainments.”
No better summary can be given of the character and value of Locke’s work than is contained in the following extract from Dr. Thomas Fowler: “Great as is the debt which philosophy owes to Locke’s ‘Essay,’ constitutional theory to his ‘Treatises on Government,’ the freedom of religious speculation to his ‘Letters on Toleration,’ and the ways of ‘sweet reasonableness’ to all these, and indeed to all his works, it would form a nice subject of discussion whether mankind at large has not been more benefited by the share which he took in practical reforms than by his literary productions. It would undoubtedly be too much to affirm that, without his initiative or assistance, the state of the coinage would never have been reformed, the monopoly of the Stationers’ Company abolished, or the shackles of the Licensing Act struck off. But had it not been for his clearness of vision, and the persistence of his philanthropic efforts, these measures might have been indefinitely retarded or clogged with provisos and compromises which might have robbed them of more than half their effects.”
