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 THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF 
 JOHN LOCKE
 
 EDUCATIONAL CLASSICS 
 
 The following Volumes in this series are 
 now ready : 
 
 FROEBEL'S CHIEF EDUCATIONAL 
 WRITINGS. Edited by S. S. F. FLETCHER, 
 M.A., Ph.D., Lecturer in Education in the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, and JAMES WELTON, M.A., 
 Professor of Education in the University of Leeds. 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS OF 
 LOCKE. Edited by J. W. ADAMSON, B.A., 
 Professor of Education in the University of London. 
 
 ROUSSEAU ON EDUCATION. Edited by 
 R. L. ARCHER, M.A., Professor of Education in 
 the University College of North Wales, Bangor. 
 
 PESTALOZZI'S EDUCATIONAL WRIT- 
 INGS. Edited by J. A. GREEN, M.A., Professor 
 of Education in the University of Sheffield. 
 
 VIVES AND THE RENASCENCE EDU- 
 CATION OF WOMEN. Edited by FOSTER 
 WATSON, D.Lit, Professor of Education in the 
 University College of Wales, Aberystvvyth. 
 
 LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD
 
 EDUCATIONAL CLASSICS 
 
 General Editor: Prof. J.W. ADAMSON 
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JOHN WILLIAM ADAMSON 
 
 PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN & CO. 
 
 LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD 
 
 1912 
 
 [AH rights reserved]
 
 AMICIS 
 QUI MIHI 
 
 ET DISCIPULI ET MAGISTRI 
 
 FUERUNT.
 
 L_ I S R -* ** V 
 
 STAIE HU'KV.'., J-OHOOL 
 
 i Q UAL A- J .TS *N.J f. 
 
 L.O SAMTA BMUAKV 
 
 MIS' 
 
 LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFO1 
 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 GENERAL PREFACE 
 
 THE belief which inspires the editors of . the volumes 
 included in this series is one which should find a ready 
 adherence from all who accept the doctrine of develop- 
 ment. That belief may be summed up in the assertion 
 that the present is both the child of the past and the 
 parent of the future. Hence the high value of all forms 
 of historical study. The educational theory and practice 
 of a community are not things which arise e nihilo ; they 
 are the result of the thoughts, activities, conditions, arid 
 circumstances which constituted the community's past 
 life, especially as these were more directly related to the 
 upbringing of the young. This is so far true, that an 
 intelligent and effective comprehension of any existing 
 educational system can only be attained when its ante- 
 cedent conditions are known and appreciated. 
 22 Educational history furnishes a key to the under- 
 standing of many of the problems of aim, administration, 
 ""* organization and method, which confront the student 
 l_ to-day. It will also help him to assume a just attitude 
 ~^ to wards the future, dispose him to avoid routine, to
 
 vi GENERAL PREFACE 
 
 beware of prejudice and to keep an open mind with 
 reference to suggested change. History is the true 
 prophylactic against the fogeydom which besets the 
 schoolmaster, the committee-man and the official. 
 
 The influence exerted by the lives or writings of 
 individual thinkers is one of many factors of the 
 protracted development of education. But many have 
 written, and written well, on education, whose effect 
 upon practice has been negligible. The aim of the 
 present series is to present only such authors as have 
 shaped subsequent educational history, or who at least 
 have depicted with authority the educational ideas and 
 practice of their own time. 
 
 The educational writings of John Locke are of more 
 than professional interest ; indeed, their more obvious 
 appeal is to the parent and the young man who con- 
 sciously sets himself the task of " self-education." But 
 the reader, whether lay or professional, is apt to find the 
 longer treatise somewhat prolix and encumbered by 
 repetitions, while the Conduct of the Understanding 
 was not revised by its author. In the present work, 
 the provision of cross-references and the selection of the 
 first edition of Some Thoughts as the basal text have, it 
 is hoped, secured an arrangement of Locke's exposition 
 
 convenient for the purposes of study. 
 
 J. W. A.
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THE educational writings of an author who died more 
 than two centuries ago may be thought to possess an 
 interest little more than antiquarian at the present day. 
 Unfortunately, the historical study of education, as 
 commonly pursued, serves to confirm rather than to 
 correct such a supposition, since it frequently diverts 
 the student from the development which has taken place 
 in the actual application of educational ideas, and trans- 
 fers his attention to the biographies, personal opinions, 
 or mere obiter dicta of individual men and women, whose 
 influence upon homes, schools, universities, or administra- 
 tion has been either small or quite negligible. 
 
 But there have been men and women whose lives or 
 writings or both combined have exerted great influence 
 upon the course of events; the educational situation of 
 the present is to be understood in its completeness only 
 by reference to the past as embodied in their work. 
 John Locke is of the number. He was profoundly dis- 
 satisfied with education as practised in his own day, and 
 his criticisms throw light on the aims and methods of
 
 viii PREFACE 
 
 the schools of the late seventeenth century. But his 
 writings also shaped the theory and practice of his im- 
 mediate successors outside his own country, particularly 
 in France and Germany. His principles and methods 
 still live, as witness some of the most recent changes of 
 scholastic procedure. Locke's right to be included in a 
 series of " educational classics " is not likely to be dis- 
 puted. The present volume attempts to make clear his 
 position amongst the various influences which have 
 shaped the real history of education. 
 
 J. W. ADAMSON. 
 
 KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON, 
 July, 1912.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GENERAL PREFACE - - v 
 
 PREFACE - vii 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE - xi 
 
 INTRODUCTION - - ] 
 
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE - 20 
 
 SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION - - 21 
 
 OF THE CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING - - 181 
 
 INDEX -------. 266
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 1632. John Locke, born at Wrington, Somerset, August 29. 
 
 1646-52. At Westminster School. 
 
 1652-67. At Christ Church, Oxford. B.A. 1656. M.A. 1658. 
 
 Senior student, tutor, teacher of Greek and of rhetoric. 
 
 First continental tour 1665. M.B. 1674. 
 
 1668. Locke, a Fellow of the Eoyal Society. 
 
 1667-84. Member of the household of Lord Ashley (first Earl of 
 
 Shaftesbury 1672).^3ruardian to Ashley's grandson 
 
 (third Earl) 1674-83. 1675-79: Locke in France. 
 
 1684 : Expelled from his studentship at Christ Church 
 
 by desire of Charles II. 
 1683-89. Exile in Holland. Locke's letters on the education of 
 
 Clarke's son. 
 
 1689-1704. Commissioner of Appeals. 
 
 ^1690. An Essay concerning Human Understanding published. 
 1693. Some Thoughts concerning Education published. 
 1695-1700. Locke, a Commissioner of Trade and Plantations. 
 1695. Third edition of Some Thoughts, enlarged ; Coste's French 
 
 translation (fifth edition 1744). 
 
 1697. Of the Conduct of the Understanding begun. Memor- 
 
 andum proposing Poor Law reform and the institution 
 of " Working Schools." 
 
 1698. Fourth edition of Some Thoughts. 
 
 1704. Locke died at Gates, High Laver, Essex, October 28. 
 
 Oates was his home from 1691 onwards. 
 1706. Of the Conduct of the Understanding published in The 
 
 Works of Mr. John Locke. 
 1714. First edition of Locke's Collected Works published.
 
 THE EDUCATIONAL WRITINGS 
 OF JOHN LOCKE 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE most general charge brought by its contemporaries 
 against the school-room of the seventeenth century was 
 that it failed to adapt its ideals to the profound changes 
 which were becoming manifest in social life. Throughout 
 Europe the school maintained the cosmopolitan type of 
 instruction which was the natural correlative of the 
 medieval Church and Empire. It_ ignored^ or affected 
 toignore, the spirit of nationalism which was everywhere 
 inamtest; consequentlyTit taught no mod^Brnrianguages,^ 
 and madenricPbpen and avowed use of modern history, 
 l?EeraMre~ or geography^ It admitted grudgingly a little 
 commercial arithmetic amongst its studies, as a concession 
 to the same demand which, at a later date, caused schools 
 to offer teaching in shorthand or typewriting ; and this 
 was in the age of Descartes and Isaac Newton. _0f modern 
 science, then come to the birth, and of the widespread^ ~ 
 readiness to carry observation and experiment into the 
 realm of " Nature," the school took no account. 
 
 It is true that tKeT^liew philosophy " was not yet 
 sufficiently advanced, elaborated, and systematized to be 
 made an agent of education. Sprat, in his History of the 
 Royal Society (1667) deprecated the notion that the new 
 body would encroach upon the work of the universities, 
 seeing that its studies were unsuited to undergraduates. 
 
 1
 
 2 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 But the extension of the bounds of knowledge was obvious, 
 and many shared Bacon's enthusiastic belief in the pos- 
 sibility of greater achievements to come. Outside the 
 schools the monopoly of knowledge and wisdom which 
 had once been conceded to the ancients was gradually 
 breaking down, in consequence of the newer methods of 
 inquiry, directed by a spirit which cared little for the 
 pretensions of authority. With Bacon the newer men 
 were ready to urge that they were the ancients; the 
 assertion carried with it a claim for the official recognition 
 of modern studies, and the hope of insuring " the relief 
 of man's estate " carried the new method into every field 
 of investigation. 
 
 In spite of changed circumstances, the schools preserved 
 unaltered the traditional course of much Latin, some 
 Greek, and, far less frequently, some Hebrew ; the learn- 
 ing of the great biblical scholars had effected an entrance 
 where the new philosophy had failed. We must not, of 
 course, think of the Latin of the seventeenth-century 
 school as we think of a " subject " in a modern curricu- 
 lum that is, as a single branch of knowledge lying within 
 well-defined boundaries. But the greater part of a boy's 
 school-life was devoted to the formal side of the study of 
 Latin, the memorizing of the grammar book (in Latin) 
 during the earlier years, and rhetorical training in prose 
 and verse during the later. 
 
 As part of the new order of things, domestic comfort 
 was more generally enjoyed and appreciated, and a 
 greater refinement in manners and in taste followed. 
 Nevertheless, the schools retained a roughness of life 
 and of behaviour which had become an anachronism ; and 
 boys left home for school at an age which, to-day, would 
 find them in the Kindergarten. Eton and Westminster 
 were the most noted English schools of Locke's day ; he 
 was a boy at the latter when Busby was in his prime. 
 " Westminsters " became a byword for turbulence and 
 worse, and the savagery of the Eton " ram-hunt " sur- 
 vived for nearly half a century after Locke's death. The 
 novelists and' essayists of the early eighteenth century
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 frequently attribute the unpopularity of schools to the 
 fears of Aveakly indulgent mothers ; a more convincing 
 explanation may be found in the contrast between the 
 life of the home and that of the boarding-school. 1 
 
 Throughout the seventeenth century the schools con- 
 tinued to lose their hold upon the socially distinguished 
 class, and the process was accelerated as the studies and 
 manners of school-boys departed more widely from its 
 social ideals. The schools imparted " learning," and 
 learning was something of a trade, unsuitable to men of 
 position or of affluence. Referring to her son, Colin, a 
 Westminster boy, Lady Caithness writes, in 1692 : "Som 
 says the Scool he is at is mo proper for to breed up 
 youths for Church men than any other station ; I supos 
 my sons inclination will not be for that post." ' Owners 
 of great estates frequently educated their sons at home 
 under a private tutor ; and the fashion spread amongst 
 country gentlemen. Fielding's " Squire Western " in 
 Tom Jones (1749) embodies the failure of the system; 
 contemporary evidence shows the failure was not un- 
 common. But its success produced the accomplished 
 virtuoso and man of the world, whose powers had been 
 stimulated and strengthened by a residence of two or 
 three years in one of the Inns of Court, where he found 
 access to good society, the sojourn in London being 
 followed by a prolonged tour in France and Italy. 
 
 The domestic part of this education was a survival 
 from the Middle Ages, when the knight's training 
 customarily began by an apprenticeship, first as page, 
 next as squire, in the household and service of some 
 great noble, or prince. Here the novice learned the 
 management of his horse and weapons, practised 
 bodily exercises, and acquired such social accomplish- 
 ments as dancing and music; the ladies of the house 
 grounded him in good manners whilst he served as 
 
 1 On this point, see Some Thoughts, etc., sec. 70. 
 
 2 Sargeaunt, Annals of Westminster School, p. 289. Cf. 
 Some Thoughts, sec. 94 : " A great part of the learning now in 
 fashion," etc.
 
 4 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 page. The Renascence added a new element, the admira- 
 tion of letters and a desire for the knowledge to be got 
 from books. The combination of the medieval tradition 
 with these newer aspirations found expression in a series 
 of books which expounded the " doctrine of courtesy/' 
 as the education of the prince, nobleman, and gentleman 
 came to be called. Castiglione's Courtier, the most 
 celebrated of the books of courtesy, is also the earliest 
 (1516-1528) ; amongst English courtesy books are Sir 
 Thomas Elyot's Ihe Governour (1531), Henry Peacham's 
 The Compleat Gentleman (1622), Jean Gailhard's book 
 bearing a similar title (1678), and Stephen Penton's 
 The Guardian's Instructor (1688) - 1 Milton's Of Educa- 
 tion (1644) and Locke's 8ome Thoughts concerning 
 Education and Of the Conduct of the Understanding are 
 written from a very similar standpoint. The main 
 principles of this new type of education are stated by 
 Montaigne, particularly in the essays, De I'lnstitwtion </i .\- 
 Enfant s and Du Pedantisme (1580). 
 
 The kind of education advocated in these books was 
 beyond the resources of the school; and, though 
 instruction in the many branches of knowledge which it 
 required could in Locke's day be had in Oxford and 
 Cambridge, mainly from private teachers, the official 
 course of university education was quite unlike it. In 
 France, private enterprise, or munificence, opened 
 " academies " which were expressly intended to educate 
 after the pattern of the doctrine of courtesy; and these 
 late sixteenth and early seventeenth century institutions 
 had many German imitators. Persistent attempts were 
 made throughout the seventeenth century to establish 
 academies of a like kind in England, but they all failed. 
 Milton wrote the tractate already mentioned to advocate 
 the foundation of an academy, which would make it 
 needless for Englishmen to seek courtly breeding in 
 a foreign land. 
 
 The academies laid great stress upon the value of 
 
 1 Locke seems to have had the books of Gailhard and Penton by 
 him when he wrote Some Thoughts.
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 modern studies, especially in languages and history ; 
 physical exercises, dancing, music, and social amenities 
 generally were integral parts of their course. The 
 seventeenth-century amateur commonly cherished some 
 form of handwork as a hobby ; and hobbies were taught 
 in great variety in some of the academies. 1 The 
 essentially useful character of a study was thought 
 to be no bar to its adoption in the tmining of one who 
 was to lead a public life ; on the other hand, the 
 academies made little account of exact scholarship, 
 which they were apt to stigmatize as pedantry. They 
 agreed with Locke in placing " learning " last and least, 
 when compared with virtue, prudence, and good manners. 
 Further, they agreed with him in acting upon a truth 
 which is too often ignored in the present day, that 
 education is a process by no means conducted in schools 
 and universities alone, that mere school-work, as com- 
 monly understood, cannot by itself educate. 
 
 The writers on courtesy and the founders of the 
 academies fully recognized that there are other forms of 
 excellence than the purely intellectual ; and, since 
 expense presented no great difficulty to their pupils, 
 they tried to frame a curriculum as varied as human 
 capacity itself. The influence exercised by the doctrine 
 of courtesy, thus expounded, upon later educational 
 theory and practice has not been at all adequately 
 realized ; it is significant that France and Germany, the 
 early homes of the academies, modernized their courses 
 of study long before such a change was adopted by 
 England, where academies never flourished. 
 
 Locke's place in educational history cannot be appre- 
 ciated by attending only to his educational writings, or 
 to the march of events in his own country. During the 
 eighteenth century there was much theorizing concerning 
 education in France and Germany, followed by attempts, 
 more or less successful, to translate theory into practice. 
 At the root of most of this theorizing lay the conceptions 
 belonging to Locke's philosophy, particularly as this is 
 
 1 Cf. Some Tlioiights, sees. 201-209.
 
 6 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 set forth in An Essay concerning Human Understanding, 
 a hook which, after nearly twenty years of intermittent 
 labour, was published in 1690. 
 
 The leading problem proposed in the Essay is an inquiry 
 " into the original [origin}, certainty, and extent of huma n 
 knowledge." Waiving the metaphysical considerations 
 which that inquiry suggests, and starting from the "1>- 
 servable phenomena of consciousness, Locke treats his 
 /^prob^em j,s_4iriinaj!ily_a^j^chcJo^i(2aLone, a question :i.-. 
 \ to the origin of mind-content^ or, in his own phrase, "of 
 j Ideas." His first^conclusion is tnat_tne_child > ,'i mental 
 / condition at birth is appropriately figured by " white 
 s paper, void of all characters," 1 or, as it was afterwards 
 expressed in Some Thoughts, "wax to be moulded and 
 fashioned as one pleases." 2 Amongst other things the 
 similes were intended to deny_tliat_nian is born in pos- 
 session of aji_equipinent of generalprmciples which 
 spontaneously reveal themselves as occasion offers. " It 
 is an established opinion amongst some men that there 
 are in the understanding certain innate principles, some 
 primary notions, Koival evvoiai? characters as it were 
 stamped upon the mind of man, which the soul receives 
 in its very first being and brings into the world with it." 4 
 Against this established opinion Locke maintained his 
 figure of the blank sheet or tabula rasa; ideas as they 
 existed in an individual mind were the consequence of 
 that mind's individual history. Experience is the writer 
 who covers the blank sheet with characters, the sculptor 
 who moulds the wax into well-defined shapes. 
 
 " Whence comes [the mind] by that vast store which 
 the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it 
 
 1 Essay, ii., chap, i., sec. 2. 
 
 3 Sec. 216. Locke is inconsistent in his use of this simile, which 
 attributes everything to nurture, nothing to Nature. A comparison 
 of passages shows that Locke was disposed to magnify the effects of 
 nurture above those of Nature, without entirely ignoring the latter. 
 Compare the following : Conduct, sees. 2 and 4 ; and Some 
 Thoughts, sees. 66, 101, 139, 176. 
 
 3 Thoughts common to all men. 
 
 4 Essay t i., chap. ii. , sec. 1.
 
 INTRODUCTION 7 
 
 with an almost endless variety ? Whence has it all the 
 materials of reason and knowledge ? To this I answer in 
 one word, from ftyparience ; in that all our knowledge is 
 founded, and from that it ultimately derives itself. Our 
 observation, employed either about external sensible" 
 objects, or about the internal operations of our minds, 
 perceived and reflected on by ourselves, is that which 
 supplies _ojir_understandings 
 
 _ _ 
 
 thinking^ These two~~are theTxmntains of knowledge, 
 from whence all t.he ideas we have, or can naturally have, 
 do spring. First, our senses, conversant about particular 
 sensible objects, do convey into the mind several distinct 
 perceptions of things, according to those various ways 
 wherein those objects do affect them [i.e. the senses]. . . . 
 This great source of most of the ideaa we have, depending 
 wholly upon our senses and derived from them to the 
 understanding, I__call -Sensation. Secondly, the .other 
 fountain from which experience "furnisheth the under- 
 standing with ideas, is the perception of the operations _ 
 of our own mind within us, as it is employed about the 
 ideas it has got; which operations when the soul comes 
 to reflect on and consider, do furnish the understanding 
 with another set of ideas which could not be had from 
 things without; and such are perception, thinking, doubt- 
 ing, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing, and all the 
 different actings of our own minds ; which we being con- 
 scious of and observing in ourselves, do from these receive 
 into our understandings as distinct ideas, as we do from 
 bodies affecting our senses. This source of ideas every 
 man has wholly in himself; and though it be not sense, 
 as having nothing to do with external objects, yet it is 
 very like it, and might properly enough be called internal 
 sense. But as I call the other Sensation, so I call this 
 Keflection." 1 
 
 The dissociation from metaphysics, and the experi- 
 mental origin assigned to mental development and con- 
 
 1 Essay, ii., chap, i., sees. 2-4. It will be remarked that 
 mental representations, processes, and states are all covered by the 
 one name Ideas.
 
 8 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 tent in these and in similar passages of the Essay, be- 
 came the basis of the modern study of psychology, which 
 may be said to date from the publication of that work ; 
 the comparative method, which plays a conspicuous part 
 in the study to-day, is anticipated in principle by the 
 casual though frequent references which Locke there 
 makes to the mental processes of children, 1 of savages, 
 and of idiots. Although he is careful to assign two 
 "fountains" to experience namely, sensation and reflec- 
 tion the stress of Locke's exposition falls to excess upon 
 the first-named, and it is therefore riot surprising that he 
 is sometimes regarded as the originator of a sensationalist 
 rather than an experiential psychology. The misinter- 
 prej;a,tionjsjthe easier on account of the confusion between 
 ideas, processes, and states for which Locke is himself 
 responsible; the later eighteenth -century educational 
 theorists for the most part assume a purely sensationalist - 
 origin for the whole mental life. * 
 
 /""" One of the most characteristic features of the Essciy Js 
 \ its uncompromising attitude towards dogmatism and the 
 \ construction of abstract systems generally; its method 
 / demands a close adherence_to, reality, and full allowance 
 \for the results of concrete thinking. The claims of 
 authority are confronted by the assertion, ojLthe absolute 
 ne^esajty^ f ormdependence ofjm'nd. " Not that I want 
 a duerespect to other men ? sopmions ; but after all the 
 greatest reverence is due to truth ; and I hope it will not 
 be thought arrogance to say, that perhaps we should 
 make greater progress in the discovery of rational and 
 contemplative knowledge, if we sought it in the fountain 
 and made use rather of our own thoughts than other 
 men's to find it ; for I think we may as rationally hope 
 to see with other men's eyes as to know by other men's 
 understandings. So much as we ourselves consider and 
 comprehend of truth and reason, so much we possess of 
 real and true knowledge. The floating of other men's 
 
 1 The reader will also note the frequent occurrence in Some 
 Thoughts of anecdotes of children e.g. , sees. 78, 166, 178, and in 
 the dedication to Clarke.
 
 INTRODUCTION 9 
 
 opinions in our brains makes us not one jot the more 
 knowing, though they happen to be true. What in 
 them was science is in us but opiniatrety, 1 whilst we 
 give up our assent only to reverend names, and do not, 
 as they did, employ our own reason to understand those 
 truths which gave them reputation." 2 
 
 Locke is here asserting the sufficiency of reason for 
 the discovery of truth, and the obligation of each 
 individual mind to employ reason for that purpose, two 
 principles, rationalism and individualism, which made 
 great play in the life of the eighteenth century, and 
 especially in the prevalent conceptions respecting educa- 
 tion. Locke thus became the prophet of rationalism 
 and the originator of teaching which jprqved to be a 
 greater solvent than he at all realized.^ He himself was ~ 
 aTconvinced believer in the truth of revealed religion, 
 and, amongst other writings on the subject, produced in 
 1695 an Essay on the Reasonableness [characteristic 
 word !] of Christianity as delivered in the Scriptiires, 
 which became an object of controversy to some of the 
 orthodox. Yet the prieiples-fif__ the Essay on Human___ 
 Understanding were a principal j;a use of -the subsequent" 
 English deism, and of that attitude towards all assertions 
 of~the supernatural which jms__jn_arked French thought 
 
 admirer 
 
 Ind~ee3, Locked discussion of the problem of knowledge, 
 owing to its fundamental incompleteness, leads straight 
 to the conclusion that the problem is unanswerable, that 
 certainty is unattainable, and that scepticism on all 
 subjects is the only consistent position open to the 
 philosopher. The Essay does not indeed go so far as 
 this, although a sceptical temper is not without illustra- 
 tion in its pages. " But whilst we are destitute of_ senses 
 acute enough to discover the minute particles of bodies 
 and to giveTuS ideas "of their mechanical affections, we 
 must be content to be ignorant of their properties and 
 ways of operation ; nor can we be assured about them 
 
 1 I.e., obstinate adherence to one's own opinion. 
 
 2 Essay, i., c'lapi iv., sec. 23. Cf. Conduct, sec. 24.
 
 10 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 any farther than some few trials we make are able to 
 reach. But whether they will succeed again another finn- 
 we cannot, be certain. This hinders our certain know- 
 ledge of universal truths concerning natural bodies, and 
 our reason carries us herein very little beyond particular 
 matter of fact. And therefore I am apt to doubt how 
 far soever human industry may advance useful and 
 experimental philosophy in physical things, scientifical 
 will be still out of our reach." 1 This inherent scepticism 
 was evident from the first to some of Locke's opponents, 
 though not to all ; it became manifest a generation after 
 Locke's death in the teaching of David Hume, and in 
 that form aroused Kant to controvert it. 
 
 The influence of Descartes upon French thought did 
 not yield at once to the philosophy of the Englishman 
 who supplanted him. " It took more than twenty years 
 to sell off the first edition of the French translation [of 
 the Essay~\, but from 1723 to 1758 editions followed one 
 another in rapid succession at intervals of about six 
 years. 2 Voltaire had been a serious student of Bacon, 
 Locke, and Newton during his exile in this country, 
 from 1726 to 1729 ; in 1734 Europe received the result 
 of his studies in the Lettres sur les Anglais. Locke's 
 teaching was also made familiar in foreign philosophical 
 circles by Condillac's Origine des Connaissances humaines 
 (1746) and Traite des Sensations (1754). From this 
 period onwards the sensationalist element of Locke's 
 psychology speedily made its way abroad, till it became 
 the philosophical creed of the French and German 
 " intellectuals/' thus giving a new and much more 
 extended lease of life to doctrines which were not com- 
 plete novelties to the countrymen of Montaigne, Bayle, 
 and Fontenelle. 
 
 It is true that the half -century between the accession 
 of Frederick the Great in 1740 and the death of Joseph II. 
 of Austria is usually known by the German name " die 
 
 1 Essay, iv., chap, iii., sees. 25-26. Cf. Some Thoughts, sees. 
 190, 193. 
 
 2 Fowler's Locke, p. 7.
 
 INTRODUCTION 11 
 
 Auf klarung," the Enlightenment ; but the master ideas 
 of this Age of Reason are those of Locke as interpreted 
 by the French Rationalists. Locke pokes fun at the 
 definition, " Homo, animal rationale," but the phrase 
 admirably expresses one of his firmest convictions. 1 A 
 combination of the experiential psychology with philan- 
 thropic sentiment and the belief in man's essential 
 rationality was bound to issue in schemes of educational 
 change ; if all men are initially equal (one tabula rasa is 
 like all the others) and subsequent differences are due 
 solely to experience, then education, a beneficent form 
 of experience, is capable of effecting unlimited reform 
 in those submitted to it. 
 
 Two of the most remarkable educational treatises of\ 
 the eighteenth century, Rousseau's Emile (1762) and the ] 
 Essai d' Education Nationale (1763) of La Chalotais, 
 adopt Locke's teaching on the genesis of mental content 
 and apply it to their theme. The differences between 
 the educational doctrines of Locke and Pestalozzi (1746- 
 1827) are greater than the agreements ; but the latter' s 
 most distinctive principle of method is merely an explicit 
 statement of Locke's implied canon, that teaching should 
 be based on fir-sf-lianrl eyppT-iPTir-p All these thinkers 
 emphasized the truth that educational purposes and pro- 
 cesses must wait on mental development, and not on 
 aims and methods foreign to it. In Locke's philosophical 
 teaching is found the source of the principles so -fre- 
 quently repeated since his time, that the sense-organs of 
 children should be exercised in school, that learners 
 should follow the path marked by discoverers, and that 
 they should be habituated to objects and to processes 
 rather than to names andjKOjds. 
 
 Locke's professedly educational writings have proved 
 much less influential on the great scale than has his 
 philosophy ; yet they touch the present condition of 
 English education more closely. They include one or 
 two brief tracts and some letters of advice, whose 
 substance is incorporated, either in the great Essay or 
 1 Cf. Some Thoughts, sees. 81, 33, 122 ad Jin.
 
 12 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 in his two educational treatises. The fragment on 
 " Study/' 1 written in Locke's journal during 1 his French 
 tour (November, 1675, to April, 1679), shows him medi- 
 tating upon themes which he treated at length in the 
 Conduct and in the Essay. Some Thoughts conc&rning 
 Reading and Study for a Gentleman 2 is chiefly interest- 
 ing as a summary of a fireside conversation taken down 
 from Locke's dictation. Its general statements present 
 nothing new to the reader of the two books on education 
 to be noticed immediately. Locke here recommends 
 authors or books upon oratory, morals, politics, history, 
 law, geography, travel, chronology, dictionaries or books 
 of reference, and belles lettres, the last division contain- 
 ing nothing purely English. As a writer on education, 
 Locke's fame rests upon Some Thoughts concerning 
 Education, first published in 16^, and the incomplete 
 and un revised Of the Conduct of the Understanding, 
 which first appeared in the posthumous edition of 
 Locke's works published in 1706. 
 
 In April, 1697, Locke wrote as follows to William 
 Molyneux : " I have lately got a little leisure to think of 
 some additions to my book [the Essay] against the next 
 edition, and within these few days have fallen upon a 
 subject that I know not how far it will lead me. I have 
 written several pages on it, but the matter, the farther I 
 go, opens the more upon me, and I cannot yet get sight 
 of any end of it. The title of the chapter will be ' Of 
 the Conduct of the Understanding,' which, if I shall 
 pursue as far as I imagine it will reach, will, I conclude, 
 make the largest chapter of my Essay. " z The short 
 treatise was written to serve as a manual of self-instruc- 
 tion, which should do for young men what, in Locke's 
 opinion, the customary text book of logic quite failed to 
 do for the undergraduate. From that point of view it 
 has lost none of its vitality. 
 
 1 Lord King, Life and Letters of Locke, 1858, p. 92 ff. See 
 also Quick's edition of Some Thoughts concerning Education 
 p. 191. 
 
 2 Locke, Works, 1812, vol. iii. 3 Works, 1812, vol. x., p. 407.
 
 INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 The Conduct is complementary to Some Thoughts, and 
 is therefore indispensable to an understanding of Locke's 
 ideas respecting education. In the latter book Locke 
 is at times overshadowed by his authorities, and his 
 attention is challenged by conventional standards. But 
 in the Conduct he is entirely himself; the one problem 
 is, how best to cultivate the rational element in man, 
 a problem with which Locke conceived neither school- 
 masters nor tutors have much concern, since it can only 
 be effectively taken in hand when their reign is ended. 
 As a gentleman's vade-mecum, the Conduct, especially 
 when read in conjunction with the later sections of 
 Some Thoughts, 1 may be fairly ranked amongst the long 
 line of English " courtesy " books. 
 
 Although Some Thoughts concerning Education now 
 ranks as one of the few English classics on its theme, 
 its author did not regard it, originally at least, as a 
 deliberately planned or exhaustive work. "While I was 
 in Holland, I employed some leisure hours in writing 
 letters to a friend to help him in the training of his little 
 boy. The treatise that has grown out of these has been 
 translated into French and Dutch." 2 The sojourn in 
 Holland here mentioned is the period of exile which 
 Locke suffered between August or September, 1683, 
 and February, 1689, when he returned in Queen Mary's 
 train. The " friend" is the Edward Clarke, subsequently 
 M.P. for Taunton, to whom Some Tlwughts is dedicated. 
 At the request of friends, the letters were transformed 
 into the "treatise" and published early in 1693. The 
 book reached its fourth edition in 1699, and the sixth 
 appeared in the year following the author's death. As 
 early as 1695 Pierre Coste produced a French translation, 
 which ran through five editions at least ; a Dutch version 
 was issued in 1698, a Swedish translation followed in 
 1709, and there were translations into German (1729, 
 1787) and Italian (1763, fifth edition 1782). The demand 
 for the book amongst the educated classes was met by 
 
 1 E.g., sees. 94, 141-143, 185-187, 193, 196-199, 201 904, 206-216. 
 3 Locke to Thoynard, March, 1698.
 
 14 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 the version in French, the then common language of the 
 Continent; the other translations were for the benefit 
 of a less instructed, but more numerous, class of readers. 
 
 Some Thoughts no doubt is indebted to its author's 
 experience as a teacher at Oxford, and as superintendent 
 of the third Earl of Shaftesbury's education; 1 it owes 
 much more to his reading, thought, and general know- 
 ledge of men and affairs. The conception of education 
 and the methods of realizing it which are stated in Some 
 Thoughts are also to be found in Montaigne's Eftfiftix, more 
 particularly in the two essays already named. The array 
 of parallel passages from the two writers, reprinted from 
 F. A. Arnstaedt's Francois Rabelais, by Quick in his 
 edition of Some Thoughts, is entirely misleading. The 
 references to the Thoughts in this list are gathered from 
 Coste's later translations, where they are not advanced 
 as exhausting the parallels; and since Coste in his later 
 editions divided the text into chapters and renumbered 
 the sections, a comparison of the Essais and any English 
 edition oiSome Thoughts with the help of Arnstaedt's lists, 
 only serves to throw doubt on Locke's debt to the French 
 writer. But this laborious mode of comparison is quite 
 unnecessary to anyone who considers the general attitude 
 of both writers to their subject, the objects which they 
 set before themselves, and the means adopted to attain 
 them. Isolated passages, thoughts, and phrases only 
 serve to confirm a proposition which a more general survey 
 renders obvious enough. That Locke was an advocate 
 for an extended and modernized course of studies is so 
 evident that the topic will not be further pressed. 2 
 
 From the standpoint of method the most striking 
 features of Some Thoughts are the insistence on the 
 educational function of play, 3 the part assigned to utility 
 
 1 See Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke, vol. i., pp. 422, 423. 
 
 2 See sec. 169 ff. 
 
 3 See sees. 180, 152 154, and compare Montaigne, Essay on 
 Custom (bk. i., chap. 22) : " We should note that children's games 
 are not games; we ought to regard them as their most serious 
 occupations."
 
 INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 in determining the choice of studies, and the principle 
 that the learning of young children should be acquired 
 by the active employment of the organs of sense rather 
 than through information supplied by books or teachers. 
 It is a cardinal principle with both Montaigne and Locke 
 that the child should not be compelled to learn. 1 Extra- 
 vagant as the statement seems, there is reason behind it, 
 and its later application to practice makes it necessary 
 to give it attention. 
 
 His knowledge of the current school practice taught 
 Locke that the child's special aptitudes and capacities 
 were ignored by the curriculum, his rote-memory was 
 overtaxed by things which yielded little spontaneous 
 interest, and he was made to labour against the grain 
 by fear of the rod. Learning was imposed arbitrarily, 
 and therefore tended to become irksome. Locke realized 
 that no really effective learning could take place till the 
 pupil's will had been evoked, and he knew that no motive 
 could give greater stimulus than the desire to learn, while 
 learning itself cannot be done by proxy. The principle 
 involved is one which filled so great a place in Froebel's 
 theory of method, 2 and which made play so prominent 
 an instrument of his practice. Locke was not so inex- 
 perienced as to believe that all objects are equally success- 
 ful in arousing spontaneous interest, and he recognized 
 that children must sometimes be required to attend to 
 things_which_dp not possess intrinsic charm. Even so 
 he remains true to principle, and advises the teacher to 
 prepare the way in these cases by recalling to the pupil's 
 mind suitable ideas or by appealing to his " likes " and 
 " dislikes." 3 Still, it must be admitted that Locke does 
 not help us much by direct recommendation to get the 
 
 1 See Some Thoughts, sees. 72-74, 84, 103, 123, 128, 148, 149, 
 167, 202 ; for the hint of a sounder principle, see sees. 126, 127. 
 
 2 " Regarded in the light of their origin and first principles, 
 education, instruction and doctrine must of necessity be passive, 
 following guarding, merely, and sheltering not prescribing, 
 determining, encroaching." Froebel, The Education of Human 
 Nature, i. 7 (1826). 
 
 3 Cf. Some Thoughts, sees. 74, 126, 127.
 
 16 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 boy to adopt the maxim, " Duty for duty's sake." He 
 probably thought it beyond the reach of the child, and 
 trusted to the general character of the training given to 
 implant it later and in due course. But Locke's state- 
 ment of this sound principle was open to misconstruc- 
 tion, and it was, in fact, perverted by later writers, like 
 Basedow, who made learning synonymous with amuse- 
 ment, and therefore thought it necessary to coax and 
 wheedle children into learning. The doctrine of interest 
 often suffers the same perversion to-day, and the perver- 
 sion is made to excuse modes of instruction whose tendency 
 is wholly mischievous. Not amusement nor distraction, 
 but the desire to effect some cherished purpose is the 
 strongest motive that can move the learner. 
 
 Locke's advocacy of the principle of utility had a 
 similar result. (( I think that the time and pains allotted 
 to serious improvements should be employed about things 
 of most use and consequence, and that too in the methods 
 the most easy and short." ' This reads like a platitude 
 until we ponder on the words "use" and "consequence," 
 and require examples of the short and easy methods con- 
 templated. Basedow inferred that every subject of study 
 and every part of a subject which could not be turned to 
 practical account should be discarded by the school-master. 
 In his recommendations respecting the education of a 
 prince, he advises the omission of algebra and theology, 
 but includes dancing and riding as useful arts indispen- 
 sable to a sovereign. The Latin taught in Basedow's 
 institute at Dessau was "current Latin," indistinguish- 
 able from the canine sort. There was no instruction in 
 Greek ; "we already have one learned tongue too many." 
 The studies retained were those which Locke calls " real 
 knowledge." Handwork had a place in the school exer- 
 cises ; but, practically useful though it was, it came into 
 conflict with Basedow's other touchstone of method, 
 amusement, and ended by being employed as a form of 
 punishment. 
 
 Extravagances such as these combined with Basedow's 
 1 Some Thoughts, sec. 197.
 
 INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 incapacity for managing men, or institutions, brought his 
 work to an end long before his death. Yet he stimulated 
 an interest in public education which was already vigor- 
 ous amongst the princes and statesmen of Germany and 
 Northern Europe. His experiments won the approval of 
 Kant, and he was the adviser of Zedlitz, the minister who 
 reformed Prussian education, and of Rochow, the "Prus- 
 sian Pestalozzi." Basedow was therefore one of the most 
 influential persons in the sphere of public education during 
 the second half of the eighteenth century, and thus be- 
 came a channel by which Locke affected the educational 
 theory and practice of Germany. 1 
 
 Notwithstanding his championship of "real know- 
 ledge " and his contempt for " words," most of Locke's 
 directions of the practical sort relate to the study of 
 language. He gives excellent advice respecting the way 
 in which a boy may be trained to write and speak the 
 mother tongue. The best modern practice is but an 
 elaboration of what stands written in Some Thoughts? 
 
 On the other hand, if we were to base our judgment on 
 that book alone, we should say that in 1693 England 
 possessed no literature worthy of the name. Two English 
 writers only are singled out for mention as authors whose 
 works should be read. Ealph Cudworth bears a name 
 which -is still honourably associated with English philos- 
 ophy; but Chillingworth, a controversial divine praised 
 by Locke as a model of logical thinking, is now almost 
 forgotten. 3 When one remembers Locke's scorn for the 
 " poetic vein " 4 and the sourness of his regard for the fine 
 arts, it is scarcely surprising that, in a work on the educa- 
 
 1 Johann Bernhard Basedow (1724-1790) opened the first Philan- 
 thropinuni at Dessau in 1774 in order to carry out principles of 
 education enunciated by Comenius, Locke, and La Chalotais. 
 Schools in imitation of it were opened in other parts of Germany 
 and in Switzerland, but the Philanthropinist movement was a 
 failure owing to its extravagances of principle and practice. 
 
 2 Sees. 168, 171, 172, and particularly 189. Most of Locke's 
 recommendations on the teaching of foreign languages, Latin 
 included, have reappeared in later educational history. 
 
 3 Some Thoughts, sees. 188, 193. 
 
 * Ibid. , sec. 174 ; but cf. Conduct, sec. 4. 
 
 2
 
 18 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 tion of an English gentleman, there is no reference t< 
 Shakspere, Spenser, or Milton. The brief Sonu 1 Thoughts 
 concerning Reading and Study for a Gentleman nsimrs 
 more than eighty writers or works, mostly foreign ; but 
 none of these great names is included, though Dun Quixote 
 is ranked as unequalled amongst "all the books of fiction." 
 Locke apparently failed to see that English literature in 
 his day afforded that very knowledge of life to which he 
 attached the highest importance. He seems to have been 
 by constitution deficient in appreciation for imaginative 
 work, when he was not suspicious that its tendency was 
 irrational. 
 
 The practical teacher will endorse what is said in 
 Some Thoughts respecting the exercise of rote-memory 
 (sections 175-176), and the best mode of sustaining a 
 pupil's attention (section 167) : Locke here anticipates 
 and expresses concisely much of the best writing on 
 these topics. Although he says nothing directly con- 
 cerning the education of girls, the references to them 
 which occur in sections 6 and 9 seem susceptible of a 
 wider application, and they incline one to believe that 
 Locke did not entirely approve the custom of his day 
 which gave girls an inferior education to that given to 
 boys. The charge of want of sympathy with women is 
 not sustained by our knowledge of Locke's private life ; 
 it is certain that he speaks with respect when alluding 
 to cultivated women, and governesses appear in his pages 
 as capable persons who compare very favourably indeed 
 with professional schoolmasters. 1 
 
 There is no question in Some Thoughts of the instruc- 
 tion of great numbers of the people ; it deals not with 
 popular education, but with the breeding of children 
 destined to occupy positions of social prominence. Yet 
 it was impossible that Locke, writing on such a subject, 
 should restrict himself to a narrow outlook, and so fre- 
 quently are his remarks of general application that his 
 main purpose in writing the book is often forgotten by 
 his readers. 
 
 1 Cf. Some Thoughts, sees. 168, 177, 189.
 
 INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 What his views were with respect to the education 
 of the very poor can be learned on reference to his 
 memorandum on reform of the Poor Law, drawn up in 
 1697, when he was "a commissioner of trade and planta- 
 tions." 1 It must be remembered that this was written 
 before the foundation of the Charity Schools, which, in 
 the eighteenth century, demonstrated the feasibility of a 
 system of popular schools under central direction and 
 local management. Locke's proposal was in effect one 
 for the general adoption in rural districts of the work- 
 house " schools " which had existed in some town parishes 
 since the middle of the seventeenth century. To these 
 "working schools" Locke would send daily all pauper 
 children between the ages of three and fourteen, there 
 to be taught "spinning or knitting, or some other part 
 of the woollen manufacture, unless in countries where 
 the place shall furnish other materials fitter for the 
 employment of such poor children." Each child should 
 receive an allowance of bread and, in winter, "a little 
 warm water-gruel " ; it is estimated that the proceeds of 
 a child's labour will in the course of years cover the 
 expense of his, or her, teaching and partial maintenance. 
 The only form of instruction mentioned in the memoran- 
 dum (other than that given in teaching the child to 
 perfovm his manual task) is religious instruction, obtained 
 by being " obliged to come constantly to church every 
 Sunday, along with their schoolmasters or dames, whereby 
 they may be brought into some sense of religion." This 
 very exiguous course of instruction completely accords 
 with the proposition asserted in section 19 of the Conduct ; 
 11 for a man to understand fully the business of his par- 
 ticular calling in the commonwealth and of religion, 
 which is his calling as he is a man in the world, is usually 
 enough to take up his whole time." It is for the person 
 of leisure to go farther. 2 
 
 1 Printed in Fox Bourne's Life of John Locke, vol. ii., p. 877 ff. 
 
 2 Conduct, sec. 7 (" Those methinks, who, by the industry," 
 etc.), the last paragraph of that section, and sec. 8.
 
 20 JOHN LOCKE 
 
 BOOKS ON LOCKE AND HIS PERIOD 
 
 1. Life of Locke : 
 
 H. B. Fox Bourne: The Life of John Locke, London, 1876. 
 T. Fowler : Locke, in ''English Men of Letters" Series. 
 A. C. Fraser : Locke, in " Philosophical Classics," circa 1890. 
 E. Fechner: John Locke, Stuttgart, 1898. 
 Ch. Bastide : John Locke, Paris, 190'< . 
 
 2. The Works of John Locke, in ten volumes, London, 1812 and 
 
 1823. 
 
 3. A. C. Fraser, editor : An Essay concerning Human Understand 
 
 ing, Oxford, 1894. 
 
 4. R. H. Quick : Some Thoughts concerning Education, Cam- 
 
 bridge, 1880, etc. 
 
 Evan Daniel : Some Thoughts concerning Education, London, 
 1880. 
 
 5. T. Fowler : Locke's Conduct of the Understanding, Oxford, 
 
 1880, etc. 
 
 6. History of Education during the Period covered by the Introduc- 
 
 tion : 
 
 W. H. Woodward : Studies in Education during the Renais- 
 sance, 1400-1600. 
 
 J. W. Adamson : Pioneers of Modern Education, 1600-1700. 
 Oxford Historical Society's Publications, Collectanea, first 
 
 series, Oxford, 1885. 
 J. W. Adamson : " Education " (1660-1750), in Cambridge 
 
 History of English Literature, vol. ix. 
 A. Pinloche : La Beforme de ^Education en Allemagne au 
 
 1S ( Siecle, Paris, 1889. 
 W. Rein : Encijklopddisches Handbuch der Piidagogik, vol. i., 
 
 sub voces " Aufkliirung " and " Basedow." 
 Foster Watson : The English Grammar Schools to 1660, 
 
 Cambridge, 1908. 
 Foster W T atson : The Beginnings of the Teaching of Modern 
 
 Subjects in England, 1909.
 
 SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING 
 EDUCATION 
 
 THE text here followed is that of the first edition, 
 supplemented by passages from later editions which are 
 historically interesting, or of special educational value at 
 the present time : such passages are enclosed in square 
 brackets. Summaries of insertions in later editions are 
 here printed in italic type. Sections 3-28 deal with the 
 care of health; modern medical opinion does not endorse 
 all their recommendations, and they are therefore repre- 
 sented here by Locke's summary, sections 29, 30. The 
 sections are numbered as in the latest editions, for con- 
 venience of reference. It has not been thought advisable 
 to retain the original spelling and punctuation. 
 
 TO 
 
 EDWARD CLARKE, 
 
 OF 
 
 CHIPLEY, ESQ.; 
 
 SIR, 
 
 These Thoughts concerning Education, which now 
 come abroad into the world, do of right belong to you, 
 being written several years since for your sake, and are 
 no other than what you have already by you in my 
 letters. I have so little varied any thing, but only the 
 order of what was sent you at different times, and on 
 several occasions, that the reader will easily find, in the 
 
 21
 
 22 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 familiarity and fashion of the style, that they were 
 rather the private conversation of two friends, than a 
 discourse designed for public view. 
 
 The importunity of friends is the common apology for 
 publications men are afraid to own themselves forward 
 to. But you know I can truly say, that if some, who, 
 having heard of these papers of mine, had not pressed to 
 see them, and afterwards to have them printed, they had 
 lain dormant still in that privacy they were designed for. 
 But those whose judgment I defer much to, telling me, 
 that they were persuaded, that this rough draft of mine 
 might be of some use, if made more public, touched upon 
 what will always be very prevalent with me : for I 
 think it every man's indispensable duty, to do all the 
 service he can to his country ; and I see not what 
 difference he puts between himself and his cattle, who 
 lives without that thought. This subject is of so great 
 concernment, and a right way of education is of so 
 general advantage, that did I find my abilities answer 
 my wishes, I should not have needed exhortations or 
 importunities from others. However, the meanness of 
 these papers, and my just distrust of them, shall not 
 keep me, by the shame of doing so little, from con- 
 tributing my mite, when there is no more required of me 
 than my throwing it into the public receptacle. And if 
 there be any more of their size and notions, who liked 
 them so well, that they thought them worth printing, I 
 may flatter myself they will not be lost labour to 
 every body. 
 
 I myself have been consulted of late by so many, who 
 profess themselves at a loss how to breed their children, 
 and the early corruption of youth is now become so 
 general a complaint, that he cannot be thought wholly 
 impertinent, who brings the consideration of this matter
 
 DEDICATION 23 
 
 on the stage, and offers something, if it be but to excite 
 others, or afford matter for correction ; for errors in 
 education should be less indulged than any. These, like 
 faults in the first concoction, that are never mended in 
 the second or third, carry their afterwards-incorrigible 
 taint with them through all the parts and stations of 
 life. 
 
 I am so far from being conceited of anything I have 
 here offered, that I should not be sorry, even for- your 
 sake, if some one abler and fitter for such a task would in 
 a just treatise of education, suited to our English gentry, 
 rectify the mistakes I have made in this, it being much 
 more desirable to me, that young gentlemen should be 
 put into (that which every one ought to be solicitous 
 about) the best way of being formed and instructed, than 
 that my opinion should be received concerning it. You 
 will, however, in the meantime bear me witness, that the 
 method here proposed has had no ordinary effects upon 
 a gentleman's son 1 it was not designed for. I will not 
 say the good temper of the child did not very much 
 contribute to it ; but this I think you and the parents 
 are satisfied of, that a contrary usage, according to the 
 ordinary disciplining of children, would not have mended 
 that temper, nor have brought him to be in love with 
 his book, to take a pleasure in learning, and to desire, as 
 he does, to be taught more than those about him think 
 fit always to teach him. 
 
 But my business is not to recommend this treatise to 
 you, whose opinion of it I know already ; nor it to the 
 world, either by your opinion or patronage. The well 
 educating of their children is so much the duty and 
 
 1 A reference, perhaps, to Francis Cudworth Masham (b. 1686), 
 . son of Sir Francis Masham, the owner of Gates, Locke's home from 
 1691.
 
 24 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 concern of parents, and the welfare and prosperity ,uf_ 
 rthe nation "so much depends on it, that I would have 
 ever} one ];iy it sen<>n<ly to lie;irt ; and after having 
 well examined and distinguished what fancy, custom, or 
 reason advises in the case, set his helping hand to 
 promote that way in the several degrees of men, which 
 is the easiest, shortest, and likeliest to produce yjrtuous^ 
 useful, and able men in their distinct callings. Though 
 that most to be taken care ofJs the gentleman's calling ;* 
 for if those of that rank are by their ednnation once set / 
 right,they will_qmckly_bring- all the rest into order. 
 
 I know not whether I have done more than shewn my 
 good wishes towards it in this short discourse ; such as 
 it is, the world now has it, and if there be any thing in 
 it worth their acceptance, they owe their thanks to you 
 for it. My affection to you gave the first rise to it, and 
 I am pleased, that I can leave to posterity this mark of 
 the friendship that has been between us. For I know 
 no greater pleasure in this life, nor a better remembrance 
 to be left behind one, than a long-continued friendship 
 with an honest, useful, and worthy man, and lover of his 
 country. 
 
 I am, Sir, 
 Your most humble and most faithful servant. 
 
 1 A phrase reminiscent of such " courtesy " books as The Gentle- 
 man's Calling (1659), The Lady's Calling, The Courtier's Calling. 
 See Introduction.
 
 SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 1. A SOUND mind in a sound body, is a short but full 
 description of a happy state in this world : he that has 
 these two, has little more to wish for,; and he that 
 wants either of them, will be but little the better for 
 any thing else. Men's happiness or misery js most part 
 of their own mating. He whose mind directs not 
 wisely, will never take the right way ; and he whose 
 body is crazy and feeble, will never be able to advance 
 in itji I confess there are some men's constitutions of 
 body and mind so vigorous and well framed by nature, 
 that they need not much assistance from others, but by 
 the strength of their natural genius, they are from their 
 cradles Carried towards what is excellent ; and, by the 
 privilege of their happy constitutions are able to do 
 wonders. But examples of these are but few ; and I, 
 think I may say that, of all the men we meet with, nine 
 parts* of ten are what they are, good or evil, useful or 
 not, by their education. 'Tis that which makes the 
 great difference in mankind. The little, and almost 
 insensible impressions on our tender infancies, have 
 very important and lasting consequences ; and there 
 'tis, as in the fountains of some rivers, where a gentle 
 application of the hand turns the flexible waters into 
 channels, that make them take quite contrary courses ; 
 and by this little direction, given them at first in the 
 source, they receive different tendencies, and arrive at 
 last at very remote and distant places. 
 
 2. Health* I imagine the minds of children, as easily 
 turned, this or that way, as water itself ; and though 
 this be the principal part, and our main care should be 
 about the inside, yet the clay cottage is not to be 
 
 25
 
 26 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 neglected. I shall therefore begin with the case, and 
 consider first the health of tKa. body, as that which 
 perhaps you may rather expect, from that study I have 
 been thought more peculiarly to have applied myself 
 to; 1 and that also, which will be soonest dispatched, 
 as lying, if I guess not amiss, in a very little compass. 
 
 Sections 3 to 28 treat of health. For reasons already 
 given, they are replaced by the author's summary, section 
 30; but sections 6 and 9 are retained for their references 
 to girls. See note on p. 21. 
 
 6. I have said he here, because the principal aim of 
 my discourse is, how a young gentleman should be 
 brought up from his infancy, which in all things will 
 not so perfectly suit the education of daughters ; though, 
 where the difference of sex requires different treatment, 
 'twill be no hard matter to distinguish. 
 
 9. Air. Another thing that is of great advantage to 
 every one's health, but especially children's, is, to be 
 much in the open air, and very little, as may be, by the 
 fire, even in winter. By this he will accustom himself 
 also to heat and cold, shine and rain; all which if a 
 man's body will not endure, it will serve him to very 
 little purpose in this world: and when he is grown up, it 
 is too late to begin to use him to it : it must be got early 
 and by degrees. Thus the body may be brought to bear 
 almost anything. If I should advise him to play in the 
 wind and sun without a hat, I doubt whether it could be 
 borne. There would a thousand objections be made 
 against it, which at last would amount to no more, in 
 truth, than being sun-burnt. And if my young master 
 be to be kept always in the shade, and never exposed to 
 the sun and wind, for fear of his complexion, it may be a 
 good way to make him a beau, but not a man of business. 2 
 
 1 Cf. sec. 29. Locke practised medicine at Oxford in 1667, and 
 in London with his friend, Dr. Sydenham, between that year and 
 1670. Though commonly known as "Dr. Locke," he never pro- 
 ceeded beyond the M.B. degree. 
 
 2 I.e., a man of affairs.
 
 9. AIR 29. PHYSIC 27 
 
 And although greater regard be to be had to beauty in 
 the daughters, yet I will take the liberty to say, that the 
 more they are in the air, without prejudices to their faces, 
 the stronger and healthier they will be; and the nearer 
 they come to the hardships of their brothers in their 
 education, the greater advantage will they receive from 
 it all the remaining part of their lives. 1 
 
 29. Physic. -This is all I have to trouble you with, con- 
 cerning his management, in the ordinary course of his 
 health ; and perhaps it will be expected from me, that I 
 should give some directions of physic, to prevent diseases : 
 for which, I have only this one very sacredly to be observed : 
 Never to give children any physic for prevention. The 
 observation of what I have already advised, will, I sup- 
 pose, do that better than apothecary's drugs and medi- 
 cines. Have a great care of tampering that way, lest, 
 instead of preventing, you draw on diseases. Nor even 
 upon every little indisposition is physic to be given, or 
 the physician to be called to children; especially if he be 
 a busy man, that will presently fill their windows with 
 gally-pots, and their stomachs with drugs. It is safer 
 to leave them wholly to nature, than to put them into the 
 hands of one forward to tamper, or that thinks children 
 are to be cured in ordinary distempers, by anything but 
 diet, or by a method very little distant from it. It seem- 
 ing suitable both to my reason and experience, that the 
 tender constitutions of children should have as little done 
 to them as is possible, and as the absolute necessity of the 
 case requires. A little cold-stilled red poppv-waterjlvvhich 
 is the true surfeit-water, with ease and abstinence from 
 flesh, often puts an end to several distempers in the be- 
 ginning-which, by foo'forw&rd applications, might have 
 
 o oto-* j */ 
 
 ' been made lusty diseases. When such a gentle treatment 
 will not stop the growing mischief, but that it will turn 
 into a formed disease, it will be time to seek the advice of 
 some sober and discreet physician. In this part, I hope, 
 I shall find an easy belief ; and nobody can have a pre- 
 tence to doubt the advice of one, who has spent some 
 1 Cf. end of sees. 119 and 165.
 
 28 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 time in the study of physic, when he counsels you not to 
 be too forward in making use of physic and physicians. 
 
 30. And thus I have done with what concerns the 
 body and health, which reduces itself to these few and 
 easily observable rules. Plenty of open air, exercise, 
 and sleep ; plain diet, no wine or strong drink, and very 
 little or no physic; not too warm and strait clothing; 
 especially the head and feet kept cold, and the feet often 
 used to cold water and exposed to wet. 
 
 31. Mind. Due care being had to keep the body in 
 strength and vigour, so that it may be able to obey and 
 execute the orders of the mind> the next and principal 
 business is, to set the mind right, that on all occasions it 
 may be disposed to do nothing but what may be suitable 
 to the dignity and excellency of a rational creature. 
 
 32. If what I have said in the beginning of this dis- 
 course be true, as I do not doubt but it is, viz. that the 
 difference to be found in the manners and abilities of 
 men, is owing more to their education than to any thing 
 else; we have reason to conclude, that great care is to be 
 had of the forming children's minds, and giving them 
 that seasoning early, which shall influence their lives 
 always after. For when they do well or ill, the praise 
 or blame will be laid there : and when any thing is done 
 untowardly, the common saying will pass upon them, that 
 it is suitable to their breeding. 
 
 33. As the strength of the body lies chiefly in being 
 able to endure hardships, so also does that of the mind. 
 And the great principle and foundation of all virtue and 
 worth is placed in this, that a man is able to deny him- 
 self his own desires, cross his own inclinations, and purely 
 follow what reason directs as best, though the appetite 
 lean the other way. 
 
 34.__Jfiy^, The great mistake I have observed in 
 peoph?sBreeding their children has been, that this has 
 not been taken care enough of in its due season ; that 
 the mind has not been made obedient to rules, and pliant 
 to reason, when at first it was most tender, most easy to 
 be bowed. Parents being wisely ordained by nature to
 
 34, 35. EAELY 29 
 
 love their children, are very apt, if reason watch not that 
 natural affection very warily ; are apt, I say, to let it run 
 into fondness. 1 They love their little ones, and 'tis their 
 duty : but they often with them cherish their faults too. 
 They must not be crossed, forsooth; they must be per- 
 mitted to have their wills in all things; and they being 
 in their infancies not capable of great vices, their parents 
 think they may safely enough indulge their little irregu- 
 larities, and make themselves sport with that pretty per- 
 verseness, which they think well enough becomes that 
 innocent age. But to a fond parent, that would not have 
 his child corrected for a perverse trick, but excused it, 
 saying it was a small matter; Solon very well replied, 
 'Ay, but custom is a great one.' 2 
 
 35. The fondling must be taught to strike, and call 
 names: must have what he cries for, and do what he 
 pleases. Thus parents, by humouring and cockering 
 them when little, corrupt the principles of nature in 
 their children, and wonder afterwards to taste the bitter 
 waters, when they themselves have poisoned the fountain. 
 For when their children are grown up, and these ill habits 
 with them; when they are now too big to be dandled, and 
 their parents can no longer make use of them as play- 
 things; then they complain, that the brats are untoward 
 and perverse; then they are offended to see them wilful, 
 and are troubled with those ill humours, which they 
 themselves inspired and cherished in them. And then, 
 perhaps too late, would be glad to get out those weeds 
 which their own hands have planted, and which now 
 have taken too deep root to be easily extirpated. For 
 he that has been used to have his will in every thing, as 
 long as he was in coats, why should we think it strange 
 that he should desire it, and contend for it still, when he 
 is in breeches ? Indeed, as he grows more towards a man, 
 age shows his faults the more, so that there be few parents 
 then so blind, as not to see them; few so insensible as 
 
 1 I.e., foolishness. 
 
 2 Quoted by Montaigne in the essay, De la Coustume, i., 
 chap. xxii.
 
 30 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 not to feel the ill effects of their own indulgence. He 
 had the will of his maid before he could speak or go ; he- 
 had the mastery of his parents ever since he could prattle; 
 and why, now he is grown up, is stronger and wiser than 
 he was then, why now of a sudden must he be rest ruined 
 aud curbed? Why must he at seven, fourteen, or twenty 
 years old, lose the privilege which the parents' indulgence, 
 till then, so largely allowed him ? Try it in a dog, or an 
 horse, or any other creature, and see whether the ill and 
 resty 1 tricks they have learned when young, are easily to 
 be mended when they are knit : and yet none of those 
 creatures are half so wilful and proud, or half so desirous 
 to be masters of themselves and others, as man. 
 
 36. We are generally wise enough to begin with them, 
 when they are very young, and discipline betimes those 
 other creatures we would make useful to us. They are 
 only our own offspring, that we neglect in this point ; 
 and having made them ill children, we foolishly expect 
 they should be good men. For if the child must have 
 grapes, or sugar-plums, when he has a mind to them, 
 rather than make the poor baby cry, or be out of humour, 
 why, when he is grown up, must he not be satisfied too, 
 if his desires carry him to wine or women ? They are 
 objects as suitable to the longing of one of more years, 
 as what he cried for, when little, was to the inclinations 
 of a child. The having desires suitable to the apprehen- 
 sions and relish of those several ages, is not the fault ; 
 but the not having them subject to the rules and restraints 
 of reason : the difference lies not in the having or not 
 having appetites, but in the power to govern, and deny 
 our selves in them. And he that is not used to submit 
 his will to the reason of others, when he is young, will 
 scarce hearken or submit to his own reason, when he is 
 of an age to make use of it. And what a kind of a man 
 such an one is like to prove, is easy to foresee. 
 
 Section 37. Parents, by example and incitement, com- 
 monly teach children to be violent, to love finery, to lie 
 and be gluttonous. Cf. Section 116. 
 1 Restive, restless.
 
 38, 39. CRAVING 31 
 
 38. l Craving. It seems plain to me, that the principle 
 of all virtue and excellency lies in a power of denying 
 our selves the satisfaction of our own desires, where reason 
 does not authorize them. This power is to be got and 
 improved by custom, made easy and familiar by an early 
 practice. If therefore I might be heard, I would advise, 
 that, contrary to the ordinary way, children, should be 
 used to submit their desires, and go without th^ir long- 
 ings, even from their very cradles. The first thing they 
 should learn to know, should be, that they were not to 
 have anything, because it pleased them, but because it 
 was thought fit for them. If things suitable to their 
 wants were supplied to them, so that they were never 
 suffered to have what they once cried for, they would 
 learn to be content without it ; would never with bawling 
 and peevishness contend for mastery ; nor be half so 
 uneasy to themselves and others as they are, because 
 from the first beginning they are not thus handled. If 
 they were never suffered to obtain their desire by the 
 impatience they expressed for it, they would no more 
 cry for other things than they do for the moon. 
 
 39. I say not this, as if children were not to be indulged 
 in any thing, or that I expected they should, in hanging 
 sleeves, have the reason and conduct of counsellors. I 
 consider them as children that must be tenderly used, 
 that must play, and have playthings. That which I 
 mean is, that whenever they craved what was not fit for 
 them to have, or do, they should not be permitted it, 
 because they were little and desired it : nay, whatever 
 they were importunate for, they should be sure, for that 
 very reason, to be denied. I have seen children at a 
 table, who, whatever was there, never asked for anything, 
 but contentedly took what was given them; and at another 
 place, I have seen others cry for every thing they saw, 
 must be served out of every dish, and that first too. What 
 made this vast difference, but this; that one was accus- 
 tomed to have what they called or cried for, the other to 
 go without it? The younger they are, the less, I think, 
 1 Sec. 37 in first edition.
 
 32 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 are their unruly and disorderly appetites to be complied 
 with ; and the less reason they have of their own, the 
 more are they to be under the absolute power and restraint 
 of those, in whose hands they are. From which I confess, 
 it will follow, that none but discreet people should be 
 about them. If the world commonly does otherwise, I 
 cannot help that : I am saying what I think should be ; 
 which, if it were already in fashion, I should not need to 
 trouble the world with a discourse on this subject. But 
 yet I doubt not, but when it is considered, there will be 
 others of opinion with me, that the sooner this way is 
 begun with children, the easier it will be for them, and 
 their governors too. And that this ought to be observed 
 as an inviolable maxim, that whatever once is denied 
 them, they are certainly not to obtain by crying or 
 importunity ; unless one has a mind to teach them to be 
 impatient and troublesome, by rewarding them for it, 
 when they are so. 
 
 40. Early. Those therefore that intend ever to govern 
 their children, should begin it whilst they are very little ; 
 and look that they perfectly comply with the will of their 
 parents. Would you have your son obedient to you, when 
 past a child ? Tjg_,qnrj> thpTijojjstablishJrhe authority of 
 a father, ajLSQojj. as he is capable nf siihTrnsaJmij and can 
 understand injwliose powerlie is. If you would have him 
 &Ea~ncTm aweoJ you, imprinfit in his infancy ; and, as he 
 approaches more to a man, admit him nearer to your 
 familiarity : so shall you have 
 
 __ 
 
 (as is fit) whilst he is a chjldy and^youraff ectionate friend 
 whe~n he is a man. For methinks they mightily misplace 
 the treatment due to their children, who are indulgent 
 and familiar when they are little, but severe to them, and 
 keep them at a distance when they are grown up. For 
 liberty and indulgence can do no good to children : their 
 want of judgment makes them stand in need of restraint 
 and discipline. And, on the contrary, imperiousness and 
 severity is but an ill way of treating men, who have reason 
 of their own to guide them, unless you have a mind to 
 make your children, when grown up, weary of you ; and
 
 41, 42. EARLY 33 
 
 secretly to say within themselves, " When will you die, 
 father?" 1 
 
 r 41. I imagine every one will judge it reasonable, that > 
 their children, when little, should look upon their parents / 
 as their lords, their absolute governors; and, as such, [_ 
 stand in awe of them : and that, when they come to riper J 
 years, they should look on them as their best, as their only f 
 sure friends ; and, as such, love and reverence them. The/ 
 way I have mentioned,af I mistake not, is the only one 
 to obtain this. We must look upon our children, when 
 grown up, to be like ourselves, with the same passions, 
 the same desires. We would be thought rational creatures, 
 and have our freedom; we love not to be uneasy under 
 constant rebukes and brow-beatings; nor can we bear 
 severe humours, and great distance, in those we converse 
 with. Whoever has such treatment when he is a man, 
 will look out other company, other friends, other conver- 
 sation, with whom he can be at ease. If therefore a strict 
 hand be kept over children from the beginning, they will 
 in that age be tractable, and quietly submit to it, as never 
 having known any other : and if, as they grow up to the 
 use of reason, the rigour of government be, as they deserve 
 it, gently relaxed , the father's brow more smooth to them, 
 and the distance by degrees abated, his former restraints 
 will in'crease their love, when they find it was only a kind- 
 ness to them, and a care to make them capable to deserve 
 the favour of their parents, and the esteem of every body 
 else. 
 
 42. Thus much for the settling your authority over 
 your children in general. | Fear and awe ought to give 
 you the first power over their minds, and love and friend- 
 ship in riper years to hold it : for the time must come, 
 when they will be past the rod and correction ; and 
 then, if the love of you make them not obedient and 
 dutiful, if the love of virtue and reputation keep them 
 not in laudable courses, I ask, what hold will you have 
 
 1 The thought occurs in Montaigne, ii., chap, viii., " On the 
 affection of fathers for their children," with which these earlier 
 sections of the Thoughts should be compared. 
 
 3
 
 34 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 upon them, to turn them to it ? Indeed, fear of having 
 a scanty portion, if they displease you, may make them 
 slaves to your estate, but they will be never the less ill 
 and wicked in private; and that restraint will not last 
 always. Every man must some time or other be trusted 
 to himself, and his own conduct; and he that js a good, 
 a virtuous, and able man, must be made so within. And 
 therefore, what he is to receive from education, what is 
 to sway and influence his life, must be something put 
 into him betimes, habits woven into the very principles 
 of his nature ; and not a counterfeit carriage, and dis- 
 sembled outside, put on by fear, only to avoid the 
 present anger of a father, who perhaps may disinherit 
 him. 
 
 ^, 43. Punishments. This being laid down in general, as 
 the course ought to be taken, 'tis fit we now come to 
 consider the parts of the discipline to be used, a little 
 more particularly. I have spoken so much of carrying a 
 strict hand over children, that perhaps I shall be sus- 
 pected of not considering enough, what is due to their 
 tender age and constitutions. But that opinion will 
 vanish, when you have heard me a little farther. For I 
 am very apt to think, that great severity of punishment. 
 does but very little good_; nay, great harm 
 
 . 
 
 and I believe it will be found, that, cueteris paribtcs, those 
 children who have been most chastised, seldom make the 
 best men. All that I have hitherto contended for, is, 
 that whatsoever rigour is necessary, it is more to be used 
 the younger children are ; and having by a due applica- 
 tion wrought its effect, it is to be relaxed, and changed 
 into a milder sort of government. 
 
 44. Awe. A compliance and suppleness of their wills, 
 being by a steady hand introduced by parents, before 
 children have memories to retain the beginnings of it, 
 will seem natural to them, and work afterwards in them, 
 as if it were so, preventing all occasions of struggling or 
 repining. The only care is, that it be begun early, and 
 inflexibly kept to, till awe and respect be grown familiar, 
 and there appears not the least reluctancy in the sub-
 
 44. AWE 45. SELF-DENIAL 46. DEJECTED 35 
 
 mission, and ready obedience of their minds. When this 
 reverence is once thus established (which it must be 
 early, or else it will cost pains and blows to recover it, 
 and the more, the longer it is deferred), 'tis by it, mixed 
 still with as much indulgence, as they make not an ill 
 use of, and not by beating, chiding, or other servile 
 punishments, [that] they are for the future to be 
 governed as they grow up to more understanding. 
 
 45. That this is so, will be easily allowed, when it is 
 but considered what is to be aimed at in an ingenuous 
 education, and upon what it turns. 
 
 1. Self-denial. He that has not a mastery over his 
 inclinations, he that knows not how to resist the impor- 
 tunity of present pleasure or pain, for the sake of what 
 reason tells him is fit to be done, wants the true princi- 
 ple of virtue and industry, and is in danger never to be 
 good for any thing. This temper, therefore, so contrary 
 to unguided nature, is to be got betimes ; and this habit, 
 as the true foundation of future ability and happiness, is 
 to be wrought into the mind, as early as may be, even 
 from the first dawnings of any knowledge or apprehen- 
 sion in children ; and so to be confirmed in them, by all the 
 care and ways imaginable, by those who have the over- 
 sight of their education. 
 
 46. 2. Dejected. On the other side, if the mind be 
 curbed, and humbled too much in children ; if their 
 spirits be abased and broken much, by too strict an hand 
 over them, they lose all their vigour and industry, and 
 are in a worse state than the former. For extravagant 
 young fellows, that have liveliness and spirit, come some- 
 times to be set right, and so make able and great men : 
 but dejected minds, timorous and tame, and low spirits, 
 are hardly ever to be raised, and very seldom attain to 
 any thing. To avoid the danger that is on either hand, 
 is the great art ; and he that has found a way, how to 
 keep up a child's spirit, easy, active, and free ; and yet, 
 at the same time, to restrain him from many things he has 
 a mind to, and to draw him to things that are uneasy to 
 him ; he, I say, that knows how to reconcile these seem-
 
 36 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 ing contradictions, has, in my opinion, got the true secret 
 of education. 
 
 47. Seating. 1 The usual lazy and short way by chas- 
 tisement, and the rod, which is the only instrument of 
 government that tutors generally know, or ever think of, 
 is the most unfit of any to be used in education ; because 
 it tends to both those mischiefs, which, as we have shown, 
 are the Scylla and Chary bdis, which, on the one hand or 
 the other, ruin all that miscarry. 
 
 48. 1. This kind of punishment contributes not at all 
 to the mastery of our natural propensity to indulge 
 corporal and present pleasure, and to avoid pain at any 
 rate, but rather encourages it ; and so strengthens that 
 in us, which is the root of all vicious and wrong actions. 
 For what motives, I pray, does a child act by, but of such 
 pleasure and pain, that drudges at his book against his 
 inclination, or abstains from eating unwholesome fruit, 
 that he takes pleasure in, only out of fear of whipping ? 
 He in this only prefers the greater corporal pleasure, or 
 avoids the greater corporal pain ; and what is it, to 
 govern his actions, and direct his conduct, by such 
 motives as these ? What is it, I say, but to cherish that 
 principle in him, which it is our business to root out and 
 destroy ? And therefore I cannot think any correction) 
 
 ) useful to a child, where the shame of suffering for! 
 having done amiss does not work more upon him than] 
 'the pain. 
 
 49. 2. This sort of correction naturally breeds an 
 aversion to that which it is the tutor's business to create 
 ajiking to_._ How obvious is it to observe, that children 
 come to hate things liked at first, as soon as they come 
 to be whipped, or chid, and teazed about them ? And it 
 is not to be wondered at in them, when grown men 
 would not be able to be reconciled to any thing by such 
 ways. Who is there that would not be disgusted with 
 any innocent recreation in itself indifferent to him, if he 
 should with blows, or ill language, be haled to it, when 
 he had no mind ? Or be constantly so treated, for some 
 
 1 Cf, Montaigne, ii., chap. viii.
 
 49-51. BEATING 52. REWARDS 37 
 
 circumstance in his application to it ? This is natural to 
 be so. Offensive circumstances ordinarily infect innocent 
 things which they are joined with : and the very sight of 
 a cup, wherein any one uses to take nauseous physic, 
 turns his stomach, so that nothing will relish well out of 
 it, though the cup be never so clean and well-shaped, 
 and of the richest materials. 
 
 50. 3. Such a sort of slavish discipline makes a slavish 
 temper. The child submits, and dissembles obedience., 
 whilst the f ear~bf the rod hangs over him; but when 
 that is removed, and, by being out of sight, he can 
 promise himself impunity, he gives the greater scope to 
 his natural inclination, which by this way is not at all 
 altered, but on the contrary heightened and increased in 
 him ; and after such restraint, breaks out usually with 
 the more violence. Or, 
 
 51. 4. If severity carried to the highest pitch does 
 prevail, and works a cure upon the present unruly dis- 
 temper, it is often bringing in the room of it a worse and 
 more dangerous disease, by breaking the mind; and 
 then, in the place of a disorderly young fellow, you have 
 a low-spirited, moped creature : who, however with his 
 unnatural sobriety he may please silly people, who com- 
 mend tame, unactive children because they make no 
 noise, nor give them any trouble ; yet, at last, will 
 probably prove as uncomfortable a thing te his friends, 
 as "he will be, all his life, an useless thing to himself and 
 others. 
 
 52. Rewards. Beating then, and all other sorts of 
 slavish and corporal punishments, are not the discipline 
 fit to be used in the education of those we would have 
 wise, good, and ingenuous men; and therefore very 
 rarely to be applied, and that only in great occasions, 
 and cases of extremity. On the other side, to flatter 
 children by rewards of things that are pleasant to them, 
 is as carefully to be avoided. He that will give to his 
 son apples, or sugar-plums, 7>r what else of this kind he 
 is most delighted with, to make him learn his book, does 
 but authorize his love of pleasure, and cocker up that
 
 38 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 dangerous propensity, which he ought by all means to 
 subdue and stifle in him. You can never hope to teach 
 him to master it whilst you compound for the check you 
 give his inclination in one place, by the satisfaction you 
 propose to it in another. To make a good, a wise, and a 
 virtuous man, it is fit he should learn to cross his appetite, 
 and deny his inclination to riches, finery, or pleasing his 
 palate, etc., whenever his reason advises the contrary, 
 and his duty requires it. But when you draw him to do 
 anything that is fit, by the offer of money ; or reward 
 the pains of learning his book, by the pleasure of a 
 luscious morsel; when you promise him a lace-cravat, or 
 a fine new suit, upon performance of some of his little 
 tasks ; what do you, by proposing these as rewards, but 
 allow them to be the good things he should aim at, and 
 thereby encourage his longing for them, and accustom 
 him to place his happiness in them ? Thus people, to 
 prevail with children to be industrious about their 
 grammar, dancing, or some other such matter of no great 
 moment to the happiness or usefulness of their lives, ly 
 misapplied rewards and punishments, sacrifice their 
 virtue, invert the order of their education, and teach 
 them luxury, pride, or covetousness, etc. For in this 
 way, flattering those wrong inclinations, which they 
 should restrain and suppress, they lay the foundations of 
 those future vices, which cannot be avoided, but by 
 curbing our desires, and accustoming them early to 
 submit to reason. 
 
 53. I say not this, that I would have children kept 
 from the conveniences or pleasures of life, that are not 
 injurious to their health or virtue. On the contrary, I 
 would have their lives made as pleasant, and as agreeable 
 to them as may be, in a plentiful enjoyment of Avhatso- 
 ever might innocently delight them : provided it be with 
 this caution, that they have those enjoyments only as the 
 consequences of the state of esteem and acceptation they 
 are in with their parents and governors ; but they should 
 never be offered or bestowed on them, as the reward of 
 this or that particular performance, that they show an
 
 54, 55. REWAEDS 39 
 
 aversion to, or to which they would not have applied 
 themselves without that temptation. 1 
 
 54. But if you take away the rod on one hand, and 
 these little encouragements, which they are taken with, 
 on the other, How then (will you say) shall children be 
 governed ? Remove hope and fear, and there is an end 
 of all discipline. I grant, that good and evil, reward and 
 punishment, are the only motives to a rational creature ; 
 these are the spur and reins whereby all mankind are set 
 on work and guided, and therefore they are to be made 
 use of to children too. For I advise their parents and 
 governors always to carry this in their minds, that they 
 are to be treated as rational creatures. 
 
 55. Rewards, I grant, and punishments must be_ 
 proposed tO 6hildren, il we intftnn r,o wnrir upon them7 
 Tne mistake, 1 imagine, is that those that are generally 
 made use of, are ill chosen. The pains and pleasures of 
 the body are, I think, of ill consequence, when made 
 the rewards and punishments, whereby men would 
 prevail on their children : for they serve but to increase 
 and strengthen those appetites which 'tis our business 
 to subdue and master. What principle of virtue do you 
 lay in a child, if you will redeem his desires of one 
 pleasure by the proposal of another ? This is but to 
 enlarge his appetite, and instruct it to wander. If a 
 child cries for an unwholesome and dangerous fruit, you 
 purchase his quiet by giving him a less hurtful sweet- 
 meat ; this perhaps may preserve his health, but spoils 
 his mind, and sets that farther out of order. For here 
 you only change the object, but flatter still his appetite, 
 and allow that must be satisfied : wherein, as I have 
 showed, lies the root of the mischief : and till you bring 
 him to be able to bear a denial of that satisfaction, the 
 child may at present be quiet and orderly, but the 
 disease is not cured. By this way of proceeding you 
 
 1 Locke here proposes a real discipline of moral consequences, 
 which Rousseau and Herbert Spencer afterwards perverted to a 
 so-called discipline of natural consequences (see sees. 56-60, 72, 84, 
 107, 124).
 
 40 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 foment and cherish in him, that which is the spring 
 from whence all the evil flows, which will be sure on the 
 next occasion to break out again with more violence, 
 give him stronger longings, and you more trouble. 
 
 56. Reputation. The rewards and punishments, then, 
 whereby we should keep children in order, are quite of 
 another kind ; and of that force, that when we can get 
 them once to work, the business, I think, is done, and 
 the difficulty is over. Esteem and disgrace are, of all 
 others, the most powerful incentives to the mind, when 
 once it is brought to relish them. If you can once get 
 into children a love of credit, and an apprehension of 
 shame and disgrace, you have put into them the true 
 principle, which will constantly work, and incline them 
 to the right. But it will be asked, How shall this be 
 done ? 
 
 I confess, it does not, at first appearance, want some 
 difficulty ; but yet I think it worth our while to seek the 
 ways (and practise them when found) to attain this, 
 which I look on as the great secret of education. 
 
 57. First, children (earlier perhaps than we think) are 
 very sensible of praise and commendation. They find a 
 pleasure in being esteemed and valued, especially by 
 their parents, and those whom they depend on. If 
 therefore the father caress and commend them, when 
 they do well ; show a cold and neglectful countenance 
 to them upon doing ill ; and this accompanied by a like 
 carriage of the mother, and all others that are about 
 them, it will in a little time make them sensible of the 
 difference : and this, if constantly observed, I doubt not 
 but will of itself work more than threats or blows, which 
 lose their force, when once grown common, and are of 
 no use when shame does not attend them ; and there- 
 fore are to be forborne, and never to be used, but in 
 the case hereafter-mentioned, when it is brought to 
 extremity. 
 
 58. But, secondly, to make the sense of esteem or dis- 
 grace sink the deeper, and be of the more weight, other 
 agreeable or disagreeable things should constantly
 
 58, 59. REPUTATION 41 
 
 accompany these different states; not as particular 
 rewards and punishments of this or that particular 
 action, but as necessarily belonging to, and constantly 
 attending one, who by his carriage has brought himself 
 into a state of disgrace or commendation. By which 
 way of treating them, children may as much as possible 
 be brought to conceive, that those that are commended 
 and in esteem for doing well, will necessarily be beloved 
 and cherished by every, body, and have all other good 
 things as a consequence of it. And, on the other side, 
 when any one by miscarriage falls into disesteem, and 
 cares not to preserve his credit, he will unavoidably fall 
 under neglect and contempt; and in that state, the want 
 of what ever might satisfy or delight him, will follow. 
 In this way the objects of their desires are made assist- 
 ing to virtue, when a settled experience from the begin- 
 ning teaches children, that the things they delight in, 
 belong to, and are to be enjoyed by those only, who are 
 in a state of reputation. If by these means you can 
 come once to shame them out of their faults, (for besides 
 that, I would willingly have no punishment,) and make 
 them in love with the pleasure of being well thought on, 
 you may turn them as you please, and they will be in 
 love with all the ways of virtue. 
 
 59. The great difficulty here is, I imagine, from the 
 folly and perverseness of servants, who are hardly to be 
 hindered from crossing herein the design of the father 
 and mother. Children, discountenanced by their parents 
 for any fault, find usually a refuge and relief in the 
 caresses of those foolish flatterers, who thereby undo 
 whatever the parents endeavour to establish. When the 
 father or mother looks sour on the child, everybody else 
 should put on the same carriage to him, and nobody 
 give him countenance, till forgiveness asked, and a 
 contrary carriage restored him to his esteem and former 
 credit again. If this were constantly observed, I guess 
 there would be little need of blows or chiding : their 
 own ease and satisfaction would quickly teach children 
 to court commendation, and avoid doing that which they
 
 42 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 found every body condemned, and they were sure to 
 suffer for, without being chid or beaten. This would 
 teach them modesty and shame ; and they would quickly 
 come to have a natural abhorrence for that which they 
 found made them slighted and neglected by every body. 
 But how this inconvenience from servants is to lie 
 remedied, I can only leave to parents' care and con- 
 sideration. Only I think it of great importance; and 
 that they are very happy, who can get discreet people 
 about their children. 
 
 60. Shame. Frequent beating or chiding is therefore 
 carefully to be avoided ; because it never produces any 
 good, farther than it serves to raise shame and abhor- 
 rence of the miscarriage that brought it on them. And 
 if the greatest part of the trouble be not sense that they 
 have done amiss, and the apprehension that they have 
 drawn on themselves the just displeasure of their best 
 friends, the pain of whipping will work but an imperfect 
 cure ; it only patches up for the present, and skins it 
 over, but reaches not to the bottom of the sore. Shame, 
 then, and apprehension of displeasure, being that which 
 ought alone to give a check and hold the reins, 'tis im- 
 possible but punishment should lose that efficacy, when 
 it often returns. Shame has in children the same place 
 as modesty in women, which cannot be kept, and often 
 transgressed against. And as to the apprehension of 
 displeasure in the parents, that will come to be very 
 insignificant, if the marks of that displeasure quickly 
 cease. And therefore I think parents should well con- 
 sider, what faults in their children are weighty enough 
 to deserve the declaration of their anger : but when 
 their displeasure is once declared to a degree that carries 
 any punishment with it, they ought not presently to lay 
 by the severity of their brows, but to restore their chil- 
 dren to their former grace with some difficulty ; and 
 delay till their conformity, and more than ordinary merit, 
 make good their amendment. If this be not so ordered, 
 punishment will be by familiarity but a thing of course ; 
 and offending, being punished and then forgiven, be as
 
 61. REPUTATION 62. PRAISE 63. CHILDISHNESS 43 
 
 natural and ordinary as noon, night, and morning, follow- 
 ing one another. 
 
 61. Reputation. Concerning reputation, I shall only 
 remark this one thing more of it : that, though it be not 
 the true principle and measure of virtue, (for that is the 
 knowlege of a man's duty, and the satisfaction it is to 
 obey his Maker, in following -the dictates of that light 
 God has given him, with the hopes of acceptation and 
 reward), yet it is that which comes nearest to it : and 
 being the testimony and applause that other people's 
 reason, as it were, by common consent, gives to virtuous 
 and well-ordered actions, is the proper guide and en- 
 couragement of children, till they grow able to judge for 
 themselves, and to find what is right by their own reason. 1 
 [62. Praise should be given in public, blame in private. ~\ 
 63. Childishness. 2 But if a right course be taken with 
 children, there will not be so much need of the applica- 
 tion of the common rewards and punishments, as we 
 imagine, and as the general practice has established. 
 For, all their innocent folly, playing, and childish actions 
 are to be left perfectly free and unrestrained, as far as 
 they can consist with the respect due to those that are 
 present ; and that with the greatest allowance. If these 
 faults of their age, rather than of the children them- 
 selves, were, as they should be, left only to time, and 
 imitation, and riper years to cure, children would escape 
 a great deal of misapplied and useless correction ; which 
 either fails to overpower the natural disposition of their 
 childhood, and so, by an ineffectual familiarity, makes 
 correction in other necessary cases of less use ; or else if 
 it be of force to restrain the natural gaiety of that age, it 
 serves only to spoil the temper both of body and mind. 
 If the noise and bustle of their play prove at any time 
 inconvenient or unsuitable to the place or company they 
 are in, (which can only be where their parents are,) a 
 look or a word from the father or mother, if they have 
 established the authority they should, will be enough 
 
 1 Subject returned to in sec. 72 ; see also sec. 112. 
 
 2 Sec. 61 in first edition.
 
 44 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 either to remove or quiet them for that time. But this 
 gamesome humour, which is wisely adapted by nature to 
 their age and temper, should rather be encouraged, to 
 keep up their spirits, and improve their strength ;m<l 
 health, than curbed or restrained : and the chief art is to 
 make all that they have to do, sport and play too. 
 
 64. Rules. And here give me leave to take notice of 
 one thing I think a fault in the ordinary method of educa- 
 tion ; and that is, the charging of children's memories, 
 upon all occasions, with rules and precepts, which 
 they often do not understand, and constantly as soon 
 forget as given. If it be some action you would have 
 done, or done otherwise ; whenever they forget, or do it 
 awkwardly, make them do it over and over again, till 
 they are perfect ; Whereby you will get these two 
 advantages : first, to see whether it be an action they 
 can do, or is fit to be expected of them ; For sometimes 
 children are bid to do things, which, upon trial, they 
 are found not able to do ; and had need be taught and 
 exercised in, before they are required to do them. But 
 it is much easier for a tutor to command than to teach. 
 Secondly, another thing got by it will be this ; that by 
 repeating the same action, till it be grown habitual in 
 them, the performance will not depend on memory, or 
 reflection, the concomitant of prudence and age, and not 
 of childhood; but will be natural in them. Thus, bowing 
 to a gentleman when he salutes him, and looking in his 
 face when he speaks to him, is by constant use as natural 
 to a well-bred man as breathing ; it requires no thought, 
 no reflection. Having this way cured in your child any 
 fault, it is cured for ever : and thus one by one, you may 
 weed them out all, and plant what habits you please. 
 
 65. I have seen parents so heap rules on their children, 
 that it was impossible for the poor little ones to remem- 
 ber a tenth part of them, much less to observe them. 
 However, they were either by words or blows corrected 
 for the breach of those multiplied and often very im- 
 pertinent 1 precepts. Whence it naturally followed, that 
 
 1 Pointless.
 
 65. RULES 66. PRACTICE 45 
 
 the children minded not what was said to them ; when it 
 was evident to them, that no attention they were capable 
 of, was sufficient to preserve them from transgression, 
 and the rebukes which followed it. 
 
 Tifj- thftr Qfr> r your rules^ to your son be as few as is 
 possibla. and rather fewer than more than seem abso- 
 Tutely^jift^s.sfl.Ty- For if you burden him with many 
 rules, one of these two things must necessarily follow ; 
 that either he must be very often punished, which will be 
 of ill consequence, by making punishment too frequent 
 and familiar ; or else you must let the transgressions of 
 some of your rules go unpunished, whereby they will of 
 course grow contemptible, and your authority become 
 cheap to him. Make but few laws, but see they be well 
 observed, when once made. Few years require but few 
 laws ; and as his age increases, when one rule is by 
 practice well established, you may add another. 
 
 66. Practice. But pray remember, children are not to 
 be taught by rules, which will be always slipping out of 
 their memories. What you think necessary for them to 
 do, settle in them by an indispensable^practice, as often 
 as the occasion returns ; and, if it be possible, make occa- 
 sions. This will beget TiQ.hif.g in f.]itn-in j iirliinli^ hm'ng rvnfg 
 
 establishe37oe r ^t of themselves ensily an^ naturally, 
 without the assistance of the memory. But here let me 
 give t\v<> c;iiit ions : 1. The one is, that you keep them to 
 the practice of what you would have grow into a habit 
 in them by kind words and gentle admonitions, rather as 
 minding them of what they forget, than by harsh rebukes 
 and chiding, as if they were wilfully guilty. 2ndly. 
 Another thing you are to take care of is, not to endeavoiir 
 to settle too many habits at once, lest by variety you con- 
 found them, and so perfect none. When constant custom 
 has made any one thing easy and natural to them, and 
 they practise it without reflection, you may then go on 
 to another. 
 
 [This'method of teaching children by a repeated practice, 
 and the same action done over and over again, under the 
 eye and direction of the tutor, till they have got the
 
 46 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 habit of doing it well, and not by relying on rules trusted 
 to their memories; has so many advantages, which way 
 soever we consider it, that I cannot but wonder (if ill 
 customs could be wondered at in any thing) how it could 
 possibly be so much neglected. I shall name one more 
 that comes now in my way. By this method we shall 
 see, whether what is required of him be adapted to his 
 capacity, and any way suited to the child's natural genius 
 and constitution : for that too must be considered in a 
 right education. We must not hope wholly to change 
 their original tempers, nor make the gay pensive and 
 grave; nor the melancholy sportive, without spoiling 
 them. God has stamped certain characters upon men's 
 minds, which, like their shapes, may perhaps be a little 
 mended; but can hardly be totally altered and trans- 
 formed into the contrary. 
 
 He, therefore, that is about children, should well study 
 their natures and aptitudes, and see, by often trials, what 
 turn they easily take, and what becomes them; observe 
 what their native stock is, how it may be improved, and 
 what it is fit for : he should consider what they want, 
 whether they be capable of having it wrought into them 
 by industry, and incorporated there by practice; and 
 whether it be worth while to endeavour it. For, in many 
 cases, all that we can do, or should aim at, is, to make 
 the best of what nature has given, to prevent the vices 
 and faults to which such a constitution is most inclined, 
 and give it all the advantages it is' capable of. Every 
 one's natural genius should be carried as far as it could; 
 but to attempt the putting another upon him, will be but 
 labour in vain ; and what is so plastered on, will at best 
 sit but untowardly, and have always hanging to it the 
 ungracefulness of constraint and affectation.] 
 ' 67. Manners. Manners, as they call it, about which 
 children are so often perplexed, and have so many goodly 
 exhortations made them, by their wise maids and govern- 
 esses, I think, are rather to be learnt by example than 
 rules ; and then children, if kept out of ill company, will 
 take a pride to behave themselves prettily, after the
 
 67. MANNERS 47 
 
 fashion of others, perceiving themselves esteemed and 
 commended for it. But if, by a little negligence in this 
 part, the boy should not put off his hat, nor make legs 
 very gracefully, a dancing-master would cure that defect, 
 and wipe off all that plainness of nature, which the a-la-^ 
 mode people call clownishness. |And since nothing ap- 
 pears to me to give children so much becoming confidence 
 and behaviour, and so to raise them to the conversation 
 of those above their age, as dancing, I. think they should 
 l>i'_j aught to dance., as soon as they are capable of learri- 
 mg it. For, though this consist only in outward grace- 
 fulness of motion, yet, I know not how, it gives children 
 manly thoughts and carriage, more than any thing. But 
 otherwise I would not have children much tormented 
 about punctilios, or niceties of breeding. Never trouble 
 yourself about those faults in them, which you know age 
 will cure. And therefore want of well-fashioned civility 
 in the carriage, whilst civility is not wanting in the mind 
 (for there you must take care to plant it early), should 
 be the patent's and tutor's least care, whilst they are 
 young, j If his tender mind be filled with a veneration 
 for his parents and tpachcvrs, whir.h consists in love and 
 esteem, and a fear to offend them; and with respect and 
 good- will to all people ; that respect will of itself teach 
 those ways of expressing it, which he observes most 
 acceptable. Be sure to keep up in him the principles of 
 good-nature and kindness; make them as habitual as you 
 can, by credit and commendation, and the good things 
 accompanying that state : and when they have taken root 
 in his mind, and are settled there by a continued practice, 
 fear not; the ornaments of conversation, and the outside 
 of fashionable manners, will come in their due time. 
 
 Whilst they are young, any carelessness is to be borne 
 with in children, that carries not with it the marks of 
 pride or ill naturej but those, when they appear in any 
 action, are to be corrected immediately T by the ways 
 above mentioned ; and what else remains like clownish- 
 ness, or want of good breeding, time and observation 
 will of itself reform in them, as they ripen in years, if
 
 48 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 they are bred in good company; but if in ill, all the 
 rules in the world, all the correction imaginable, will not 
 be able to polish them. For you must take this for a 
 certain truth, that let them have what instructions you 
 will, what teachers soever you please, that which will 
 most influence their carriage, will be the company they 
 converse with. Children (nay, and men too) do most by 
 example. We are all a sort of chameleons, that still take 
 a tincture from things near us : nor is it to be wondered 
 at in children, who better understand what they see, than 
 what they hear. 1 
 
 68. Company. I mentioned above, one great mischief 
 that came by servants to children, when by their flatteries 
 they take off the edge and force of the parents' rebukes, 
 and so lessen their authority. And here is another 
 great inconvenience, which children receive from the ill 
 examples which they meet with, amongst the meaner 
 servants. They are wholly, if possible, to be kept from 
 such conversation : for the contagion of these ill prece- 
 dents, both in civility and virtue, horribly infects children, 
 as often as they come within reach of it. They frequently 
 learn from unbred or debauched servants such language, 
 imtowardly tricks and vices, as otherwise they possibly 
 would be ignorant of, all their lives. 
 
 69. 'Tis a hard matter wholly to prevent this mischief. 
 You will have very good luck, if you never have a clownish 
 or vicious servant, and if from them your children never 
 get any infection. But yet, as much must be done towards 
 it, as can be; and the children kept as much as may be 
 in the company of their parents, and those to whose care 
 they are committed. To this purpose, their being in their 
 presence should be made easy to them : they should be 
 allowed the liberties and freedom suitable to their ages, 
 and not be held under unnecessary restraints, when in 
 their parents' or governor's sight. If it be a prison to 
 them, 'tis no wonder they should not like it. They must 
 not be hindered from being children, or from playing, or 
 doing as children, but from doing ill ; all other liberty 
 
 1 See sec. 146.
 
 69, 70. COMPANY 49 
 
 is to be allowed them. Next, to make them in love with 
 the company of their parents, they should receive all their 
 good things there, and from their hands. The servants 
 should be hindered from making court to them, by giving 
 them strong drink, wine, fruit, play-things, and other such 
 matters, which may make them in love with their conver- 
 sation. 
 
 70. Having named company, I am almost ready to 
 throw away my pen, and trouble you no farther on this 
 subject. For since that does more than all precepts, 
 rules, and instructions, methinks 'tis almost wholly in 
 vain to make a long discourse of other things, and to 
 talk of that almost to no purpose. For you will be ready 
 to say, What shall I do with my son ? If I keep him 
 always at home, he will be in danger to be my young 
 master; and if I send him abroad, how is it possible to 
 keep him from the contagion of rudeness and vice, which 
 is so every where in fashion ? In my house, he will 
 perhaps be more innocent, but more ignorant, too, of 
 the world, and being used constantly to the same faces, 
 and little company will, when he comes abroad, be a 
 sheepish or conceited creature. 1 
 
 [I confess, both sides have their inconveniences. Being 
 abroad, it is true, will make him bolder, and better able 
 to bustle and shift amongst boys of his own age ; and the 
 emulation of school-fellows often puts life and industry 
 into young lads. But till you can find a school, wherein 
 it is possible for the master to look after the manners of 
 his scholars, and can show as great effects of his care of 
 forming their minds to virtue, and their carriage to good 
 breeding, as of forming their tongues to the learned 
 languages; you must confess, that you have a strange 
 value for words, when preferring the languages of the 
 ancient Greeks and Romans, to that which made them 
 such brave men, you think it worth while to hazard your 
 
 1 Fifteen lines follow, in which private is preferred to public 
 education. The passage is replaced here by the much lengthier 
 statement from a later edition, which elaborates the point (see 
 Introduction). 
 
 4
 
 60 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 son's innocence and virtue for a little Greek and Latin. 
 For, as" i'or-that boldness and spirit, which lads get 
 amongst their play-fellows at school, it has ordinarily 
 such a mixture of rudeness, and an ill-turned confidence, 
 that those misbecoming and disingenuous ways of shift- 
 ing in the world must be unlearned, and all the tincture 
 washed out again, to make way for better principles, 
 and such manners as make a truly worthy man. He 
 that considers how diametrically opposite the skill of 
 living well, and managing, as a man should do, his affairs 
 in the world, is to that malapertness, tricking, or violence, 
 learnt among school-boys, will think the faults of a privater 
 education infinitely to be preferred to such improvements; 
 and will take care to preserve his child's innocence and 
 modesty at home, as being nearer of kin, and more in the 
 way of those qualities, which make an useful and able 
 man. Nor does any one find, or so much as suspect, that 
 that retirement and bashfulness, which their daughters 
 are brought up in, makes them less knowing or less able 
 women. Conversation, when they come into the world, 
 soon gives them a becoming assurance ; and whatsoever, 
 beyond that, there is of rough and boisterous, may in 
 men be very well spared too : for courage and steadiness, 
 as I take it, lie not in roughness and ill breeding. 
 
 Virtue is harder to be got than a knowledge of the 
 world ; and if lost in a young man, is seldom recovered. 
 Sheepishness and ignorance of the world, the faults im- 
 puted to a private education, are neither the necessary 
 consequences of being bred at home ; nor, if they were, 
 are they incurable evils. Vice is the more stubborn, as 
 well as the more dangerous evil of the two ; and there- 
 fore, in the first place, to be fenced against. If that 
 sheepish softness, which often enervates those, who are 
 bred like fondlings at home, be carefully to be avoided, 
 it is principally so for virtue's sake ; for fear lest such 
 a yielding temper should be too susceptible of vicious 
 impressions, and expose the novice too easily to be cor- 
 rupted. A young man, before he leaves the shelter of 
 his father's house, and the guard of a tutor, should be
 
 - 
 
 70. COMPANY SANTA BARBARA 
 
 fortified with resolution, and mane acquainted with 
 to secure his virtue ; lest he smoi 
 ruinous course, or fatal precipice, before he is sufficiently 
 acquainted with the dangers of conversation, and has 
 steadiness enough not to yield to every temptation. Were 
 it not for this, a young man's bashfulness and ignorance 
 in the world would not so much need an early care. Con- 
 versation would cure it in a great measure ; or if that will 
 not do it early enough, it is only a stronger reason for 
 a good tutor at home. For, if pains be to be taken to 
 give him a manly air and assurance betimes, it is chiefly 
 as a fence to his virtue, when he goes into the world, 
 under his own conduct. 
 
 It is preposterous, therefore, to sacrifice his innocency 
 to the attaining of confidence, and some little skill of 
 bustling for himself among others, by his conversation 
 with ill-bred and vicious boys ; when the chief use of 
 that sturdiness and standing upon his own legs, is only 
 for the preservation of his virtue. For if confidence or 
 cunning come once to mix with vice, and support his 
 miscarriages he is only the surer lost; and you must 
 undo again, and strip him of that he has got from his 
 companions, or give him up to ruin. Boys will unavoid- 
 ably be taught assurance by conversation with men, 
 when they are brought into it; and that is time enough. 
 Modesty and submission, till then, better fits them for 
 instruction; and therefore there needs not any great 
 care to stock them with confidence beforehand. That 
 which requires most time, pains, and assiduity, is to work 
 into them the principles and practice of virtue and good 
 breeding. This is the seasoning they should be prepared 
 with, so as not easily to be got out again : this they had 
 33 need to be well provided with. For conversation, when 
 ^ they come into the world, will add to their knowledge 
 ~ and assurance, but be too apt to take from their virtue ; 
 1-1 which therefore they ought to be plentifully stored with, 
 < and have that tincture sunk deep into them. 
 *"" How they should be fitted for conversation, and entered 
 into the world, when they are ripe for it, we shall con-
 
 52 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 sider in another place. But how any one's being put 
 into a mixed herd of unruly boys, and then learning to 
 wrangle at trap, or rook 1 at span farthing, fits him for 
 civil conversation or business I do not see. And what 
 qualities are ordinarily to be got from such a troop of 
 
 |>];i\-t'el|o\VS ;|^ schools 1 1 si la ] I V II SS( 1 1 ] 1 ,1 ( t O^'t't 1 1 ( '!', f I'O] 1 1 
 
 parents of all kinds, that a father should so much covet 
 I it, is hard to divine. I am sure, he who is able to be at 
 the charge of a tutor at home, may there give his son a 
 more genteel carriage, more manly thoughts, and a sense 
 of what is worthy and becoming, with a greater pro- 
 nciency in learning into the bargain, and ripen him up 
 sooner into a man, than any at school can do. Not that 
 1 blame the school-master in this, or think it to be laid to 
 his charge. The difference is great between two or three 
 I pupils in the same house, and three or fourscore boys 
 lodged up and down. For, let the master's industry and 
 ; skill be ever so great, it is impossible he should have 
 j 50 or 100 scholars under his eye any longer than they 
 are in the school together : nor can it be expected, that 
 he should instruct them successfully in any thing but 
 their books ; the forming of their minds and manners 
 requiring a constant attention, and particular application 
 to every single boy ; which is impossible in a numerous 
 Hock, and would be wholly in vain (could he have time 
 to study and correct every one's particular defects and 
 wrong inclinations) when the lad was to be left to him- 
 self, or the prevailing infection of his fellows, the greatest 
 part of the four and twenty hours. 
 
 But fathers, observing that fortune is often most 
 successfully courted by bold and bustling men, are glad 
 to see their sons pert and forward betimes ; take it for a 
 happy omen, that they will be thriving men, and look on 
 the tricks they play their school-fellows, or learn from 
 them, as a proficiency in the art of living, and making 
 their way through the world. But I must take the liberty 
 | to say, that he that lays the foundation of his son's 
 fortune in virtue and good breeding takes the only sure 
 
 1 Cheat.
 
 70. COMPANY 53 
 
 and warrantable way. And it is not the waggeries or 
 cheats practised among school-boys, it is not their rough- 
 ness one to another, nor the well-laid plots of robbing an 
 orchard together, that make an able man; but the 
 principles of justice, generosity and sobriety, joined with 
 observation and industry, qualities which I judge school- 
 boys do not learn much of jme another. And if a young 
 gentleman, bred at home, be not taught more of them 
 than he could learn at school, his father has made a very 
 ill choice of a tutor. Take a boy from the top of a 
 grammar-school, and one of the same age, bred as he 
 should be in his father's family, and bring them into 
 good company together ; and then see which of the two 
 will have the more manly carriage, and address himself 
 with the more becoming assurance to strangers. Here I 
 imagine the school-boy's confidence will either fail or 
 discredit him; and if it be such as fits him only for the 
 conversation of boys, he had better be without it. 
 
 Vice, if we may believe the general complaint, ripens 
 so fast now-a-days, and runs up to seed, so early in young- 
 people, that it is impossible to keep a lad from the 
 spreading contagion, if you will venture him abroad in 
 the herd, and trust to chance, or his oyn inclination, for 
 the choice of his company at school. J By what fate vice 
 has so thriven amongst us these few years past, and by 
 what hands it has been nursed ujp_mt<vso uncontrolled a 
 dominion, I shall leave to others to enquire^J I wish that 
 those who complain of the great decay of Christian piety 
 and virtue everywhere, and of learning and acquired 
 improvements in the gentry of this generation, would 
 consider how to retrieve them in the next. [This I am ( 
 sure, that, if the foundation of it be not laid in the educa- I V 
 tion and principling of the youth, all other endeavours \ 
 will be in vain. And if the innocence, sobriety, and 
 industry of those who are coming up, be not taken care 
 of and preserved, it will be ridiculous to expect, that 
 those who are to succeed next on the stage, should abound 
 in that virtue, ability, and learning^ >Y.Eich_has hitherto 
 made England considerable in the world. I Avas going
 
 54 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 to add courage, too, though it has been looked on as the 
 natural inheritance of Englishmen. What has been talked 
 of some late actions at sea, 1 of a kind unknown to our 
 ancestors, gives me occasion to say, that debauchery 
 sinks the courage of men ; and when dissoluteness 1ms 
 eaten out the sense of true honour, .bra very seldom stays 
 long after it. And I think it impossible to find an 
 instance of any nation, however renowned for their valour, 
 who ever kept their credit in arms, or made themselves 
 redoubtable amongst their neighbours, after corruption 
 had once broken through, and dissolved the restraint of 
 discipline; and vice was grown to such a head, that it durst 
 show itself barefaced, without being out of countenance. 
 
 It is virtue then, direct virtue, which is the hard and 
 valuable part to be aimed at in education ; and not a 
 forward pertness, or any little arts of shifting. All other 
 considerations and accomplishments should give way and 
 be postponed to this. This is the solid and substantial 
 good, which tutors should not only read lectures, and talk 
 of; but the labour and art of education should furnish 
 the mind with, and fasten there, and never cease till the 
 young man had a true relish of it, and placed his strength, 
 his glory, and his pleasure in it. 
 
 The more this advances, the easier way will be made 
 for other accomplishments in their turns. For he that is 
 brought to submit to virtue, will not be refractory, or 
 resty, in any thing that becomes him. And therefore I 
 cannot but prefer breeding of a young gentleman at 
 home in his father's sight, under a good governor, as 
 much the best and safest Avay to this great and main end 
 of education, when it can be had, and is ordered as it 
 should be. Gentlemen's houses are seldom without 
 variety of company : they should use their sons to all the 
 
 1 This passage appeared in the third edition of 1695, but not in 
 the first edition. Possibly the reference is to the events of the 
 year 1695, and more especially to the conduct of the Marquis of 
 Carmarthen, who withdrew his fleet into Milford Haven, and left 
 our trade a prey to French cruisers and privateers (Burnet's History 
 of his Oivn Times, vi.).
 
 70. COMPANY 71. EXAMPLE 55 
 
 strange faces that come there, and engage them in con- 
 versation, with men of parts and breeding, as soon as 
 they are capable of it. And why those, who live in the 
 country, should not take them with them, when they make 
 visits of civility to their neighbours, I know not : this I 
 am sure, a father that breeds his son at home, has the 
 opportunity to have him more in his own company, and 
 there give him what encouragement he thinks fit ; and can 
 keep him better from the taint of servants, and the 
 meaner sort of people, than is possible to be done abroad. 
 But what shall be resolved in the case, must in great 
 measure be left to the parents, to be determined by their 
 circumstances and conveniences. Only I think it the 
 worst sort of good husbandry, for a father not to strain 
 himself a little for his son's breeding ; which, let his con- 
 dition be what it will, is the best portion he can leave 
 him. But if, after all, it shall be thought by some, that 
 the breeding at home has too little company, and that at 
 ordinary schools, not such as it should be for a young 
 gentleman ; I think there might be ways found out to 
 avoid the inconveniences on the one side and the other.] 
 71. Example. -Having under consideration how great 
 the influence of company is, and how prone we are all, 
 especially children, to imitation, I must here take the 
 liberty to mind parents of this one thing, viz. That he 
 that will have his son have a respect for him and his 
 orders, must himself have a great reverence for his son. 
 Maxima debetur pueris reverential You must do nothing 
 before him, which you would not have him imitate. If 
 anything 'scape you, 2 which you would have pass for a 
 fault in him, he will be sure to shelter himself under your 
 example, and how then you will be able to come at him, 
 to correct it in the right way, I do not easily see. And 
 if you will punish him for it, he cannot look on it as a 
 thing which reason condemns, since you practise it ; but 
 he will be apt to interpret it the peevishness and arbi- 
 
 1 " The most scrupulous respect is due to boyhood " (Juvenal, 
 Satires XIV , 47). 
 
 2 /.e., if you allow yourself to do anything.
 
 66 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 trary imperiousness of a father, which, without any ground 
 for it, would deny his son the liberty and pleasures he 
 takes himself. Or if you would have it thought it is 
 a liberty belonging to riper years, and not to a child, you 
 add but a new temptation, since, you must always remem- 
 ber, that children affect to be men earlier than is thought : 
 and they love breeches, not for their cut or ease, but 
 because the having them is a mark or a step towards 
 manhood. What I say of the father's carriage before 
 his children, must extend itself to all those who have any 
 authority over them, or for whom he would have them 
 have any respect. 
 
 72. Thus all the actions of childishness, and un- 
 fashionable carriage, and whatever time and age will of 
 itself be sure to reform, being exempt from the discipline 
 of the rod, there will not be so much need of beating 
 children, as is generally made use of. To which, if we 
 add learning to rea'd, write, dance, foreign language, 
 etc., as under the same privilege, there will be but very 
 rarely any occasion for blows or force in an ingenuous 
 education. The right way to teach them those things, 
 is, to give them a liking and inclination to what you 
 propose to them to be learned, and that will engage their 
 industry and application. This I think no hard matter 
 to do, if children be handled as they should be, and the 
 rewards and punishments above-mentioned be carefully 
 applied, and with them these few rules observed in the 
 method of instructing them. 1 
 
 73. 1. Task. None of the things they are to learn 
 should ever be made a burden to them, or imposed on 
 them as a task. Whatever is so proposed, presently 
 becomes irksome : the mind takes an aversion to it, 
 though before it were a thing of delight or indifferency. 
 Let a child be but ordered to whip his top at a certain 
 time every day, whether he has, or has not a mind to it ; 
 let this be but required of him as a duty, wherein he 
 must spend so many hours morning and afternoon, and 
 see whether he will not soon be weary of any play at 
 
 1 See sees. 43-61, 84, 107 (at end), 124.
 
 73. TASK 74. DISPOSITION 57 
 
 this rate. Is it not so with grown men ? What they do 
 cheerfully of themselves, do they not presently grow 
 sick of, and can no more endure, as soon as they find it 
 is expected of them as a duty ? Children have as much 
 a mind to show that they are free, that their own good 
 actions come from themselves, that they are absolute and 
 independent, as any of the proudest of you grown men, 
 think of them as you please. 
 
 74. 2. Disposition. As a consequence of this, they 
 should seldom be put upon doing even those things you 
 have got an inclination in them to, but when they have 
 a mind and disposition to it. He that loves reading, 
 writing, music, etc., finds yet in himself certain seasons 
 wherein those things have no relish to him ; and, if at 
 that time he forces himself to it, he only pothers and 
 wearies himself to no purpose. So it is with children. 
 This change of temper should be carefully observed in 
 them, and the favourable seasons of aptitude and in- 
 clination be needfully laid hold of, to set them upon 
 anything. 1 By this means a great deal of time and 
 tiring would be saved : for a child will learn three times 
 as much when he is in tune-ji^ hp will with double the 
 time and pains, when he goes awkwardly. "* 
 
 ~ 
 
 miwillingly to^qfc If this were~mmded as it should, 
 Children might be permitted to weary themselves with 
 play, and yet have time enough to learn what is suited 
 to 'the capacity of each age. And if things were 
 ordered" right, learning anything they should be taught, 
 might be made as much a recreation to their play, as 
 their play is to their learning. The pains are equal on 
 both sides : nor is it that which troubles them, for they 
 love to be busy, and the change and variety is that 
 which naturally delights them. The only odds is, in 
 that which we call play they act at liberty, and employ 
 
 1 "In all pedagogy the great thing is to strike the iron while hot, 
 and to seize the wave of the pupil's interest in each successive 
 subject before its ebb has come" (William James, Psychology, 
 "Briefer Course," chap. xxv. ; on the doctrine of "Learning without 
 Compulsion," see Introduction, p. 15).
 
 68 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 their pains (whereof you may observe them never 
 sparing) freely ; but what they are to learn, they are 
 driven to it, called on or compelled. This is that, that 
 at first entrance balks and cools them ; they want their 
 liberty : get them but to ask their tutor to teach them, 
 as they do often their play-fellows, instead of this call- 
 ing upon them to learn, and they being satisfied that 
 they act as freely in this, as they do in other things, 
 they will go on with as much pleasure in it, and it will 
 not differ from their other sports and play. By these 
 ways, carefully pursued, I guess a child may be brought 
 to desire to be taught any thing you have a mind he 
 should learn. The hardest part, I confess, is with the 
 first or eldest ; but when once he is set right, it is easy 
 by him to lead the rest whither one will. 
 
 75. Task. Though it be past doubt, that the fittest 
 time for children to learn anything is when their minds 
 are in tune, and well disposed to it ; when neither 
 flagging of spirit, nor intentness of thought upon some- 
 thing else, makes them awkward and averse ; yet two 
 things are to be taken care of : 1. That these seasons 
 either not being warily observed and laid hold on as 
 often as they return ; or else not returning as often as 
 they should (as always happens in the ordinary method 
 and discipline of education, when blows and compulsion 
 have raised an aversion in the child to the thing he is to 
 learn), the improvement of the child be not thereby 
 neglected, and so he be let grow into a habitual idle- 
 ness, and confirmed in this indisposition. 2. That 
 though other things are ill learned when the mind is 
 either indisposed, or otherwise taken up; yet it is a 
 great matter, and worth our endeavours, to teach the 
 mind to get the mastery over itself; and to be able, 
 upon choice, to take itself off from the hot pursuit of 
 one thing, and set itself upon another with facility and 
 delight ; or at any time to shake off its sluggishness, and 
 vigorously employ itself about what reason, or the 
 advice of another, shall direct. This is to be done in 
 children, by trying them sometimes, when they are by
 
 75. TASK 76. COMPULSION 59 
 
 laziness unbent, or by avocation bent another way, and 
 endeavouring to make them buckle to the thing pro- 
 posed. If by this means the mind can get a habitual 
 dominion over it self, lay by ideas or business, as 
 occasion requires, and betake itself to new and less 
 acceptable employments, without reluctancy or dis- 
 composure, it will be an advantage of more consequence 
 than Latin, or logic, or most of those things children are 
 usually required to learn. 
 
 76. Compulsion. Children being more active and 
 busy in that age, than [in] any other part of their life, 
 and being indifferent to anything they can do, so they 
 may be but doing, dancing and Scotch-hoppers 1 would 
 be the same thing to them, were the encouragements 
 and discouragements equal. But to things we would 
 have them learn, the great and only discouragement I 
 can observe, is, that they are called to it, 'tis made their 
 business ; they are teased and chid about it, and do it 
 with trembling and apprehension ; or, when the} T come 
 willingly to it, are kept too long at it, till they are quite 
 tired ; all which intrenches too much on that natural 
 freedom they extremely affect, and 'tis that liberty 
 alone, which gives the true relish and delight to their 
 ordinary play-games. Turn the tables, and you will 
 find they will soon change their application; especially I 
 if they see the examples of others, whom they esteem \ 
 and think above themselves. And if the things they 
 see others do, be ordered so that they are persuaded, it 
 is the privilege of an age or condition above theirs, then 
 ambition, and the desire still to get forward, and higher, ' 
 and to be like those above them, will give them an 
 inclination which will set them on work in a way where- 
 in they will go on with vigour and pleasure, enjoying in 
 it their dearly beloved freedom ; which if it brings with 
 it also the satisfaction of credit and reputation, I am apt 
 to think there will need no other spur to excite their 
 application and assiduity, as much as is necessary.' 2 1 
 
 1 Now known as "hop-sco'ch " 
 
 2 Cf. sees. 103, 128, 129, 148, 149, 167, 202.
 
 60 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 confess, there needs patience and skill, gentleness ;uid 
 attention, and a prudent conduct to attain this at first. 
 But why have you a tutor if there needed no pains ? 
 But when this is once established, all the rest will 
 follow more easily, than in any more severe and im- 
 perious discipline. And I think it no hard matter, 
 to gain this point; I am sure it will not be, where 
 children have no ill examples set before them. The 
 great danger therefore I apprehend, is only from 
 servants and other ill-ordered children, or such other 
 vicious or foolish people, who spoil children, both by the 
 ill pattern they set before them in their own ill manners, 
 and by giving them together, the two things they 
 should never have at once ; I mean vicious pleasures, and 
 commendation. 
 
 77. Chiding. As children should very seldom be cor- 
 rected by blows ; so, I think, frequent, and especially, 
 passionate chiding, of almost as ill consequence. It 
 lessens the authority of the parents and the respect of 
 the child; for I bid you still remember, they distinguish 
 early between passion and reason : and as they cannot 
 but have a reverence for what comes from the latter, so 
 they quickly grow into a contempt of the former: or if it 
 causes a present terror, yet it soon wears off ; and natural 
 inclination will easily learn to slight such scare-crows, 
 which make a noise, but are not animated by reason. 
 Children being to be restrained by the parents only in 
 vicious (which, in their tender years, are only a few) 
 things, a look or nod only ought to correct them, when 
 they do amiss : or, if words are sometimes to be used, 
 
 Sthey ought to be grave, kind, and sober, representing 
 (the ill or unbecomingness of the fault, rather than a 
 ihasty rating of the child for it, which makes him not 
 
 sufficiently distinguish whether your dislike be not more 
 
 directed to him than his fault. 
 
 78. Obstinacy. I foresee here it will be objected to 
 me : What then, will you have children never beaten nor 
 chid for any fault ? This will be to let loose the reins to 
 all kind of disorder. Not so much as is imagined, if a
 
 78. OBSTINACY 61 
 
 right course has been taken in the first seasoning of their 
 rninds, and implanting that awe of their parents above- 
 mentioned. For beating, by constant observation, is 
 found to do little good, where the smart of it is all the 
 punishment that is feared or felt in it ; for the influence 
 of that quickly wears out, with the memory of it. But 
 yet there is one, and but one fault, for which, I think, 
 children should be beaten ; and that is obstinacy or re- 
 bellion. And in this, too, I would have it ordered so, if 
 it can be, that the shame of the whipping, and not the 
 pain, should be the greatest part of the punishment. 
 Shame of doing amiss, and deserving chastisement, is the 
 only true restraint belonging to virtue. The smart of the 
 rod, if shame accompanies it not, soon ceases, and is for- 
 gotten, and will quickly, by use, lose its terror. I have 
 known the children of a person of quality kept in awe, 
 by the fear of having their shoes pulled off, as much as 
 others by apprehension of a rod hanging over them. 
 Some such punishment I think better than beating ; for 
 'tis shame of the fault, and the disgrace that attends it, 
 that they should stand in fear of, rather than pain, if you 
 would have them have a temper truly ingenuous. Bat 
 stubbornness and an obstinate disobedience must be 
 mastered with force and blows : x for this there is no 
 other remedy. Whatever particular action you bid him 
 do, or forbear, you must be sure to see yourself obeyed ; 
 no quarter in this case, no resistance. For when once it 
 comes to be a trial of skill, a contest for mastery betwixt 
 you, as it is, if you command, and he refuses, you must 
 be sure to carry it, whatever blows it costs, if a nod or 
 words will not prevail ; unless, for ever after, you intend 
 to live in obedience to your son. A prudent and kind 
 mother, of my acquaintance, was on such an occasion, 
 forced to whip her little daughter, at her first coming 
 home from nurse, eight times successively, the same 
 morning, before she could master her stubbornness, and 
 
 1 " Lying, and, in a less degree, obstinacy, seem to me to be those 
 [childish actions] whose birth and progress should in every case 
 alone be combated" (Montaigne, i., chap, ix., "On Liars").
 
 62 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 obtain a compliance in a very easy and indifferent matter. 
 If .she had left off sooner, and stopped at the seventh 
 whipping, she had spoiled the child for ever; and, by 
 her unprevailing blows, only confirmed her refractoriness, 
 very hardly afterwards to be cured: but wisely persisting^ 
 till she had bent her mind and suppled her will, the only 
 end of correction and chastisement, she established her 
 authority throughly in the very first occasions, and had 
 ever after a very ready compliance and obedience in all 
 things from her daughter. For, as this was the first time, 
 so, I think, it was the last too she ever struck her. 1 
 
 2 This, if well reflected on, would make people more 
 wary in the use of the rod and the cudgel; and keep 
 them from being so apt to think beating the safe and 
 universal remedy, to be applied at random, on all occa- 
 sions. This is certain, however, if it does no good, it 
 does great harm ; if it reaches not the mind, and makes 
 not the will supple, it hardens the offender; and what- 
 ever pain he has suffered for it, it does but endear to him 
 his beloved stubbornness, which has got him this time the 
 victory, and prepares him to contest and hope for it for 
 the future. Thus, I doubt not but by ill-ordered correc- 
 tion, many have been taught to be obstinate and refrac- 
 tory, who otherwise would have been very pliant and 
 tractable. For, if you punish a child, so as if it were 
 only to revenge the past fault, which has raised your 
 choler, what operation can this have upon his mind, 
 which is the part to be amended ? If there were 110 
 sturdy wilfulness of mind mixed with his fault, there 
 was nothing in it that needed the severity of blows. A 
 kind, or grave admonition would have been enough to 
 remedy the faults of frailty, forgetfulness, or inadver- 
 tency, as much as they needed. But, if there were a 
 perverseness in the will, if it were a designed, resolved 
 disobedience, the punishment is not to be measnred by the 
 greatness or smallness of the matter wherein it appeared, 
 
 1 The mother does not seem to have applied Locke's own caution : 
 ' Be sure that it is obstinacy, and nothing else." 
 
 2 Sec. 77 in first edition.
 
 78-80. OBSTINACY 63 
 
 but by the opposition it carries, and stands in, to that 
 respect and submission [that] is due to the father's orders, 
 and must always be rigorously exacted, and the blows by 
 pauses laid on, till they reach the mind, arid you per- 
 ceive the signs of a true sorrow, shame, and resolution of 
 obedience. This, 1 confess, requires something more than 
 setting children a task, and whipping them without any 
 more ado, if it be not done, and done to our fancy. This 
 requires care, attention, observation, and a nice study of 
 children's tempers, and weighing their faults well, before 
 we come to this sort of punishment. But is not that 
 better, than always to have the rod in hand, as the only 
 instrument of government; and, by frequent use of it, on 
 all occasions, misapply and render inefficacious this last 
 and useful remedy where there is need of it ? For, what 
 else can be expected, when it is promiscuously used upon 
 every little slip, when a mistake in concordance, or a 
 wrong position in verse, shall have the severity of the 
 lash, in a well-tempered and industrious lad, as surely as 
 a wilful crime in an obstinate and perverse offender ''. How 
 can such a way of correction be expected to do good on 
 the mind, and set that right, which is the only thing to 
 be looked after; and, when set right, brings all the rest 
 that you can desire along with it ? 
 
 79. Where a wrong bent of the will wants not amend- 
 ment, there can be no need of blows. All other faults, 
 where the mind is rightly disposed, and refuses not the 
 government and authority of the father or tutor, are but 
 mistakes, and may often be overlooked ; or, when they 
 are taken notice of, need no other but the gentle remedies 
 of advice, direction, and reproof; till the repeated and 
 wilful neglect of those, shows the fault to be in the mind, 
 and that a manifest perverseness of the will lies at the 
 root of their disobedience. But when ever obstinacy, 
 which is an open defiance, appears, that cannot be winked 
 at or neglected, but must, in the first instant e, be subdued 
 and mastered ; only care must be had, that we mistake not; 
 and we must be sure it is obstinacy, and nothing else. 
 
 80. But since the occasions of punishment, especially
 
 64 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 beating, are as mucli to be avoided as may be, I think it 
 should not be often brought to this point. If the awe 
 I spoke of be once got, a look will be sufficient in most- 
 cases. Nor indeed should the same carriage, seriousness 
 or application be expected from young children as from 
 those of riper growth. They must be permitted, as I 
 said, the foolish and childish actions, suitable to their 
 years/ without taking notice of them ; inadvertency, 
 carelessness, and gaiety, is the character of that age. I 
 think the severity I spoke of, is not to extend it self to 
 such unseasonable restraints. Keep them from vice and 
 vicious dispositions, and such a kind of behaviour in 
 general will come, with every degree of their age, as is 
 suitable to that age, and the company they ordinarily 
 converse with; and as they grow in years, they will grow 
 in attention and application. But that your words may 
 always carry weight and authority with them, if it shall 
 happen, upon any occasion, that you bid him leave off 
 the doing of any even childish things, you must be sure 
 to carry the point, and not let him have the mastery. 
 But yet, I say, I would have the father seldom interpose 
 his authority and command in these cases, or in any other, 
 but such as have a tendency to vicious habits. I think 
 there are better ways of prevailing with them; and a 
 gentle persuasion in reasoning (when the first point of 
 submission to your will is got) will most times do much 
 better. 
 
 81. Reasoning. It will perhaps be wondered, that I 
 mention reasoning with children : and yet I cannot but 
 think that the true way of dealing with them. They 
 understand it as early as they do language; and, if I 
 misobserve not, they love to be treated as rational 
 creatures, sooner than is imagined. 3 Tis a pride should 
 be cherished in them, and, as much as can be, made the 
 greatest instrument to turn them by. 
 
 But when I talk of reasoning, I do not intend any 
 other, but such as is suited to the child's capacity and 
 apprehension. Nobody can think a boy of three or 
 seven years old, should be argued with, as a grown man.
 
 81. REASONING 82. EXAMPLES 65 
 
 Long discourses, and philosophical reasonings, at best, 
 amaze and confound, but do not instruct, children. When 
 I say therefore, that they must be treated as rational 
 creatures, I mean, that you should make them sensible, 
 by the mildness of your carriage, and the composure, 
 even in your correction of them, that what you do is 
 reasonable in you, and useful and necessary for them ; 
 and that it is not out of caprice, passion, or fancy, that 
 you command or forbid them any thing. This they are 
 capable of understanding; and there is no virtue they 
 should be excited to, nor fault they should be kept from, 
 which I do not think they may be convinced of : but it 
 must be by such reasons as their age and understanding 
 are capable of, and those proposed always in very few 
 and plain words. The foundations on which several 
 duties are built, and the fountains of right and wrong, 
 from which they spring, are not, perhaps, easily to be 
 let into the minds of grown men, not used to abstract 
 their thoughts from common received opinions. Much' 
 less are children capable of reasonings from remote 
 principles. They cannot conceive the force of long- 
 deductions : the reasons that move them must be obvious, 
 and level to their thoughts, and such as may (if I may 
 so say) be felt and touched. But yet, if their age,y> 
 temper, and inclinations, be considered, they will never)! 
 want such motives, as may be sufficient to convince them// 
 If there be no other more particular, yet these will always I 
 be intelligible, and of force, to deter them from any fault, ) 
 fit to be taken notice of in them, (viz.) that it will be a \ 
 discredit and disgrace to them, and displease you. 
 
 82. Examples. But, of all the ways whereby children 
 are to be instructed, and their 
 
 and moat ftffifftifi^^riifl tf? Flfit 
 
 theifeyes the examples of those things you would have 
 them do or avoid. Which, when they are pointed out to 
 tfrem, in the practice of persons within their knowledge, 
 with some reflections on their beauty or unbecomingness, 
 are of more force to draw or deter their imitation, than 
 any discourses which can be made to them. Virtues and 
 
 '
 
 66 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 vices can by no words be so plainly set before their 
 understandings, as the actions of other men will show 
 them, when you direct their observation, and bid them 
 view this or that good or bad quality in their practice. 
 And the beauty or uncomeliness of many things, in good 
 and ill breeding, will be better learnt, and make deeper 
 impressions on them, in the examples of others, than from 
 any rules or instructions that can be given about them. 
 
 This is a method to be used, not only whilst they are 
 young, but to be continued, even as long as they shall 
 be under another's tuition or conduct. Nay, I know not 
 whether it be not the best way to be used by a father, 
 as long as he shall think fit, on any occasion, to reform 
 any thing he wishes mended in his son ; nothing sinking 
 so gently and so deep, into men's minds, as example. 
 And what ill they either overlook, or indulge in them 
 themselves, they cannot but dislike, and be ashamed of, 
 when it is set before them in another. 
 
 83. Whipping. It may be doubted concerning whip- 
 ping, when, as the last remedy, it comes to be necessary, 
 at what times, and by whom it should be done : whether 
 presently upon the committing the fault, whilst it is yet 
 fresh and hot; and whether parents themselves should 
 beat their children. As to the first, I think it should 
 not be^done presently, lest passion mingle with it and 
 so, though it exceed the just proportion, yet it lose the 
 authority ; for even children discern when we do things 
 in passion. But, as I said before, that has most weight 
 with them, that appears sedately to come from their 
 parents' reason ; and they are not without this distinc- 
 tion. 1 Next, if you have any discreet servant capable 
 of it, and has the place of governing your child (for if 
 you have a tutor, there is no doubt) I think it is best 
 
 iTrnnftd lately from another's 
 
 hand, though_j)y jLb parp.ntAs ordei^ who should see it 
 clone ; ^whereby the parent's authority will be preserved, 2 
 and the child's aversion for the pain it suffers rather be 
 
 1 I.e., this power of distinguishing. 
 
 2 " Preferred " in text.
 
 83, 84. WHIPPING 67 
 
 turned on the person that immediately inflicts it. For 
 I would have a father seldom strike his child, but upon 
 very urgent necessity, and as the last remedy : and then 
 perhaps it will be fit to do it so that the child should 
 not quickly forget it. 
 
 84. But, as I said before, beating is the worst, and 
 therefore the last, means to be used in the correction of 
 children ; and that only in cases of extremity, after all 
 gentler ways have been tried, and proved unsuccessful : 
 which, if well observed, there will be very seldom any 
 need of blows. For, it not being to be imagined that a 
 child will often, if ever, dispute his father's present com- 
 mand in any particular instance ; and the father not 
 rigorously interposing his absolute authority in positive 
 rules, concerning childish or indifferent actions, wherein 
 his son is to have his liberty : nor concerning his learning 
 or improvement Avherein there is no compulsion to be 
 used, 1 there remains only the prohibition of some vicious 
 actions, wherein a child is capable of obstinacy, and 
 consequently can deserve beating : and so there will be 
 but very few occasions of that discipline to be used by 
 any one, who considers well, and orders his child's educa- 
 tion as it should be. For the first seven years, what 
 vices can a child be guilty of, but lying, or some ill- 
 natured tricks ; the repeated commission whereof, after 
 his father's direct command against it, shall bring him 
 into -the condemnation of obstinacy, and the chastise- 
 ment of the rod ? If any vicious inclination in him be, 
 in the first appearance and instances of it, treated as it 
 should be, first with your wonder, and then, if returning 
 again a second time, discountenanced with the severe 
 brow of the father, tutor, and all about him, and a treat- 
 ment suitable to the state of discredit before-mentioned, 2 
 and this continued till he be made sensible and ashamed 
 of his fault, I imagine there will be no need of any other 
 correction, nor ever any occasion to come to blows. The 
 necessity of such chastisement is usually the consequence 
 
 1 See Introduction, p. 15. 
 
 a See sees. 53, 56-60, 72, 107, 124-129.
 
 68 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 only of former indulgences or neglects. If vicious 
 inclinations were watched from the beginning, and the 
 first irregularities which they caused corrected by tlmx- 
 gentler ways, we should seldom have to do with more 
 than one disorder at once, which would be easily set 
 right without any stir or noise, and not require so harsh 
 a discipline as beating. Thus, one by one, as they ap- 
 peared, they might all be weeded out without any signs 
 or memory that ever they had been there. But we letting 
 their faults (by indulging and humouring our little ones) 
 grow up till they are sturdy and numerous, and the 
 deformity of them makes us ashamed and uneasy, we 
 are fain to come to the plough and the harrow ; the spade 
 and the pick-ax must go deep to come at the roots, and 
 all the force, skill, and diligence we can use, is scarce 
 enough to cleanse the vitiated seed-plat overgrown with 
 weeds, and restore us the hopes of fruits to reward our 
 pains in its season. 
 
 85. This course, if observed, will spare both father and 
 child the trouble of repeated injunctions, and multiplied 
 rules of doing and forbearing. For I am of opinion, that 
 of those actions which tend to vicious habits (which are 
 those alone that a father should interpose his authority 
 and commands in), none should be forbidden children 
 till they are found guilty of them. For such untimely 
 prohibitions, if they do nothing worse, do at least so 
 much towards teaching and allowing them, that they 
 suppose that children may be guilty of them, who would 
 possibly be safer in the ignorance of any such faults. 
 And the best remedy to stop them, is, as I have said, to 
 show wonder and amazement at any such action as hath 
 a vicious tendency, when it is first taken notice of in a 
 child. For example, when he is first found in a lie, or any 
 ill-natured trick, the first remedy should be, to talk to 
 him of it as a strange, monstrous matter, that it could 
 not be imagined he would have done ; and so shame him 
 out of it. 
 
 86. It will be ('tis like) objected, That whatever I 
 fancy of the tractableness of children, and the prevalency
 
 86, 87. WHIPPING 69 
 
 of those softer ways of shame and commendation ; yet 
 there are many, who will never apply themselves to their 
 books, and to what they ought to learn, unless they are 
 scourged to it. This I fear is nothing but the language 
 of ordinary schools and fashion, which have never suffered 
 the other to be tried as it should be, in places where it 
 could be taken notice of. Why, else, does the learning 
 of Latin and Greek need the rod, when French and 
 Italian needs it not ? Children learn to dance and fence 
 without whipping : nay, arithmetic, drawing, etc., they 
 apply themselves well enough to, without beating : which 
 would make one suspect that there is something strange, 
 unnatural, and disagreeable to that age, in the things 
 required in Grammar-Schools, or the methods used there, 
 that children cannot be brought to, without the severity 
 of the lash, and hardly with that too ; or else that it is 
 a mistake, that those tongues could not be taught them 
 without beating. 
 
 87. But let us suppose some so negligent or idle, that 
 they will not be brought to learn by the gentle ways 
 proposed ; for we must grant, that there will be children 
 found of all tempers, yet it does not thence follow, that 
 the rough discipline of the cudgel is to be used at all. 
 Nor can any one be concluded unmanageable by the 
 milder methods of government, till they have been 
 throughly tried upon him; and, if they will not prevail 
 with him to use his endeavours, and do what is in his 
 power to do, we make no excuse for the obstinate : blows 
 are the proper remedies for those : but blows laid on in 
 a way different from the ordinary. He that wilfully 
 neglects his book, and stubbornly refuses any thing he 
 can do, required of him by his father expressing himself 
 in a positive serious command, should not be corrected 
 with two or three angry lashes, for not performing his 
 task, and the same punishment repeated again and again, 
 upon every the like default. But, when it is brought to 
 that pass, that wilfulness evidently shows itself, and 
 makes blows necessary, I think the chastisement should 
 be a little more sedate, and a little more severe, and the
 
 70 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 whipping (mingled with admonitions between) so con- 
 tinued, till the impressions of it on the mind were found 
 legible in the face, voice, and submission of the child, not 
 so sensible of the smart as of the fault he has been guilty 
 of, and melting in true sorrow under it. If such a correc- 
 tion as this, tried some few times at fit distances, and 
 carried to the utmost severity, with the visible displeasure 
 of the father all the while, will not work the effect, turn 
 the mind, and produce a future compliance, what can be 
 hoped from blows, and to what purpose should they be 
 any more used ? Beating, when you can expect no good 
 from it, will look more like the fury of an enraged 
 enemy, than the good-will of a compassionate friend; and 
 such chastisement carries with it only provocation with- 
 out any prospect of amendment. If it be any father's 
 misfortune to have a son thus perverse and untractable, 
 I know not what more he can do but pray for him. But 
 I imagine, if a right course be taken with children from 
 the beginning, very few will be found to be such; and 
 when there are any such instances, they are not to be the 
 rule for the education of those who are better natured, 
 and may be managed with better usage. 
 
 88. Tutor. If a tutor can be got, that, thinking him- 
 self in the father's place, charged with his care, and 
 relishing these things, will at the beginning apply him- 
 self to put them in practice, he will afterwards find his 
 work very easy : and you will, I guess, have your son in 
 a little time, a greater proficient in both learning and 
 breeding, than perhaps you imagine. But let him by no 
 means beat him, at any time, without your consent and 
 direction. 
 
 89. He must be sure also to shew him the example of 
 the things he would have the child practise, and care- 
 fully preserve him from the influence of ill precedents, 
 especially the most dangerous of all, that of the servants, 
 from whose company he is to be kept, not by prohibi- 
 tions, for that will but give him an itch, but by other 
 ways I have mentioned. 1 
 
 1 See sees. 59, 68, 69.
 
 90. GOVERNOR 71 
 
 90. Governor. In all the whole business of education, 
 there is nothing like to be less hearkened to, or harder 
 to be well observed, than what I am now going to say ; 
 and that is, That I would, from their first beginning to 
 talk, have some discreet, sober, nay wise person about 
 children, whose care it should be to fashion them aright, 
 and keep them from all ill, especially the infection of bad 
 company. I think this province requires great sobriety, 
 temperance, tenderness, diligence, and discretion, qualities 
 hardly to be found united in persons that are to be had 
 for ordinary salaries, nor easily to be found any where. 
 As to the charge of it, I think it will be the money best 
 laid out that can be about our children ; and therefore, 
 though it may be expensive more than is ordinary, yet it 
 cannot be thought dear. He that at any rate procures 
 his child a good mind, well-principled, tempered to virtue 
 and usefulness, and adorned with civility and good 
 breeding, makes a better purchase for him, than if he 
 laid out the money for an addition of more earth to his 
 former acres. Spare it in toys and play-games, in silk 
 and ribbons, laces and other useless expenses, as much 
 as you please ; but be not sparing in so necessary a part 
 as this. 'Tis not good husbandry to make his fortune 
 rich, and his mind poor. I have often, with great 
 admiration, seen people lavish it profusely in tricking up 
 their children in fine clothes, lodging and feeding them 
 sumptuously, allowing them more than enough of useless 
 servants, and yet at the same time starve their minds, 
 and not take sufficient care to cover that, which is the 
 most shameful nakedness, viz., their natural wrong 
 inclinations and ignorance. This I can look on as no 
 other than a sacrificing to their own vanity ; it showing 
 more their pride, than true care of the good of their 
 children. Whatsoever you employ to the advantage of 
 your son's mind, will show your true kindness, though it 
 be to the lessening of his estate. A wise and good man 
 can hardly want either the opinion or reality of being 
 great and happy. But he that is foolish or vicious, can 
 be neither great nor happy, what estate soever you leave
 
 72 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 him : and I ask you, whether there be not men in the 
 world, whom you had rather have your son be, with 500 
 per annum, than some other you know, with 5,000 ? 
 
 91. The consideration of charge ought not, therefore, 
 to deter those who are able : the great difficulty will be, 
 where to find a proper person. For those of small age, 
 parts, and virtue, are unfit for this employment : and 
 those that have greater, will hardly be got to undertake 
 such a charge. You must therefore look out early, and 
 enquire everywhere; for the world has people of all 
 sorts : and 1 remember, Montaigne says in one of his 
 essays, that the learned Castalio was fain to make 
 trenchers at Basle, to keep himself from starving, when 
 his father would have given any money for such a tutor 
 for his son, and Castalio have willingly embraced such 
 an employment upon very reasonable terms : but this 
 was for want of intelligence. 1 
 
 92. If you find it difficult to meet with such a tutor as 
 
 yon a.r-p nnf, if* wnnriftr. l^jyn ly 
 
 ngj;arfTnor cost? Lo"g6!rsiichan orieTAll things are to be 
 had that way : and I dare assure you, that, if you can 
 get a good one, you will never repent the charge ; but 
 will always have the satisfaction to think it the money 
 of all other the best laid out. But be sure take no body 
 upon friends, or charitable, no, nor bare great com- 
 mendations. Nor will the reputation of a sober man, 
 with learning enough (which is all usually required in a 
 tutor), serve the turn. In this choice be as curious, as 
 you would in that of a wife for him : for you must not 
 think of trial, or changing afterwards ; that will cause 
 great inconvenience to you, and greater to your son. 
 When I consider the scruples and cautions I here lay in 
 your way, methinks it looks as if I advised you to some 
 
 1 Essais, i., chap, xxxiv., "D'un defaut de nos polices." But 
 Locke has constructed an anecdote out of a bare reference to the 
 death of the French humanist Sebastien Castalion (1515-1563), and 
 the elder Montaigne's suggestion of a Public Inquiry Office, which 
 would keep buyers and sellers reciprocally informed. On Castalion, 
 or Castellion, see Foster Watson, The English Grammar Schools, 
 p. 338 ff.
 
 92-94. GOVERNOR 73 
 
 thing, which I would have offered at, but in effect not 
 done. But he that shall consider, how much the business 
 of a tutor, rightly employed, lies out of the road, and how 
 remote it is from the thoughts of many, even of those 
 who propose to themselves this employment, will perhaps 
 be of my mind, that one fit to educate and form the 
 mind of a young gentleman, is not every where to be 
 found ; and that more than ordinary care is to be taken 
 in the choice of him, or else you may fail of your end. 
 
 93. The tutor must be well-bred and of a graceful carriage ; 
 these qualitieshe should seektoformin theyouny gentleman. 1 
 
 94. The tutor must know the world and must exhibit the 
 world to his pupil as it really is. 
 
 [Thus, by safe and insensible degrees, he will pass from 
 a boy to a man ; which is the most hazardous step in all 
 the whole course of life. This therefore should be care- 
 fully watched, and a young man with great diligence 
 handed over it ; and not, as now usually is done, be taken 
 from a governor's conduct, and all at once thrown into 
 the world under his own, not without manifest dangers 
 of immediate spoiling; there being nothing more frequent, 
 than instances of the great looseness, extravagancy and 
 debauchery, which young men have run into, as soon as 
 they have been let loose from a severe and strict educa- 
 tion : which, I think, may be chiefly imputed to their 
 wrong way of breeding, especially in this part ; for having 
 been bred up in a great ignorance of what the world truly 
 is, and finding it quite another thing, when they come 
 into it, than what they were taught it should be, and so 
 imagined it was, are easily persuaded, by other kind of 
 tutors, which they are sure to meet with, that the dis- 
 cipline they were kept under, and the lectures that were 
 read to them, were but the formalities of education, and 
 the restraints of childhood; that the freedom belonging 
 to men, is to take their swing in a full enjoyment of what 
 was before forbidden them. . . . The only fence against 
 the world is a thorough knowledge of it. . . . 
 
 1 Italic type is used to indicate a summary of a passage inserted 
 in editions later than the" first.
 
 74 THOUGHTS CONCEKNING EDUCATION 
 
 This, I confess, containing one great part of wisdom, 
 is not the product of some superficial thoughts, or much 
 reading ; but the effect of experience and observation in 
 a man, who has lived in the world with his eyes open, 
 and conversed with men of all sorts. And therefore 1 
 think it of most value to be instilled into a young man, 
 upon all occasions which offer themselves, that, when he 
 comes to launch into the deep himself, he may not be like 
 one at sea without a line, compass, or sea-chart ; but may 
 have some notice beforehand of the rocks and shoals, the 
 currents and quicksands, and know a little how to steer, 
 that he sink not, before he get experience. He that 
 ithinks not this of more moment to his son, and for which 
 he more needs a governor, than the languages and learned 
 sciences, forgets of how much more use it is to judge 
 right of men, and manage his affairs wisely with them, 
 than to speak Greek and Latin, or argue in mood and 
 figure; 1 or to have his head filled with the abstruse 
 speculations of natural philosophy, and metaphysics ; 
 nay, than to be well versed in Greek and Roman writers, 
 though that be much better for a gentleman, than to be 
 a good Peripatetic or Cartesian : 2 because those ancient 
 authors observed and painted mankind well, and give 
 the best light into that kind of knowledge. He that 
 goes into the eastern parts of Asia, will find able and 
 acceptable men, without any of these : But without 
 virtue, knowledge of the world, and civility, an accom- 
 plished and valuable man can be found nowhere. 
 
 A great part of the learning now in fashion in the 
 schools of Europe, and that goes ordinarily into the 
 round of education, a gentleman may, in a good measure, 
 be unfurnished with, without any great disparagement 
 to himself, or prejudice to his^ affairs. 3 But prudence 
 and good breeding are, in all the stations and occurrences 
 of life, necessary ; and most young men suffer in the want 
 
 1 I.e., to be expert in formal logic, " hog-shearing," as Locke liked 
 to term it. 
 
 2 I.e., an adherent of Aristotle or of Descartes, of the ancient or 
 of the modern philosophy. 3 See Introduction, p. 3.
 
 94. GOVEENOE 75 
 
 of them; and come rawer, and more awkward, into the 
 world, than they should, for this very reason ; because 
 these qualities, which are, of all other, the most necessary 
 to be taught, and stand most in need of the assistance 
 and help of a teacher, are generally neglected, and 
 thought but a slight, or 110 part of a tutor's business. 
 Latin and learning make all the noise : and the main 
 stress is laid upon his proficiency in things, a great part 
 whereof belongs not to a gentleman's calling ; which is, 
 to have the knowledge of a man of business, a carriage 1 
 suitable to his rank, and to be eminent and useful in his 
 country, according to his station. Whenever either spare 
 hours from that, or an inclination to perfect himself in 
 some parts of knowledge, which his tutor did but just 
 enter him in, set him upon any study; the first rudi- 
 ments of it, which he learned before, will open the way 
 enough for his own industry to carry him as far as his 
 fancy will prompt, or his parts enable him to go : or, if 
 he thinks it may save his time and pains, to be helped 
 over some difficulties by the hand of a master, he may 
 then take a man that is perfectly well skilled in it, or 
 choose such an one as he thinks fittest for his purpose. 
 But to initiate his pupil in any part of learning, as far 
 as is necessary for a young man in the ordinary course 
 of his studies, an ordinary skill in the governor is enough. 
 Nor is it requisite that he should be a thorough scholar, 
 or possess in perfection all those sciences, which it is 
 convenient a young gentleman should have a taste of, 
 in some general view, or short system. A gentleman, 
 that would penetrate deeper, must do it by his own 
 genius and industry afterwards; for nobody ^ver went. 
 far_m__knowle(ige_, or became eminent in any of the 
 sciences, by_the discipline and constraint of a jnaster. 2 
 
 The great work of a governor isto fashion the carriage, 
 
 I and form the mind ; to settle in his pupil good habits, 
 
 and the principles of virtue and wisdom ; to give him, 
 
 by little and little, a view of mankind ; and work him 
 
 1 Deportment, bearing. 
 
 2 This is the keynote of the "Conduct of the Understanding."
 
 76 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 \into a love and imitation of what is excellent and praise- 1 
 /worthy ; and in the prosecution of it, to give him vigour, 
 (activity, and industry ,\ The studies which he sets liiin 
 upon, are but, as it were, the exercises of his faculties, 
 and employment of his time, to keep him from sauntering 
 and idleness, to teach him application, and accustom him 
 to take pains, and to give him some little taste of what 
 his own industry must perfect. For who expects, that 
 under a tutor a young gentleman should be an accom- 
 plished critic, orator, or logician; go to the bottom of 
 metaphysics, natural philosophy, or mathematics; or be 
 a master in history or chronology ? Though something 
 of each of these is to be taught him : but it is only to 
 open the door, that he may look in, and, as it were, begin 
 an acquaintance, but not to dwell there : and a governor 
 would be much blamed, that should keep his pupil too 
 long, and lead him too far in most of them. But of good 
 breeding, knowledge of the world^ virtue, industry, jiiid 
 a love of reputatioiiujhe cannot have too much : and if 
 fie have these, he will not long want what he needs or 
 desires of the other. 
 
 And since it cannot be hoped, he should have time 
 and strength to learn all things, most pains should be 
 taken about that which is most necessary ; and that 
 principally looked after, which will be of most and 
 frequentest use to him in the world. 
 
 Seneca complains of the contrary practice in his time ; 
 and yet the Burgersdiciuses and the Scheiblers 1 did not 
 swarm in those days, as they do now in these. What 
 would he have thought, if he had lived now, when the 
 
 1 Franco Burgersdijck (1590 1635) was the author of a long 
 celebrated and widely-read textbook of logic (Institutiones Logi- 
 carum libri duo, Leyden, 1626) which was lead by undergraduates 
 in their first year at Cambridge so late as 1710. Waterland (Advice 
 to a Student, 1706) recommends it as a first book on its subject. 
 Christoph Scheibler was the author of a " philosophic com- 
 pendium " which, in less than 200 small pagrs of Latin, set forth 
 the principles of logic, metaphysics, physics, geometry, astronomy, 
 optics, ethics, politics, and economics The sixth edition of 
 Scheibler's Philoso2)hia Compendiosa is dated 1689 (Oxford).
 
 94. GOVERNOR 77 
 
 tutors think it their great business to fill the studies and 
 heads of their pupils with such authors as these ? He 
 would have had much more reason to say, as he does, 
 " Non vitas, sed scholae discimus," we learn not to live, 
 but to dispute, and our education fits us rather for the 
 university than the world. But it is no wonder, if those 
 who make the fashion suit it to what they have, and not 
 to what their pupils want. The fashion being once 
 established, who can think it strange, that in this, as 
 well as in all other things, it should prevail ; and that 
 the greatest part of those, who find their account in an 
 easy submission to it, should be ready to cry out heresy, 
 when anyone departs from it ? It is nevertheless 
 matter of astonishment, that men of quality and parts 
 should suffer themselves to be so far misled by custom 
 and implicit faith. Reason, if consulted with, would 
 advise that their children's time should be spent in 
 acquiring what might be useful to them, when they come 
 to be men, rather than to have their heads stuffed with 
 a deal of trash, a great part whereof they usually never 
 do (it is certain they never need to) think on again as 
 long as they live ; and so much of it, as does stick by 
 them, they are only the worse for. This is so well known 
 that I appeal to parents themselves, who have been at 
 cost to have their young heirs taught it, whether it be 
 not ridiculous for their sons to have any tincture of that 
 sort, of learning, when they come abroad into the world : 
 whether any appearance of it would not lessen and dis- 
 grace them in company. And that certainly must be an 
 admirable acquisition, and deserves well to make a part 
 in education, which men are ashamed of, where they are 
 most concerned to show their parts and breeding. 
 
 There is yet another reason why politeness of manners 
 and knowledge of the world should principally be looked 
 after in a tutor : and that is, because a man of parts and 
 years may enter a lad far enough in any of those sciences 
 which he has no deep insight into himself. Books in 
 these will be able to furnish him, and give him light and 
 precedency enough, to go before a young follower; but
 
 78 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 he will never be able to set another right in the know- 
 ledge of the world, and above all, in breeding, who is a 
 novice in them himself. 
 
 This is a knowledge he must have about him, worn 
 into him by use and conversation, and a long forming 
 himself by what he has observed to be practised and 
 allowed in the best company. This, if he has it not of 
 his own, is no where to be borrowed, for the use of his 
 pupil; or if he could find pertinent treatises of it in 
 books, that would reach all the particulars of an English 
 gentleman's behaviour, his own ill-fashioned example, if 
 he be not well-bred himself, would spoil all his lectures ; 
 it being impossible, that any one should come forth well- 
 fashioned out of unpolished, ill-bred company. 
 
 I say this, not that I think such a tutor is every day 
 to be met with, or to be had at the ordinary rates : but 
 that those, who are able, may not be sparing of inquiry 
 or cost, in what is of so great moment ; and that other 
 parents, whose estates will not reach to greater salaries, 
 may yet remember what they should principally have an 
 eye to in the choice of one to whom they would commit 
 the education of their children ; and what part they 
 should chiefly look after themselves, whilst they are 
 under their care, and as often as they come within their 
 observation ; and not think that all lies in Latin and 
 French, or some dry systems of logic and philosophy.] 
 
 95. -1 Familiarity. But to return to our method again. 
 Though I have mentioned the severity of the father's 
 brow, and the awe settled thereby in the mind of 
 children when young, as one main foundation whereby 
 their education is to be managed ; yet I am far from 
 being of an opinion that it should be continued all along 
 to them, whilst they are under the discipline and 
 government of pupilage. I think it should be relaxed, 
 as fast as their age, discretion, and good behaviour could 
 allow it ; even to that degree, that a father will do well, 
 as his son grows up and is capable of it, to talk 
 familiarly with him; nay, ask his advice and consult 
 1 Sec. 91 in first edition.
 
 95, 96. FAMILIAEITY 79 
 
 with him about those things wherein he has any know- 
 ledge or understanding. By this the father will gain 
 two things, both of great moment. The one is, that it 
 will put serious considerations into his son's thoughts, 
 better than any rules or advices he can give him. The 
 sooner you treat him as a man, the sooner he will begin 
 to be one : and if you admit him into serious discourses 
 sometimes with you, you will insensibly raise his mind 
 above the usual amusements of youth, and those trifling 
 occupations which it is commonly wasted in. For it is 
 easy to observe, that many young men continue longer 
 in the thought and conversation of school-boys, than 
 otherwise they would, because their parents keep them 
 at that distance, and in that low rank, by all their 
 carriage to them. 
 
 96. Another thing of greater consequence, which you 
 will obtain by such a way of treating him, will be his 
 friendship. Many fathers, though they proportion to 
 their sons liberal allowances, according to their age and 
 condition; yet they keep them as much unacquainted 
 with their estates and all other concernments as if they 
 were strangers. This if it looks not like jealousy, yet it 
 wants those marks of kindness and intimacy, which a 
 father should show to his son ; and, no doubt, often 
 hinders or abates that cheerfulness and satisfaction, 
 wherewith a son should address himself to, and rely upon, 
 his father. And I cannot but often wonder to see 
 fathers, who love their sons very well, yet so order the 
 matter, by a constant stiffness, and a mien of authority 
 and distance to them all their lives, as if they were never 
 to enjoy or have any comfort from those they love best 
 in the world, till they had lost them by being removed 
 into another. Nothing cements and establishes friend- 
 ship and good-will, so much as confident communication 
 of concernments and affairs. Other kindnesses without 
 this, leave still some doubts ; but when your son sees you 
 open your mind to him, that you interest him in your 
 affairs, as things you are willing should in their turn 
 come into his hands, he will be concerned for them as for
 
 80 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 his own ; wait his season with patience, and love you in 
 the meantime, who keep him not at the distance of a 
 stranger. This will also make him see, that the enjoy- 
 ment you have is not without care ; which the more he is 
 sensible of, the less will he envy you the possession, and 
 the more think himself happy under the management 
 of so favourable a friend, and so careful a father. There 
 is scarce any young man of so little thought, or so void 
 of sense, that would not be glad of a sure friend, that he 
 might have recourse to, and freely consult on occasion. 
 The reservedness and distance that fathers keep, often 
 deprives their sons of that refuge, which would be of 
 more advantage to them than an hundred rebukes and 
 chidings. Would your son engage in some frolic, or take 
 a vagary, 1 were it not much better he should do it with, 
 than without your knowledge ? For since allowances 
 for such things must be made to young men, the more 
 you know of his intrigues and designs, the better will 
 you be able to prevent great mischiefs ; and, by letting 
 him see what is like to follow, take the right way of 
 prevailing with him to avoid less inconveniences. 2 Would 
 you have him open his heart to you, and ask your advice ? 
 You must begin to do so with him first, and by your 
 carriage beget that confidence. 
 
 97. But whatever he consults you about, unless it lead 
 to some fatal and irremediable mischief, be sure you 
 advise only as a friend of more experience; but with 
 your advice mingle nothing of command or authority, no 
 more than you would to your equal, or a stranger. That 
 would be to drive him for ever from any farther demand- 
 ing, or receiving advantage from your counsel. You 
 must consider, that he is a young man, and has pleasures 
 and fancies, which you are past. You must not expect 
 his inclinations should be just as yours, nor that at twenty 
 
 1 A departure from the ordinary routine, " a day off," an " out- 
 leap " (sec. 97). This section should be compared with Montaigne's 
 Essay already mentioned, ii., chap, viii., " On the Affection of 
 Fathers for their Children," 
 
 2 I.e., inconveniences which are less than " great mischiefs."
 
 97, 98. FAMILIAKITY 99. REVERENCE 81 
 
 he should have the same thoughts you have at fifty. All 
 that you can wish is, that since youth must have some 
 liberty, some out-leaps, they might be with the ingenuity 1 
 of a son, and under the eye of a father, and then no very 
 great harm can come of it. The way to obtain this, as I 
 said before, is (according as you find him capable) to talk 
 with him about your affairs, propose matters to him 
 familiarly, and ask his advice ; and when he ever lights 
 on the right, follow it as his, and if it succeeds well, let* 
 him have the commendation. This will not at all lessen 
 your authority, but increase his love and esteem of you. 
 Whilst you keep your estate, the staff will still be in 
 your own hands ; and your authority the surer, the more 
 it is strengthened with confidence and kindness. For 
 you have not that power you ought to have over him, till 
 he comes to be more afraid of offending so good a friend, 
 than of losing some part of his future expectation. 
 
 98. Familiar discourse is a mode of discipline whicJi 
 should also be used by the tutor. 
 
 99. Reverence. When, by making your son sensible 
 that he depends on you, and is in your power, you have 
 established your authority ; and by being inflexibly 
 severe in your carriage to him, when obstinately persist- 
 ing in any ill-natured trick which you have forbidden, 
 especially lying, you have imprinted on his mind that 
 awe which is necessary ; and on the other side, when (by 
 permitting him the full liberty due to his age, and laying 
 no restraint in your presence to those childish actions, 
 and gaiety of carriage, which, whilst he is very young, is 
 as necessary to him as meat or sleep) you have reconciled 
 him to your company, and made him sensible of your 
 care and love of him by indulgence and tenderness, 
 especially caressing him on all occasions wherein he does 
 any thing well, and being kind to him after a thousand 
 fashions, suitable to his age, which nature teaches parents 
 better than I can : when, I say, by these ways of tender- 
 ness and affection, which parents never want for their 
 children, you have also planted in him a particular affec- 
 
 1 I.e., ingenuousness. 
 
 6
 
 82 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 tion for you, he is then in the state you could desire, and 
 you have formed in his mind that true reverence, which is 
 always afterwards carefully to be increased and main- 
 tained in both parts of it, love and fear, as the great 
 principles whereby you will always have hold upon him 
 to turn his mind to the ways of virtue and honour. 
 
 100. Temper. When this foundation is once well laid, 
 and you find this reverence begin to work in him, the 
 next thing to be done, is carefully to consider his temper, 1 
 and the particular constitution of his mind. Stubborn- 
 ness, lying, and ill-natured actions, are not (as has been 
 said) to be permitted in him from the beginning, what- 
 ever his temper be : those seeds of vices are not to be 
 suffered to take any root, but must be suppressed in 
 their appearance ; and your authority is to be established 
 from the very dawning of any knowledge in him, that it 
 may operate as a natural principle, whereof he never 
 perceived the beginning, never knew what it was, or 
 could be otherwise. By this, if the reverence he owes 
 you be established early, it will always be sacred to him, 
 and it will be as hard for him to resist it as the principles 
 of his nature. 
 
 101 . Having thus very early established your authority, 
 and, by the gentler applications of it, shamed him out of 
 what leads towards any immoral habit ; as soon as you 
 have observed it in him (for I would by no means have 
 chiding used, much less blows, till obstinacy and in- 
 corrigibleness make it absolutely necessary), it will be 
 fit to consider which way the natural make of his mind 
 inclines him. Some men, by the unalterable frame of 
 their constitutions, are stout, others timorous ; some con- 
 fident, others modest, tractable or obstinate, curious or 
 careless. There are not more differences in men's faces, 
 and the outward lineaments of their bodies, than there 
 are in the makes and tempers of their minds 2 ; only there 
 is this difference, that the distinguishing characters of 
 the face, and the lineaments of the body, grow more 
 
 1 Temperament. 
 
 2 Cf. sees. 139, 176, 216, and see Conduct, sec. 2.
 
 102. TEMPER 103, 104. DOMINION 83 
 
 plain and visible with time and age, but the peculiar 
 physiognomy of the mind is most discernible in children, 
 before art and cunning have taught them to hide their 
 deformities, and conceal their ill inclinations under a 
 dissembled outside. 
 
 102. 1 Begin therefore betimes nicely to observe your 
 son's temper, and that, when he is under least restraint. 
 See what are his predominant passions and prevailing 
 inclinations ; whether he be fierce or mild, bold or bash- 
 ful, compassionate or cruel, open or reserved, etc. For 
 as these are different in him, so are your methods to be 
 different, and your authority must hence take measures 
 to apply it self [in] different ways to him. These native 
 propensities, 2 these prevalences of constitution, are not to 
 be cured by rules, or a direct contest, especially those of 
 them that are. the humbler and meaner sort, which pro- 
 ceed from fear and lowness of spirit ; though with art 
 they may be much mended, and turned to good purposes. 
 But of this be sure, after all is done, the bias will always 
 hang on that side that nature first placed it : and, if 
 you carefully observe the characters of his mind now in 
 the first scenes of his life, you will ever after be able to 
 judge which way his thoughts lean, and what he aims at 
 even hereafter, when, as he grows up, the plot thickens, 
 and he puts on several shapes to act it. 
 
 103. Dominion. I told you before, that children love 
 liberty, 3 and therefore they should be brought to do the 
 things that are fit for them, without feeling any restraint 
 laid upon them. I now tell you, they love some- 
 thing more ; and that is dominion : and this is the first 
 original of most vicious habits, that are ordinary and 
 natural. This love of power and dominion shews itself 
 very early, and that in these two things. 
 
 104. We see children (as soon almost as they are born, 
 I am sure long before they can speak) cry, grow peevish, 
 sullen, and out of humour, for nothing but to have their 
 wills. They would have their desires submitted to by 
 
 1 Sec. 97 in first edition. 3 "Propensions " in text. 
 
 3 Sees. 73-76, 103, 128-9, 148-154, 167, 202.
 
 84 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 others ; they contend for a ready compliance from all 
 about them, especially from those that stand near or 
 beneath them in age or degree, as soon as they come 
 to consider others with those distinctions. 
 
 105. x Another thing, wherein they show their love of 
 dominion, is their desire to have things to be theirs; 
 they would have propriety and possession, pleasing them- 
 selves with the power [which] that seems to give, and 
 the right they thereby have to dispose of them as they 
 please. He that has not observed these two humours 
 working very betimes in children, has taken little notice 
 of their actions : and he that thinks that these two roots 
 of almost all the injustice and contention that so disturb 
 human life, are not early to be weeded out, and contrary 
 habits introduced, neglects the proper season to lay the 
 foundations of a good and worthy man. To do this, 
 1 imagine, these following things may somewhat conduce. 
 
 106. 1. Craving. That a child should never be suffered 
 to have what he craves, or so much as speaks for, much 
 less if he cries for it. What then, would you not have 
 them declare their wants ? Yes, that is very fit ; and 
 'tis as fit that with all tenderness they should be 
 hearkened to, and supplied, at least whilst they are very 
 little. But 'tis one thing to say, I am hungry ; another 
 to say, I would have roast-meat. Having declared their 
 wants, their natural wants, the pain they feel from 
 hunger, thirst, cold, or any other necessity of nature, 'tis 
 the duty of their parents, and those about them, to relieve 
 them : but children must leave it to the choice and 
 ordering of their parents what they think properest for 
 them, and how much ; and must not be permitted to 
 choose for themselves, and say, I would have wine, or 
 white-bread ; the very naming of it should make them 
 lose it. 
 
 107. 2 This is for natural wants which must be relieved ; 
 
 but for all wants of fancy and affectation, they should 
 
 never, if once declared, be hearkened to, or complied 
 
 with. By this means they will be brought to get a 
 
 1 Sec. 100 in first edition. 2 Sec. 102 in tirst edition.
 
 107. CRAVING 108. CURIOSITY 85 
 
 mastery over their inclinations, and learn the art of 
 stifling their desires as soon as they rise up in them, and 
 before they take vent, when they are easiest to be sub- 
 dued, which will be of great use to them in the future 
 course of their lives. By this I do not mean that they 
 should not have the things that one perceives would 
 delight them ; 'twould be inhumanity and not prudence 
 to treat them so. But they should not have the liberty 
 to carve or crave anything to themselves ; they should 
 be exercised in keeping their desires under, till they have 
 got the habit of it, and it be grown easy ; they should 
 accustom themselves to be content in the want of what 
 they wished for ; and the more they practised modesty 
 and temperance in this, the more should those about 
 them study to reward them with what is suited and 
 acceptable to them ; which should be bestowed on them, 
 as if it were a natural consequence 1 of their good 
 behaviour, and not a bargain about it. But you will lose 
 your labour, and what is more, their love and reverence 
 too, if they can receive from others what you deny them. 
 This is to be kept very stanch, 2 and carefully to be 
 watched. And here the servants come again in my 
 way. 
 
 108. Curiosity. If this be begun betimes, and they 
 accustom themselves early to silence their desires, this 
 useful habit will settle in them; and, as they come to 
 grow up in age and discretion, they may be allowed 
 greater liberty; when reason comes to speak in them, 
 and not passion. For whenever reason would speak, it 
 should be hearkened to. But, as they should never be 
 heard, when they speak for any thing they would have, 
 unless it be first proposed to them; so they should 
 always be heard, and fairly and kindly answered, when 
 they ask after anything they would know, and desire to 
 be informed about. Curiosity should be as carefully 
 cherished iD-children, ^a other appetites suppressed. 3 
 
 1 See sees. 43-61, 72, 84, 124. 
 
 2 I.e., to be very stiffly adhered to. 
 
 3 See sec. 118,
 
 86 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 109. 2. Complaints. Children, who live together, often 
 strive for mastery, whose wills shall carry it over the rest ; 
 whoever begins the contest, should be sure to be crossed 
 in it. But not only that, but they should be taught to 
 have all the deference, complaisance, and civility one 
 for the other imaginable. This, when they see it pro- 
 cures them respect, and that they lose no superiority by 
 it, but on the contrary, they grow into love and esteem 
 Avith every body, they will take more pleasure in, than 
 in insolent domineering ; for so plainly is the other. 
 
 The complaints of children once against another, which 
 is usually but the desiring the assistance of another to 
 revenge them, should not be favourably received, nor 
 hearkened to. It weakens and effeminates their minds 
 to suffer them to complain : and if they endure sometimes 
 crossing or pain from others, without being permitted to 
 think it strange or intolerable, it will do them no harm to 
 learn sufferance, and harden them early. But, though you 
 give no countenance to the complaints of the querulous, 
 yet take care to suppress all insolence and ill-nature. 1/ 
 When you observe it yourself, reprove it before the in- 
 jured party : but if the complaint be of something really 
 Avorth your notice and prevention another time, then 
 reprove the offender by himself alone, out of sight of 
 him that complained, and make him go and ask pardon, 
 and make reparation. Which coming thus, as it Avere, 
 from himself, Avill be the more cheerfully performed, and 
 more kindly received, the love strengthened betAA'een 
 them, and a custom of civility groAv familiar amongst 
 your children. 
 
 110. 3. Liberality. As to the having and possessing 
 of things, teach them to part with what they have easily 
 and freely to their friends; and let them find by ex- 
 perience, that the most liberal has always most plenty, 
 Avith esteem and commendation to boot, and they will 
 quickly learn to practise it. This, I imagine, will make 
 brothers and sisters kinder and civiller to one another, 
 and consequently to others, than twenty rules about good 
 manners, with Avhich children are ordinarily perplexed
 
 110. LIBERALITY 111, 112. CRYING 87 
 
 and cumbered. Covetcusness, and the desire of having' 
 in our possession, and under our dominion, more than 
 we have need of, being the root of all evil, should be 
 early and carefully weeded out ; and the contrary quality, 
 of a readiness to impart to others, implanted. This should 
 be encouraged by great commendation and credit, and 
 constantly taking care, that he loses nothing by his 
 liberality. Let all the instances he gives of such free- 
 ness be always repaid, and with interest ; and let him 
 sensibly perceive, that the kindness he shows to others 
 is no ill husbandry for himself; 1 but that it brings a 
 return of kindness, both from those that receive it, and 
 those who look on. Make this a contest among children, 
 who shall out-do one another this way. And by this 
 means, by a constant practice, children having made it 
 easy to themselves to part with what they have, good- 
 nature may be settled in them into an habit, and they 
 may take pleasure, and pique themselves in being kind, 
 liberal, and civil to others. 
 
 111. Crying. Crying is a fault that should not be 
 tolerated in children ; not only for the unpleasant and 
 unbecoming noise it fills the house with, but for more 
 considerable reasons, in reference to the children them- 
 selves, which is to be our aim in education. 
 
 Their crying is of two sorts; either stubbarn_apd 
 domineering, or querulous and whining. 
 
 1. Their crying is very often a contention for mastery, 
 and an open declaration of their insolence or obstinacy ; 
 when they have not the power to obtain their desire, 
 they will, by their clamour and sobbing, maintain their 
 title and right to it. This is open justifying them- 
 selves, and a sort of remonstrance of the un justness 
 of the oppression which denies them what they have a 
 mind to. 
 
 112. 2. Sometimes their crying is the effect of pain or 
 true sorrow, and a bemoaning themselves under it. 
 
 These two, if carefully observed, may, by the mien, 
 looks, and actions, and particularly by the tone of their 
 1 Cf. sec. 119.
 
 88 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 crying, be easily distinguished ; but neither of them 
 must be suffered, much less encouraged. 
 
 1. The obstinate or stomachful crying should by no 
 means be permitted ; because it is but another way of 
 nattering their desires, and encouraging those passions, 
 which 'tis our main business to subdue : and if it be, as 
 often it is, upon the receiving any correction, it quite 
 defeats all the good effects of it ; for any chastisement, 
 which leaves them in this declared opposition, only serves 
 to make them worse. The restraints and punishments 
 laid on children are all misapplied and lost, as far as 
 they do not prevail over their wills, teach them to submit 
 their passions, and make their minds supple and pliant 
 to what their parents' reason advises them now, and so 
 prepare them to obey what their own reason shall advise 
 hereafter. But if, in anything wherein they are crossed, 
 they may be suffered to go away crying, they confirm 
 themselves in their desires, and cherish the ill humour, 
 with a declaration of their right, and a resolution to 
 satisfy their inclination the first opportunity. This there- 
 fore is another reason why you should seldom chastise 
 your children : for, whenever you come to that extremity, 
 'tis not enough to whip or beat them; you must do it till 
 you find you have subdued their minds ; till with sub- 
 mission and patience they yield to the correction ; which 
 you shall best discover by their crying, and their ceasing 
 from it upon your bidding. Without this, the beating of 
 children is but a passionate tyranny over them : and it is 
 mere cruelty, and not correction, to put their bodies in 
 pain, without doing their minds any good. As this gives 
 us a reason why children should seldom be corrected, so 
 it also prevents their being so. For if, whenever they 
 are chastised, it were done thus without passion, soberly 
 and yet effectually too, laying on the blows and smart, 
 not all at once, but slowly, with reasoning between, and 
 with observation how it wrought, stopping when it had 
 made them pliant, penitent and yielding; they would 
 seldom need the like punishment again, being made 
 careful to avoid the fault that deserved it. Besides, by
 
 112, 113. CRYING 89 
 
 this means, as the punishment would not be lost, for 
 being too little, and not effectual, so it would be kept 
 from being too much, if we gave off as soon as we per- 
 ceived that it reached the mind, and that was bettered. 
 For since the chiding or beating of children should be 
 always the least that possibly may be, that which is laid 
 on in the heat of anger, seldom observes that measure, 
 but is commonly more than it should be, though it prove 
 less than enough. 
 
 113. 2. Many children are apt to cry, upon any little 
 pain they suffer ; and the least harm that befalls them, 
 puts them into complaints and bawling. This few 
 children avoid : for it being the first and natural way to 
 declare their sufferings or wants, before they can speak, 
 the compassion that is thought due to that tender age, 
 foolishly encourages, and continues it in them long 
 after they can speak. "Pis the duty, I confess, of those 
 about children, to compassionate them, whenever they 
 suffer any hurt; but not to show it in pitying them. 
 Help and ease them the best you can, but by no means 
 bemoan them. This softens their minds, and makes the 
 little harms that happen to them sink deep into that 
 part which alone feels, and make larger wounds there, 
 than otherwise they would. They_should be hardened 
 against all sufferings^ especially of the body, and have a 
 tenderness only of shame and for reputation. The many 
 inconveniences this life is exposed to, require we should 
 not be too sensible of every little hurt. What our minds 
 yield not to, makes but a slight impression, and does us 
 but very little harm ; 'tis the suffering of our spirits that 
 gives and continues the pain. This brawniness and 
 insensibility of mind, is the best armour we can have 
 against the common evils and accidents of life ; and 
 being a temper that is to be got by exercise and custom, 
 more than any other way, the practice of it should be 
 begun betimes, and happy is he that is taught it early. 
 That effeminacy of spirit, which is to be prevented or 
 cured, as nothing, that I know, so much increases in 
 children as crying ; so nothing, on the other side, so
 
 f 
 
 
 90 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 much checks and restrains, as their being hindered from 
 that sort of complaining. Tn the litflp harms thpy 
 suffer, from knocks and falls, t.hpy ghnnlfl not, he pitied 
 for jfalling, but bid do so again; which is a better way 
 to ciin- their falling than cither chiding or bemoaning 
 them. But, let the hurts they receive be what they 
 will, stop their crying, and that will give them more 
 quiet and ease at present, and harden them for the 
 future. 
 
 114. The former sort of crying requires severity to 
 silence it ; and where a look, or a positive command, will 
 not do it, blows must. For it proceeding from pride, 
 obstinacy and wilfulness, the will, where the fault lies, 
 must be bent, and made to comply, by a rigour sufficient 
 to subdue it : but this latter, being ordinarily from soft- 
 ness of mind, a quite contrary cause, ought to be treated 
 Avith a gentler hand. Persuasion, or diverting the 
 thoughts another way, or laughing at their whining, 
 may perhaps be at first the proper method. But for 
 this, the circumstances of the thing, and the particular 
 temper of the child, must be considered : no certain 
 unvariable rules can be given about it; but it must be 
 left to the prudence of the parents or tutor. But this I 
 think I may say in general, that there should be a 
 constant discountenancing of this sort of crying also ; 
 and that the father, by his looks, words, and authority, 
 should always stop it, mixing a greater degree of rough- 
 ness in his looks or words, proportionably as the child is 
 of a greater age, or a sturdier temper ; but always let it 
 be enough to master the disorder. 
 
 [115. Children should be trained to he courageous. 
 Keep children from frights of all kinds when they are 
 young. . . . By gentle degrees accustom them to 
 things they are too much afraid of. ... Inuring 
 children gently to suffer some degrees of pain without 
 shrinking is a way to gain firmness to their minds.] 
 
 116. 1 Cruelty. One thing I have frequently observed 
 in children, that when they have got possession of any 
 1 Sec. 110 in first edition.
 
 116. CRUELTY 91 
 
 poor creature, they are apt to use it ill; they often 
 torment and treat very roughly young birds, butterflies, 
 and such other poor animals which fall into their hands, 
 and that with a seeming kind of pleasure. This, I think, 
 should be watched in them ; and if they incline to any 
 such cruelty, they should be taught the contrary usage ; 
 for the custom of tormenting and killing of beasts will, 
 by degrees, harden their minds even towards men ; and 
 they who delight in the suffering and destruction of 
 inferior creatures, will not be apt to be very compas- 
 sionate or benign to those of their own kind. Our 
 practice takes notice of this, in the exclusion of butchers 
 from juries of life and death. Children should from the 
 bej2[imiing__be_ _bred_ up^n an abhorrence of killing or 
 tormenting any living creature^ and be taught not to 
 spoil olTdestroy anything, unless it be for the preserva- 
 tion or advantage of some other that is nobler. And 
 truly, if the preservation of all mankind, as much as in 
 him lies, were every one's persuasion, as indeed it is 
 every one's duty, and the true principle to regulate our 
 religion, politics, and morality by, the world would be 
 much quieter and better natured than it is. But to 
 return to our present business ; I cannot but commend 
 both the kindness and prudence of a mother I knew, 
 who was wont always to indulge her daughters, when 
 any of them desired dogs, squirrels, birds, or any such 
 things, as young girls use 1 to be delighted with: but 
 then, when they had them, they must be sure to keep 
 them well, and look diligently after them, that they 
 wanted nothing, or were not ill used ; for, if they were 
 negligent in their care of them, it was counted a great 
 fault, which often forfeited their possession ; or at least 
 they failed not to be rebuked for it, whereby they were 
 early taught diligence and good-nature. And, indeed, I 
 think people should be accustomed from their cradles to 
 be tender to all sensible creatures, and to spoil or waste 
 nothing at all. This delight they take in doing of 
 mischief, whereby I mean spoiling of any thing to no 
 1 I.e., are accustomed.
 
 92 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 purpose, but more especially the pleasure they take to 
 put any thing in pain that is capable of it, I cannot 
 persuade myself to be any other than a foreign and 
 introduced disposition, a habit borrowed from custom and 
 conversation. 1 People teach children to strike, and 
 laugh when they hurt, or see harm come to others; and 
 they have the examples of most about them to confirm 
 them in it. All the entertainments of talk and history 
 is of nothing almost but fighting and killing ; and the 
 honour and renown that is bestowed on conquerors (who 
 for the most part are but the great butchers of mankind), 
 farther mislead growing youths, who by this means come 
 to think slaughter the laudable business of mankind, and 
 the most heroic of virtues. This custom plants unnatural 
 appetites and reconciles us to that which it has laid in 
 the way to honour. Thus, by fashion and opinion, that 
 comes to be a pleasure, which in itself neither is, nor can 
 be any. This ought carefully to be watched, and early 
 remedied, so as to settle and cherish the contrary and 
 more natural temper of benignity and compassion in the 
 room of it ; but still by the same gentle methods, which 
 are to be applied to the other two faults before 
 mentioned. But pray remember that the mischiefs or 
 harms that come by play, inadvertency, or ignorance, 
 and were not known to be harms, or designed for 
 mischief's sake, though they may perhaps be sometimes 
 of considerable damage, yet are not at all, or but very 
 gently, to be taken notice of. For this, I think, I cannot 
 too often inculcate, that whatever miscarriage a child is 
 guilty of, and whatever be the consequence of it, the 
 thing to be regarded in taking notice of it, is only what 
 root it springs from, and what habit it is like to 
 establish ; and to that the correction ought to be 
 directed, and the child not to suffer any punishment for 
 any harm which may have come by his play or inadvert- 
 ency. The faults to be amended lie in the mind ; and if 
 they are such as either age will cure, or no ill habits will 
 follow from, the present action, whatever displeasing 
 1 I.e., intercourse.
 
 118. CURIOSITY 93 
 
 circumstances it may have, is to be passed by without 
 any animadversion. 
 
 [117. Children must treat servants with civility. 
 Children should not be suffered to lose the considera- 
 tion of human nature in the shufflings of outward 
 conditions.] 
 
 118. 1 Curiosity. Curiosity in children (which I had 
 occasion just to mention, section 108) is but an appetite 
 after knowledge, and therefore ought to be encouraged 
 them, not only as a good sign, but as the 
 
 instrurnent^m^turg_Jias--provided to remove that ignor- 
 with, a mT which, without HhisTtnisy 
 aiid~useless creatures. 
 
 The ways to encourage it, and 
 
 vigorous, are, I suppose, these following : 
 
 Tir~Not to check or discountenance any inquiries he A^< 
 shall make, nor suffer themto be laughed at; but to '/\h 
 answer all his questions/ and explain the matters he ' 
 desires to know, so as to make them as much intelligible 
 to him as suits the capacity of his age and knowledge. 
 But confound not his understanding with explications or 
 notions that are above it, or with the variety or number 
 of things that are not to his present purpose. Mark 
 what 'tis his mind aims at in the question, and not what 
 words he expresses it in : and, when you have informed 
 and satisfied him in that, you shall see how his thoughts 
 will -proceed on to other things, and how by fit answers 
 to his inquiries he may be led on farther than perhaps 
 you could imagine. For knowledge to the understanding- 
 is acceptable as light to the eyes: 2 and children are 
 pleased and delighted with it exceedingly, especially if 
 they see that their inquiries are regarded, and that their 
 desire of knowing is encouraged and commended. And 
 I doubt not, but one great reason why many children 
 abandon themselves wholly to silly sports, and trifle 
 away all their time in trifling, is, because they have 
 
 1 Sec. Ill in first edition. 
 
 2 " For knowledge is grateful to the understanding as light to the 
 eyes " in later editions.
 
 94 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 found their curiosity balked, and their inquiries neglected. 
 But had they been treated with more kindness and 
 respect, and their questions answered, as they should, to 
 their satisfaction, I doubt not but they would have taken 
 more pleasure in learning, and improving their know- 
 ledge, wherein there would be still newness and variety, 
 which is what they are delighted with, than in returning 
 over and over to the same play and playthings. 
 
 119. 2. To this serious answering their questions, and 
 informing their understandings in what they desire, as if 
 it were a matter that needed it, should be added some 
 peculiar ways of commendation. Let others, whom they 
 esteem, be told before their faces of the knowledge they 
 have in such and such things ; and since we are all, even 
 from our cradles, vain and proud creatures, let their 
 vanity be flattered with things that will do them good, 1 
 and let their pride set them on work on something which 
 may turn to their advantage. Upon this ground you 
 shall find, that there cannot be a greater spur to the 
 attaining what you would have the eldest learn and 
 know himself, than to set him upon teaching it his 
 younger brothers and sisters. 
 
 120. 3. As children's inquiries are not to be slighted, 
 so also great care is to be taken that they never receive 
 deceitful and eluding answers. They easily perceive 
 when they are slighted or deceived, and quickly learn 
 the trick of neglect, dissimulation and falsehood, which 
 they observe others to make use of. We are not to 
 entrench upon truth in any conversation, but least of all 
 with children; since, if we play false with them, we not 
 only deceive their expectation, and hinder their know- 
 ledge, but corrupt their innocence, and teach them the 
 worst of vices. They are travellers newly arrived in a 
 strange country, of which they know nothing : we should 
 therefore make conscience not to mislead them. And 
 though their questions seem sometimes not very material, 
 yet they should be seriously answered : for however they 
 
 1 This advice, like that in section 110 on teaching liberality, has 
 very naturally made Locko many tnemies.
 
 120. CURIOSITY 95 
 
 may appear to us (to whom they are long since known) 
 inquiries not worth the making, they are of moment to 
 those who are wholly ignorant. Children are strangers 
 to all we are acquainted with; and all the things they 
 meet with, ai*e at first unknown to them, as they once 
 were to us : and happy are they who meet with civil 
 people, that will comply with their ignorance, and help 
 them to get out of it. If you or I now should be set 
 down in Japan, with all our prudence and knowledge 
 about us, a conceit whereof makes us perhaps so apt to 
 slight the thoughts and inquiries of children ; should we, 
 1 say, be set down in Japan, we should, no doubt (if we 
 would inform ourselves of what is there to be known), 
 ask a thousand questions, which, to a supercilious or 
 inconsiderate Japaner, would seem very idle and im- 
 pertinent ; and yet to us would be natural ; and we 
 should be glad to find a man so kind and humane as to 
 answer them and instruct our ignorance. When any 
 new thing comes in their way, children usually ask the 
 common question of a stranger, What is it ? whereby 
 they ordinarily mean nothing but the name ; and there- 
 fore to tell them how it is called, is usually the proper 
 answer to that demand. The next question usually is, 
 What is it for? 1 And to this it. should be answered 
 truly and directly : the use of the thing should be told, 
 and the way explained, how it serves to such a purpose, 
 as far as their capacities can comprehend it ; and so of 
 any other circumstances they shall ask about it ; not 
 turning them going till you have given them all the 
 satisfaction they are capable of, and so leading them by 
 your answers into farther questions. And perhaps, to a 
 grown man, such conversation will not be altogether so 
 idle and insignificant as we are apt to imagine. The 
 native and untaught suggestions of inquisitive_children 
 do of ten offer things that may set a Considering man s 
 thoughts on work. And I think there is frequently" 
 more to be learned from the unexpected questioiis of a 
 child, than the discourses of men, who talk in a road, 
 1 Usually asked at a later stage in the child's development.
 
 96 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 according to the notions they have borrowed, and the 
 prejudices of their education. 
 
 12 1. 1 4. Perhaps it may not sometimes be amiss to 
 excite their curiosity, by bringing strange and new 
 things in their way, on purpose to engage their inquii-y, 
 and give them occasion to inform themselves about 
 them; and if by chance their curiosity leads them to 
 ask what they should not know, it is a great deal better 
 to tell them plainly that it is a thing that belongs not to 
 them to know, than to pop them off with a falsehood or 
 a frivolous answer. 
 
 122. Peftness. Pertness, that appears sometimes so 
 early, proceeds from a principle that seldom accompanies 
 a strong constitution of body, or ripens into a strong 
 judgment of mind. If it were desirable to have a child 
 a more brisk talker, I believe there might be ways 
 found to make him so; but, I suppose, a wise father 
 had rather that this son should be able and useful, when 
 a man, than pretty company and a diversion to others 
 whilst a child ; though, if that too were to be considered, 
 I think I may say, there is not so much pleasure to have 
 a child prattle agreeably as to reason well. Encourage, 
 therefore, his inquisitiveness all you can, by satisfying 
 his demands and informing his judgment as far as it is 
 capable. When his reasons are any way tolerable, let 
 him find the credit and commendation of them; and 
 when they are quite out of the way, let him, without 
 being laughed at for his mistake, be gently put into the 
 right ; and, take care, as much as you can, that in this 
 inclination he shews to reasoning about every thing 
 no body balk or impose upon him. For, when all is 
 done, this, as the highest and most important faculty of 
 our minds, deserves the greatest care and attention in 
 cultivating it; the right improvement and exercise of 
 our reason being the highest perfection that a man can 
 attain to in this life. 
 
 123. Sauntering. Contrary to this busy inquisitive 
 temper, there is sometimes observable in children a list- 
 
 1 Sec. 114 in first edition.
 
 123, 124. SAUNTERING 97 
 
 less carelessness, a want of regard to any thing, an^f 
 a sort of trifling, even at their business. This sauntering 
 humour I look on as one of the worst qualities that can 
 appear in a child, as well as one of the hardest to be 
 cured, where it is natural. But, it being liable to be 
 mistaken in some cases, care must be taken to make 
 a right judgment concerning that trifling at their books 
 or business, which may sometimes be complained of in a 
 child. Upon the first suspicion a father has that his son 
 is of a sauntering temper, he must carefully observe him,} 
 i whether he be listless and indifferent in all his actions I 
 jor Avhether in some things alone he be slow and sluggish,{ 
 J but in others vigorous and eager : for though he find 
 that he does loiter at his book, and let a good deal' of 
 the time he spends in his chamber or study run idly 
 away, he must not presently conclude that this is from a 
 sauntering humour in his temper ; it may be childish- 
 ness, and a preferring something to his study which his 
 thoughts run on ; and he dislikes his book, as is natural, 
 because it is forced upon him as a task. 1 To know this 
 perfectly, you must watch him at play, when he is out of 
 his place and time of study, following his own inclina- 
 tions ; and see there, whether he be vigorous and active ; 
 whether he designs anything, and with labour and 
 eagerness pursues it, till he has accomplished what he 
 aimed at; or whether he lazily and listlessly dreams 
 away his time. If this sloth be only when he is about 
 his book, I think it may be easily cured; if it be in his 
 temper, it will require a little more pains and attention 
 to remedy it. 
 
 124. If you are satisfied, by his earnestness at play, or 
 any thing else he sets his mind on, in the intervals 
 between his hours of business, that he is not of himself 
 inclined to laziness, but that only want of relish of his 
 book makes him negligent and sluggish in his applica- 
 tion to it, the first step is to try, by talking to him 
 kindly of the folly and inconvenience of it, whereby he 
 loses a good part of his time, which he might have for 
 
 1 See Introduction, p. 15. 
 
 7
 
 98 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 his diversion : but be sure to talk calmly and kindly, 
 and not much at first, but only these plain reasons in 
 short. If this prevails, you have gained the point in the 
 most desirable way, which is reason and kindness. If it 
 prevails not, try to shame him out of it, by laughing at 
 him for it, asking every day, when he comes to table, if 
 there be no strangers there, " how long he was that day 
 about his business ?" And if he has not done it, in the 
 time he might be well supposed to have despatched it, 
 expose and turn him into ridicule for it ; but mix no 
 chiding, only put on a pretty cold brow towards him, 
 and keep it till he reform; and let his mother, tutor, 
 and all about him, do so too. 1 If this work not the 
 effect you desire, then tell him he shall be no longer 
 troubled with a tutor to take care of his education : you 
 will not be at the charge to have him spend his time idly 
 with him; but since he prefers this or that (whatever 
 play he delights in) to his book, that only he shall do ; 
 and so in earnest set him to work on his beloved play, 
 and keep him steadily and in earnest to it morning and 
 afternoon, till he be fully surfeited, and would, at any 
 rate, change it for some hours at his book again : but 
 when you thus set him a task of his play, you must be 
 sure to look after him yourself, or set somebody else to 
 do it, that may constantly see him employed in it, and 
 that he be not permitted to be idle at that too. I say, 
 your self look after him; for it is worth the father's 
 while, whatever business he has, to bestow two or three 
 days upon his son, to cure so great a mischief as is 
 sauntering at his business. 
 
 125. This is what I propose, if it be idleness not from 
 his general temper, but a peculiar or acquired aversion 
 to learning, which you must be careful to examine and 
 distinguish, which you shall certainly know by the way 
 above proposed. But though you have your eyes upon 
 him to watch what he does with the time he has at his 
 own disposal, yet you must not let him perceive that you 
 or any body else do so. For that may restrain him from 
 1 See sec. 53, note.
 
 125, 126, 127. SAUNTERING 99 
 
 following his own inclination, and that being the thing 
 his head or heart is upon, and not daring to prosecute it 
 for fear of you, he may forbear doing other things, and 
 so seem to be idle and negligent, when in truth it is 
 nothing but being intent on that which the fear of your 
 eye or knowledge keeps him from executing. You must 
 therefore, when you would try him, give him full liberty ; 
 but let some body whom you can trust observe what he 
 does. And it will be best he should have his play-day 
 of liberty, when you and all that he may suspect to have 
 an eye upon him are abroad, that so he may without 
 check follow his natural inclination. Thus by his em- 
 ploying of such times of liberty, you will easily discern 
 whether it be listlessness in his temper, or aversion 
 to his book that makes him saunter away his time of 
 study. 
 
 126. If listlessness and dreaming be his natural dis- 
 position, this unpromising temper is one of the hardest 
 to be dealt with, because it generally carrying with it 
 an indifferency for future things, may be attributed to 
 want of foresight and want of desire ; and how to plant 
 or increase either of these, where Nature has given a 
 cold or contrary temper, is not I think very easy. As 
 soon as it is perceived, the first thing to be done is to r 
 find out his most predominate passion, and carefully 
 examine what it is to which the greatest bent of his 
 mind has the most steady and earnest tendency. And 
 when you have found that, you must set that 011 work 
 to excite his industry to any thing else. If he loves 
 praise, or play, or tine clothes, etc., or, on the other side, 
 dreads shame and disgrace, your displeasure, etc., what- 
 ever it be that he loves most, except it be sloth (for that 
 will never set him on work), let that be made use of to 
 excite him to activity. For in this listless temper you 
 are not to fear an excess of appetite (as in all other 
 cases) by cherishing it. "Tis that which you want, and 
 therefore must labour to stir up and increase. For where 
 there is no desire, there will be 110 industry. 
 
 127. If you have not hold enough upon him this way
 
 100 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 to stir up vigour and activity in him, you must employ 
 him in some constant bodily labour, whereby he may get 
 a habit of doing something. The keeping him hard to 
 some study, were the better way to get him an habit of 
 exercising and applying his mind. But, because this is 
 an invisible attention, and nobody can tell when he is oi- 
 ls not idle at it, you must find bodily employments for 
 him, which he must be constantly busied in and kept to ; 
 and if they have some little hardship and shame in them, 
 it may not be the worse, to make them the sooner weary 
 him, and desire to return to his book. But be sure, when 
 you exchange his book for his other labour, set him such 
 a task, to be done in such a time, as may allow him no 
 opportunity to be. idle. Only, after you have by this 
 way brought him to be attentive and industrious at his 
 book, you may, upon his despatching his study within 
 the time set him, give him as a reward some respite from 
 his other labour; which you may diminish, as you find 
 him grow more and more steady in his application ; and, 
 at last, wholly take off, when his sauntering at his book 
 is cured. 
 
 128. Compulsion. We formerly observed, that variety 
 and freedom was that that delighted children, and re- 
 commended their plays to them ; and that therefore their 
 book, or anything we would have them learn, should not 
 be enjoined them as business. 1 " This their parents, tutors, 
 and teachers are apt to forget ; and their impatience to 
 have them busied in what is fit for them to do suffers 
 them not to deceive them into it : but, by the repeated 
 injunctions they meet with, children quickly distinguish 
 between what is required of them and what not. When 
 this mistake has once made his book uneasy to him, the 
 cure is to be applied at the other end. And since it will be 
 then too late to endeavour to make it a play to him, you 
 must take the contrary course ; observe what play he is 
 most delighted with ; enjoin that, and make him play so 
 many hours every day, not as a punishment for playing, 
 
 1 Sees. 72-74, 84, 123, 148, 149, 167, 202. Of. sees. 126, 127, and 
 see Introduction, p. 15.
 
 128, 129. COMPULSION 101 
 
 but as if it were the business required of him. This, if 
 I mistake not, will, in a few days, make him so weary of 
 his most beloved sport, that he will prefer his book, or 
 any thing to it, especially if it may redeem him from any 
 part of the task of play that is set him ; and he may be 
 suffered to employ some part of the time destined to his 
 task of play in his book, or such other exercise as is 
 really useful to him. This I at least think a better cure 
 than that forbidding (which usually increases the desire) 
 or any other punishment that should be made use of to 
 remedy it. For when you have once glutted his appetite 
 (which may safely be done in all things but eating and 
 drinking), and made him surfeit of what you would have 
 him avoid, you have put into him a principle of aversion, 
 and you need not so much fear afterwards his longing 
 for the same thing again. 
 
 129. This, I think, is sufficiently evident, that children 
 generally hate to be idle. All the care then is, that their 
 busy humour should be constantly employed in something 
 of use to them ; which if you will attain, you must make 
 what you would have them do a recreation to them, and 
 not a business. The way to do this, so that they may 
 not perceive you have any hand in it, is this proposed 
 here, viz. to make them weary of that which you would 
 not have them do, by enjoining and making them, under 
 some pretence or other, do it till they are surfeited. For 
 exatnple : Does your son play at top and scourge too 
 much ? Enjoin him to play so many hours every day, 
 and look that he do it ; and you shall see he will quickly 
 be sick of it, and willing to leave it. By this means, 
 l/making the recreations you dislike a business to him, he\ 
 Jvvill of himself with delight betake himself to those things! 
 /you would have him do, especially if they be proposed as\ 
 ^rewards for having performed his task in that play which / 
 is commanded him. For, if he be ordered every day to 
 whip his top so long as to make him sufficiently weary, 
 do you not think he will apply himself with eagerness to 
 his book, and wish for it, if you promise it him as a reward 
 of having whipped his top lustily, quite out all the time
 
 102 THOUGHTS CONCEKNING EDUCATION 
 
 that is set him ? : Children, in the things they do, if they 
 comport with their age, find little difference, so they may 
 be doing : the esteem they have for one thing above 
 another, they borrow from others; so that what those 
 about them make to be a reward to them, will really be 
 so. By this art, it is in their governor's choice, whether 
 scotch-hoppers shall reward their dancing, or dancing 
 their scotch-hoppers ; whether peg-top, or reading, play- 
 ing at trap, or study ing the globes, shall be more accept- 
 able and pleasing to them; all that they desire being to 
 be busy, and busy, as they imagine, in things of their 
 own choice, and which they receive as favours from their 
 parents, or others for whom they have respect, and with 
 whom they would be in credit. A set of children thus 
 ordered, and kept from the ill example of others, would 
 all of them, I suppose, with as much earnestness and 
 delight, learn to read, write, and what else one would 
 have them, as others do their ordinary plays : and the 
 eldest being thus .entered, and this made the fashion of 
 the place, it would be as impossible to hinder them from 
 learning the one, as it is ordinarily to keep them from 
 the other. 
 
 -130. Play -games. Playthings, I think, children should 
 have, and of all sorts, but still to be in the keeping of 
 their tutors, or somebody else, whereof the child should 
 have in his power but one at once,, and should not be 
 suffered to have another, but when he restored that. 
 This teaches them betimes to be careful of not losing or 
 spoiling the things they have; whereas plenty and variety 
 in their own keeping, makes them wanton and careless, 
 and teaches them from the beginning to be squanderers 
 and wasters. 2 These, I confess, are little things, and 
 such as will seem beneath the care of a governor ; but 
 nothing that may form children's minds is to be over- 
 looked and neglected : and whatsoever introduces habits, 
 and settles customs in them, deserves the care and atten- 
 tion of their governors, and is not a small thing in its 
 consequences. 
 
 1 I.e., throughout the stipulated time. 2 Sees. 150-154.
 
 131. LYING 132. EXCUSES 103 
 
 [Except, things like battle-dores, which are above their 
 sMll, 'playthings should not be bought, but contrived bj/ 
 Children themselves. "If they sit gaping to have such 
 ""things drop into their mouths, they should go without 
 them."] 
 
 131. Lying. Lying is so ready and cheap a cover for 
 any miscarriage, and so much in fashion amongst all 
 sorts of people, that a child can hardly avoid observing 
 the use is made of it on all occasions, and so can scarce 
 be kept, without great care, from getting into it. But 
 it is so ill a quality, and the mother of so many ill ones 
 that spawn from it and take shelter under it, that a child | 
 should be brought up in the greatest abhorrence of it | 
 imaginable : it should be always (when occasionally it 
 comes to be mentioned) spoke of before him with the 
 utmost detestation, as a quality so wholly incompetent 
 with a gentleman, that nobody of any credit can bear I 
 the imputation of a lie ; that is proper only to beggars'- | 
 boys and the abhorred rascality, and not tolerable in any 
 one, who would converse with people of condition, or have 
 any esteem or reputation in the world. And the first \ 
 I time he is found in a lie, it should rather be wondered i 
 /at, as a monstrous thing in him, than reproved as an) 
 (ordinary fault. If that keeps him not from relapsing, 
 the next time he must be sharply rebuked, and fall into 
 the state of great displeasure of his father and mother, 
 and all about him, who take notice of it. And if this 
 way work not the cure, you must come to blows; for, 
 after he has been thus warned, a premeditated lie must 
 always be looked upon as obstinacy, and never be per- 
 mitted to 'scape unpunished. 
 
 132. Excuses. Children, afraid to have their faults 
 seen in their naked colours, will, like the rest of the 
 sons of Adam, be apt to make excuses. This is a fault 
 usually bordering upon, and leading to untruth, and is 
 not to be indulged in them; but yet, it ought to be 
 cured rather with shame than roughness. If therefore, 
 when a child is questioned for anything, his first answer 
 be an excuse, warn him soberly to tell the truth; and
 
 104 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 then, if he persists to shuffle it off with a falsehood, he 
 must be chastised. But if he directly confess, you must 
 commend his ingenuity, 1 and pardon the fault, be it 
 what it will ; and pardon it so, that you never so much 
 as reproach him with it, or mention it to him again. For 
 if you would have him in love with ingenuity, and by a 
 constant practice make it habitual to him, you must take 
 care that it never procure him the least inconvenience ; 
 but, on the contrary, his own confession bringing always 
 with it perfect impunity, should be, besides, encouraged 
 by some marks of approbation. If his excuse be such at 
 any time that you cannot prove it to have any falsehood 
 in it, let it pass for true, and be sure not to show any 
 suspicion of it. Let him keep up his reputation with 
 you as high as is possible; for, when once he finds he 
 has lost that, you have lost a great and your best hold 
 upon him. Therefore let him not think he has the 
 character of a liar with you, as long as you can avoid it 
 without nattering him in it. Thus some slips in truth 
 may be overlooked. But, after he has once been corrected 
 for a lie, you must be sure never after to pardon it in 
 him, whenever you find, and take notice to him, that he 
 is guilty of it : for it being a fault, which he has been forbid, 
 and may, unless he be wilful, avoid, the repeating of it 
 is perfect perverseness, and must have the chastisement 
 due to that offence. 
 
 133. This is what I have thought, concerning the 
 general method of educating a young gentleman ; which, 
 though I am apt to suppose may have some influence on 
 the whole course of his education, yet I am far from 
 imagining it contains all those particulars which his 
 growing years or peculiar temper may require. But this 
 being premised in general, we shall, in the next place, 
 descend to a more particular consideration of the several 
 parts of his education. 
 
 134. That which every gentleman (that takes any care 
 of his education) desires for his son, besides the estate 
 he leaves him, is contained I suppose in these four things, 
 
 1 I.?., ingenuousness, candour.
 
 135. VIRTUE 136. GOD 105 
 
 Virtue, Wisdom, Breeding, and Learning. I will not 
 trouble myself whether these names dcTiiotsome of them 
 sometimes stand for the same thing, or really include one 
 another. It serves my turn here to follow the popular 
 use of these words, which, I presume, is clear enough to 
 make me be understood, and I hope there will be no 
 difficulty to comprehend my meaning. 
 
 135. Virtue. I place Virtue as the first and most 
 necessary of those endowments that belong to a man or 
 a gentleman, as absolutely requisite to make him valued 
 and beloved by others, acceptable or tolerable to himself ; 
 without that, I think, he will be happy neither in this nor 
 the other world. 
 
 136. God. As the foundation of this, there ought very 
 early to be imprinted on his mind a true notion of God, 
 as of the independent Supreme Being, Author and Maker 
 of all things, from whom we receive all our good, who 
 loves us, and gives us all things ; and, consequent to it, 
 a love and reverence of this Supreme Being. This is 
 enough to begin with, without going to explain this matter 
 any farther, for fear, lest by talking too early to him of 
 spirits, and being unseasonably forward to make him 
 understand the incomprehensible nature of that infinite 
 being, his head be either filled with false, or perplexed 
 with unintelligible notions of him. Let him only be told 
 upon occasion, of God, that made and governs all things, 
 hears- and sees everything, and does all manner of good 
 to those that love and obey him. You will find, that 
 being told of such a God, other thoughts will be apt to 
 rise up fast enough in his mind about him ; which, as you 
 observe them to have any mistakes, you must set right. 
 And I think it would be better, if men generally rested in 
 such an idea of God, without being too curious in their 
 notions about a being, which all must acknowledge in- 
 comprehensible ; whereby many, who have not strength 
 and clearness of thought to distinguish between what 
 they can, and what they cannot know, run themselves 
 into superstition or atheism, making God like themselves, 
 or (because they cannot comprehend any thing else) none
 
 106 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 at all. 1 [And I am apt to think, the keeping children con- 
 stantly morning and evening to acts of devotion to God, 
 as to their Maker, Preserver, and Benefactor, in some 
 plain and short form of prayer, suitable to their age and 
 capacity, will be of much more use to them in religion, 
 knowledge, and virtue, than to distract their thoughts 
 with curious inquiries into his inscrutable essence and 
 being.] 
 
 137. Spirits. Having by gentle degrees, as you find 
 him capable of it, settled such an idea of God in his mind, 
 and taught him to pray to him, forbear any discourse of 
 other spirits, till the mention of them coming in his way, 
 upon occasion hereafter to be set down, and his reading 
 the Scripture history, put him upon that inquiry. 2 
 
 138. Goblins. But even then, and always whilst he is 
 young, be sure to preserve his tender mind from all 
 impressions and notions of sprites and goblins, or any 
 fearful apprehensions in the dark. It being the usual 
 method of servants to awe children, and keep them in 
 subjection, by telling them of Eaw-Head and Bloody- 
 Bones, and such other names, as carry with them the 
 ideas of some hurtful, terrible things inhabiting darkness, 
 this must be carefully prevented. For though by this 
 foolish way they may keep them from little faults, yet 
 the remedy is much worse than the disease, and there are 
 stamped upon their minds ideas that follow them with 
 terror and affrightment. For such bugbear thoughts, 
 once got into the tender minds of children, sink deep 
 there, and fasten themselves so, as not easily, if ever, to 
 be got out again ; and whilst they are there, frequently 
 haunt them with strange visions, making children dastards 
 when alone, and afraid of their shadows and darkness 
 all their lives after. For it is to be taken notice, that the 
 first impressions sink deepest into the minds of children, 
 and the notions they are possessed with when young are 
 scarce by any industry or art ever after quite wiped out. 
 
 1 With this deistic creed contrast the recommendation? for 
 religious instruction in sees. 157-159 below. 
 
 2 See sees. 191, 192.
 
 138. GOBLINS 107 
 
 I have had those complain to me, when men, who had been 
 thus used when young, that, though their reason cor- 
 rected the wrong ideas they had taken in, and though 
 they were satisfied that there was no cause to fear in- 
 visible beings more in the dark than in the light, yet that 
 these notions were apt still, upon any occasion, to start 
 up first in their prepossessed fancies, and not to be removed 
 without some pains. And, to let you see how lasting 
 frightful images are, that take place in the mind early, I 
 here tell you a pretty remarkable, but true story. There 
 was in a town in the West a man of a disturbed brain, 
 whom the boys used to tease, when he came in their 
 way : this fellow one day, seeing in the street one of 
 those lads that used to vex him, stepped into a cutler's 
 shop he was near, and, there seizing on a naked sword, 
 made after the boy, who seeing him coming so armed, 
 betook himself to his feet, and ran for his life, and by 
 good luck, had strength and heels enough to reach his 
 father's house before the madman could get up to him. 
 The door was only latched ; and when he had the latch 
 in his hand, he turned about his head to see how near his 
 pursuer was, who was at the entrance of the porch, with 
 his sword up ready to strike ; and he had just time to 
 get in and clap-to the door, to avoid the blow, which, 
 though his body escaped, his mind did not. This frighten- 
 ing idea made so deep an impression there, that it lasted 
 many years, if not all his life after ; for telling this story 
 when he was a man, he said, that after that time till then, 
 he never went in at that door (that he could remember) 
 at any time, without looking back, whatever business he 
 had in his head, or how little soever, before he came 
 thither, he thought of this madman. 
 
 If children were let alona, they would ha no rn^lg 
 afraid in the dark than of broad sunshine ; l they would 
 
 1 It is characteristic of Locke's psychology to explain fear of) 
 klarkness as a result of personal experience. But many children^ 
 (spontaneously, and quite apart from experience, exhibit fear of\ 
 /darkness and of strangers, two forms of that emotion which were ] 
 [ wholesome at a remote period of human history, though they have ) 
 ' now outlived their usefulness in normal civilized life.
 
 108 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 in their turns as much welcome the one for sleep, as the 
 other to play in ; there should be no distinction made to 
 them, by any discourse, of more danger or terrible things 
 in the one than the other. But, if the folly of any one 
 about them should do them this harm, to make them 
 think there is any difference between being in the dark 
 and winking, you must get it out of their minds as soon 
 as you can ; and let them know that God, who made all 
 things good for them, made the night, that they might 
 sleep the better and the quieter ; and that they being 
 under his protection, there is nothing in the dark to hurt 
 them. What is to be known more of God and good 
 spirits is to be deferred till the time we shall hereafter 
 mention ; and of evil spirits, it will be well if you can 
 keep him from wrong fancies about them, till he ia ripe 
 for that sort of knowledge. 
 
 139. Truth, Having laid the foundations of virtue in 
 a true notion of a God, such as the creed wisely teaches, 
 j as far as his age is capable, and by accustoming him to 
 j pray to him, the next thing to be taken care of, is to keep 
 ihim exactly to speaking of truth 7 and by all the ways 
 imaginable inclining him to 'be good-natured. Let him 
 know, that twenty faults are sooner to be forgiven, than 
 the straining of truth to cover any one by an excuse. 
 And to teach him betimes to love and be good-natured 
 to others, is to lay early the true foundation of an honest 
 man ; all injustice generally springing from too great love 
 of ourselves and too little of others. 
 
 This is all I shall say of this matter in general, and is 
 enough for laying the first foundations of virtue in a 
 child. As he grows up, the tendency of his natural in- 
 clination 1 must be observed; which, as it inclines him, 
 more than is convenient, on one or t'other side, from the 
 right path of virtue, ought to have proper remedies 
 applied. For few of Adam's children are so happy as 
 not to be born with some bias in their natural temper, 
 which it is the business of education either to take off, 
 or counterbalance : but to enter into particulars of this, 
 1 See sec. 101, note.
 
 139. TKUTH 140. WISDOM 109 
 
 would be beyond the design of this short treatise of 
 education. I intend not a discourse of all the virtues 
 and vices, and how each virtue is to be attained, and 
 every particular vice by its peculiar remedies cured ; 
 though I have mentioned some of the most ordinary 
 faults, and the ways to be used in correcting them. 
 
 140. Wisdom. Wisdom I take, in the popular accepta-\ 
 /tion, for a man's managing his business ably and with/ 
 [foresight in this world. This is the product of a good 
 natural temper, application of mind and experience 
 together, and not to be taught children. The greatest 
 thing that in them can be done towards it, is to hinder 
 them, as much as may be, from being cunning ; which, 
 being the ape of wisdom, is the most distant from it that 
 can be : and as l an ape, for 2 the likeness it has to a man, 
 wanting what really should make him so, is by so much 
 the uglier. Cunning is only the want of understanding ; 
 which, because it cannot compass its ends by direct ways, 
 would do it by a trick and circumvention ; and the 
 mischief of it is, a cunning trick helps but once, but 
 hinders ever after. No cover was ever made either so 
 big or so fine as to hide itself. Nobody was ever so 
 cunning, as to conceal their being so : and when they are 
 once discovered, every body is shy, every body distrust- 
 ful of crafty men ; and all the world forwardly join to 
 oppose and defeat them : whilst the open, fair, wise man 
 has every body to make way for him, and goes directly 
 to his business. To accustom a child to have true notions 
 of things, and not to be satisfied till he has them ; to raise 
 his mind to great and worthy thoughts ; and to keep him 
 at a distance from falsehood and cunning, which has 
 always a broad mixture of falsehood in it, is the fittest 
 preparation of a child for wisdom, which being learned 
 from time, experience, and observation, and an acquaint- 
 ance with men, their tempers and designs [is] not to be 
 expected in the ignorance and inadvertency of childhood, 
 or the inconsiderate heat and unwariness of youth : all 
 that can be done towards it, during this unripe age, is, 
 1 I.e., like. 2 I.e., because of.
 
 110 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 as I have said, to accustom them to truth and submission 
 to reason ; and, as much as may be, to reflection on their 
 own actions. 
 
 141. Breeding. The next good quality belonging to a 
 gentleman is good breeding. There are two sorts of ill 
 breeding ; the one, a sheepish bashfulness ; and the other t 
 a misbecomlngnegligence and_disrespect in our carriage f 
 both which are avoided by duly observing this one rule, 
 Not to think meanly of ourselves, and not to think meanly 
 of others. 1 
 
 142. The first part of this rule must not be understood 
 in opposition to humility, but to assurance. We ought 
 not to think so well of ourselves as to stand upon our 
 own value ; or assume a preference to others, because of 
 any advantage we may imagine we have over them ; but 
 modestly to take what is offered, when it is our due. 
 But yet we ought to think so well of ourselves, as to 
 perform those actions which are incumbent on and ex- 
 pected of us, without discomposure or disorder, in whose 
 presence soever we are, keeping that respect and distance 
 which is due to every one's rank and quality. There is 
 often in people, especially children, a clownish shame- 
 facedness before strangers, or those above them ; they are 
 confounded in their thoughts, words, and looks, and so 
 lose themselves in that confusion, as not to be able to 
 do any thing, or at least not to do it with that freedom 
 and gracefulness which pleases and makes them accept- 
 able. The only cure for this, as for any miscarriage, is 
 by use to introduce the contrary habit. But since we 
 cannot accustom ourselves to converse with strangers 
 and persons of quality without being in their company, 
 nothing can cure this part of ill breeding but change 
 and variety of company, and that of persons above us. 
 
 143. As the before-mentioned consists in too great a 
 concern how to behave ourselves towards others, so the 
 other part of ill breeding lies in the appearance of too 
 little care of pleasing or showing respect to those we have 
 
 1 With sees. 141-146 cf. Montaigue, i., chap. xxv v "En cette 
 eschole du commerce des homines," etc., and i., chap, xxiii.
 
 143, 144. BREEDING 111 
 
 to do with. To avoid these, two things are requisite : 
 first, a disposition of the mind not to offend others : and, 
 secondly, the most acceptable and agreeable way of 
 expressing that disposition. From the one, men are 
 called civil : from the other, well-fashioned. The latter 
 of these is that decency and gracefulness of looks, voice, 
 words, motions, gestures, and of all the whole outward 
 demeanour which pleases in company, and makes those 
 easy and delighted whom we converse with. This is, 
 as it were, the language whereby that internal civility 
 of the mind is expressed ; and being very much governed 
 by the fashion and custom of every country, as other 
 languages are, must, in the rules and practice of it, be 
 learned chiefly from observation, and the carriage of 
 those who are allowed to be exactly well-bred. The 
 other part, which lies in the mind, is that general good- 
 will and regard for all people, which makes any one have 
 a care not to show, in his carriage, any contempt, dis- 
 respect, or neglect of them ; but to express, according 
 to the fashion and way of that country, a respect and 
 value for them, according to their rank and condition. 
 
 144. There is another fault in good manners, and that 
 is, excess of ceremony , and an obstinate persisting to 
 force upon another what is not his due, and what he 
 cannot take without folly or shame. This seems rather 
 a design to expose than oblige, or at least looks like a 
 contest for mastery ; and at best is but troublesome, and 
 so can be no part of good breeding, which has no other 
 use nor end but to make people easy and satisfied in 
 their conversation with us. This is a fault few young 
 people are apt to fall into ; but yet, if they are ever 
 guilty of it, or are suspected to incline that way, they 
 should be told of it, and warned of this mistaken civility. 
 The thing they should endeavour and aim at in conversa- 
 tion, should be to show respect, esteem, and good-will, 
 by paying to every one that common ceremony and regard 
 which is in civility due to them. To do this, without a 
 suspicion of flattery, dissimulation, or meanness, is a 
 great skill, which good sense, reason and good company
 
 112 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 can only teach ; but is of so much use in civil life, that it 
 is well worth the studying. 
 
 145. Though the managing ourselves well in this part 
 of our behaviour has the name of good breeding, as if 
 peculiarly the effect of education ; yet, as I have said, 
 young children should not be much perplexed about it ; 
 I mean, about putting off their hats and making legs 
 modishly. 1 Teach them humility and to be good- 
 natured if you can, and this sort of manners will not be 
 wanting : civility being, in truth, nothing but a care net- 
 to show any slighting or contempt of any one in con- 
 versation. What are the most allowed and esteemed 
 ways of expressing this, we have above observed. It is 
 as peculiar and different, in several countries of the world, 
 as their languages : and therefore, if it be rightly con- 
 sidered, rules and discourses, made to children about it, 
 are as useless and impertinent as it would be now and then 
 to give a rule or two of the Spanish tongue to one that 
 converses only with Englishmen. Be as busy as you 
 please with discourses of civility to your son ; such as is 
 his company, such will be his manners. A ploughman 
 of your neighbourhood, that has never been out of his 
 parish, read what lectures you please to him, will be as 
 soon in his language, as his carriage, a courtier ; that is, 
 in neither will be more polite than those he uses to 
 converse with : and therefore of this no other care can 
 be taken. And, in good earnest, if I were to speak my 
 mind freely, so children do nothing out of obstinacy, 
 pride, and ill-nature, it is no great matter how they put 
 off their hats or make legs. If you can teach them to 
 love and respect other people, they will, as their age 
 requires it, find ways to express it acceptably to every 
 one, according to the fashions they have been used to : 
 and, as to their motions, and carriage of their bodies, a 
 dancing-master, as has been said, when it is fit, will teach 
 them what is most becoming. In the meantime, when 
 they are young, people expect not that children should 
 be over-mindful of these ceremonies ; carelessness is 
 1 I.e., bowing in the accustomed fashion.
 
 145. BREEDING 146. COMPANY 113 
 
 allowed to that age, and becomes them as well as compli- 
 ments do grown people : or, at least, if some very nice x 
 people will think it a fault, I am sure it is a fault that 
 should be over-looked, and left to time and conversation 
 only to cure : and therefore I think it not worth your 
 while to have your son (as I often see children are) 
 molested or chid about it. But where there is pride or 
 ill-nature appearing in his carriage, there he must be 
 persuaded or shamed out of it. 
 
 [Forwardness to talk, frequent interruptions in argu- 
 ing, and loud wrangling, are too often observable amongst 
 grown people even of rank amongst us. ... Was it not, 
 think you, an entertaining spectacle, to see two ladies of 
 quality accidentally seated on the opposite sides of a 
 room, set round with company, fall into a dispute, and 
 grow so eager in it, that in the heat of their controversy, 
 edging by degrees their chairs forwards, they were in a 
 little time got up close to one another in the middle of 
 the room ; where they for a good while managed the 
 dispute as fiercely as two game-cocks in the pit, without 
 minding or taking any notice of the circle, which could 
 not all the while forbear smiling ? This I was told by a 
 person of quality, who was present at the combat, and 
 did not omit to reflect upon the indecencies that warmth 
 in dispute often runs people into ; which, since .custom 
 makes too frequent, education should take the more 
 care of.] 
 
 146. Company. This that I have said here, if it were 
 reflected on, would perhaps lead us a little farther, and 
 let us see of what influence company is. 'Tis not the 
 modes of civility alone that are imprinted by conversa- 
 tion; 2 the tincture of compfl.ny sinks deeper than the 
 outsidej and possibly, if a true estimate were made of the 
 fnofality and religions of the world, we should find that the 
 far greater part of mankind received even those opinions 
 and ceremonies they would die for, rather from the 
 fashions of their countries, and the constant practice of 
 those about them, than from any conviction of their 
 
 1 I.e., exacting. 2 Intercourse. 
 
 8
 
 114 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 reasons. I mention this only to let you see of what 
 moment I think company is to your son in all the parts 
 of his life, and therefore how much that one part is to be 
 weighed and provided for, it being of greater force to work 
 upon him than all you can do besides. 1 
 
 147. Learning. You will wonder, perhaps, that I put 
 learning last, especially if I tell you I think it the leasfr 
 part. This will seem strange in the mouth of a bookish 
 man : and this making usually the chief, if not only bustle 
 and stir about children, this being almost that alone, 
 which is thought on, when people talk of education, makes 
 it the greater paradox. When I consider what a-do is 
 made about a little Latin and Greek, how many years are 
 spent in it, and what a noise and business it makes to no 
 purpose, I can hardly forbear thinking that the parents 
 of children still live in fear of the school-master's rod, 
 which they look on as the only instrument of education ; 
 as a language or two to be its whole business. How else 
 is it possible, that a child should be chained to the oar 
 seven, eight, or ten of the best years of his life, to get a 
 language or two, which I think might be had at a great 
 deal cheaper rate of pains and time, and be learned almost 
 in playing ? 2 
 
 Forgive me therefore, if I say, I cannot with patience 
 think, that a young gentleman should be put into the 
 herd ; and be driven with a whip and scourge, as if he were 
 to run the gauntlet through the several classes, " ad 
 capiendum ingenii cultum." 3 " What then," say you, 
 " would you not have him write ad read ? Shall he 
 be more ignorant than the clerk of our parish, who takes 
 Hopkins and Sternhold 4 for the best poets in the world, 
 whom yet he makes worse than they are by his ill reading ?" 
 
 1 See sees. 67, 68. 
 
 2 " We do amiss to spend seven or eight years merely in scraping 
 together so much miserable Latin and Greek as might be learnt 
 otherwise easily and delightfully in one year." MILTON, Of Educa- 
 tion (1644). 
 
 3 " In order to acquire an education of his natural ability." 
 
 4 The metrical version of the Psalms, by Thos. Sternhold and 
 John Hopkins, first published temp. Ed. VI.
 
 147. LEARNING 148. READING 115 
 
 Not so, not so fast, I beseech you. Beading, and writing, 
 and learning, I allow to be necessary, but yet not the 
 chief business. I imagine you would think him a very 
 foolish fellow, that should not value a virtuous or a wise 
 man infinitely before a great scholar. Not but that I 
 think learning a great help to both, in well-disposed 
 minds ; but yet it must be confessed also, that in others 
 not so disposed, it helps them only to be the more foolish 
 or worse men. I say this, that, when you consider of 
 the breeding of your son, and are looking out for a school- 
 master, or a tutor, you would not have (as is usual) Latin 
 and logic only in your thoughts. Learning must be had, 
 bujjjruth^ ^eeeadLplacei as subservient only to greater 
 qualities. Seek out someBddy that may" "know how k 
 discreetly to frame his manners ; place him in hands \ ] 
 where you may, as much as possible, secure his innocence, ( 
 cherish and nurse up the good, and gently correct and V 
 weed out any bad inclinations, and settle in him good \) r 
 habits. This is the main point ; and this being provided 
 for, learning may be had into the bargain, and that, as I 
 think, at a very easy rate, by methods that may be 
 thought on. 
 
 148. Reading. When he can talk, 'tis time he shoidd 
 bpcnn to learn to read. But as to this, give me leave here 
 to inculcate again what is very apt to be forgotten, viz. 
 that a great care is to be taken that it be never made as 
 a business to him, nor he look on it as a task. 1 We 
 naturally, as I said, even from our cradles, love liberty, 
 and have therefore an aversion to many things for no 
 other reason but because they are enjoined us. I k 
 have always had a fancy that learning might be made a j 
 play and recreation to children ; and that they might ' 
 be brought to desire to be taught, if it were proposed to / 
 them as a thing of honour, credit, delight, and recreation, 
 or as a reward for doing something else, and if they were 
 never chid or corrected for the neglect of it. That which 
 confirms me in this opinion, is, that amongst the Portu- 
 
 1 See sees. 73-76, 103, 128-129, 167, 202. The opinion is most 
 emphatically stated in sec. 49.
 
 116 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 gueses, 'tis so much a fashion and emulation amongst 
 their children to learn to read and write, that they cannot 
 hinder them from it : they will learn it one from another 
 and are as intent on it as if it were forbid them. I re- 
 member, that being at a friend's house, whose younger 
 son, a child in coats, was not easily brought to his book 
 (being taught to read at home by his mother) I advised 
 to try another way than requiring it of him as his duty. 
 We therefore, in a discourse on purpose amongst ourselves 
 in his hearing, but without taking any notice of him, 
 declared, that it was the privilege and advantage of heirs 
 and elder brothers to be scholars ; l that this made them 
 fine gentlemen and beloved by everybody : and that for 
 younger brothers, it was a favour to admit them to breed- 
 ing ; to be taught to read and write was more than came 
 to their share ; they might be ignorant bumpkins and 
 clowns, if they pleased. This so wrought upon the child, 
 that afterwards he desired to be taught ; would come 
 himself to his mother to learn : and would not let his maid 
 be quiet, till she heard him his lesson. I doubt not but 
 some way like this might be taken with other children ; 
 and, when their tempers are found, some thoughts be 
 instilled into them, that might set them upon desiring 
 of learning themselves, and make them seek it, as another 
 sort of play or recreation. But then, as I said before, it 
 must never be imposed as a task, nor made a trouble to 
 them. There may be dice and play-things, with the 
 letters on them, to teach children the alphabet by playing ; 
 and twenty other ways may be found, suitable to their 
 particular tempers, to make this kind of learning a sport 
 to them. 
 
 149. Thus children may be cozened into a knowledge 
 of the letters ; be taught to read, without perceiving it 
 to be anything but a sport, and play themselves into that 
 others are whipped for. Children should not have any- 
 thing like work, or serious, laid on them ; neither their 
 
 1 A deliberate perversion of an opinion which was current in 
 Locke's day, when " heirs and elder brothers " were often thought 
 to be above the necessity of learning.
 
 149, 150, 151. READING 117 
 
 minds nor bodies will bear it. It injures their healths ; 
 and their being forced and tied down to their books, in 
 an age at enmity with all such restraint, has, I doubt not, 
 been the reason why a great many have hated books and 
 learning all their lives after : it is like a surfeit, that leaves 
 an aversion behind, not to be removed. 
 
 150. 1 Ihave therefore thought, that if playthings 2 
 > were ntteH to^thjs pUJftoaeTas they are usually to 'none, 
 contrivances might be made to teach children to read, 
 whilst they thought they were only playing. For 
 example ; What if an ivory-ball were made like that of 
 the Koyal-Oak lottery, 3 with thirty- two sides, or one 
 rather of twenty-four or twenty-five sides ; and upon 
 several of those sides pasted on an A, upon several others 
 B, on others C, and on others D ? I would have you begin 
 with but these four letters, or perhaps only two at first ; 
 and when he is perfect in them, then add another ; and so 
 on, till each side having one letter, there be on it the 
 whole alphabet. This I would have others play with 
 before him, it being as good a sort of play to lay a stake 
 who shall first throw an A or B, as who upon dice shall 
 throw six or seven. This being a play amongst you, 
 tempt him not to it, lest you make it business ; for I 
 would not have him understand it is anything but a play 
 of older people, and I doubt not but he will take to it of 
 himself. And that he may have the more reason to think 
 it is 'a play, that he is sometimes in favour admitted to, 
 when the play is done, the ball should be laid up safe out 
 of his reach, that so it may not, by his having it in his 
 keeping at any time, grow stale to him. 
 
 151. 4 To keep up his eagerness to it, let him think it a 
 game belonging to those above him ; and when by this 
 means he knows the letters, by changing them into 
 
 1 Sec. 143 in first edition. 2 See sec. 130. 
 
 3 Possibly, a kind of round game at cards, prizes or stakes going 
 to the holders of cards indicated by the " throw " of the " lottery- 
 ball," a polyhedron with numbers marked on its faces, and used as 
 dice. 
 
 4 Sec. 143 in first edition.
 
 118 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 syllables, he may learn to read, without knowing how he 
 did so, and never have any chiding or trouble about it, 
 nor fall out with books, because of the hard usage and 
 vexation they have caused him. Children, if you observe 
 them, take abundance of pains to learn several games, 
 which, if they should be enjoined them, they would abhor 
 as a task and business. I know a person of great quality 
 (more yet to be honoured for his learning and virtue than 
 for his rank and high place) who, by pasting on the six 
 vowels (for in our language Y is one) on the six sides of a 
 die, and the remaining eighteen consonants on the sides 
 of three other dice, has made this a play for his children, 
 that he shall win, who, at one cast, throws most words, on 
 these four dice ; whereby his eldest son, yet in coats, 1 has 
 played himself into spelling, with great eagerness, and 
 without once having been chid for it, or forced to it. 
 
 152. 2 I have seen little girls exercise whole hours 
 together, and take abundance of pains to be expert at 
 dibstones, 3 as they call it. Whilst I have been looking 
 on, I have thought it wanted only some good contrivance 
 to make them employ all that industry about something 
 that might be more useful to them ; and methinks it is 
 only the fault and negligence of elder people that it is not 
 so. Children are much less apt to be idle than men : and 
 men are to be blamed, if some part of that busy humour 
 be not turned to useful things ; which might be made 
 usually as delightful to them as those they are employed 
 in, if men would be but half so forward to lead the way as 
 these little apes would be to follow. I imagine some wise 
 Portuguese heretofore began this fashion amongst the 
 children of his country, where I have been told, as I said, 4 
 it is impossible to hinder the children from learning to 
 
 1 Not old enough to be breeched. 
 
 2 Sec. 144 in first edition. 
 
 3 " Tossing pebbles. A child's game " (T. Wright, Dictionary of 
 Obsolete and Provincial English). London children still play the 
 game in the streets, using a ball and four pebbles, and keeping one 
 of the five objects in the air while moving one of the others on the 
 ground. 
 
 4 Sec. 148.
 
 153, 154, 155, 156. READING 119 
 
 read and write : and in some parts of France they teach 
 one another to sing and dance from the cradle. 
 
 153. The letters pasted upon the sides of the dice, or 
 polygon, were best to be of the size of those of the folio 
 Bible to begin with, and none of them capital letters ; 
 when once he can read what is printed in such letters, he 
 will not long be ignorant of the great ones : and in the 
 beginning he should not be perplexed with variety. With 
 this die also, you might have a play just like the Eoyal- 
 Oak, which would be another variety ; and play for 
 cherries, or apples, etc. 
 
 154. Besides these, twenty other plays might be in- 
 vented, depending on letters, which those, who like this 
 way, may easily contrive, and get made to this use. if they 
 will. But the four dice above-mentioned I think so easy 
 and useful, that it will be hard to find any better, and 
 there will be scarce need of any other. 
 
 155. Thus much for learning to read, which let him 
 never be driven to, nor chid for ; cheat him into it if you 
 can, but make it not a business for him. 'Tis better.it be 
 a year later before he can read, than that he should this 
 way get an aversion to learning. If you have any con- 
 tests with him, let it be in matters of moment, of truth, 
 and good-nature ; but lay no task on him about ABC. 
 Use your skill to make his will supple and pliant to reason : 
 teach him to love credit and commendation ; to abhor 
 being thought ill or meanly of, especially by you and his 
 mother ; and then the rest will come all easily. But, I 
 think, if you will do that, you must not shackle and tie 
 him up with rules about indifferent matters, nor rebuke him 
 for every little fault, or perhaps some that to others would 
 seem great ones. But of this I have said enough already. 
 
 156. When by these gentle ways he begins to be able 
 to read, some easy, pleasant book, suited to his capacity, 
 should be put into his hands, wherein the entertainment 
 that he finds might draw him on, and reward his pains 
 in reading ; and yet not such as should fill his head with 
 perfectly useless trumpery, or lay the principles of vice 
 and folly. To this purpose I think jEsop's Fables the
 
 120 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 best, which being stories apt to delight and entertain a 
 child, may yet afford useful reflections to a grown man ; 
 and if his memory retain them all his life after, he will not 
 repent to find them there, amongst his manly thoughts 
 and serious business. If his ^Bsop has pictures in ik it 
 will entertain him much the better, and encourage him to 
 read when it carries the increase of knowledge with it : 
 for such visible objects children hear talked of in vain, 
 and without any satisfaction, whilst they have no ideas 
 of them ; those ideas being not to be had from sounds, 
 but from the things themselves, 1 or their pictures. And 
 therefore, I think, as soon as he begins to spell, as many 
 pictures of animals should be got him as can be found, 
 with the printed names to them, which at the same time 
 will invite him to read, and afford him matter of inquiry 
 and knowledge. Eeynard the Fox is another book, I 
 think, that may be made use of to the same purpose. 
 And if those about him will talk to him often about the 
 stories he has read, and hear him tell them, it will, besides 
 other advantages, add encouragement and delight to his 
 reading, when he finds there is some use and pleasure in it, 
 which in the ordinary method, I think, learners do not 
 till late ; and so take books only for fashionable amuse- 
 ments, or impertinent troubles, good for nothing. 
 
 157. The Lord's Prayer, the Creeds, and Ten Com- 
 mandments, 'tis necessary he should learn perfectly by_ 
 jieart ; but, I think, not by reading them himself in his 
 "primer, but by somebody's repeating them to him, even 
 before he can read. But learning by heart, and learning 
 to read, should not, I think, be mixed, and so one made 
 to clog the other. But his learning to read should be made 
 as little trouble or business to him as might be. 
 
 1 Derived directly from Locke's experiential psychology, the 
 principle here implied assumed the highest importance in the 
 theories of Rousseau and of Pestalozzi. The ninth letter of Pesta- 
 lozzi's How Gertrude teaches her Children (1801) begins thus: "If 
 I look back and ask myself what have I personally accomplished 
 for human instruction, I discover this: In recognizing Intuition 
 (Anschauung) as the absolute basis of all knowledge, I have estab- 
 lished the highest principle of instruction." Cf. sec. 166.
 
 157, 158. READING 121 
 
 What other books there are in English of the kind of 
 those above-mentioned, fit to engage the liking of children, 
 and tempt them to read, I do not know ; but am apt to 
 think that children, being generally delivered over to the 
 method of schools, where the fear of the rod is to enforce, 
 and not any pleasure of the employment to invite, them 
 to learn ; this sort of useful books, amongst the number 
 of silly ones that are of all sorts, have yet had the fate to 
 be neglected ; and nothing that I know has been con- 
 sidered of this kind out of the ordinary road of the horn- 
 book, primer, psalter, Testament, and Bible. 1 
 
 158. As for the Bible, which children are usually em- 
 ployed in to exercise and improve their talent in reading, 
 I think, the promiscuous reading of it through by chapters 
 as they lie in order, is so far from being of any advantage 
 to children, either for the perfecting their reading or 
 principling their religion, that perhaps a worse could not 
 be found. For what pleasure or encouragement can it be 
 to a child, to exercise himself in reading those parts of a 
 book where he understands nothing ? And how little are 
 the law of Moses, the Song of Solomon, the prophecies in 
 the Old, and the Epistles and Apocalypse in the New 
 Testament, suited to a child's capacity ? And though 
 the history of the Evangelists and the Acts have some- 
 thing easier ; yet, taken all together, it is very dispropor- 
 tionate to the understanding of childhood. I grant, that 
 the'principles of religion are to be drawn from thence, and 
 in the words of the Scripture ; yet none should be proposed 
 to a child but such as are suited to a child's capacity and 
 notions. But it is far from this to read through the whole 
 Bible, and that for reading's sake. And what an odd 
 jumble of thoughts must a child have in his head, ;f he 
 have any at all, such as he should have concerning religion, 
 
 1 The books from which children usually learned to read the 
 vernacular at home, following ancient tradition ; within living 
 memory, the Bible was used for this purpose in certain elementary 
 schools. The hornbook and primer contained the alphabet, 
 syllables, the Lord's Prayer and Creed ; the former got its name 
 from the thin horn plate used to protect the printed page from the 
 reader's finger. See Mrs. B. M. Field's The Child an d His Book.
 
 122 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 who in his tender age reads all the parts of the Bible 
 indifferently, as the word of God, without any other 
 distinction ! I am apt to think that this, in some men, 
 has been the very reason why they never had clear and 
 distinct thoughts of it all their lifetime. 
 
 159. And now I am by chance fallen on this subject, 
 give me leave to say, that there are some parts_oi the 
 Scripture which may be proper to be put into the riandsi 
 ofa_childjp engagejbim f.n reaA^ such as are the story of 
 Joseph alacThis brethren, of David and Goliath, of David 
 and Jonathan, etc., and others, that he should be made 
 to read for his instruction ; as that, " What you would 
 have others do unto you, do you the same unto them ;" 
 and such other easy and plain moral rules, which, being 
 fitly chosen, might often be made use of, both for reading 
 and instruction together. But the reading of the whole 
 Scripture indifferently is what I think very inconvenient 
 for children, till, after having been made acquainted with 
 the plainest fundamental parts of it, they have got some 
 kind of general view of what they ought principally to 
 believe and practice, which yet, I think, they ought to 
 receive in the very words of the Scripture, and not in such, 
 as men prepossessed by systems and analogies, are apt 
 in this case to make use of, and force upon them. Dr. 
 Worthington, 1 to avoid this, has made a catechism which 
 has all its answers in the precise words of the Scripture, 
 a thing of good example and such a sound form of words, 
 as no Christian can except against as not fit for his child 
 to learn. Of this, as soon as he can say the Lord's Prayer, 
 Creed, and Ten Commandments by heart, it may be fit 
 for him to learn a question every day, or every week, as 
 his understanding is able to receive and his memory to 
 retain them. And when he has this catechism perfectly 
 
 1 John Worthington (1618-1671), Master of Jesus College, Cam- 
 bridge, one of Hartlib's correspondents. His book, A form of sound 
 words, or a scripture catechism, shewing what a Christian is to believe 
 and practise in order to salvation : very useful to persons of all ages 
 ard capacities as well as children, was published posthumously in 
 1673, ard vas still appearing in 1755. It is a primer of theology, 
 veiy unsuitable to children in form and matter.
 
 160. WHITING 123 
 
 by heart, so as readily and roundly to answer to any 
 question in the whole book, it may be convenient to 
 lodge in his mind the moral rules, scattered up and down 
 in the Bible, as the best exercise of his memory, and that 
 which may be always a rule to him, ready at hand, in the 
 whole conduct of his life. 1 
 
 160. Writing. When he can read English well, it will 
 be seasonable to enter him in writing: And here the first 
 thing should be taught him is, to hold his pen^jgbt ; ancT 
 this he should be perfect in, before he should be suffered 
 to put it to paper : for not only children, but anybody else, 
 that would do anything well, should never be put upon 
 too much of it at once, or be set to perfect themselves in 
 two parts of an action at the same time, if they can 
 possibly be separated. When he has learned to hold "his 
 pen right, (to hold it betwixt the thumb and forefinger 
 alone, I think best ; but on this you should consult some 
 good writing-master, or any other person who writes well 
 and quick) then next he should learn how to lay his pa.pgr' T 
 and place his arm and body to it. These practices being 
 got over, the way to teach him to write without much 
 trouble, is to get a plate graved with the characters of 
 such a hand as you like best : but you must remember to 
 have them a pretty deal bigger^ than he should ordinarily 
 write ; for every one naturahy comes by degrees to write 
 a less hand than he at first was taught, but never a 
 bigger. Such a plate being graved, let several sheets of 
 good writing-paper be printed off with red^jnk, which 
 he has nothing to do but to go over with a good pen filled 
 with black ink, which will quickly bring his hand to the 
 formation of those characters, being at first showed w r here 
 to begin, and how to form every letter. And when he 
 can do that well, he must then exercise on fair paper ; 
 and so may easily be brought to write the hand you desire. 
 
 1 These concrete directions for religious instruction do not follow 
 the principles enunciated in section 136 ; yet in both places religion 
 is presented rather as a philosophy than as a life to be lived. During 
 childhood at least the latter is the more necessary standpoint for 
 the educator.
 
 124 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 161. Drawing. When he can write well, and quick, I 
 think it may be convenient, not only to continue the 
 exercise of his hand in writing, but also to improve the use 
 of it farther in drawing, a thing very useful to a gentleman 
 on several occasions, but especially if he travel, as that 
 which helps a man often to express, in a few lines well put 
 together, what a whole sheet of paper in writing would not 
 be able to represent and make intelligible. How many 
 buildings may a man see, how many machines and habits 
 meet with, the ideas whereof would be easily retained and 
 communicated by a little skill in drawing ; which being 
 committed to words, are in danger to be lost, or at best 
 but ill retained in the most exact descriptions ? I do not 
 mean that I would have your son a perfect painter ; to be 
 that to any tolerable degree, will require more time than 
 a young gentleman can spare from his other improvements 
 of greater importance ; but so much insight into per- 
 spective, and skill in drawing, as will enable him to 
 represent tolerably on paper any thing he sees, except 
 faces, may, I think, be got in a little time, especially if he 
 have a genius to it : but where that is wanting, unless it 
 be in the things absolutely necessary, it is better to let 
 him pass them by quietly, than to vex him about them to 
 no purpose : and therefore in this, as in all other things 
 not absolutely necessary, the rule holds, " Nihil invitd 
 Minerva." 1 
 
 [If 1. Short-hand, an art, as I have been told, known 
 only in England, may perhaps be thought worth the 
 learning, both for despatch in what men write for their 
 own memory, and concealment of what they would not 
 have lie open to every eye. . . . Mr. Eich's, 2 the best 
 contrived of any I have seen, may, as I think, by one who 
 knows and considers grammar well, be made much easier 
 and shorter.] 
 
 162. French. Assoon as he_can_speak English, it_Ja. 
 timefor him to iearrFsome other lanffn^yft ;_this TfnKmiv 
 
 goubts'of, when French is proposed. And the reaso i :s 
 
 1 Nothing contrary to inborn capacity. 
 
 2 Jeremiah Rich .fl. temp. Commonwealth.
 
 162. FRENCH 163. LATIN 125 
 
 because people are accustomed to the right way of teach- 
 ing that language, which is by talking it into children in 
 constant conversation, and not by grammatical rules'. 
 "The~Eatin tongue would easily be taught the same way, 
 if his tutor, being constantly with him, would talk nothing 
 else to him, and make him answer still in the same lan- 
 guage. 1 But because Fgeac.li is a living language, and to 
 be used more in speaking, that should be first learned, 
 that the yet pliant organs of speech might be accustomed 
 to a due formation of these sounds, and he get the habit 
 of pronouncing French well, which is the harder to be 
 done the longer it is delayed. 
 
 163. Latin. When he can speak and read French well, 
 which in this method is usually in a year or two, he should 
 proceed to Latin, which 'tis a wonder parents, when they 
 have had the experiment in French, should not think 
 ought to be learned the same way by talking and reading. 
 Only care is to be taken, whilst he is learning these foreign 
 languages, by speaking and reading nothing else to his 
 tutor, that he do not forget to read English, which may 
 be preserved by his mother, or somebody else, hearing him 
 read some chosen parts of the Scripture, or other English 
 book, every day. 
 
 164. Latin I look upon as absolutely necessary to a 
 gentleman ; and indeed custom, which prevails over 
 every thing, has made it so much a part of education, that 
 even those children are whipped to it, and made spend 
 many hours of their precious time uneasily in Latin, who, 
 after they are once gone from school, are never to have 
 more to do with it as long as they live. Can there be any- 
 thing more ridiculous than that a father should waste 
 his own money, and his son's time, in setting him to learn 
 the Roman language, when, at the same time, he designs 
 him for a trade, wherein he, having no use of Latin, fails 
 
 1 Montaigne (Essais i., chap, xxv.) tells us that he was taught to 
 speak by a German, ignorant of French, but very well versed in 
 Latin, that he learned little French till he was six years old, by 
 which time, " without art, book, grammar, rule or scourge," he had 
 learned a Latinity as pure as his schoolmaster's.
 
 126 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 not to forget that little which he brought from school, and 
 which it is ten to one he abhors for the ill usage it pro- 
 cured him ? l Could it be believed, unless we had every- 
 where amongst us examples of it, that a child should be 
 forced to learn the rudiments of a language which he is 
 never to use in the course of life he is designed to, and 
 neglect all the while the writing a good hand, and casting 
 accounts], which are of great advantage in all conditions 
 of life, and to most trades indispensably necessary ? 
 But though these qualifications, requisite to trade and 
 commerce, and the business of the world, are seldom or 
 never to be had at grammar-schools, yet thither not only 
 gentlemen send their younger sons, intended for trades, 
 but even tradesmen and farmers fail not to send their 
 children, though they have neither intention nor ability 
 to make them scholars. If you ask them, why they do 
 this, they think it as strange a question, as if you should 
 ask them, why they go to church. Custom serves for 
 reason, and has, to those that take it for reason, so con- 
 secrated this method, that it is almost religiously observed 
 by them ; and they stick to it, as if their children had 
 scarce an orthodox education unless they learned Lily's 
 grammar. 2 
 
 165. 3 But how necessary soever Latin be to some, and 
 is thought to be to others, to whom it is of no manner of 
 use or service, yet the ordinary way of learning it in a 
 grammar-school, is that, which having had thoughts 
 about, I cannot be forward to encourage. The reasons 
 against it are so evident and cogent, that they have pre- 
 vailed with some intelligent persons to quit the ordinary 
 road, not without success, though the method made use 
 of was not exactly that which I imagine the easiest, and in 
 
 1 Locke's objection is not that Latin is useless (cf. sec. 186), but 
 that the pupils in question get a merely truncated instruction. 
 
 2 William Lily, first High Master of St. Paul's School (1512-1522). 
 For some three centuries and a half, the Latin grammar associated 
 with his name was regarded as the standard school-book. For its 
 history see Foster Watson, The English Grammar Schools, chaps, 
 xv., xvi. 
 
 3 Sec. 157 in first edition.
 
 165, 166. LATIN 127 
 
 short is this : to trouble the child with no grammar at all, 
 but to have Latin, as English has been, without the per- 
 plexity of rules, talked into him ; for, if you will consider 
 it, Latin is no more unknown to a child, when he comes 
 into the world, than English : and yet he learns English 
 without master, rule, or grammar ; and so might he 
 Latin too, as Tully did, if he had somebody always to talk 
 to him in this language. And when we so often see a 
 French woman teach an English girl to speak and read 
 French perfectly in a year or two, without any rule of 
 grammar, or anything else, but prattling to her, I cannot 
 but wonder, how gentlemen have overseen 1 this way for 
 their sons, and thought them more dull or incapable than 
 their daughters. 
 
 * 1 66. 2 If therefore a man could be got^ who himself 
 speaks good Latin, who would be always about your son 
 and talk constantly to him and make him read Latin, 3 
 that would be the true, genuine and easy way of teaching 
 him Latin, and that I could wish ; since besides teaching 
 him a language without pains or chiding (which children 
 are wont to be whipped for at school six or seven years 
 together) he might at the same time not only form his 
 mind and manners, but instruct him also in several 
 sciences such as are a good part of geography, astronomy, 
 chronology, anatomy, besides some parts of history and 
 all other parts of knowledge of things that fall under 
 the senses, and require little more than memory. For 
 there, if we would take the true way, our knowledge 
 should begin and in those things be laid the foundation, 4 
 and not in the abstract notions of logic and metaphysics, 
 which are fitter to amuse than inform the understanding 
 in its first setting out towards knowledge. In which 
 abstract speculations when young men have had their 
 heads employed a while, 5 without finding the success and 
 improvement or use of it which they expected, they are 
 
 1 I.e., overlooked. 2 Sec. 157 in first edition. 
 
 3 " And suffer him to speak or read nothing else " in later 
 editions. 
 
 4 See note on sec. 156. 5 See sec. 188.
 
 128 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 apt to have mean thoughts either of learning or them- 
 selves, to quit their studies and throw away their books, 
 as containing nothing but hard words and empty sounds ; 
 or else concluding that if there be any real knowledge 
 in them, they themselves have not understandings 
 capable of it ; and that that is so, perhaps I could assure 
 you upon my own experience. Amongst other things 
 to be learned by a young man in this method, whilst 
 others of his age are wholly taken up with Latin and 
 languages, I may also set down geometry for one, having 
 known a young gentleman, bred something after this 
 way, able to demonstrate several propositions in Euclid 
 before he was thirteen. 
 
 167. But if such a man cannot be got, who speaks 
 good Latin, and being able to instruct your son in all 
 these parts of knowledge, will undertake it by this 
 method ; the next_J)est is to have bimjbaugbl as near 
 this way as may be, which is by taking some easy and 
 pleasant book. . such as ^sop's Fables, and writing the 
 English translation (made as literal as it can be) in one 
 line, and the Latin words, which answer each of them, 
 just overJi in another. These let him read every day 
 over and over again, till he perfectly understands the 
 Latin. (But have a care still, whatever you are teaching 
 him, of clogging him with too much at once, or making 
 anything his business but down-right virtue, or reproving 
 him for anything but vice.) And then go on to another 
 fable, till he be also perfect in that, not omitting what 
 he is already perfect in, but sometimes reviewing that, 
 to keep it in his memory. And when he comes to write, 
 let these be set him for copies, which, with the exercise 
 of his hand, will also advance him in Latin. This being 
 a more imperfect way than by talking Latin unto him ; 
 the formation of the verbs first, and afterwards the de- 
 clensions of the nouns and pronouns perfectly learned by 
 heart, may facilitate his acquaintance with the genius 
 and manner of the Latin tongue, which varies the significa- 
 tion of verbs and nouns, not as the modern languages 
 do, by particles prefixed, but by changing the last
 
 167. LATIN 129 
 
 syllables. More than this of grammar I think he need 
 not have, till he can read himself Sanctii Minerva, 1 with 
 Scioppius [and Perizonius's] notes. 2 
 
 [In teaching of children this too, I think, it is to be 
 observed, that in most cases, where they stick, they are 
 not to be farther puzzled, by putting them upon finding 
 it out themselves ; as by asking such questions as these, 
 viz., Which is the nominative case ? in the sentence they 
 are to construe, or demanding what " ausero " signifies, 
 to lead them to the knowledge what " abstulere " signifies, 
 etc., when they cannot readily tell. This wastes time 
 only in disturbing them ; for whilst they are learning, 
 and applying themselves with attention, they are to be 
 kept in good humour, and everything made easy to them, 
 and as pleasant as possible. Therefore, wherever they 
 are at a stand, and are willing to go forward, help them 
 presently over the difficulty, without any rebuke or 
 chiding ; remembering, that where harsher ways are 
 taken, they are the effect only of pride and peevishness 
 in the teacher, who expects children should instantly be 
 masters of as much as he knows : whereas he should 
 rather consider that his business is to settle in them 
 habits, not angrily to inculcate rules, which serve for 
 little in the conduct of our lives ; at least are of no use 
 to children, who forget them as soon as given. In 
 sciences, where their reason is to be exercised, I will not 
 deny but this method may sometimes be varied, and 
 difficulties proposed on purpose to excite industry and 
 accustom the mind to employ its own strength and 
 sagacity in reasoning. But yet, I guess, this is not to 
 
 1 Minerva, sen de causis linguae Latince Commentarius, published 
 first in 1587, was a celebrated textbook which long retained its 
 popularity. Its author was Francesco Sanchez, or Sanctius (1523- 
 1601), professor of Greek at Salamanca. Amended or annotated 
 editions were produced by the German, Scioppius (Caspar Schoppe, 
 1576-1649), and the Dutchman, Perizonius (Jacob Voorbroek, 1651- 
 1715). The fourth edition by the last named appeared in 1714; it 
 was a volume of about one thousand pages. 
 
 2 The remainder of the section is later than the first edition ; its 
 pedagogical importance will be appreciated. 
 
 9
 
 130 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 be done to children whilst very young ; nor at their 
 entrance upon any sort of knowledge : then everything 
 of itself is difficult, and the great use and skill of a teacher 
 is to make all as easy as he can. But particularly in 
 learning of languages there is least occasion for posing of 
 children. For languages being to be learnt by rote, 
 custom, and memory, are then spoken in greatest perfec- 
 tion, when all rules of grammar are utterly forgotten. 
 I grant the grammar of a language is sometimes very 
 carefully to be studied : but it is only to be studied by 
 a grown man, when he applies himself to the understand- 
 ing of any language critically, which is seldom the business 
 of any but professed scholars. This, I think, will be 
 agreed to, that if a gentleman be to study any language, 
 it ought to be that of his own country, that he may under- 
 stand the language, which he has constant use of, with the 
 utmost accuracy. 
 
 There is yet a farther reason why masters and teachers 
 should raise no difficulties to their scholars ; but, on the 
 contrary, should smooth their way and readily help them 
 forwards where they find them stop. Children's minds 
 are narrow and weak, and usually susceptible but of one 
 thought at once. Whatever is in a child's head, fills it 
 for the time, especially if set on with any passion. It 
 should therefore be the skill and art of the teacher, to 
 clear their heads of all other thoughts, whilst they are 
 learning of any thing, the better to make room for what 
 he would instil into them, that it may be received with 
 attention and application, without which it leaves no 
 impression. The natural temper of children disposes 
 their minds to wander. 1 Novelty alone takes them ; 
 whatever that presents, they are presently eager to have 
 a taste of, and are as soon satiated with it. They quickly 
 grow weary of the same thing, and so have almost their 
 whole delight in change and variety. It is a contradic- 
 tion to the natural state of childhood for them to fix their 
 fleeting thoughts. Whether this be owing to the temper 
 of their brains, or the quickness or instability of their 
 1 Cf. Conduct, sec. 30.
 
 167. LATIN 131 
 
 animal spirits, over which the mind has not yet got a 
 full command ; this is visible, that it is a pain to children 
 to keep their thoughts steady to any thing. A lasting, 
 continued attention is one of the hardest tasks that can 
 be imposed on them : and therefore, he that requires 
 their application, should endeavour to make what he 
 proposes as grateful and agreeable as possible ; at least, 
 he ought to take care not to join any displeasing or 
 frightful idea with it. If they come not to their books 
 with some kind of liking and relish, it is no wonder their 
 thoughts should be perpetually shifting from what dis- 
 gusts them, and seek better entertainment in more 
 pleasing objects, after which they will unavoidably be 
 gadding. 
 
 It is, I know, the usual method of tutors to endeavour 
 to procure attention in their scholars, and to fix their 
 minds to the business in hand by rebukes and corrections, 
 if they find them ever so little wandering. But such 
 treatment is sure to produce the quite contrary effect. 
 Passionate words or blows from the tutor, fill the child's 
 mind with terror and affrightment, which immediately 
 takes it wholly up, and leaves no room for other im- 
 pressions. I believe there is nobody that reads this, 
 but may recollect what disorder hasty or imperious words 
 from his parents or teachers have caused in his thoughts ; 
 how for the time it has turned his brains so that he 
 scarce knew what was said by or to him : he presently 
 lost the sight of what he was upon ; his mind was filled 
 with disorder and confusion, and in that state was no 
 longer capable of attention to any thing else. 
 
 It is true, parents and governors ought to settle and 
 establish their authority, by an awe over the minds of 
 those under their tuition ; and to rule them by that : but 
 when they have got an ascendant over them, they should 
 use it with great moderation, and not make themselves 
 such scarecrows, that their scholars should always tremble 
 in their sight. Such an austerity may make their govern- 
 ment easy to themselves, but of very little use to their 
 pupils. It is impossible children should learn any thing
 
 132 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 whilst their thoughts are possessed and disturbed with 
 any passion, especially fear, which makes the strongest 
 impression on their yet tender and weak spirits. Keep 
 the mind in an easy, calm temper, when you would have 
 it receive your instructions, or any increase of know- 
 ledge. It is as impossible to draw fair and regular 
 characters on a trembling mind as on a shaking paper. 
 
 The great skill of a teacher is to get and keep the atten- 
 tion of his scholar : whilst he has that, he is sure to ad- 
 vance as fast as the learner's abilities will carry him ; 
 and without that, all his bustle and pother will be to 
 little or no purpose. To attain this, he should make the 
 child comprehend (as much as may be) the usefulness of 
 what he teaches him ; and let him see, by what he has 
 learned, that he can do something which he could not do 
 before, something which gives him some power and' real 
 advantage above others who are ignorant of it. To this 
 he should add sweetness in all his instructions ; and by 
 a certain tenderness in his whole carriage, make the child 
 sensible that he loves him, and designs nothing but his 
 good ; the only way to beget love in the child, which will 
 make him hearken to his lessons, and relish what he 
 teaches him. 
 
 Nothing but obstinacy should meet with any-imperious- 
 ness or rough usage. All other faults should be corrected 
 with a gentle hand ; and kind, encouraging words will 
 work better and more effectually upon a willing mind, 
 and even prevent a good deal of that perverseness which 
 rough and imperious usage often produces in well-dis-. 
 posed and generous minds. It is true, obstinacy and 
 wilful neglects must be mastered, even though it cost 
 blows to do it : but I am apt to think perverseness in 
 the pupils is often the effect of frowardness in the tutor ; 
 and that most children would seldom have deserved 
 blows, if needless and misapplied roughness had not 
 taught them ill-nature, and given them an aversion to 
 their teacher, and all that comes from him. 
 
 Inadvertency, forgetfulness, unsteadiness, and wander- 
 ing of thought, are the natural faults of childhood ; and
 
 167, 168. LATIN 133 
 
 therefore, when they are not observed to be wilful, are 
 to be mentioned softly, arid gained upon by time. If 
 every slip of this kind produces anger and rating, the 
 occasions of rebuke and corrections will return so often, 
 that the tutor will be a constant terror and uneasiness 
 to his pupils ; which one thing is enough to hinder their 
 profiting by his lessons, and to defeat all his methods of 
 instructions. 
 
 Let the awe he has got upon their minds be so tempered 
 with the constant marks of tenderness and good- will, 
 that affection may spur them to their duty, and make 
 them find a pleasure in complying with his dictates. 
 This will bring them with satisfaction to their tutor ; 
 make them hearken to him, as to one who is their friend, 
 that cherishes them, arid takes pains for their good ; 
 this will keep their thoughts easy and free, whilst they 
 are with him, the only temper wherein the mind is capable 
 of receiving new informations, and of admitting into 
 itself those impressions, which if not taken and retained, 
 all that they and their teacher do together, is lost labour ; 
 there is much uneasiness, and little learning.] 
 
 168. 1 When, by this way of interlining Latin and 
 English one with another, he has got a moderate know- 
 ledge of the Latin tongue, he may then be advanced a 
 little farther to the reading of some other easy Latin 
 book, such as Justin, or Eutropius; 2 and to make the 
 reading and understanding of it the less tedious and 
 difficult to him, let him help himself, if he please, with the 
 English translation. Nor let the objection, that he will 
 then know it only by rote (which is when well considered 
 not of any moment against, but plainly for this way of 
 learning a language), fright any one. For languages are 
 jmly.to be learned by rote ; and a man, who does not 
 
 1 Sec. 159 in first edition. 
 
 2 Justin wrote (probably in the third century of the Christian era) 
 an abridgement of a much earlier Universal History ; he was 
 regarded in the Middle Ages as the model historian. See Sandys' 
 A History of Classical Scholarship, vols. i., ii. Flavivs Eutropius, 
 another historical compiler, belongs to the fourth century.
 
 134 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 speak English or Latin perfectly by rote, so that having 
 thought of the thing he would speak of, his tongue of 
 course, without thought of rule of grammar, falls into 
 the proper expressions and idiom of that language, does 
 not speak it well, nor is master of it. And I would fain 
 have any one name to me that tongue, that any one can 
 learn or speak as he should do, by the rules of grammar. 
 Languages were made not by rules or art, but by accident, 
 and the common use of the people. And he that will 
 speak them well, has no other rule but that ; nor any thing 
 to trust to but his memory, and the habit of speaking after 
 the fashion learned from those that are allowed to speak 
 properly, which, in other words, is only to speak by rote. 
 
 Grammar. It will possibly be asked here, Is grammar 
 then of no use ? And have those who have taken so 
 much pains in reducing several languages to rules and 
 observations, who have written so much about declen- 
 sions and conjugations, about concords and syntaxis, lost 
 their labour, and been learned to no purpose ? I say not 
 so ; grammar has its place, too. But this I think I may 
 say, There is more stir a great deal made with it than there 
 needs, and those are tormented about it, to whom it does 
 not at all belong ; I mean children, at the age wherein 
 they are usually perplexed with it in grammar schools. 1 
 
 [There is nothing more evident, than that languages 
 learned by rote serve well enough for the common affairs 
 of life, and ordinary commerce. Nay, persons of quality 
 of the softer sex, and such of them as have spent their 
 time in well-bred company, show us, that this plain, 
 natural way, without the least study or knowledge of 
 grammar, can carry them to a great degree of elegance 
 and politeness in their language : and there are ladies 
 who, without knowing what tenses and participles, 
 adverbs and prepositions are, speak as properly, and as 
 correctly (they might take it for an ill compliment, if I 
 said as any country school-master) as most gentlemen who 
 have been bred up in the ordinary methods of grammar- 
 
 1 The relevance of the remainder of this section to the " Direct 
 Method" of teaching languages will be noticed.
 
 168. GRAMMAR 
 
 135 
 
 schools. Grammar therefore we see may be spared in 
 some cases. The question then will be, To whom should 
 it be taught, and when ? To this I answer, 
 
 1 . Men learn languages for the or^na;rx.intercourse of 
 society, and communication of thougMsincoirmionlife, 
 without any Jlartber design in their use of them. And 
 for this purpose the original way of learning a language 
 by conversation, not only serves well enough, but is to 
 be preferred, as the most expedite, proper, and natural. 
 Therefore to this use of language one may answer, That 
 grammar is not necessary. This so many of my readers 
 must be forceVl to allow, as understand what I here say, 
 and who, conversing with others, understand them with- 
 out having ever been taught the grammar of the English 
 tongue : which I suppose is the case of incomparably the 
 greatest part of Englishmen ; of whom I have never yet 
 known any one who learned his mother-tongue by rules. 
 
 2. Others there are, the greatest part of whose business 
 inJJTJs^ world i> to be done with their tongues, and with 
 theiiLpans ; and to those it is convenient, if not necessary, 
 that they should speak properly and correctly, whereby 
 they may let their thoughts into other men's minds the 
 more easily and with the greater impression. Upon this 
 account it is, that any sort of speaking, so as will make 
 him be understood, is not thought enough for a gentle- 
 man. He ought to study gramniar, amongst the other ^ 
 helps of speaking well: but it must be the grammar of ' 
 his own tongue, of the language he uses, that he may 
 understand his own country speech nicely, 1 and speak it 
 properly, without shocking the ears of those it is addressed 
 to, with solecisms, and offensive irregularities. And to 
 this purpose grammar is necessary : but it is the grammar 
 only of their own proper tongues, and to those only who 
 would take pains in cultivating their language, and in 
 perfecting their styles. Whether all gentlemen should 
 not do this, I leave to be considered, since the want of 
 propriety and grammatical exactness is thought very 
 misbecoming one of that rank, and usually draws on one 
 
 1 Precisely.
 
 136 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 guilty of such faults the censure of having had a lower 
 breeding and worse company than suits with his quality. 
 If this be so (as I suppose it is), it will be matter of wonder, 
 why young gentlemen are forced to learn the grammars 
 of foreign and dead languages, and are never once told 
 of the grammar of their own tongues : they do not so 
 much as know there is any such thing, much less is it 
 made their business to be instructed in it. Nor is their 
 own language ever proposed to them as worthy their 
 care and cultivating, though they have daily use of it, 
 and are not seldom in the future course of their lives 
 judged of, by their handsome or awkward way of express- 
 ing themselves in it. Whereas the languages, whose 
 grammars they have been so much employed in, are such 
 as probably they shall scarce ever speak or write ; or, if 
 upon occasion this should happen, they shall be excused 
 for the mistakes and faults they make in it. Would 
 not a Chinese, who took notice of this way of breeding, 
 be apt to imagine that all our young gentlemen were 
 designed to be teachers and professors of the dead 
 languages of foreign countries, and not to be men of 
 business in their own ? 
 
 3. There is a third sort of men who apply themselves 
 to two i ..three- foreign-dead (and which amongst us are 
 called the learned) languages, make them their study, and 
 pique themselves upon their skill in them. No doubt 
 those who propose to themselves the learning of any 
 language with this view, and would be critically exact in 
 it, qughtcarefully to study the grammar of it. I would 
 '[ not be mistaken here, as if this were to undervalue Greek 
 and Latin : I grant these are languages of great use and 
 excellency ; arid a man can have no place amongst the 
 learned, in this part of the world, who is a stranger to 
 them. But the knowledge a gentleman would ordinarily 
 draw for his use, out of the Eoman and Greek writers, I 
 think he may attain without studying the grammars of 
 those tongues, and, by bare reading, may come to under- 
 nd them sufficiently for all his purposes. How much 
 farther he shall at any time be concerned to look into the
 
 168. GRAMMAR 137 
 
 grammar and critical niceties of either of these tongues, 
 he himself will be able to determine, when he comes to 
 propose to himself the study of anything that shall 
 require it. Which brings me to the other part of the 
 inquiry, viz. 
 
 " When grammar should be taught ?" 
 
 To which, upon the premised grounds, the answer is 
 obvious, viz. 
 
 That if gramniajuought _tp. be taiigM_at any time, it 
 must be to^one that can speak the language^lready : how 
 else can he be taught the grammar of it ? This, at least, 
 is evident from the practice of the wise and learned 
 nations amongst the ancients. They made it a part of edu- 
 cation to cultivate their own, not foreign tongues. The 
 Greeks counted all other nations barbarous, and had a 
 contempt for their languages. And, though the Greek 
 learning grew in credit amongst the Eomans, towards the 
 end of their commonwealth, yet it was the Eoman tongue 
 that was made the study of their youth : their own lan- 
 guage they were to make use of, and therefore it was their 
 own language they were instructed and exercised in. 
 
 But more particularly to determine the proper season 
 for grammar, I do not see how it can reasonably be made 
 any one's study, but as an introduction to rhetoric : when 
 it is thought time tTTpliFanylme upon the care of polishing 
 his tongue, and of speaking better than the illiterate, then 
 is the time for him to be instructed in the rules of grammar, 
 and not before. For grammar being to teach men not 
 to speak, but to speak correctly, and according to the 
 exact rules of the tongue, which is one part of elegancy, 
 there is little use of the one to him that has no need of 
 the other : where rhetoric is not necessary, grammar may 
 be^jpared. 1 I know not why any one should wasteTus 
 time, and beat his head about the Latin grammar, who 
 does not intend to be a critic, or make speeches, and write 
 dispatches in it. When any one finds in himself a neces- 
 
 1 In the mother-tongue, as much rhetoric as goes to making 
 "composition" is necessary, and to that extent grammar cannot 
 be spared. See sees. 171, 172, 189.
 
 138 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 sity or disposition to study any foreign language to the 
 bottom, and to be nicely exact in the knowledge of it, it 
 will be time enough to take a grammatical survey of it. 
 If his use of it be only to understand some books written 
 in it, without a critical knowledge of the tongue itself, 
 reading alone, as I have said, will attain this end, without 
 charging the mind with the multiplied rules and intricacies 
 of grammar.] 
 
 169. For the exercise oLhis writing, let him sometimes 
 translate Latin into English 5 but the learning of Latin 
 being nothing but the learning of words, a very unpleasant 
 business both to young and old, join as much other real 
 knowledge 1 with it as you can, beginning still with that 
 which lies most obvious to the senses ; such as is the 
 knowledge of minerals, plants, and animals, and par- 
 ticularly timber and fruit-trees, their parts and ways of 
 propagation, where a great deal may be taught a child, 
 which will not be useless to the man. But more especially 
 geography, astronomy, and anatomy. 
 
 170. But if, after all, his fate be to go to school to get 
 the Latin tongue, 'tis in vain to talk to you concerning 
 the method I think best to be observed in schools. You 
 must submit to that you find there, not expect to have it 
 changed for your son ; but yet by all means obtain, if 
 you can, that he be not employed in making Latin themes 
 and declamations, and, least of all, verses of any kind. 
 You may insist on it, if it will do any good, that you have no 
 design to make him either a Latin orator or poet, but barely 
 would have him understand perfectly a Latin author ; and 
 that you observe those who teach any of the modern lan- 
 guages, and that with success, never amuse their scholars 
 to make speeches or verses either in French or Italian, 
 their business being language barely, and not invention. 
 
 1 " Real " in the sense of " positive," and opposed to both 
 "verbal" and "rational" or "demonstrative." Cf. the use of 
 the German term, Eealien, to include such studies as history, 
 geography, and the observational and experimental stages of 
 science. See sec. 178. Either the advice given is contradictory 
 of sec. 173 below, or Locke does not regard this " real knowledge " 
 as a strain on the mind.
 
 171, THEMES 139 
 
 171. Themes. But to tell you, a little more fully, why 
 I would not have him exercised in making of themes and 
 verses. 1. As to themes, they have, I confess, the pre- 
 tence of something useful, which is to teach people to 
 speak handsomely and well on any subject ; which, if it 
 could be attained this way, I own would be a great 
 advantage ; there being nothing more becoming a gentle- 
 man, nor more useful in all the occurrences of life, than 
 to be able, on any occasion, to speak well, and to the 
 purpose. But this I say, that the making of themes,. 
 nsuaTiq schools, lujJUffotaD ot towards jt. For 
 
 ao butconsideFwrlat 'tis inmaEngawieme, that a young 
 lad is employed about ; 'tis to make a speech on some 
 Latin saying, as, " Omnia vincit amor," or " Non licet in 
 bello bis peccare," 1 etc. And here the poor lad, who wants 
 knowledge of these things he is to speak of, which is to be 
 had only from time and observation, must set his invention 
 on the rack, to say something where he knows nothing, 
 which is a sort of Egyptian tyranny, to bid them make 
 bricks who have not yet any of the materials. And 
 therefore it is usual, in such cases, for the poor children 
 to go to those of higher forms with this petition, " Pray 
 give me a little sense ;" which, whether it be more reason- 
 able or more ridiculous, is not easy to determine. Before 
 a man can be in any capacity to speak on any subject, it is 
 necessary he be acquainted with it ; or else it is as foolish 
 to set him to discourse of it, as to set a blind man to talk 
 of colours, or a deaf man of music. And would you not 
 think him a little cracked who would require another to 
 make an argument on a moot-point, 2 who understands 
 nothing of our laws ? And what, I pray, do school-boys 
 understand concerning those matters, which are used to 
 be proposed to them in their themes, as subjects to dis- 
 course on, to whet and exercise their fancies ? 
 
 1 " Love conquers all things." " In warfare, one is not allowed 
 to blunder twice." 
 
 2 A legal point, as to which lawyers themselves might differ. The 
 term belongs to the history of legal education, a " moot- point " 
 being a topic for argument by law-students before the seniors of 
 their Inn.
 
 140 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 172. In the next place consider the language that their 
 themes are made in. 'Tis Latin, a language foreign in 
 their country, and long since dead everywhere ; l a lan- 
 guage which your son, 'tis a thousand to one, shall never 
 have an occasion once to make a speech in as long as he 
 lives, after he comes to be a man ; and a language, wherein 
 the manner of expressing oneself is so far different from 
 ours, that to be perfect in that, would very little improve 
 the purity and facility of his English style. Besides that, 
 there is now so little room or use for set speeches in our 
 own language in any part of our English business, that I 
 can see no pretence for this sort of exercise in our schools ; 
 unless it can be supposed, that the making of set Latin 
 speeches should be the way to teach men to speak well in 
 English extempore. The way to that I should think 
 rather to be this : that there should be proposed some 
 rational and material question to young gentlemen, when 
 they are of a fit age for such exercise, which they should 
 extempore or after a little meditation in the place, speak 
 to, without penning of anything. For I ask, if we will 
 examine the effects of this way of learning to speak well, 
 who speak best in any business, when occasion calls them 
 to it upon any debate ; either those who have accustomed 
 themselves to compose and -write down before-hand what 
 they would say ; or those, who thinking only of the 
 matter, to understand that as well as they can, use them- 
 selves only to speak extempore ? And he that shall 
 judge by this, will be little apt to think, that the accus- 
 toming him to studied speeches, and set compositions, is 
 the way to fit a young gentleman for business. 
 
 173. But perhaps we shall be told, It is to improve and 
 perfect them in the Latin tongue. It is true, that is their 
 proper business at school ; but the making of themes is 
 not the way to it : that perplexes their brains, about 
 invention of things to be said, not about the signification 
 of words to be learnt : and when they are making a theme, 
 it is thoughts they search and sweat for, and not lan- 
 
 1 A statement to be accepted with some reservations. Locke 
 himself wrote Latin letters to his foreign correspondents down to 
 the month in which he died.
 
 173. THEMES 174. VERSES 141 
 
 guage. But the learning and mastery of a tongue being 
 uneasy and unpleasant enough in itself, should not be 
 cumbered with any other difficulties, as is done in this 
 way of proceeding. 1 In fine, if boys' invention be to be 
 quickened by such exercise, let them make themes in 
 English, where they have facility and a command of 
 words, and will better see what kind of thoughts they 
 have, when put into their own language. And if the Latin 
 tongue is to be learned, let it be done the easiest way, 
 without toiling and disgusting the mind by so uneasy an 
 employment as that of making speeches joined to it. 
 
 174. Verses. If these may be any reasons against 
 children's making Latin themes at school, I have jnuch 
 more to sav h and of more weight^agajnst their_makmg 
 verses, verses of any sort ; lor ii hehas no genius to poetry, 
 iTliTthe most unreasonable thing in the world to torment 
 a child, and waste his time about that which can never 
 succeed ; and if he have a poetic vein, 2 it is to me the 
 strangest thing in the world, that the father should desire 
 or suffer it to be cherished or improved. Methinks the 
 parents should labour to have it stifled and suppressed as 
 much as may be ; and I know not what reason a father 
 can have to wish his son a poet, who does not desire to 
 have him bid defiance to all other callings and business : 
 which is not yet the worst of the case ; for if he proves a 
 successful rhymer, and gets once the reputation of a wit, I 
 desire it may be considered what company and places he 
 is like to spend his time in, nay, and estate too. For it 
 is very seldom seen that any one discovers mines of gold 
 or silver in Parnassus. 'Tis a pleasant air, but a barren 
 soil ; and there are very few instances of those who have 
 added to their patrimony by anything they have reaped 
 from thence. Poetry and gaming, which usually go 
 together, are alike in this too, that they seldom bring 
 any advantage, but to those who have nothing else to 
 live on. Men of* estates almost constantly go away losers ; 
 and 'tis well if they escape at a cheaper rate than their 
 
 1 Compare sec. 169, above. 
 
 2 Conduct, sec. 4, "Many a good poetic vein is buried under a trade/'
 
 142 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 whole estates, or the greatest part of them. If therefore 
 you would not have your son the fiddle to every jovial 
 company, without whom the sparks could not relish their 
 wine, nor know how to pass an afternoon idly ; if you 
 would not have him waste his time and estate to divert 
 others, and contemn the dirty acres left him by his 
 ancestors, I do not think you will much care he should 
 be a poet, or that his school-master should enter him in 
 versifying. But yet, if any one will think poetry a 
 desirable quality in his son, and that the study of it would 
 raise his fancy and parts, he must needs yet confess, that, 
 to that end, reading the excellent Greek and Koman poets 
 is of more use than making bad verses of his own, in a 
 language that is not his own. And he, whose design it is 
 to excel in English poetry, would not, I guess, think the 
 way to it were to make his first essays in Latin verses. 1 
 
 175. Another thing, very ordinary in the vulgar method 
 of grammar-schools, there is, of which I see no use at all, 
 unless it be to balk young lads in the way of learning 
 languages, which, in my opinion, should be made as easy 
 and pleasant as may be ; and that which was painful in it 
 as much as possible quite removed. That which I mean, 
 and here complain of, is, their being forced to learn by 
 heart great parcels of the authors which are taught 
 them ; wherein I can discover no advantage at all, es- 
 pecially to the business they are upon. Languages are 
 to be learnt only by reading and talking, and not by 
 scraps of authors got by heart ; which, when a man's 
 head is stuffed with, he has got the just furniture of a 
 pedant, and it is the ready way to make him one, than 
 which there is nothing less becoming a gentleman. For 
 what can be more ridiculous, than to mix the rich and 
 handsome thoughts and sayings of others with a deal of 
 poor stuff of his own ; which is thereby the more exposed, 
 and has no other grace in it, nor will otherwise recom- 
 mend the speaker, than a thread-bare russet-coat would, 
 
 1 This section is beyond apology ; but it is characteristic of the 
 author's grave aesthetic limitations, and may be reminiscent of 
 verse-making at Westminster under Busby.
 
 175, 176. ROTE 143 
 
 that was set off with large patches of scarlet and glittering 
 brocade ? Indeed, where a passage comes in the way, 
 whose matter is worth remembrance, and the expression 
 of it very close and excellent (as there are many such in the 
 ancient authors), it may not be amiss to lodge it in the 
 minds of young scholars, and with such admirable strokes 
 of those great masters sometimes exercise the memories 
 of school-boys. But their learning of their lessons by 
 heart, as they happen to fall out in their books without 
 choice or distinction, I know not what it serves for, but to 
 mispend their time and pains, and give them a disgust 
 and aversion to their books, wherein they find nothing but 
 useless trouble. 
 
 [176. 1 I hear it is said, That children should be employed 
 in getting things by heart, to exercise and improve their 
 memories. I could wish this were said with as much 
 authority of reason, as it is with forwardness of assurance ; 
 and that this practice were established upon good obser- 
 vation, more than old custom ; for it is evident, that 
 strength of memory is owing to a happy constitution, 
 arid not to any habitual improvement got by exercise. 
 It is true, what the mind is intent upon, and for fear of 
 letting it slip, often imprints afresh on itself by frequent 
 reflection, that it is apt to retain, but still according to 
 its own natural strength of retention. An impression 
 made on bees- wax or lead will not last so long as on brass 
 or st,eel. 2 Indeed, if it be renewed often, it may last the 
 longer ; but every new reflecting on it is a new impression, 
 and it is from thence one is to reckon, if one would know 
 how long the mind retains it. But the learning pages of ) 
 (Latin by heart, no more fits the memory for retention/ 
 | of anything else, than the graving of one sentence in lead, I 
 (makes it 3 the more capable of retaining firmly any other/ 
 
 1 Especially valuable in connection with the doctrines of " formal 
 training " and " memory training." 
 
 2 " All improvement of the memory lies in the line of elaborating 
 the associates of each of the several things to be remembered. No 
 amount of culture would seem capable of modifying a man's general 
 retentiveness." (Wm. James, Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 296). 
 
 3 Sc. the lead. Compare Conduct, sec. 28, note.
 
 144 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 characters. If such a sort of exercise of the memory 
 were able to give it strength, and improve our parts, 
 players of all other people must needs have the best 
 memories, and be the best company : but whether the 
 scraps they have got into their heads this way, make them 
 remember other things the better ; and whether their 
 parts be improved proportionably to the pains they have 
 taken in getting by heart other sayings, experience will 
 show. Memory is so necessary to all parts and conditions 
 of life, and so little is to be done without it, that we are 
 not to fear it should grow dull and useless for want of 
 exercise, if exercise would make it grow stronger. But I 
 fear this faculty of the mind is not capable of much help 
 and amendment in general, by any exercise or endeavour 
 of ours, at least not by that used upon this pretence in 
 grammar-schools. And if Xerxes was able to call every 
 common soldier by his name, in his army, that consisted 
 of no less than a hundred thousand men, I think it may 
 be guessed he got not this wonderful ability by learning 
 his lessons by heart, when he was a boy. This method of 
 exercising and improving the memory by toilsome repe- 
 titions, without book, of what they read, is, I think, little 
 used in the education of princes ; which, if it had that 
 advantage that is talked of, should be as little neglected 
 in them, as in the meanest school-boys : princes having 
 as much need of good memories as any men living, and 
 have generally an equal share in this faculty with other 
 men : though it has never been taken care of this way. 
 What the mind is intent upon, and careful of, that it 
 remembers best, and for the reason above-mentioned : to 
 which jf_met_ho(Land- order be joined, all is done, I think, 
 that can be, for the help of a weak memory ; and he that 
 will take any other way to do it, especially that of charging 
 it with a train of other people's words, which he that learns 
 cares not for, will, I guess, scarce find the profit answer 
 half the time and pains employed in it. 
 
 I do not mean hereby, that there should be no exercise 
 given to children's memories. I think their memories 
 should be employed, but not in learning by rote whole
 
 176, 177. ROTE 145 
 
 pages out of books, which, the lesson being once said, and 
 that task over, are delivered up again to oblivion, and 
 neglected for ever. This mends neither the memory nor 
 the mind. What they should learn by heart out of 
 authors, I have above mentioned : and such wise and useful 
 sentences being once given in charge to their memories, 
 they should never be suffered to forget again, but be often 
 called to account for them : whereby, besides the use those 
 sayings may be to them in their future life, as so many 
 good rules and observations, they will be taught to reflect 
 often, and bethink themselves what they have to remem- 
 ber, which is the only way to make the memory quick 
 and useful. The custom of frequent reflection will keep^ 
 their minds from running adrift^ and call their thoughts 
 home from useless, inattentive roving : and therefore, I 
 think, it^ may do well, to give them something every day 
 to_remember ; but something still, that is in itself wortb^ 
 the remembering, and wEat you would never have* out of 
 mmd, whenever you call, or they themselves search for 
 it. This will oblige them often to turn their thoughts 
 inwards, than which you cannot wish them a better 
 intellectual habit.] 
 
 177. 1 But under whose care soever a child is put to be 
 taught, during the tender and flexible years of his life, this 
 is certain, it should be one who thinks Latin and language 
 the least part of education ; one, who knowing how much 
 virtue, and a well-tempered soul, is to be preferred to any 
 sort of learning or language, makes it his chief business to 
 form the mind of his scholars, and give that a right dis- 
 position : which, if once got, though all the rest should be 
 neglected, would, in due time, produce all the rest ; and 
 which, if it be not got, and settled, so as to keep out ill 
 and vicious habits, languages and sciences, and all the 
 other accomplishments of education, will be to no purpose, 
 but to make the worse or more dangerous man. And 
 indeed, whatever stir there is made about getting of Latin, 
 as the great and difficult business, his mother may teach 
 it him herself, if she will but spend two or three hours in a 
 
 1 Sec. 167 in first edition. 
 
 10
 
 146 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 day with him, and make him read the evangelists in Lit in 
 to her : for she need but buy a Latin Testament, and 
 having got somebody to mark the last syllable but one, 
 where it is long, in words above two syllables (which is 
 enough to regulate her pronunciation, and accenting the 
 words), read daily in the gospels, 1 and then let her avoid 
 understanding them in Latin, if she can. And when she 
 understands the evangelists in Latin, let her, in the same 
 manner, read .^Esop's Fables, and so proceed on to Eutro- 
 pius, Justin, and other such books. I do not mention this, 
 as an imagination of what I fancy may do, but as of a 
 thing I have known done, and the Latin tongue, with ease, 
 got this way. 
 
 But to return to what I was saying : he that takes on 
 him the charge of bringing up young men, especially 
 young gentlemen, should have something more in him 
 than Latin, more than even a knowledge in the liberal 
 science^; he should be a person of eminent virtue and 
 prudence, and with good sense have good humour, and 
 the skill to carry himself with gravity, ease, and kindness, 
 in a constant conversation with his pupils. 
 
 178. At the same time that he is learning French and 
 Latin, a child, as has been said, may also be entered in 
 arithmetic, geography, chronology, history, and geo- 
 metry, too. For if these be taught him in French or 
 Latin, when he begins once to understand either of these 
 tongues, he will get a knowledge in these sciences, and 
 the language to boot. 2 
 
 Geography. Geography, I think, should be begun with ; 
 for the learning of the figure of the globe, the situation 
 and boundaries of the four parts of the world, and that 
 of particular kingdoms and countries, being only an 
 
 1 " When the whim takes you to leam English, you have only to 
 follow my method of reading every day a chapter of the New Testa- 
 ment, and in a month you will become master of it." So, in French 
 of doubtful idiom, Locke wrote to Thoynard in September, 1679, 
 perhaps describing his own mode of studying French. The letter is 
 given in H. Ollion's Notes sur la correspondence de John Locke 
 1678-1681 (Paris, 1908). 
 
 2 See sees. 169, 173.
 
 178. GEOGRAPHY 179, 180. ARITHMETIC 147 
 
 exercise of the eyes and memory, a child with pleasure 
 will learn and retain them : and this is so certain, that I 
 now live in the house with a child 1 whom his mother has 
 so well instructed this way in geography, that he knew 
 the limits of the four parts of the world, could readily 
 point, being asked, to any country upon the globe, or 
 any county in the map of England ; knew all the great 
 rivers, promontories, straits, and bays in the world, and 
 could find the longitude and latitude of any place, before 
 he was six years old. 2 These things that he will thus 
 learn by sight, and have by rote in his memory, are not 
 all, I confess, that he is to learn upon the globes. But 
 yet it is a good step and preparation to it, and will make 
 the remainder much easier, when his judgment is grown 
 ripe enough for it : besides that, it gets so much time now ; 
 and by the pleasure of knowing things, leads him on 
 insensibly to the gaining of languages. 
 
 179. Arithmetic. When he has the natural parts of 
 the globe well fixed in his memory, it may then be time 
 to begin arithmetic. By the natural parts of the globe, I 
 mean the several positions of the parts of the earth and sea, 
 under different names and distinctions of countries ; not 
 coming yet to those artificial and imaginary lines, which 
 have been invented, and are only supposed, for the better 
 improvement of that science. 
 
 180. Arithmetic^ is the easiest, and consequently the 
 first sort of abstract reasoning, which the mind commonly 
 bears, or accustoms itself to : and is of so jjgneral use in 
 all parjjSjjQife and business,. that scarce any .thing is to 
 be doolTwithout it. This is certain, a man cannot have 
 too much of it, nor too perfectly ; he should therefore- 
 begin to be exercised in counting, as soon, and as far, as 
 he is capable of it ; and do something in it every day, till 
 he is master of the art of numbers. When he under- 
 stands addition and subtraction, he may then be advanced 
 
 1 Francis Cudworth Masham. See the Dedication to Edward 
 Clarke, above. 
 
 2 Locke is here untrue to his own principles in accepting words 
 for ideas. See, too, sec. 181.
 
 148 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 farther in geography, and after he is acquainted with 
 the poles, zones, parallel circles, and meridians, be taught 
 longitude and latitude, and the use of maps. 1 [Which 
 when he can readily do, he may then be entered in the 
 celestial ; and there going over all the circles again, with 
 a more particular observation of the ecliptic or zodiac, 
 to fix them all very clearly and distinctly in his mind, 
 he may be taught the figure and position of the several 
 constellations which may be showed him first upon the 
 globe, and then in the heavens. 
 
 Astronomy. When that is done, and he knows pretty 
 well the constellations of this our hemisphere, it may be 
 time to give him some notions of this our planetary 
 world, and to that purpose it may not be amiss to make 
 him a draught of the Copernican system ; and therein 
 explain to him the situation of the planets, their respec- 
 tive distances from the sun, the centre of their revolu- 
 tions. This will prepare him to understand the motion 
 and theory of the planets, the most easy and natural 
 way. For since astronomers no longer doubt of the 
 motion of the planets about the sun, it is fit he should 
 proceed upon that hypothesis, which is not only the 
 simplest and least perplexing for a learner, but also the 
 likeliest to be true in itself.] But in this, as in all other 
 parts of instruction, great care must be taken with 
 children, to begin with that which is plain and simple, 2 
 and to teach them as little as can be at once, and settle 
 that well in their heads, before you proceed to the next, 
 or anything new in that science. Give them first one 
 simple idea, and see that they take it right, and perfectly 
 comprehend it, before you go any farther ; and then add 
 some other simple idea, which lies next in your way to 
 what you aim it ; and so proceeding by gentle and in- 
 
 1 Seven lines in the first edition are here replaced by the longer 
 passage below, in square brackets, from a later edition. Cf. Con- 
 duct, sec. 39, third paragraph. 
 
 2 A sound principle which Locke's recommendations have just 
 contravened. It will be noticed that the Ptolemaic system is not 
 dismissed as impossible.
 
 181. GEOMETRY 182. CHRONOLOGY 149 
 
 sensible steps, children, without confusion and amaze- 
 ment, will have their understandings opened, and their 
 thoughts extended, farther than could have been expected. 
 And when any one has learned any thing himself, there 
 is no such way to fix it in his memory, and to encourage 
 him to go on as to set him to teach it others. 
 
 181. Geometry. When he has once got such an 
 acquaintance with the globes, as is above-mentioned, 
 he may be fit to be tried a little in geometry ; wherein I 
 think the six first books of Euclid enough for him to be 
 taught. For I am in some doubt, whether more to a 
 man of business 1 be necessary or useful; at least if he 
 have a genius and inclination to it, being entered so far 
 by his tutor, he will be able to go on of himself, without 
 a teacher. 
 
 The globes therefore must be studied, and that dili- 
 gently, and, I think, may be begun betimes, if the tutor 
 will but be careful to distinguish, what the child is capable 
 of knowing, and what not ; for which this may be a rule, 
 that perhaps will go a pretty way, viz., That children 
 may be taught any thing that falls under their 
 senses, especially their sight, as far as their memories 
 only are exercised : and thus a child very young may 
 learn, which is the equator, which the meridian, etc., 
 which Europe, and which England upon the globes, as 
 soon almost as he knows the rooms of the house he lives 
 in ;' if care be taken not to teach him too much at once, 
 nor to set him upon a new part till that, which he is 
 upon, be perfectly learned and fixed in his memory. 2 
 
 182. 3 Chronology. With geography, chronology ought 
 to go hand in hand ; I mean the general part of it, so that 
 he may have in his mind a view of the whole current of 
 time, and the several considerable epochs that are made 
 use of in history. Without these two, history, which is 
 the great mistress of prudence, and civil knowledge ; and 
 ought to be the proper study of a gentleman, or man of 
 business in the world ; without geography and chronology, 
 
 1 Man of affairs, public man. 2 See note to sec. 178, p. 147. 
 3 Sec. 172 in first edition.
 
 150 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 I say, history, will be very ill retained, and very little 
 useful ; but be only a jumble of matters of fact, confusedly 
 heaped together without order or instruction. It is by 
 these two, that the actions of mankind are ranked into 
 their proper places of times and countries ; under which 
 circumstances, they are not only much easier kept in 
 the memory, but in that natural order, are only capable 
 to afford those observations which make a man the better 
 and the abler for reading them. 1 
 
 183. 2 When I speak of chronology as a science he 
 should be perfect in, I do not mean the little contro- 
 versies that are in it. These are endless, and most of 
 them of so little importance to a gentleman, as not to 
 deserve to be inquired into, were they capable of an easy 
 decision. And therefore all that learned noise and dust 
 of the chronologist is wholly to be avoided. The most 
 useful book I have seen in that part of learning, is a small 
 treatise of Strauchius, which is printed in twelves, under 
 the title of " Breviarium Chronologicum," out of which 
 may be selected all that is necessary to be taught a young 
 gentleman concerning chronology ; for all that is in that 
 treatise, a learner need not be cumbered with. He has 
 in him the most remarkable or usual epochs reduced all 
 to that of the Julian period, which is the easiest and 
 plainest and surest method that can be made use of in 
 chronology. To this treatise of Strauchius, Helvicus's tables 
 may be added, as a book to be turned to on all occasions. 3 
 
 1 These considerations are usually forgotten by those who 
 deprecate the learning of " dates." 
 
 2 Sec. 172 in first edition. 
 
 3 Both authors are recommended for the reading of Cambridge 
 men in their first year, by Robert Green (1707). Christopher Helwig 
 (1581-1617), professor at Giessen and critic of Ratke, wrote Theatrum 
 Historicum sive Chronologice systema novum ... a mundi origine 
 ad . . . annum 1609, a series of tables intended to give the kind 
 of information to be found in Mr. Gooch's well-known Annals of 
 Politics and Culture. There were many subsequent editions, 
 brought down to date. An English folio edition appeared in 1687. 
 Giles Strauch, professor at Wittenberg, wrote Breviarium Chronologi- 
 cum, a treatise on chronology, which appeared in English, translated 
 " from the third edition," in 1699, a volume of nearly 500 pages.
 
 184. HISTORY 185. ETHICS 186. CIVIL LAW 151 
 
 184. History. As nothing teaches, so nothing delights, 
 more than history. The first of these recommends it 
 to the study of grown men, the latter makes me think 
 it the fittest for a young lad, who, as soon as he is in- 
 structed in chronology, and acquainted with the several 
 epochs in use in this part of the world, and can reduce 
 them to the Julian period, should then have some Latin 
 history put into his hand. The choice should be directed 
 by the easiness of the style ; for wherever he begins, 
 chronology will keep it from confusion ; and the pleasant- 
 ness of the subject inviting him to read, the language 
 will insensibly be got, without that terrible vexation and 
 uneasiness, which children suffer where they are put into 
 books beyond their capacity, such as are the Koman 
 orators and poets, only to learn the Roman language. 
 When he has by reading mastered the easier, such perhaps 
 as Justin, Eutropius, Quintus Curtius, 1 etc., the next 
 degree to these will give him no great trouble, and thus 
 by a gradual progress from the plainest and easiest 
 historians, he may at last come to read the most difficult 
 and sublime of the Latin authors, such as are Tully/ 
 yirgil,_and Horace. >x-o-^- &*oC?v*-*~~ 
 
 185. Ethics. The knowledge of virtue, all along from 
 the beginning, in all the instances he is capable of, being 
 taught him, more by practice t-hftp "^f 3 : and the love 
 of reputation, instead of satisfying his appetite, being 
 made habitual in him ; I know not whether he should ' 
 read any other discourses of morality but what he finds 
 in the Bible ; or have any system of ethics put into his 
 hand, till he can read Tully's Offices, not as a school-boy 
 to learn Latin, but as one that would be informed in the 
 principles and precepts of virtue for the conduct of his 
 life. 
 
 186. Civil Law. When he has pretty well digested 
 Tully's Offices [and added to it " Puffendorf de officio 
 hominis et civis,"] it may be seasonable to set him upon 
 
 1 See note, sec. 168. All three are historical compilers ; the pre- 
 cise date of the last is disputed, but it falls within the Christian era. 
 
 2 Marcus Tullius Cicero,
 
 152 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 " Grotius de jure belli et pacis," or, which perhaps is 
 the better of the two, " Puffendorf de jure naturali et 
 gentium," 1 wherein he will be instructed in the natural 
 rights of men, and the original and foundations of society, 
 and the duties resulting from thence. This general part 
 of civil law and history, are studies which a gentleman 
 should not barely touch at, but constantly dwell upon 
 and never have done with. A virtuous and well-behaved 
 young man, that is well versed in the general part 
 of the civil law (which concerns not the chicane of 
 private cases, but the affairs and intercourse of civil- 
 ized nations in general, grounded upon principles of 
 reason), understands Latin well, and can write a good 
 hand, one may turn loose into the world, with great 
 assurance that he will find employment and esteem 
 every where. 2 
 
 187. Law. It would be strange to suppose an English 
 gentleman should be ignorant of the law of his country. 
 This, whatever station he is in, is so requisite that from 
 a justice of the peace to a minister of state, I know no 
 place he can well fill without it. I do not mean the 
 chicane or wrangling and captious part of the law ; a 
 gentleman whose business it is to seek the true measures 
 of right and wrong, and not the arts how to avoid doing 
 the one and secure himself in doing the other, ought to 
 be as far from such a study of the law, as he is concerned 
 diligently to apply himself to that wherein he may be 
 serviceable to his country. And to that purpose I think 
 the right way for a gentleman to study our law, which 
 he does not design for his calling, is to take a view of our 
 English constitution and government, in the ancient 
 books of the common law, and some more modern writers, 
 
 1 Two early writers on International Law: Hugo Grotius (1583- 
 1645), On the Law of War and Peace, 1625; Samuel Puffendorf 
 (1632-1694), On Natural Law and the Law of Nations, 1672, and its 
 abridgement, De Officio hominis et civis juxta legem naturalem (1673) 
 On the Duty of a Man and Citizen in respect of the Law of 
 Nature. 
 
 2 In Locke's opinion, the education of the sixteenth century still 
 retained justification.
 
 187. LAW 188, 189. RHETORIC, LOGIC 153 
 
 who out of them have given an account of this govern- 
 ment. And having got a true idea of that, then to read 
 our history, and with it join in every king's reign the 
 laws then made. This will give an insight into the 
 reason of our statutes, and show the true ground upon 
 which they came to be made, and what weight they ought 
 to have. 1 
 
 s 188. 2 Rhetoric, Logic. Ehetoric and logic being the 
 arts, that in the ordinary method usually follow imme- 
 diately after grammar, it may perhaps be wondered that 
 I have said so little of them. The reason is, because of 
 the little advantage young people receive by them ; for 
 I have seldom or never observed any one to get the skill 
 of reasoning well, or speaking handsomely by studying 
 those rules which pretend to teach it : 3 and therefore I 
 would have a young gentleman take a view of them in 
 the shortest systems that could be found without dwell- 
 ing long on the contemplation and study of those form- 
 alities. Eight reasoning is founded on something else 
 than the predicaments and predicables, and does not 
 consist in talking in mode and figure itself. But it is 
 beside my present business to enlarge upon this specula- 
 tion. To come therefore to what we have in hand ; if 
 you would have your son reason well, let him read 
 Chillingworth ; 4 and if you would have him speak well, 
 let him be conversant in Tully, to give him the true idea 
 of eloquence, and let him read those things that are well 
 written in English, to perfect his style in the purity of 
 our language. 
 
 189. 5 If the use and end of right reasoning be to have 
 right notions, and a right judgment of things, to distin- 
 
 1 In Locke's day, and later, residence at one of the Inns of Court 
 was regarded as a suitable completion of general education. 
 
 2 Sec. 177 in first edition. 
 
 3 Cf. sec. 166 and Conduct, sees. 4, 6, 31, 43, 44. It had been 
 Locke's duty at Oxford to teach logic to junior under- graduates. 
 
 4 Wm. Chillingworth (1602-1644) embraced and then abjured 
 Catholicism, against which he wrote in The Religion of Protestants 
 a Safe Way of Salvation, 1638. 
 
 5 Sec. 177 in first edition.
 
 154 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 guish betwixt truth and falsehood, right and wrong, and 
 to act accordingly, be sure not to let your son be bred 
 up in the art and formality of disputing, either practising 
 it himself, or admiring it in others ; unless, instead of an 
 able man, you desire to have him an insignificant wrangler, 
 opiniator 1 in discourse, and priding himself in contra- 
 dicting others ; or which is worse, questioning every thing, 
 and thinking there is no such thing as truth to be sought, 
 but only victory, in disputing. [For this, in short, is 
 the way and perfection of logical disputes, that the 
 opponent never takes any answer, nor the respondent 
 ever yields to any argument. This neither of them must 
 do, whatever becomes of truth or knowledge, unless he 
 will pass for a poor baffled wretch, and lie under the 
 disgrace of not being able to maintain whatever he has 
 once affirmed, which is the great aim and glory in dis- 
 puting.] Truth is to be found and supported by a 
 mature and due consideration of things themselves, and 
 not by artificial terms and ways of arguing : which lead 
 not men so much into the discovery of truth, as into a 
 captious and fallacious use of doubtful words, which is 
 the most useless and disingenuous way of talking, and 
 most unbecoming a gentleman or a lover of truth of 
 any thing in the world. 2 
 
 [There can scarce be a greater defect in a gentleman 
 than not to express himself well, either in writing or 
 speaking. But yet, I think, I may ask my reader, 
 Whether he doth not know a great many, who live upon their 
 estates, and so, with the name, should have the qualities 
 of gentlemen, who cannot so much as tell a story as they 
 should, much less speak clearly and persuasively in any 
 business ? This I think not to be so much their fault, 
 as the fault of their education ; for I must, without 
 partiality, do my countrymen this right, that where they 
 apply themselves, I see none of their neighbours outgo 
 
 1 One who stands stiffly by his own opinion. 
 
 2 The remainder of the section is invaluable in reference to the 
 method of teaching the mother-tongue. See, also, sees. 168, 171, 
 172.
 
 189. RHETORIC 155 
 
 them. They have been taught rhetoric, but yet never 
 taught how to express themselves handsomely with their 
 tongues, or pens, in the language they are always to use ; 
 as if the names of the figures 1 that embellished the dis- 
 courses of those who understood the art of speaking, 
 were the very art and skill of speaking well. This, as 
 all other things of practice, is to be learned not by a few 
 or a great many rules given, but by exercise and applica- 
 tion, according to good rules, or rather patterns, till habits 
 are got, and a facility of doing it well. 
 
 Agreeable hereunto, perhaps it might not be amiss, to 
 jnake Children, as soon as they are capable of it, often 
 lo telTaTstory of any thing_thfy know; and to correct at 
 first the most remarkable fault they are guilty of, in their 
 way of putting it together. When that fault is cured, 
 then to show them the next, and so on, till one after 
 another, all, at least the gross ones, are mended. When 
 they can tell tales pretty well, then it may be time to 
 make them write thern^ The fables of .ZEsop, the only 
 book almost that I know fit for children, may afford 
 them matter for this exercise of writing English, as well 
 as for reading and translating, to enter them in the 
 Latin tongue. When they are got past the faults of 
 grammar, and can join in a continued, coherent discourse 
 the several parts of a story, without bald and unhand- 
 some forms of transition (as is usual) often repeated ; he 
 that desires to perfect them yet farther in this, which 
 is the first step to speaking well, and needs no invention, 
 j may have recourse to Tully ; and by putting in practice 
 ' those rules,, which that master of eloquence gives in his 
 first book " De Inventione/' section 20, make them 
 know wherein the skill and graces of a handsome narrative, 
 according to the several subjects and designs of it, lie. 
 Of each of which rules fit examples may be found out, 
 and therein they may be shown how others have prac- 
 tised them. The ancient classic authors afford plenty 
 of such examples, which they should be made not only 
 
 1 Such rhetorical terms as " hyperbole," " moiosis," "hysteron- 
 proteron," etc.
 
 156 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 to translate, but have set before them as patterns for their 
 daily imitation. 
 
 When they understand how to write English with due 
 connection, propriety, and order, and are pretty well 
 masters of a tolerable narrative style, they may be 
 advanced to writing of letters ; wherein they should not 
 be put upon any strains of wit or compliment, but taught 
 to express their own plain easy sense, without any incohe- 
 rence, confusion, or roughness. And when they are 
 perfect in this, they may, to raise their thoughts, have 
 set bef Qre_thejn_ the example j)f_Vni t.nra'a, 1 for the enter- 
 tainment of their friends at a distance, with letters of 
 compliment, mirth, raillery, or diversion ; and Tully's 
 epistles, as the best pattern, whether for business or 
 conversation. The writing of letters has so much to do 
 in all the occurrences of human life, that no gentleman 
 can avoid showing himself in this kind of writing ; occa- 
 sions will daily force him to make this use of his pen, 
 which, besides the consequences, that, in his affairs, his 
 well or ill managing of it often draws after it, always lays 
 him open to a severer examination of his breeding, sense, 
 and abilities, than oral discourses ; whose transient faults, 
 dying for the most part with the sound that gives them 
 life, and so not subjec^ to a strict review, more easily 
 escape observation and censure. 
 
 Had the methods of education been directed to their 
 right end, one would have thought this, so necessary a 
 part, could not have been neglected, whilst themes and 
 verses in Latin, of no use at all, were so constantly 
 everywhere pressed, to the racking of children's inven- 
 tions beyond their strength, and hindering their cheerful 
 progress in learning the tongues, by unnatural difficulties. 
 But custom has so ordained it, and who dares disobey ? 
 And would it not be very unreasonable to require of a 
 learned country school-master (who has all the tropes 
 
 1 Vincent Voiture (1598-1648), society letter- writer and versifier, 
 whose letters were highly valued far beyond the Rambouillet circle 
 for whom they were penned. See G. Lanson, Histoire de la Littera- 
 ture Franqaise, p. 385.
 
 189. RHETORIC 157 
 
 and figures in Farnaby's 1 Ehetoric at his fingers' end) to 
 teach his scholar to express himself handsomely in 
 English, when it appears to be so little his business or 
 thought, that the boy's mother (despised, it is like, as 
 illiterate, for not having read a system of logic and 
 rhetoric) outdoes him in it ? 
 
 To write and speak correctly, gives a grace, and gains 
 a favourable attention to what one has to say : and since 
 it is English that an English gentleman will have con- 
 stant use of, that is the language he should chiefly culti- 
 vate, and wherein most care should be taken to polish 
 and perfect his style. To speak or write better Latin 
 than English, may make a man be talked of ; but he 
 would find it more to his purpose to express himself well 
 in his own tongue, that he uses every moment, than to 
 have the vain commendation of others for a very insignifi- 
 cant quality. This I find universally neglected, and no 
 care taken anywhere to improve young men in their own 
 language, that they may thoroughly understand and be 
 masters of it. If any one among us have a facility or 
 purity more than ordinary in his mother- tongue, it is 
 owing to chance or his genius, or any thing, rather than 
 to his education, or any care of his teacher. To mind 
 what English his pupil speaks or writes, is below the 
 dignity of one bred up amongst Greek and Latin, though 
 he have but little of them himself. These are the learned 
 languages, fit only for learned men to meddle with and 
 teach ; English is the language of the illiterate vulgar ; 
 though yet we see the polity of some of our neighbours hath 
 not thought it beneath the public care, to promote and 
 reward the improvement of their own language. 2 Polish- 
 
 1 The Index Rhetor icus (1625), a small Latin textbook by Thomas 
 Farnaby (1575[?]-1647), gentleman adventurer with Drake and 
 Hawkins, classical scholar and distinguished private schoolmaster 
 in London. For the Index Rhetoricus, see Foster Watson, The 
 English Grammar Schools, p. 443. 
 
 2 Locke may be thinking more particularly of the Academic 
 Frangaise (founded, 1634-1637), which began to publish its great 
 Dictionary in 1694. Academies, or societies to encourage the 
 literary development cf vernaculars, steadily increased after the
 
 158 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 ing and enriching their tongue, is no small business 
 amongst them ; it hath colleges and stipends appointed 
 it, and there is raised amongst them a great ambition 
 and emulation of writing correctly : and we see what they 
 are come to by it, and how far they have spread one of 
 the worst languages possibly, in this part of the world, 
 if we look upon it as it was in some few reigns backwards, 
 whatever it be now. The great men amongst the Romans 
 were daily exercising themselves in their own language ; 
 and we find yet upon record, the names of orators, who 
 taught some of their emperors Latin, though it wore 
 their mother- tongue. 
 
 It is plain the Greeks were yet more nice in theirs ; all 
 other speech was barbarous to them but their own, and 
 no foreign language appears to have been studied or 
 valued amongst that learned and acute people ; though 
 it be past doubt, that they borrowed their learning and 
 philosophy from abroad. 
 
 I am not here speaking against Greek and Latin : I 
 think they ought to be studied, and the Latin, at least, 
 understood well by every gentleman. But whatever 
 foreign languages a young man meddles with (and the 
 more he knows the better), that which he should critically 
 study, and labour to get a facility, clearness, and elegancy 
 to express himself in, should be his own, and to this 
 purpose he should daily be exercised in it.] 
 
 190. l Natural Philosophy. Natural philosophy, as a 
 speculative science, I imagine we have none, and perhaps 
 I may think I have reason to say we never shall. The 
 works of nature are contrived by a wisdom, and operate 
 by ways too far surpassing our faculties to discover, or 
 capacities to conceive, for us ever to be able to reduce 
 them into a science. Natural philosophy being the 
 knowledge of the principles, properties, and operations of 
 
 foundation of the Florentine Accademia de la Crusca (1582). Outside 
 Italy, the best-known are the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft at 
 Anhalt Kothen (1617) and the Academic Fra^iise. 
 1 Sec. 177 in first edition.
 
 190. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY 191. SPIRITS 159 
 
 things, as they are in themselves, I imagine there are 
 two parts of it, one comprehending Spirits with their 
 nature and qualities ; and the other Bodies. 1 The first 
 of these is usually referred to metaphysics : but under 
 what title soever the consideration of spirits, comes, I 
 think it ught to go before the study of_mattgr_and body, 
 not as a science that can be methodized into a system, 
 and treated of upon principles "of Knowledge ; but as an 
 enlargement of our minds towards a truer and fuller 
 comprehension of the intellectual world, to which we are 
 led both by reason and revelation. And since the 
 clearest and largest discoveries we have of otheFspirits, 
 besides^ God and our own souls, is imparted to us from 
 heaven by revelation, I think the information that at 
 least young people should have of them, should be taken 
 from that revelation. To this purpose, I conclude it 
 would be well if there were made a good history of the 
 Bible for young people to read ; wherein every thing that 
 is fit to be put into it being laid down in its due order of 
 time, and several things omitted which were suited only 
 to riper age, that confusion which is usually produced by 
 promiscuous reading of the Scripture, as it lies now bound 
 up in our Bibles, would be avoided ; and also this other 
 good obtained, that by reading of it constantly, there 
 would be instilled into the minds of children a notion 
 and belief of spirits, they having so much to do, in all 
 the- transactions of that history, which will be a good 
 preparation to the study of bodies. For without the 
 notion and allowance of spirit, our philosophy will be 
 lame and defective in one main part of it, when it leaves 
 out the contemplation of the most excellent and powerful 
 part of the creation. 
 
 191. 2 Of this history of the Bible, I think, too, it 
 would be well if there were a short and plain epitome 
 
 1 A doctrine scarcely to be expected from one of the leaders in 
 modern scientific thought. It is instructive to note that Locke 
 refuses to conceive a natural philosophy apart from metaphysics ; 
 yet his psychology shook itself free from metaphysic. See sec. 193. 
 
 2 Sec. 179 in first edition, which has no section numbered 178.
 
 160 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 made, containing the chief and most material heads for 
 children to be conversant in, as soon as they can read. 
 This, though it will lead them early in some notion of 
 spirits, yet is not contrary to what I said above, that I 
 would not have children troubled whilst young with 
 notions of spirits ; whereby my meaning was that I think 
 it inconvenient that their yet tender minds should receive 
 early impressions of goblins, spectres, and apparitions, 
 wherewith their maids and those about them are apt to 
 fright them into a compliance with their orders, which 
 often proves a great inconvenience to them all their lives 
 after, by subjecting their minds to frights, fearful appre- 
 hensions, weakness, and superstition ; which, when com- 
 ing abroad into the world and conversation, they grow 
 weary and ashamed of, it not seldom happens, that to 
 make, as they think, a thorough cure, and ease themselves 
 of a load, [which] has sat so heavy on them, they throw 
 away the thoughts of all spirits together, and so run into 
 the other but worse extreme. 1 
 
 192. The reason why I would have this premised to 
 the study of bodies, and the doctrine of the Scriptures 
 well imbibed, before young men be entered in natural 
 philosophy, is, because matter being a thing that all our 
 senses are constantly conversant with, it is so apt to 
 possess the mind, and exclude all other beings but matter, 
 that prejudice, grounded on such principles, often leaves 
 no room for the admittance of spirits, or the allowing 
 any such things as immaterial beings, " in rerum natura; 2 
 when yet it is evident, that by mere matter and motion, 
 none of the great phenomena of nature can be resolved : to 
 instance but in that common one of gravity; 3 which I 
 think impossible to be explained by any natural operation 
 of matter, or any other law of motion, but the positive 
 will of a superior Being so ordering it. And therefore 
 since the Deluge cannot be well explained, without ad- 
 mitting something out of the ordinary course of nature, 
 I propose it to be considered, whether God's altering the 
 
 1 See sec. 137. 2 " In the nature of things." 
 
 3 See sec. 194.
 
 192. SPIRITS 193. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY 161 
 
 centre of gravity in the earth for a time (a .thing as 
 intelligible as gravity it self, which perhaps a little varia- 
 tion of causes, unknown to us, would produce) will not 
 more easily account for Noah's flood, than any hypo- 
 thesis yet made use of to solve it. 1 I hear the great 
 objection to this is, that it would produce but a partial 
 deluge. But this I mention by the by, to shew the 
 necessity of having recourse to something beyond bare 
 matter, and its motion, in the explication of nature ; to 
 which the notions of spirits, and their power, as delivered 
 in the Bible, where so much is attributed to their opera- 
 tion, may be a fit preparative ; reserving to a fitter 
 opportunity a fuller explication of this hypothesis, and 
 the application of it to all the parts of the Deluge, and 
 any difficulties [that] can be supposed in the history of 
 the Flood, as recorded in the Bible. 
 
 193. But to return to the study of natural philosophy : i 
 though the world be full of systems of it, yet I cannot 
 say, I know any one which can be taught a young man 
 as a science, wherein he may be sure to find truth and 
 certainty, which is what all sciences give an expectation 
 of. 2 I do not hence conclude, that none of them are to 
 be read ; it is necessary for a gentleman, in this learned 
 age, to look into some of them to fit himself for conversa- 
 tion : but whether that of Des Cartes be put into his 
 hands, as that which is most in fashion, or it be thought 
 fit' to give him a short view of that and several others 
 also ; I think the systems of natural philosophy, that 
 have obtained in this part of the world, are to be read 
 more to know the hypotheses, and to understand the 
 terms and ways of talking of the several sects, 3 than with 
 hopes to gain thereby a comprehensive, scientific, and 
 satisfactory knowledge of the works of Nature ; only 
 
 1 An oblique reference to Thomas Burnet's fantastic notions 
 displayed in his Theory of the Earth (1684). 
 
 2 See sec. 190, and Essay, iv., chap. Hi., sec. 26. Cf. Intro- 
 duction, p. 10. 
 
 3 " Schools." Cf. Conduct, sec. 3 (at close). This fitting one's 
 self " for conversation " is condemned in Conduct, sec. 19. 
 
 11
 
 162 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 this may be said, that the modern Corpuscularians talk, 
 in most things, more intelligibly than the Peripatetics, 
 who possessed the schools immediately before them. 1 
 He that would look farther back, and acquaint himself 
 with the several opinions of the ancients, may consult 
 Dr. Cudworth's Intellectual System ; 2 wherein that very 
 learned author hath, with such accurateness and judg- 
 ment, collected and explained the opinions of the Greek 
 philosophers, that what principles they built on, and 
 what were the chief hypotheses that divided them, is 
 better to be seen in him than anywhere else that I know. 
 But I would not deter any one from the study of nature, 
 because all the knowledge we have, or possibly can have 
 of it, cannot be brought into a science. There are very 
 many things in it, that are convenient and necessary to 
 be known to a gentleman ; and a great many other, that 
 will abundantly reward the pains of the curious with 
 delight and advantage. But these, I think, are rather 
 to be foun'd amongst such writers as have employed 
 themselves in making rational experiments and observa- 
 tions, than in starting barely speculative systems. Such 
 writings, therefore, as many of Mr. Boyle's 3 are, with 
 others that have writ of husbandry, planting, gardening, 
 and the like, may be fit for a gentleman, when he has a 
 little acquainted himself with some of the systems of 
 the natural philosophy in fashion. 
 
 194. Though the systems of physic[s] that I have met 
 with, afford little encouragement to look for certainty, 
 or science, in any treatise, which shall pretend to give us 
 a body of natural philosophy from the first principles 
 
 1 Cf. sec. 94 and Conduct, sec. 29. Corpuscularians like Descartes 
 and Boyle, and Democritus and Epicurus in ancient times, taught 
 that all phenomena are due to matter and its extension, divisibility, 
 configuration and motion. 
 
 2 Ralph Cudworth, Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, pub- 
 lished The True Intellectual System of the Universe in 1678. 
 
 3 Robert Boyle (1627-1691), a member of the private society 
 (the " Invisible College "), which at Oxford and at Gresham College 
 and elsewhere in London prosecuted experimental study. Boyle 
 took a leading part in founding the Royal Society (1662).
 
 194. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY 195. GREEK 163 
 
 of bodies in general ; yet the incomparable Mr. Newton l 
 has shown how far mathematics, applied to some parts 
 of nature, may, upon principles that matter of fact 
 justify, carry us in the knowledge of some, as I may so 
 call them, particular provinces of the incomprehensible 
 universe. And if others could give us so good and clear 
 an account of other parts of nature, as he has of this 
 our planetary world, and the most considerable pheno- 
 mena observable in it, in his admirable book " Philoso- 
 phise naturalis Principia mathematica," 1 we might in 
 time hope to be furnished with more true and certain 
 knowledge in several parts of this stupendous machine, 
 than hitherto we could have expected. And though 
 there are very few that have mathematics enough to 
 understand his demonstrations ; yet the most accurate 
 mathematicians, who have examined them, allowing 
 them to be such, his book will deserve to be read, and 
 give no small light and pleasure to those, who, willing 
 to understand the motions, properties, and operations of 
 the great masses of matter in this our solar system, will 
 but carefully mind his conclusions, which may be de- 
 pended on as propositions well proved. 
 
 195. Greek. This is, in short, what I have thought 
 concerning a young gentleman's studies ; wherein it will 
 possibly be wondered that I should omit Greek, since 
 amongst the Grecians is to be found the original, as it 
 were, and foundation of all that learning which we have 
 in this part of the world. I grant it so ; and will add, 
 that no man can pass for a scholar, that is ignorant of 
 the Greek tongue. But I am not here considering of 
 the education of a professed scholar, but of a gentleman, 
 to whom Latin and French, as the world now goes, is by 
 every one acknowledged to be necessary. When he comes 
 to be a man, if he has a mind to carry his studies farther, 
 and look into the Greek learning, he will then easily get 
 that tongue himself ; and if he has not that inclination, 
 his learning of it under a tutor will be but lost labour, 
 
 1 Isaac Newton (1642-1727) was not knighted till 1705. The 
 Principia was published in 1687.
 
 164 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 and much of his time and pains spent in that which will 
 be neglected and thrown away as soon as he is at liberty. 
 For how many are there of a hundred, even amongst 
 scholars themselves, who retain the Greek they carried 
 from school ; or ever improve it to a familiar reading, 
 and perfect understanding of Greek authors ? 
 
 [To conclude this part, which concerns a young gentle- 
 man's studies, his tutor should remember, that his business 
 is not so much to teach him all that is knowable, as to 
 raise in him a love and esteem of knowledge ; and to put 
 him in the right way of knowing and improving himself, 
 when he has a mind to it.] 
 
 Later editions here insert quotations from La Bruyire 
 (" Moeurs de ce Siede ") "on the subject of languages." 
 
 Method. [Order and constancy are said to make the 
 great difference between one man and another ; this I 
 am sure, nothing so much clears a learner's way, helps 
 him so much on in it, and makes him go so easy and 
 so far in any inquiry, as a good method. His governor 
 should take pains to make him sensible of this, accustom 
 him to order, and teach him method in all the applica- 
 tions of his thoughts ; show him wherein it lies, and the 
 advantages of it ; acquaint him with the several sorts 
 of it, either from general to particulars, or from par- 
 ticulars to what is more general ; exercise him in 
 both of them ; and make him see, in what cases each 
 different method is most proper, and to what ends it 
 best serves. 
 
 In history the order of time should govern ; in philo- 
 sophical inquiries, that of nature, which in all progression 
 is to go from the place one is then in, to that which joins 
 and lies next to it ; and so it is in the mind, from the 
 knowledge it stands possessed of already, to that which 
 lies next, and is coherent to it, and so on to what it aims 
 at, by the simplest and most uncompounded parts it 
 can divide the matter into. To this purpose, it will be 
 of great use to his pupil to accustom him to distinguish 
 well, that is, to have distinct notions, wherever the mind 
 can find any real difference ; but as carefully to avoid
 
 196. DANCING 197. MUSIC 165 
 
 distinctions in terms, where he has not distinct and 
 different clear ideas. 1 ] 
 
 ^ 196. Besides what is to be had from study and books, 
 there are other accomplishments necessary to a gentle- 
 man, to be got by exercise, and to which time is to be 
 allowed, ancQor which masters must be had. 
 
 Dana'n</.-fDancing being that which gives graceful 
 motions all the life, and, above all things, manliness 
 and a bec^ming^conridence to young children, I think it 
 cannot ^eTearned too early, after they are once of an 
 age and strength capable of it. But you must be sure 
 to have a good master, that knows, and can teach, what 
 is graceful and becoming, and what gives a freedom and 
 easiness to all the motions of the body.J One that 
 teaches not this is worse than none at all, natural un- 
 fashionableness being much better than apish, affected 
 postures ; and I think it much more passable to put off 
 the hat, and make a leg, like an honest country gentle- 
 man, than like an ill-fashioned dancing-master. For, 
 as for the jigging part, and the figures of dances, I count 
 that little or nothing farther than as it tends to perfect 
 graceful carriage. 
 
 197. Music. ^MusicJ.8 thought to have some affinity 
 with dancing, and aTgood hand, upon some instruments, 
 is by many people mightily valued. But it wastes so 
 numb of a. yflqng man s tirnfl. to gain but a moderate 
 ^skill in it, and engages often in such odd company, that 
 ^jflriy t.hinlr if, fQrich better spared : and I have, amongst 
 men of parts and business, 2 so seldom heard any one 
 commended or esteemed for having an excellency in 
 music, that amongst all those things, that ever came 
 
 1 Cf. Conduct, sec. 39. " As a clear idea is that whereof the mind 
 has such a full and evident perception as it .does receive from an 
 outward object operating duly on a well-disposed organ, so a distinct 
 idea is that wherein the mind perceives a difference from all other ; 
 and a confused idea is such an one as is not sufficiently distinguish- 
 able from another from which it ought to be distinguished " (Essay 
 concerning Human Understanding, ii., chap. xxix.). See also the 
 " Epistle to the Reader." 
 
 2 Men of affairs, public men. Cf. note, sec. 210.
 
 166 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 into the list of accomplishments, I think I may give it 
 the last place. Our short lives will not serve us for the 
 attainment of all things ; nor can our minds be always 
 intent on something to be learned. The weakness of 
 our constitutions, both of mind and body, requires that 
 we should be often unbent : and he that will make a 
 good use of any part of his life, must allow a large portion 
 of it to recreation. At least this must not be denied to 
 young people, unless, whilst you with too much haste 
 make them old, you have the displeasure to set them in 
 their graves, or a second childhood, sooner than you 
 could wish. And therefore I think that the time and 
 pains allotted to serious improvements should be em- 
 ployed about things of most use and consequence, and 
 that too in the methods the most easy and short, that 
 could be at any rate obtained ; and perhaps it would be 
 none of the least secrets of education to make the exer- 
 cises of the body and the mind, the recreation one to 
 another. I doubt not but that something might be done 
 in it, by a prudent man, that would well consider the 
 temper and inclination of his pupil. For he that is 
 wearied either with study or dancing, does not desire 
 presently to go to sleep ; but to do something else which 
 may divert and delight him. But this must be always 
 remembered, that nothing can come into the account 
 of recreation that is not done with delight. 
 
 198. Fencing, and riding the great horse, 1 are looked 
 upon as so necessary parts of breeding, that it would be 
 thought a great omission to neglect them : the latter of 
 the two, being for the most part to be learned only in 
 great towns, is one of the best exercises for health which 
 is to be had in those places of ease and luxury ; and, upon 
 that account, makes a fit part of a young gentleman's 
 employment, during his abode there. And, as far as it 
 conduces to give a man a firm and graceful seat on 
 horseback, and to make him able to teach his horse to 
 
 1 The management of the charger, especially in military parade ; 
 it was one of the chief aims of the French academies to teach this. 
 See Introduction.
 
 199. FENCING 167 
 
 stop, and turn quick, and to rest on his haunches, is of 
 use to a gentleman both in peace and war. But, whether 
 it be of moment enough to be made a business of, and 
 deserve to take up more of his time than should barely 
 for his health be employed, at due intervals, in some 
 such vigorous exercise, I shall leave to the discretion of 
 parents and tutors ; who will do well to remember, in 
 all the parts of education, that most time and applica- 
 tion is to be bestowed on that which is like to be of 
 greatest consequence and frequent use, in the ordinary 
 course and occurrences of that life the young man is 
 designed for. 
 
 199. Fencing. As for fencing, it seems to me a good 
 exercise for health, but dangerous to the life, the con- 
 fidence of it being apt to engage in quarrels those that 
 think they have some skill, and to make them often more 
 touchy than needs, on points of honour, and slight 
 provocations. Young men in their warm blood are 
 forward to think they have in vain learned to fence if 
 they never show their skill and courage in a duel ; and 
 they seem to have reason. But how many sad tragedies 
 that reason has been the occasion of, the tears of many 
 a mother can witness. 1 A man _that cannot fence will 
 be more careful to keep out of bullies' and gamesters' 
 company, and will noT~T>e^:aif~SjO~'~apt to stand upon 
 punctilios nor to give affr<5$ttT or fiercely justify them 
 wfien given, which is that which usually makes the 
 quarrel. And when a man is in the field, a moderate 
 skill in fencing rather exposes him to the sword of his 
 enemy, than secures him from it. And certainly a man 
 of courage, who cannot fence at all, and therefore will 
 put all upon one thrust, and not stand parrying, has the 
 
 1 " Many bloody and notorious duels were fought about this 
 time. The Duke of Grafton killed Mr. Stanley* brother to the Earl 
 of Derby, indeed, upon an almost insufferable provocation. It ia 
 to be hoped his Majesty will at last severely remedy this unchristian 
 custom " (Evelyn, Diary, Feb., 168$). This entry is not singular 
 in its impatience with the foreign custom of the duel ; many similar 
 passages occur in the literature of the time. Steele and Defoe 
 notably opposed duelling a generation later.
 
 168 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 odds against a moderate fencer, especially if he has skill 
 in wrestling. And therefore, if any provision be to be 
 made against such accidents, and a man be to prepare 
 his son for duels, I had much rather mine should be a 
 good wrestler, than an ordinary fencer ; which is the most 
 a gentleman can attain to in it, unless he will be con- 
 stantly in the fencing school, and every day exercising. 
 But since fencing and riding the great horse are so 
 generally looked upon as necessary qualifications in the 
 breeding of a gentleman, it will be hard wholly to deny 
 any one of that rank these marks of distinction. I shall 
 leave it therefore to the father, to consider, how far the 
 temper of his son, and the station he is like to be in, will 
 allow or encourage him to comply with fashions, which, 
 having very little to do with civil life, were yet formerly 
 unknown to the most warlike nations ; and seem to have 
 added little of force or courage to those who have re- 
 ceived them ; unless we will think martial skill or prowess 
 have been improved by duelling, with which fencing 
 came into, and with which, I presume, it will go out of 
 the world. 
 
 200. These are my present thoughts concerning learn- 
 ing and accomplishments. The great business of all is 
 virtue and wisdom. 
 
 " Nullum numen abest, si sit prudentia." 1 
 
 Teach him to get a mastery over his inclinations, and 
 submit his appetite to reason. This being obtained, 
 and by constant practice settled into habit, the hardest 
 part of the task is over. To bring a young man to this, 
 I know nothing which so much contributes as the love 
 of praise and commendation, which should therefore be 
 instilled into him by all arts imaginable. Make his mind 
 as sensible of credit and shame as may be : and when 
 you have done that, you have put a principle into him 
 which will influence his actions, when you are not by, 
 to which the fear of a little smart of a rod is not com- 
 
 1 " Where wisdom is, no heavenly power is wanting " (Juvenal, 
 Satires x. 365 and xiv. 315.
 
 201, 202. TEADE 169 
 
 parable, and which will be the proper stock, whereon 
 afterwards to graft the true principles of morality and 
 religion. 1 
 
 201. Trade. I have one more thing to add. which as 
 soon as I mention I shall run the danger to be suspected 
 to have forgot what I am about, and what I have above 
 written concerning education, which has all tended 
 towards a gentleman's calling, with which a trade seems 
 wholly to be inconsistent. And yet, I cannot forbear 
 to say, I would have him learn a trade, a manual trade ; 
 nay, two or three, but one more particularly. 
 
 202. The busy inclination of children being always to 
 be directed to something that may be useful to them, 
 the advantage may be considered of two kinds : 1. Where 
 the skill it self, that is got by exercise, is worth the having. 
 Thus skill not only in languages and learned sciences, 
 but in painting, turning, gardening, tempering and 
 working in iron, and all other useful arts, is worth the 
 having. 2. Where the exercise it self, without any con- 
 sideration, is necessary or useful for health. Knowledge 
 in some things is so necessary to be got by children 
 whilst they are young, that some part of their time is to 
 be allotted to their improvement in them, though those 
 employments contribute nothing at all to their health : 
 such are reading and writing, and all other sedentary 
 studies, for the improvement of the mind, and are the 
 unavoidable business of gentlemen quite from their 
 cradles. Other manual arts, which are both got and 
 exercised by labour, do many of them by their exercise 
 contribute to our health too, especially such as employ 
 us in the open air. In these, then, health and improve- 
 ment may be joined together, and of these should some 
 fit ones be chosen, to be made the recreations of one, 
 whose chief business is with books and study. 2 In this 
 choice, the age and inclination of the person is to be 
 considered, and constraint always to be avoided in bring- 
 
 1 See sees. 53, 56-60. 
 
 2 Rousseau requires Emile to learn hand-work, in order that he 
 may understand that " every idle citizen is a rogue."
 
 170 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 ing him to it. For command and force may often create, 
 but can never cure an aversion ; and whatever any one is 
 brought to by compulsion he will leave as soon as he can, 
 and be little profited, and less recreated by, whilst he 
 is at it. 1 
 
 203. Painting. That which of all others would please 
 me best would be a painter, were there not an argument 
 or two against it not easy to be answered. First, ill 
 painting is one of the worst things in the world ; and to 
 attain a tolerable degree of skill in it, requires too much 
 of a man's time. If he has a natural inclination to it, it 
 will endanger the neglect of all other more useful studies, 
 to give way to that ; and if he have no inclination to it, 
 all the time, pains and money that shall be employed in 
 it will be thrown away to no purpose. Another reason 
 why I am not for painting in a gentleman is because it 
 is a sedentary recreation, which more employs the mind 
 than the body. A gentleman's more serious employ- 
 ment I look on to be study ; and when that demands 
 relaxation and refreshment, it should be in some exercise 
 of the body, which unbends the thought and confirms the 
 health and strength. For these two reasons I am not 
 for painting. 
 
 204. Gardening Joiner. In the next place, for a 
 country gentleman, I should propose one, or rather both 
 these viz., gardening and working in wood, as a 
 carpenter, joiner, or turner, as being fit and healthy 
 recreations for a man of study or business. For since 
 the mind endures not to be constantly employed in the 
 same thing or way ; and sedentary or studious men 
 should have some exercise, that at the same time might 
 divert their minds and employ their bodies ; I know none 
 that could do better for a country gentleman than these 
 two, the one of them affording him exercise, when the 
 weather or season keeps him from the other. Besides, 
 that, by being skilled in the one of them, he will be able 
 to govern and teach his gardener ; by the other, contrive 
 
 1 See sees. 72-74, 84, 103, 123, 128, 148, 149, 167, 202, and 
 Introduction, p. 15.
 
 205. LABOUE 206, 207. RECREATION 171 
 
 and make a great many things both of delight and use : 
 though these I propose not as the chief ends of his labour, 
 but as temptations to it : diversion from his other more 
 serious thoughts and employments by useful and healthy 
 manual exercise being what I chiefly aim at in it. 
 
 [205. The ancients reconciled manual labour with affairs 
 of state, as in the instances of Gideon, Cincinnatus, Cato, 
 and Cyrus.'] 
 
 206. 1 Recreation. Nor let it be thought that I mistake 
 when I call these or the like trades, diversions or recrea- 
 tions : for recreation is not being idle (as every one may 
 observe), but easing the wearied part by change of busi- 
 ness : and he that thinks diversion may not lie in hard 
 and painful labour, forgets the early rising, hard riding, 
 heat, cold and hunger of huntsmen, which is yet known 
 to be the constant j recreation of men of the greatest 
 condition. Delving, planting, inoculating,^ or any the 
 like profitable employments, would be no less a diversion 
 than any of the idle sports in fashion, if men could but 
 be brought to delight in'tHem, which custom and skill in 
 a trade will quickly bring any one to do. And I doubt 
 not, but there are to be found those, who, being fre- 
 quently called to cards, or any other play, by those they 
 could not refuse, have been more tired with these recrea- 
 tions, than with any the most serious employment of 
 life ; though the play has been such as they have naturally 
 ba,d n<7 aversion to, and with which they could willingly f 
 sometimes divert themselves"! 
 
 207. Though when one reflects on these and other the 
 like pastimes (as they are called) one finds they leave 
 little satisfaction behind them, when they are over ; and 
 most commonly give more vexation than delight to 
 people, whilst they are actually engaged in them, and 
 neither profit the mind nor the body. They are plain 
 instances to me that men cannot be perfectly idle ; they 
 must be doing something. The skill should be so to 
 employ their time of recreation that it may relax and 
 refresh the part that has been exercised, and is tired 
 1 Sec. 193 in first edition. 2 Grafting.
 
 172 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 and yet do something, which, besides the present delight 
 and ease, may produce what will afterwards be profitable. 
 It has been nothing but the vanity and pride of greatness 
 and riches, that has brought unprofitable and dangerous 
 pastimes into fashion, and persuaded people into a 
 belief, that the learning or putting their hands to any 
 thing that was useful, could not be a diversion fit for a 
 gentleman. This has been that which has given cards, 
 dice, and drinking so much credit in the world ; and a 
 great many throw away their spare hours in them, 
 through the prevalency of custom, and want of some better 
 employment to pass their time, more than from any real 
 delight [that] is to be found in them, only because it 
 being very irksome and uneasy to do nothing at all, they 
 had never learned any laudable manual art wherewith 
 to divert themselves ; and so they betake themselves to 
 those foolish or ill ways in use, to help off their time, 
 which a rational man, till corrupted by custom, could 
 find very little pleasure in. 
 
 208. Trade. I say not this, that I would never have 
 a young gentleman accommodate himself to the innocent 
 diversions in fashion amongst those of his age and con- 
 dition. I am so far from having him austere and morose 
 to that degree, that I would persuade him to more than 
 ordinary complaisance for all the gaieties and diversions 
 of those he converses with, and be averse or resty in 
 nothing they should desire of him, that might become a 
 gentleman and an honest^ man. But allowance being 
 made for idle and jovial conversation, and all fashionable 
 becoming recreations, I say, a young man will have time 
 enough, from his serious and main business, to learn 
 almost anyjfcrade. 'Tis want of application, and not of 
 leisure, that men are not skilful in more arts than one ; 
 and an hour in a day, constantly employed in such a way 
 of diversion, will carry a man in a short time a great deal 
 farther than he can imagine : which, if it were of no other 
 use, but to drive the common, vicious, useless, and 
 dangerous pastimes out of fashion, and to show there 
 was no need of them, would deserve to be encouraged.
 
 208. 209. TKADE 210. MERCHANTS' ACCOUNTS 173 
 
 If men from their youth were weaned from that saunter- 
 ing humour, wherein some, out of custom, let a good part 
 of their lives run uselessly away, without either business 
 or recreation, they would find time enough to acquire 
 dexterity and skill in hundreds of things, which, though 
 remote from their proper callings, would not at all inter- 
 fere with them. And therefore, I think, for this, as well 
 as other reasons before-mentioned, a lazy, listless humour, 
 that idly dreamsjaway the days, is of all others the least 
 to be indulged, or permitted in young people. It is the 
 proper state of one sick, and out of order in his health, 
 and is tolerable in nobody else, of what age or condition 
 soever. 
 
 209. To the arts above-mentioned may be added per- 
 fuming, varnishing, graving, and several sorts of working 
 in iron, brass, and silver : and if, as it happens to most 
 young gentlemen, that a considerable part of his time be 
 spent in a great town, he may learn to cut, polish, and 
 set precious stones, or employ himself in grinding and 
 polishing optical glasses. Amongst the great variety 
 there is of ingenious manual arts, 'twill be impossible 
 that no one should be found to please and delight him, 
 unless he be either idle or debauched, which is not to be 
 supposed in a right way of education. And since he 
 cannot be always employed in study, reading, and con- 
 versation, there will be many an hour, besides what his 
 exercises will take up, which, if not spent this way, will 
 be spent worse. For, I conclude .a young man- will 
 seldom desire to sit perfectly still and idle : or if he does. 
 it is a fault that ought to be mended. 
 
 210. But if his mistaken parents, frightened with the 
 disgraceful names of mechanic and trade, shall have an 
 aversion to anything of this kind in their children ; yet 
 there is one thing relating to trade, which, when they con- 
 sider, they will think absolutely necessary for their sons 
 to learn. 
 
 Merchants' Accounts. Merchants' accounts, though a 
 science not likely to help a gentleman to get an estate, yet 
 possibly there is not any thing of more use and efficacy to
 
 174 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 make him preserve the estate he has. 'Tis seldom ob- 
 served that he who keeps an account of his income and 
 expenses and thereby has constantly under view the 
 course of his domestic affairs, lets them run to ruin ; and 
 I doubt not but many a man gets behindhand before he is 
 aware, or runs farther on, when he is once in, for want of 
 this care, or the skill to do it. I would therefore advise 
 all gentlemen to learn perfectly merchants' accounts, and 
 not to think it is a skill that belongs not to them because 
 it has received its name from, and has been chiefly 
 practised by, men of traffic. 1 
 
 211. When my young master has once got the skill of 
 keeping accounts (which is a business of reason more than 
 arithmetic), perhaps it will not be amiss, that his father 
 from thenceforth require him to do it in all his concern- 
 ments. Not that I would have him set down every pint 
 of wine, or play, that costs him money ; the general name 
 of expenses will serve for such things well enough : nor 
 would I have his father look so narrowly into these 
 accounts, as to take occasion from thence to criticize on 
 his expenses. He must remember, that he himself was 
 once a young man, and not forget the thoughts he had 
 then, nor the right his son has to have the same, and to 
 have allowance made for them. If therefore I would have 
 the young gentleman obliged to keep an account, it is not 
 at all to have that way a check upon his expenses (for 
 what the father allows him, he ought to let him be fully 
 master of), but only that he might be brought early into 
 the custom of doing it, and that that might be made 
 familiar and habitual to him betimes, which will be so 
 useful and necessary to be constantly practised through 
 the whole course of his life. A noble Venetian, whose 
 son wallowed in the plenty of his father's riches, finding 
 his son's expenses grow very high and extravagant, 
 ordered his cashier to let him have for the future no more 
 money than what he should count when he received it. 
 This one would think no great restraint to a young gentle- 
 man's expenses, who could freely have as much money as 
 1 In modern phrase, " business men." Cf. note, sec. 197.
 
 211. MERCHANTS' ACCOUNTS 212. TRAVEL 175 
 
 he would tell. 1 But yet this, to one who was used to 
 nothing but the pursuit of his pleasures, proved a very 
 great trouble, which at last ended in this sober and 
 advantageous reflection : If it be so much pains to me 
 barely to count the money I would spend, what labour 
 and pains did it cost my ancestors, not only to count, 
 but get it ? This rational thought, suggested by this 
 little pains imposed upon him, wrought so effectually 
 upon his mind, that it made him take up, and from that 
 time forwards prove a good husband. This at least 
 everybody must allow, that nothing is likelier to keep a 
 man within compass than the having constantly before 
 his eyes the state of his affairs in a regular course of 
 accounts. 
 
 212. Travel. The last part usually in education is 
 travel, which is commonly thought to finish the work, 
 and complete the gentleman. I confess, travel into 
 foreign countries has great advantages ; but the time 
 usually chosen to send young men abroad, is, I think, of 
 all other, that which renders them least capable of reaping 
 those advantages. Those which are proposed, as to the 
 main of them, may be reduced to these two ; first, lan- 
 guage ; secondly, an improvement in wisdom and prudence 
 by seeing men, and conversing with people of tempers, 
 customs, and ways of living, different from one another, 
 and especially from those of his parish and neighbourhood. 
 But from sixteen to one and twenty, which is the ordinary 
 time of travel, men are, of all their lives, the least suited 
 to these improvements. The first season to get foreign 
 languages, and form the tongue to their true accents, I 
 should think, should be from seven to fourteen or sixteen ; 
 and then too, a tutor with them is useful and necessary, 
 who may, with those languages, teach them other things. 
 But to put them out of their parents' view, at a great 
 distance, under a governor, when they think themselves 
 too much men to be governed by others, and yet have 
 not prudence and experience enough to govern them- 
 selves : what is it, but to expose them to all the greatest 
 1 I.e., count.
 
 176 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 dangers of their whole life, when they have the least fence 
 and guard against them ? Till that boiling, boisterous 
 part of life comes in, it may be hoped, the tutor may have 
 some authority ; neither the stubbornness of age, nor the 
 temptation of examples of others can take him from his 
 tutor's conduct, till fifteen or sixteen : but then, when he 
 begins to consort himself with men, and think himself 
 one ; when he comes to relish and pride himself in manly 
 vices, and thinks it a shame to be any longer under the 
 control and conduct of another : what can be hoped from 
 even the most careful and discreet governor, when neither 
 he has power to compel, nor his pupil a disposition to be 
 persuaded ; but, on the contrary, has the advice of warm 
 blood, and prevailing fashion, to hearken to the tempta- 
 tions of his companions, just as wise as himself, rather 
 than to the persuasions of his tutor, who is now looked on 
 as the enemy to his freedom ? And when is a man so 
 like to miscarry, as when at the same time he is both raw 
 and unruly ? This is the season of all his life that most 
 requires the eye and authority of his parents and friends 
 to govern it. The flexibleness of the former part of a 
 man's age, not yet grown up to be headstrong, makes it 
 more governable and safe ; and, in the after-part, reason 
 and foresight begin a little to take place, and mind a man 
 of his safety and improvement. The time therefore I 
 should think the fittest for a young gentleman to be sent 
 abroad would be either when he is younger, under a tutor, 
 whom he might be the better for ; or when he was some 
 years older, when he is of age to govern himself, and make 
 observations of what he finds in other countries worthy 
 his notice, and that might be of use to him after his return : 
 and when too, being thoroughly acquainted with the laws 
 and fashions, the natural and moral advantages and defects 
 of his own country, he has something to exchange with 
 those abroad, from whose conversation he hoped to reap 
 any knowledge. 
 
 213. The ordering of travel otherwise is that, I imagine, 
 which makes so many young gentlemen come back so little 
 improved by it. And if they do bring home with them any
 
 213, 214. TRAVEL 177 
 
 knowledge of the places and people they have seen, it is 
 often an admiration of the worst and vainest practices 
 they met with abroad ; retaining a relish and memory of 
 those things wherein their liberty took its first swing, 
 rather than of what should make them better and wiser 
 after their return. And indeed, how can it be otherwise, 
 going abroad at the age they do, under a governor, who 
 is to provide their necessaries, and make their observations 
 for them ? Thus, under the shelter and pretence of a 
 governor, thinking themselves excused from standing upon 
 their own legs, or being accountable for their own conduct, 
 they very seldom trouble themselves with inquiries, or 
 making useful observations of their own. Their thoughts 
 run after play and pleasure, wherein they take it as a 
 lessening to be controlled ; but seldom trouble themselves 
 to examine the designs, observe the address, and consider 
 the arts, tempers, and inclinations of men they meet with ; 
 that so they may know how to comport themselves towards 
 them. Here he that travels with them, is to screen them, 
 get them out, when they have run themselves into the 
 briars ; and in all their miscarriages be answerable for 
 them. 
 
 214. 1 I confess, the knowledge of men is so great a skill, 
 that it is not to be expected a young man should presently 2 
 be perfect in it. But yet his going abroad is to little 
 purpose, if travel does not somewhat open his eyes, make 
 him cautious and wary, and accustom him to look beyond 
 the outside, and, under the inoffensive guard of a civil and 
 obliging carriage, keep himself free and safe in his con- 
 versation with strangers, and all sorts of people, without 
 forfeiting their good opinion. He that is sent out to 
 travel at the age, and with the thoughts of a man designing 
 to improve himself, may get into the conversation a'nd 
 acquaintance of persons of condition where he comes : 
 which, though a thing of most advantage to a gentleman 
 that travels, yet I ask, amongst our young men that go 
 abroad under tutors, "What one is there of an hundred, 
 that ever visits any person of quality ? much less makes 
 
 1 Sec. 202 in first edition. 2 Immediately, at once. 
 
 12
 
 178 THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION 
 
 an acquaintance with such, from whose conversation he 
 may learn what is good breeding in that country, and 
 what is worth observation in it ; though from such persons 
 it is, one may learn more in one day, than in a year's 
 rambling from one June to another. Nor indeed is it to 
 be wondered ; for men of worth and parts will not easily 
 admit the familiarity of boys who yet need the care of a 
 tutor : though a young gentleman and stranger, appearing 
 like a man, and showing a desire to inform himself in the 
 customs, manners, laws, and government of the country 
 he is in, will find welcome assistance and entertainment 
 amongst the best and most knowing persons everywhere, 
 who will be ready to receive, encourage, and countenance 
 an ingenuous and inquisitive foreigner. 
 
 21 5. 1 This, how true soever it be, will not, I fear, alter 
 the custom, which has cast the time of travel upon the 
 worst part of a man's life ; but for reasons not taken from 
 their improvement. The young lad must not be ventured 
 abroad at eight or ten, for fear of what may happen to the 
 tender child, though he then runs ten times less risk than 
 at sixteen or eighteen. Nor must he stay at home till that 
 dangerous heady age be over, because he must be back 
 again by one and twenty, to marry and propagate. The 
 father cannot stay any longer for the portion, nor the 
 mother for a new set of babies to play with ; and so my 
 young master, whatever comes on't, must have a wife 
 looked out for him, by that time he is of age ; though it 
 would be no prejudice to his strength, his parts, nor his 
 issue, if it were respited for some time, and he had leave 
 to get, in years and knowledge, the start a little of his 
 children, who are often found to tread too near upon the 
 heels of their fathers, to the no great satisfaction either 
 of son or father. But the young gentleman being got 
 within view of matrimony, 'tis time to leave him to his 
 mistress. 
 
 216. 2 Though I am now come to a conclusion of what 
 obvious remarks have suggested to me concerning educa- 
 tion, I would not have it thought that I look on it as a 
 
 1 Sec. 201 in first edition. - Sec. 202 in first edition.
 
 216. CONCLUSION 179 
 
 just treatise on this subject. There are a thousand other 
 things that may need consideration ; especially if one 
 should take in the various tempers, different inclinations, 
 and particular defaults, that are to be found in children ; 
 and prescribe proper remedies. The variety is so great, 
 that it would require a volume ; nor would that reach it. 
 .Each man's mind has some peculiarity, as well as his face, 
 that distinguishes him from all others ; and there are 
 pjpssibly scarce two children who can be conducted by 
 exactly_the same method. Besides that, I think a prince, 
 a nobleman, and an or dinarygen 1 1 em an ' s son. should have 
 different ways of breeding. But having had here only 
 ^bme general vie"wrs, in reference to the main end and 
 aims in education, and those designed for a gentleman's 
 son, who[mj~5etng then very little, I considered only as 
 white paper, or wax, to be moulded and fashioned as one 
 pleases, 1 I have touched little more than those heads," 
 which I judged necessary for the breeding of a young 
 gentleman of his condition in general ; and have now 
 published these my occasional thoughts, with this hope, 
 that, though this be far from being a complete treatise 
 on this subject, or such as that every one may find what 
 will just fit his child in it ; yet it may give some small 
 light to those, whose concern for their dear little ones 
 makes them so irregularly 2 bold, that they dare venture 
 to consult their own reason, in the education of their 
 children, rather than wholly to rely upon old custom. 
 
 1 See sec. 101, note. 2 Unconventionally, unusually.
 
 OF THE CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 Apart from punctuation, the text here followed is that of 
 vol. Hi. in the ten-volume edition of Locke's " Works" 1812. 
 
 " Quid tarn temerarium tamquo indignum sapientis gravitate 
 atque constantia, quam aut falsum sentire, aut quod non satis 
 oxplorate percepUim sit, et cognitum, sine ulla dubitationc defen- 
 dere ?" CICERO, De Natura Deorum, i. 1 
 
 1. Introduction. The last resort a man has recourse to, 
 in the conduct of himself, is his understanding : for though 
 we distinguish the faculties of the mind, and give the 
 supreme command to the will, as to an agent, 2 yet the 
 truth is, the man, who is the agent, determines himself to 
 this or that voluntary action, upon some precedent 
 knowledge, or appearance of knowledge, in the under- 
 standing. No man ever sets himself about anything but 
 upon some view or other, which serves him for a reason 
 for what he does : and whatsoever faculties he employs, 
 the understanding, with such light as it has, well or ill 
 informed, constantly leads ; and by that light, true or 
 false, all his operative powers are directed. The will 
 itself, how absolute and uncontrollable soever it may be 
 thought, never fails in its obedience to the dictates of the 
 understanding. Temples have their sacred images, and 
 we see what influence they have always had over a great 
 
 1 What so thoughtless and so unworthy of the earnestness and 
 constancy of a philosopher, as unhesitatingly to maintain either 
 what is felt to be false, or what has not been, with sufficient cer- 
 tainty, perceived and understood ? 
 
 2 One who acts. The discussion of the Will and its determination 
 forms one of the longest chapters in the Essay concerning Human 
 Understanding, ii., chap. xxi. 
 
 181
 
 182 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 part of mankind. But in truth, the ideas and images in 
 men's minds are the invisible powers that constantly 
 govern them, and to these they all universally pay a ready 
 submission. 1 It is therefore of the highest concernment 
 that great care should be taken of the understanding, to 
 conduct it right in the search of knowledge, and in the 
 judgments it makes. 
 
 The logic now in use has so long possessed the chair, as 
 the only art taught in the schools, 2 for the direction of 
 the mind in the study of the arts and sciences, that it 
 would perhaps be thought an affectation of novelty to 
 suspect that rules that have served the learned world 
 these two or three thousand years, and which, without 
 any complaint of defects, the learned have rested in, are 
 not sufficient to guide the understanding. And I should 
 not doubt but this attempt would be censured as vanity 
 or presumption, did not the great lord Verulam's authority 
 justify it ; who, not servilely thinking learning could not 
 be advanced beyond what it was, because for many ages 
 it had not been, did not rest in the lazy approbation and 
 applause of what was, because it was ; but enlarged his 
 mind to what it might be. In his preface 3 to his Novum 
 Organum, concerning logic, he pronounces thus : " Qui 
 summas dialecticae partes tribuerunt, atque inde fidissima 
 scientiis prassidia comparari putarunt, verissime te optime 
 viderunt intellectum humanum, sibi permissum, merito 
 suspectum esse debere. Verum infirmior omnino est malo 
 medicina ; nee ipsa mali expers. Siquidem dialectica, quae 
 recepta est, licet ad civilia et artes, quae in sermone et 
 opinione posit sunt, rectissime adhibeatur ; naturae tamen 
 subtilitatem longo intervallo non attingit, et prensando 
 quod non capit, ad errores potius stabiliendos et quasi 
 figendos, quam ad viam veritati aperiendam valuit." 
 
 " They," says he, "who attributed so much to logic, 
 
 1 Cf. Herbart: "Das Wollen wurzelt im Gedankenkreise," 
 " The will takes root in the circle of thought" that is in the 
 complex of ideas. (Umriss pddagogischer Vorlesungen, 58.) 
 
 2 I.e., of the University. See sec. 43, first paragraph. 
 
 3 The passage does not occur there. See Fowler's edition of the 
 Novum Organon, p. 165 (second edition).
 
 1. INTRODUCTION 2. PARTS 183 
 
 perceived very well and truly that it was not safe to trust 
 the understanding to itself without the guard of any rules. 
 But the remedy reached not the evil, but became a part 
 of it, for the logic which took [its] place, though it might 
 do well enough in civil affairs and the arts, which con- 
 sisted in talk and opinion, yet comes very far short of 
 subtlety in the real performances of nature ; and, catching 
 at what it cannot reach, has served to confirm and 
 establish errors, rather than to open a way to truth." 
 And therefore a little after he says, " That it is absolutely 
 necessary that a better and perfecter use and employment 
 of the mind and understanding should be introduced." 
 " Necessario requiritur ut melior et perfectior mentis et 
 intellectus humani usus et adoperatio introducatur." 
 
 2. Parts. There is, it is visible, great variety in men's 
 understandings, and their natural constitutions put so 
 wide a difference between some men in this respect, that 
 art and industry would never be able to master, and their 
 very natures seem to want a foundation to raise on it that 
 which other men easily attain unto. Amongst men of 
 equal education there is great inequality of parts. 1 Andi 
 the woods of America, as well as the schools of Athens,! 
 produce men of several abilities in the same kind. Though 
 this be so, yet I imagine most men come very short of 
 what they might attain unto, in their several degrees, by a 
 neglect of their understandings. A few rules of logic are 
 thought sufficient in this case for those who pretend to 
 the highest improvement, whereas I think there are a 
 great many natural defects in the understanding capable 
 of amendment, which are overlooked and wholly neglected. 
 And it is easy to perceive that men are guilty of a great 
 many faults in the exercise and improvement of this 
 faculty of the mind, which hinder them in their progress, 
 and keep them in ignorance and error all their lives. 
 Some of them I shall take notice of, and endeavour to 
 point out proper remedies for, in the following discourse, 
 
 1 Cf. Thoughts, sees. 101, 139, 176, 216, and sec. 32 below. These 
 passages are at variance with Locke's figures of the " white paper " 
 and " wax." See Introduction, p. 6.
 
 184 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 8. Reasoning. Besides the want of determined ideas, 1 
 and of sagacity and exercise in finding out and laying in 
 order intermediate ideas, there are three miscarriages that 
 men are guilty of, in reference to their reason, whereby 
 this faculty is hindered in them from that service it might 
 do and was designed for. And he that reflects upon the 
 actions and discourses of mankind will find their defects 
 in this kind very frequent and very observable. 
 
 (1) The first is of those who seldom reason at all, but 
 do and think according to the example of others, whether 
 parents, neighbours, ministers, or who else they are 
 pleased to make choice of to have an implicit faith in, for 
 the saving of themselves the pains and trouble of thinking 
 and examining for themselves. 
 
 (2) The second is of those who put passion in the place 
 of reason, and being resolved that shall govern their 
 actions and arguments, neither use their own, nor hearken 
 to other people's reason, any farther than it suits their 
 humour, interest, or party ; and these one may observe 
 commonly content themselves with words which have no 
 distinct ideas to them, though in other matters, that they 
 come with an unbiassed indifferency 2 to, they want not 
 abilities to talk and hear reason, where they have no 
 secret inclination that hinders them from being tractable 
 to it. 
 
 (3) The third sort is of those who readily and sincerely 
 follow reason ; but for want of having that which one may 
 call large, sound, roundabout sense, have not a full view of 
 all that relates to the question, and may be of moment to 
 decide it. We are all shortsighted, and very often see 
 but one side of a matter ; our views are not extended to all 
 that has a connexion with it. From this defect I think 
 no man is free. We see but in part, and we know but in 
 part, and therefore it is no wonder we conclude not right 
 from our partial views. This might instruct the proudest 
 esteemer of his own parts, how useful it is to talk and 
 
 1 See Essay, Epistle to the Reader, and ii., chap, xxix., Thoughts, 
 sec. 195. 
 
 2 Impartiality.
 
 3. REASONING 185 
 
 consult with others, even such as come short of him in 
 capacity, quickness, and penetration ; for since no one 
 sees all, and we generally have different prospects of the 
 same thing according to our different, as I may say, 
 positions to it, it is not incongruous to think, nor beneath 
 any man to try, whether another may not have notions 
 of things which have escaped him, and which his reason 
 would make use of if they came into his mind. The faculty 
 of reasoning seldom or never deceives those who trust to 
 it ; its consequences, from what it builds on, are evident 
 and certain ; but that which it oftenest, if not only, mis- 
 leads us in is, that the principles from which we conclude 
 the grounds upon which we bottom our reasoning, are but 
 a part ; something is left out, which should go into the 
 reckoning, to make it just and exact. Here we may 
 imagine a vast and almost infinite advantage that angels 
 and separate spirits l may have over us ; who in their 
 several degrees of elevation above us may be endowed with 
 more comprehensive faculties ; and some of them perhaps, 
 having perfect and exact views of all finite beings that 
 come under their consideration, can, as it were, in the 
 twinkling of an eye, collect together all their scattered 
 and almost boundless relations. A mind so furnished, 
 what reason has it to acquiesce in the certainty of its 
 conclusions ! 
 
 In this we may see the reason why some men of study 
 arid thought, that reason right and are lovers of truth, do 
 make no great advances in their discoveries of it. Error 
 and truth are uncertainly blended in their minds ; their 
 decisions are lame and defective, and they are very often 
 mistaken in their judgments : the reason whereof is, they 
 converse but with one sort of men, they read but one sort 
 of books, they will not come in the hearing but of one 
 sort of notions ; the truth is, they canton out to them- 
 selves a little Goshen 2 in the intellectual world, where 
 light shines, and as they conclude, day blesses them ; 
 but the rest of that vast expansum they give up to night 
 
 1 Cf. Essay, iv., chap. Hi., sec. 37. 
 
 2 Genesis xlvii. 27.
 
 186 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 and darkness, and so avoid coming near it. They have a 
 pretty traffic with known correspondents, in some little 
 creek ; within that they confine themselves, and are 
 dexterous managers enough of the wares and products of 
 that corner with which they content themselves, but will 
 not venture out into the great ocean of knowledge, to 
 survey the riches that nature hath stored other parts 
 with, no less genuine, no less solid, no less useful than what 
 has fallen to their lot, in the admired plenty and sufficiency 
 of their own little spot, which to them contains whatsoever 
 is good in the universe. Those who live thus mewed up 
 within their own contracted territories, and will not look 
 abroad beyond the boundaries that chance, conceit, or 
 laziness has set to their inquiries, but live separate from 
 the notions, discourses, and attainments of the rest of 
 mankind, may not amiss be represented by the inhabitants 
 of the Marian islands ; x who, being separated by a large 
 tract of sea from all communion with the habitable parts 
 of the earth, thought themselves the only people of the 
 world. And though the straitness of the conveniences 
 of life amongst them had never reached so far as to the 
 use of fire, till the Spaniards, not many years since, in 
 their voyages from Acapulco to Manilla, brought it 
 amongst them ; yet, in the want and ignorance of almost 
 all things, they looked upon themselves, even after that 
 the Spaniards had brought amongst them the notice of 
 variety of nations, abounding in sciences, arts, and con- 
 veniences of life, of which they knew nothing ; they looked 
 upon themselves, I say, as the happiest and wisest people 
 of the universe. But for all that, nobody, I think, will 
 imagine them deep naturalists or solid metaphysicians ; 
 nobody will deem the quickest-sighted amongst them to 
 have very enlarged views in ethics or politics ; 2 nor can 
 any one allow the most capable amongst them to be ad- 
 vanced so far in his understanding as to have any other 
 knowledge but of the few little things of his and the 
 
 1 The Ladrones, between New Guinea and Japan. 
 
 2 A hint as to the limit to the usefulness of " sense training " in 
 education. Cf. p. 203.
 
 3. REASONING 187 
 
 neighbouring islands within his commerce ; l but far 
 enough from that comprehensive enlargement of mind 
 which adorns a soul devoted to truth, assisted with letters, 
 and a free generation 2 of the several views and sentiments 
 of thinking men of all sides. Let not men, therefore, that 
 would have a sight of what every one pretends to be 
 desirous to have a sight of, truth in its full extent, narrow 
 and blind their own prospect. Let not men think there 
 is no truth but in the sciences that they study, or books ' 
 that they read. To prejudice other men's notions, before 
 we have looked into them, is not to show their darkness, 
 but to put out our own eyes. " Try all things, hold fast 
 that which is good," 3 is a divine rule, coming from the 
 Father of light and truth, and it is hard to know what 
 other way men can come at truth, to lay hold of it, if they 
 do not dig and search for it as for gold and hid treasure ; 
 but he that does so must have much earth and rubbish 
 before he gets the pure metal ; sand and pebbles and dross 
 usually lie blended with it, but the gold is never the less 
 gold, and will enrich the man that employs his pains to 
 seek and separate it. Neither is there any danger he 
 should be deceived by the mixture. Every man carries 
 about him a touchstone, if he will make use of it, to dis- 
 tinguish substantial gold from superficial glitterings, truth 
 from appearances. And indeed the use and benefit of 
 this touchstone, which is natural reason, is spoiled and 
 lost only by assuming prejudices, overweening presump- 
 tion, and narrowing our minds. The want of exercising 
 it in the full extent of things intelligible, is that which 
 weakens and extinguishes this noble faculty in us. Trace 
 it and see whether it be not so. The day-labourer in a 
 country-village has commonly but a small pittance of 
 knowledge, because his ideas and notions have been 
 confined to the narrow bounds of a poor conversation and 
 employment : the low mechanic of a country-town does 
 somewhat out-do him : porters and cobblers of great cities 
 surpass them. A country gentleman who, leaving Latin 
 and learning in the university, removes thence to his 
 1 Intercourse. 2 Production. 3 1 Thcss. v. 21.
 
 188 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 mansion-house, and associates with neighbours of the 
 same strain, who relish nothing but hunting and a bottle ; 
 with those alone he spends his time, with those alone he 
 converses, and can away with no company whose dis- 
 course goes beyond what claret and dissoluteness inspire. 
 Such a patriot, formed in this happy way of improvement, 
 cannot fail, as we see, to give notable decisions upon the 
 bench at quarter-sessions, and eminent proofs of his skill 
 in politics, when the strength of his purse and party have 
 advanced him to a more conspicuous station. To such a 
 one, truly, an ordinary coffee-house gleaner of the city is 
 an arrant L statesman, and as much superior to- 2 as a man 
 conversant about Whitehall and the court is to an ordinary 
 shop-keeper. To carry this a little farther : Here is one 
 muffled up in the zeal and infallibility of his own sect, and 
 will not touch a book or enter into debate with a person 
 that will question any of those things which to him are 
 sacred. Another surveys our differences in religion with 
 an equitable and fair indifference, and so finds, probably, 
 that none of them are in everything unexceptionable. 
 These divisions and systems were made by men, and carry 
 the mark of fallible on them ; and in those whom he differs 
 from, and till he opened his eyes had a general prejudice 
 against, he meets with more to be said for a great many 
 things than before he was aware of, or could have imagined. 
 Which of these two now is most likely to judge right in our 
 religious controversies, and to be most stored with truth, 
 the mark all pretend to aim at ? All these men that I 
 have instanced in, thus unequally furnished with truth 
 and advanced in knowledge, I suppose of equal natural 
 parts ; all the odds between them has been the different 
 scope that has been given to their understandings to range 
 in, for the gathering up of information and furnishing their 
 heads with ideas and notions and observations, whereon 
 to employ their mind and form their understandings. 
 
 1 Thorough. 
 
 2 I.e., the " coffee-house gleaner " is as much the superior of the 
 gentleman described as the courtier is the superior of the shop- 
 keeper. The Court was at Whitehall at this date.
 
 3. REASONING 189 
 
 It will possibly be objected, " who is sufficient for all 
 this ?" I answer, more than can be imagined. Every 
 one knows what his proper business is, and what, according 
 to the character he makes of himself, the world may justly 
 expect of him ; and to answer that, he will find he will have 
 time and opportunity enough to furnish himself, if he will 
 not deprive himself by a narrowness of spirit of those 
 helps that are at hand. * I do not say, to be a good 
 geographer, that a man should visit every mountain, river, 
 promontory, and creek upon the face of the earth, view 
 the buildings and survey the land everywhere, as if he 
 were going to make a purchase ; but yet every one must 
 allow that he shall know a country better that makes often 
 sallies into it and traverses up and down, than he that like 
 a mill-horse goes still round in the same track, or keeps 
 within the narrow bounds of a field or two that delight 
 him. He that will inquire out the best books in every 
 science, and inform himself of the most material authors 
 of the several sects 1 of philosophy and religion, will not 
 find it an infinite work to acquaint himself with the 
 sentiments of mankind concerning the most weighty and 
 comprehensive subjects. Let him exercise the freedom 
 of his reason and understanding in such a latitude as this, 
 and his mind will be strengthened, his capacity enlarged, 
 his faculties improved ; and the light which the remote 
 and scattered parts of truth will give to one another will 
 sd assist his judgment, that he will seldom be widely out, 
 or miss giving proof of a clear head and a comprehensive 
 knowledge. At least, this is the only way I know to give 
 the understanding its due improvement to the full 
 extent of its capacity, and to distinguish the two most 
 different things I know in the world, a logical chicaner 2 
 from a man of reason. Only, he that would thus give the 
 mind its flight, and send abroad his inquiries into al] parts 
 after truth, must be sure to settle in his head determined 
 ideas 3 of all that he employs his thoughts about, and never 
 fail to judge himself, and judge unbiassedly, of all that 
 
 x " Schools." Cf. Thoughts, sec. 193. 2 Trickster. 
 
 3 See p. 184, note.
 
 190 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 he receives from others, either in their writings or dis- 
 courses. Keverence or prejudice must not be suffered to 
 give beauty or deformity to any of their opinions. 
 
 4. Of Practice and Habits. We are born with faculties 
 and powers capable almost of anything, such at least as 
 would carry us farther than can easily be imagined : but it 
 is only the exercise of those powers which gives us ability 
 and skill in anything, and leads us towards perfection. 
 
 A middle-aged ploughman will scarce ever be brought to 
 the carriage and language of a gentleman, though his body 
 be as well-proportioned, and his joints as supple, and his 
 natural parts not any way inferior. The legs of a dancing- 
 master and the fingers of a musician fall as it were natur- 
 ally, without thought or pains, into regular and admirable 
 motions. Bid them change their parts, and they will in 
 vain endeavour to produce like motions in the members 
 not used to them, and it will require length of time and 
 long practice to attain but some degrees of a like ability. 
 What incredible and astonishing actions do we find rope- 
 dancers and tumblers bring their bodies to ! Not but 
 that sundry in almost all manual arts are as wonderful ; 
 but I name those which the world takes notice of for such, 
 because on that very account they give money to see 
 them. All these admired motions, beyond the reach and 
 almost conception of unpractised spectators, are nothing 
 but the mere effects of use and industry in men whose 
 bodies have nothing peculiar in them from those of the 
 amazed lookers-on. 
 
 As it is in the body, so it is in the mind : practice makes 
 it what it is ; and most even of those excellencies which are 
 looked on as natural endowments, will be found, when 
 examined into more narrowly, to be the product of 
 exercise, and to be raised to that pitch only by repeated 
 actions. Some men are remarked for pleasantness in 
 raillery ; others for apologues and opposite diverting 
 stories. This is apt to be taken for the effect of pure 
 nature, and that the rather because it is not got by rules, 
 and those who excel in either of them never purposely 
 set themselves to the study of it as an art to be learnt.
 
 4. OF PRACTICE AND HABITS 191 
 
 But yet it is true, that at first some lucky hit, which took 
 with somebody and gained him commendation, encouraged 
 him to try again, inclined his thoughts and endeavours 
 that way, till at last he insensibly got a facility in it, 
 without perceiving how ; and that is attributed wholly to 
 nature which was much more the effect of use and practice. 
 I do not deny that natural disposition may often give 
 the first rise to it, but that never carries a man far without 
 use and exercise ; and it is practice alone that brings the 
 powers of the mind, as well as those of the body, to their 
 perfection. Many a good poetic vein is buried under a 
 trade, and never produces anything for want of improve- 
 ment. 1 We see the ways of discourse and reasoning are 
 very different, even concerning the same matter, at court 
 and in the university. And he that will go but from 
 Westminster-hall 2 to the Exchange will find a different 
 genius and turn in their ways of talking ; and yet one 
 cannot think that all whose lot fell in the city were born 
 with different parts from those who were bred at the 
 university or inns of court. 
 
 To what purpose all this but to show that the difference 
 so observable in men's understandings and parts does not 
 arise so much from their natural faculties as acquired 
 habits. He would be laughed at that should go about to 
 make a fine dancer out of a country hedger at past fifty. 
 And he will not have much better success who shall en- 
 deavour at that age to make a man reason well, or speak 
 handsomely, who has never been used to it, though you 
 should lay before him a collection of all the best precepts 
 of logic or oratory. Nobody is made anything by hearing 
 of rules or laying them up in his memory ; practice must 
 settle the habit of doing, without reflecting on the rule ; 
 and you may as well hope to make a good painter or 
 musician extempore, by a lecture and instruction in the 
 arts of music and painting, as a coherent thinker or a 
 strict reasoner by a set of rules showing him wherein right 
 reasoning consists. 3 
 
 1 But cf. Thoughts, sec. 174. 2 The Law Courts. 
 
 3 Cf. Thoughts, sec. 188, and sees. 31, 43, 44 below.
 
 192 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 This being so that defects and weakness in men's under- 
 standings, as well as other faculties, come from want of a 
 right use of their own minds, I am apt to think the fault is 
 generally mislaid upon nature, and there is often a com- 
 plaint of want of parts when the fault lies in want of 
 a due improvement of them. We see men frequently 
 dexterous and sharp enough in making a bargain who if 
 you reason with them about matters of religion, appear 
 perfectly stupid. 1 
 
 5. Ideas. I will not here, in what relates to the right 
 conduct and improvement of the understanding, repeat 
 again the getting clear and determined ideas, and the 
 employing our thoughts rather about them than about 
 sounds put for them, nor of settling the signification of 
 words which we use with ourselves in the search of truth, 
 or with others in discoursing about it. Those hindrances 
 of our understandings in the pursuit of knowledge I have 
 sufficiently enlarged upon in another place, 2 so that 
 nothing more needs here to be said of those matters. 
 
 6. Principles. There is another fault that stops or mis- 
 leads men in their knowledge which I have also spoken 
 something of, but yet is necessary to mention here again, 
 that we may examine it to the bottom and see the root 
 it springs from, and that is, a custom of taking up with 
 principles that are not self-evident, and very often not 
 so much as true. It is not unusual to see men rest their 
 opinions upon foundations that have no more certainty 
 and solidity than the propositions built on them and 
 embraced for their sake. Such foundations are these and 
 the like, viz., the founders or leaders of my party are good 
 men, and therefore their tenets are true ; it is the opinion 
 of a sect that is erroneous, therefore it is false ; it hath 
 been long received in the world, therefore it is true ; or, 
 it is new, and therefore false. 
 
 These, and many the like, which are by no means the 
 measures of truth and falsehood, the generality of men 
 
 1 See sec. 28 and note thereon. 
 
 2 Viz. in the Essay concerning Human Understanding. See par- 
 ticularly iii., chap. xi.
 
 6. PRINCIPLES 193 
 
 make the standards by which they accustom their under- 
 standing to judge. And thus, they falling into a habit 
 of determining of truth and falsehood by such wrong 
 measures, it is no wonder they should embrace error for 
 certainty, and be very positive in things they have no 
 ground for. 
 
 There is not any who pretends to the least reason, but 
 when any of these his false maxims are brought to the 
 test, must acknowledge them to be fallible, and such as he 
 will not allow in those that differ from him ; and yet after 
 he is convinced of this you shall see him go on in the use 
 of them, and the very next occasion that offers argue again 
 upon the same grounds. Would one not be ready to 
 think that men are willing to impose upon themselves, 
 and mislead their own understandings, who conduct them 
 by such wrong measures, even after they see they cannot 
 be relied on ? But yet they will not appear so blameable 
 as may be thought at first sight ; for I think there are a 
 great many that argue thus in earnest, and do it not to 
 impose on themselves or others. They are persuaded of 
 what they say, and think there is weight in it, though in 
 a like case they have been convinced there is none ; but 
 men would be intolerable to themselves and contemptible 
 to others if they should embrace opinions without any 
 ground, and hold what they could give no manner of 
 reason for. True or false, solid or sandy, the mind must 
 have some foundation to rest itself upon, and, as I have 
 remarked in another place, 1 it no sooner entertains any 
 proposition, but it presently hastens to some hypothesis 
 to bottom it on ; till then it is unquiet and unsettled. So 
 much do our own very tempers dispose us to a right use 
 of our understandings if we would follow, as we should, 
 the inclinations of our nature. 
 
 In some matters of concernment, especially those of 
 religion, men are not permitted to be always wavering 
 and uncertain, they must embrace and profess some tenets 
 or other ; and it would be a shame, nay a contradiction 
 too heavy for any one's mind to lie constantly under, for 
 
 1 Cf. Essay, i., chap, iii., sec. 24 ff. 
 
 13
 
 194 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 him to pretend seriously to be persuaded of the truth of 
 any religion, and yet not to be able to give any reason of 
 his belief, or to say anything for his preference of this to 
 any other opinion : and therefore they must make use 
 of some principles or other, and those can be no other 
 than such as they have and can manage ; and to say they 
 are not in earnest persuaded by them, and do not rest 
 upon those they make use of, is contrary to experience, 1 
 and [is] to allege that they are not misled, when we com- 
 plain they are. 
 
 If this be so, it will be urged, why then do they not 
 make use of sure and unquestionable principles, rather 
 than rest on such grounds as may deceive them, and 
 will, as is visible, serve to support error as well as 
 truth ? 
 
 To this I answer, the reason why they do not make use 
 of better and surer principles is because they cannot : but 
 this inability proceeds not from want of natural parts (for 
 those few, whose case that is, are to be excused) but for 
 want of use and exercise. Few men are from their youth 
 accustomed to strict reasoning, and to trace the depen- 
 dence of any truth, in a long train of consequences, to its 
 remote principles, and to observe its connexion ; and he 
 that by frequent practice has not been used to this employ- 
 ment of his understanding, it is no more wonder that he 
 should not, when he is grown into years, be able to bring 
 his mind to it, than that he should not be on a sudden 
 able to grave or design, dance on the ropes, or write a good 
 hand, who has never practised either of them. 
 
 Nay, the most of men are so wholly strangers to this 
 that they do not so much as perceive their want of it : 
 they despatch the ordinary business of their callings by 
 rote, as we say, as they have learnt it ; and if at any time 
 they miss success, they impute it to anything ratbej than 
 want of thought or skill, that 2 they conclude (because they 
 know no better) they have in perfection : or if there be 
 
 1 Of. sec. 1, " All universally pay a ready submission " to their 
 own ideas. 
 
 2 I.e., " which."
 
 6. PRINCIPLES 195 
 
 any subject that interest or fancy has recommended to 
 their thoughts, their reasoning about it is still after their 
 own fashion ; be it better or worse, it serves their turns, 
 and is the best they are acquainted with ; and therefore, 
 when they are led by it into mistakes and their business 
 succeeds accordingly, they impute it to any cross accident 
 or default of others, rather than to their own want of 
 understanding ; that is what nobody discovers or com- 
 plains of in himself. Whatsoever made his business to 
 miscarry, it was not want of right thought and judgment 
 in himself : he sees no such defect in himself, but is satisfied 
 that he carries on his designs well enough by his own 
 reasoning, or at least should have done, had it not been 
 for unlucky traverses 1 not in his power. Thus, being 
 content with this short and very imperfect use of his 
 understanding, he never troubles himself to seek out 
 methods of improving his mind, and lives all his life 
 without any notion of close reasoning in a continued con- 
 nexion of a long train of consequences from sure founda- 
 tions, such as is requisite for the making out and clearing 
 most of the speculative truths most men own to believe 
 and are most concerned in. Not to mention here what I 
 shall have occasion to insist on by and by more fully, viz., 
 that in many cases it is not one series of consequences will 
 serve the turn, but many different and opposite deduc- 
 tions must be examined and laid together before a man 
 can come to make a right judgment of the point in 
 question. 2 What then can be expected from men that 
 neither see the want of any such kind of reasoning as this ; 
 nor, if they do, know how to set about it, or could perform 
 it ? You may as well set a countryman, who scarce 
 knows the figures and never cast[s] up a sum of three 
 particulars, to state a merchant's long account, and find 
 the true balance of it. 
 
 What then should be done in the case ? I answer, we 
 
 should always remember what I said above, that the 
 
 faculties of our souls are improved and made useful to us 
 
 just after the same manner as our bodies are. Would 
 
 1 Thwarting accidents. 2 See p. 199.
 
 196 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 you have a man write or paint, dance or fence well, or 
 perform any other manual operation dexterously and 
 with ease ; let him have ever so much vigour and activity, 
 suppleness and address naturally, yet nobody expects 
 this from him unless he has been used to it, and has 
 employed time and pains in fashioning and forming his 
 hand or outward parts to these motions. Just so it is in 
 the mind ; would you have a man reason well, you must 
 use him to it betimes, exercise his mind in observing the 
 connexion of ideas and following them in train. 1 Nothing 
 does this better than mathematics, which therefore I 
 think should be taught all those who have the time and 
 opportunity, not so much to make them mathematicians 
 as to make them reasonable creatures ; for though we all 
 call ourselves so because we are born to it if we please, yet 
 we may truly say, nature gives us but the seeds of it ; we 
 are born to be, if we please, rational creatures, but it is 
 use and exercise only that makes us so, and we are indeed 
 so no farther than industry and application has carried 
 us. And therefore, in ways of reasoning which men 
 have not been used to, he that will observe the conclu- 
 sions they take up must be satisfied they are not all 
 rational. 
 
 This has been the less taken notice of, because every one 
 in his private affairs uses some sort of reasoning or other, 
 enough to denominate him reasonable. But the mistake 
 is, that he that is found reasonable in one thing is con- 
 cluded to be so in all, and to think or to say otherwise is 
 thought so unjust an affront and so senseless a censure 
 that nobody ventures to do it. It looks like the degra- 
 dation of a man below the dignity of his nature. It is 
 true, that he that reasons well in any one thing, has a mind 
 naturally capable of reasoning well in others^and to the 
 same degree of strength and clearness, and possibly much 
 greater, had his understanding been so employed. But 
 it is as true that he who can reason well to-day about one 
 sort of matters, cannot at all reason to-day about others, 
 though perhaps a year hence he may. But wherever a 
 1 Cf. Thoughts, sec. 188.
 
 6. PRINCIPLES 197 
 
 man's rational faculty fails him, and will not serve him 
 to reason, there we cannot say he is rational, how 
 capable soever he may be by time and exercise to 
 become so. 
 
 Try in men of low and mean education who have never 
 elevated their thoughts above the spade and the plough, 
 nor looked beyond the ordinary drudgery of a day- 
 labourer. Take the thoughts of such an one, used for 
 many years to one track, out of that narrow compass he 
 has been all his life confined to, you will find him no more 
 capable of reasoning than almost a perfect natural. 1 
 Some one or two rules on which their conclusions immedi- 
 ately depend, you will find in most men have governed 
 all their thoughts ; these, true or false, have been the 
 maxims they have been guided by : take these from them 
 and they are perfectly at a loss, their compass and pole- 
 star then are gone, and their understanding is perfectly 
 at a nonplus ; and therefore they either immediately 
 return to their old maxims again, as the foundations to 
 all truth to them, notwithstanding all that can be said 
 to show their weakness ; or if they give them up to their 
 reasons, they with them give up all truth, and farther 
 inquiry, and think there is no such thing as certainty. 
 For if you would enlarge their thoughts and settle them 
 upon more remote and surer principles, they either cannot 
 easily apprehend them, or, if they can, know not what use 
 to. make of them, for long deductions from remote 
 principles are what they have not been used to and cannot 
 manage. 
 
 What, then, can grown men never be improved or 
 enlarged in their understandings ? I say not so, but this I 
 think I may say, that it will not be done without industry 
 and application, which will require more time and pains 
 than grown men, settled in their course of life, will allow 
 to it, and therefore very seldom is done. And this very 
 capacity of attaining it by use and exercise only, brings us 
 back to that which I laid down before, that it is only 
 practice that improves our minds as well as bodies, and 
 1 I.e., idiot.
 
 198 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 we must expect nothing from our understandings any 
 farther than they are perfected by habits. 1 
 
 The Americans are not all born with worse under- 
 standings than the Europeans, though we see none of 
 them have such reaches in the arts and sciences. And 
 among the children of a poor countryman, the lucky 
 chance of education, and getting into the world, gives one 
 infinitely the superiority in parts over the rest, who con- 
 tinuing at home had continued also just of the same size 
 with his brethren. 2 
 
 He that has to do with young scholars, especially in 
 mathematics, may perceive how their minds open by 
 degrees, and how it is exercise alone that opens them. 
 Sometimes they will stick a long time at a part of a demon- 
 stration, not for want of will and application, but really 
 for want of perceiving the connexion of two ideas that, 
 to one whose understanding is more exercised, is as visible 
 as anything can be. The same would be with a grown 
 man beginning to study mathematics, the understanding 
 for want of use often sticks in every plain way, and he 
 himself that is so puzzled, when he comes to see the 
 connexion, wonders what it was he stuck at in a case so 
 plain. 
 
 7. Mathematics. I have mentioned mathematics as a 
 way to settle in the mind an habit of reasoning closely 
 and in train ; not that I think it necessary that all men 
 should be deep mathematicians, but that, having got the 
 way of reasoning, which that study necessarily brings the 
 mind to, they might be able to transfer it to other parts 
 of knowledge as they shall have occasion. For in all sorts 
 of reasoning every single argument should be managed 
 as a mathematical demonstration ; the connexion and 
 dependence of ideas should be followed, tifkthe mind is 
 brought to the source on which it bottoms, and observes 
 the coherence all along, though in proofs of probability 
 
 1 Sec. 4. 
 
 2 The doctrine of heredity discountenances the notion that " the 
 lucky chance of education " explains the child's superiority, and the 
 scholarship system assumes the superiority to be prior to the 
 education.
 
 7. MATHEMATICS 199 
 
 one such train is not enough to settle the judgment, as in 
 demonstrative knowledge. 
 
 Where a truth is made out by one demonstration, there 
 needs no farther inquiry ; but in probabilities, where there 
 wants demonstration to establish the truth beyond doubt, 
 there it is not enough to trace one argument to its 
 source, and observe its strength and weakness, but 
 all the arguments, after having been so examined on 
 both sides, must be laid in balance one against another, 
 and upon the whole the understanding determine its 
 assent. 
 
 This is a way of reasoning the understanding should be 
 accustomed to, which is so different from what the 
 illiterate are used to, that even learned men sometimes 
 seem to have very little or no notion of it. Nor is it to be 
 wondered, since the way of disputing in the schools 1 leads 
 them quite away from it, by insisting on one topical 
 argument, by the success of which the truth or falsehood 
 of the question is to be determined, and victory adjudged 
 to the opponent or defendant ; which is all one, as if one 
 should balance an account by one sum, charged and dis- 
 charged, when there are an hundred others to be taken 
 into consideration. 
 
 This, therefore, it would be well if men's minds were 
 accustomed to, and that early ; that they might not erect 
 their opinions upon one single view when so many others 
 are requisite to make up the account, and must come into 
 the reckoning before a man can form a right judgment. 
 This would enlarge their minds and give a due freedom 
 to their understandings, that they might not be led into 
 error by presumption, laziness, or precipitancy ; for I 
 think nobody can approve such a conduct of the under- 
 standing as should mislead it from truth, though it be 
 ever so much in fashion to make use of it. 2 
 
 To this perhaps it will be objected, that to manage the 
 understanding as I propose would require every man to 
 
 1 The allusion is to the dialectical exercises for degrees, which 
 survived in the universities long after Locke's time. Cf. sees. 31, 43. 
 
 2 I.e., the " conduct," or method, in question.
 
 200 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 be a scholar, and to be furnished with all the materials 
 of knowledge and exercised in all the ways of reasoning. 
 To which I answer, that it is a shame for those that have 
 time and the means to attain knowledge, to want any 
 helps or assistance for the improvement of their under- 
 standings that are to be got, and to such I would be 
 thought here chiefly to speak. Those methinks, who, by 
 the industry and parts of their ancestors, have been set 
 free from a constant drudgery to their backs and their 
 bellies, should bestow some of their spare time on their 
 heads, and open their minds by some trials and essays, in 
 all the sorts and matters of reasoning. I have before 
 mentioned mathematics, wherein algebra gives new helps 
 and views to the understanding. If I propose these, it is 
 not, as I said, to make every man a thorough mathema- 
 tician or a deep algebraist ; but yet I think the study of 
 them is of infinite use, even to grown men ; first, by 
 experimentally convincing them that to make any one 
 reason well it is not enough to have parts wherewith he is 
 satisfied and that serve him well enough in his ordinary 
 course. A man in those studies will see, that however 
 good he may think his understanding, yet in many things, 
 and those very visible, it may fail him. This would take 
 off that presumption that most men have of themselves 
 in this part, and they would not be so apt to think their 
 minds wanted no helps to enlarge them, that there could 
 be nothing added to the acuteness and penetration of 
 their understandings. 
 
 Secondly, the study of mathematics would show them 
 the necessity there is in reasoning, to separate all the 
 distinct ideas, and see the habitudes 1 that all those con- 
 cerned in the present inquiry have to one another, and to 
 lay by those which relate not to the proposition in hand, 
 and wholly to leave them out of the reckoning. This is 
 that which in other subjects besides quantity, 2 is what is 
 abso utely requisite to just reasoning, though in them it 
 is not so easily observed nor so carefully practised. In 
 those parts of knowledge where it is thought demon- 
 1 Relations. 2 The subject-matter of mathematics.
 
 7. MATHEMATICS 8. RELIGION 201 
 
 stration has nothing to do, men reason as it were in the 
 lump ; and if, upon a summary and confused view, or 
 upon a partial consideration, they can raise the appear- 
 ance of a probability, they usually rest content, especially 
 if it be in a dispute where every little straw is laid hold on, 
 and everything that can but be drawn in any way to give 
 colour to the argument is advanced with ostentation. 
 But that mind is not in a posture to find the truth that does 
 not distinctly take all the parts asunder, and omitting 
 what is not at all to the point, draw a conclusion from the 
 result of all the particulars which any way influence it. 
 There is another no less useful habit to be got by an 
 application to mathematical demonstrations, and that is, of 
 using the mind to a long train of consequences : but having 
 mentioned that already, I shall not again here repeat it. 
 
 As to men whose fortunes and time are narrower, what 
 may suffice them is not of that vast extent as may be 
 imagined, and so comes not within the objection. 
 
 Nobody is under an obligation to know every thing. 
 Knowledge and science in general is the business only of 
 those who are at ease and leisure. Those who have par- 
 ticular callings ought to understand them, and it is no 
 unreasonable proposal, nor impossible to be compassed, 
 that they should think and reason right about what is 
 their daily employment. This one cannot think them 
 incapable of, without levelling them with the brutes and 
 charging them with a stupidity below the rank of rational 
 creatures. 
 
 8. Eeligion. Besides his particular calling for the 
 support of this life, every one has a concern in a future 
 life, which he is bound to look after. This engages his | 
 thoughts in religion, and here it mightily lies upon him* 
 to understand and reason right. Men, therefore, cannot 
 be excused from understanding the words and framing 
 the general notions relating to religion right. The one' 
 day of seven, besides other days of rest, allows in the 
 Christian world time enough for this, (had they no other 
 idle hours), if they would but make use of these vacancies 
 from their daily labour, and apply themselves to an
 
 202 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 improvement of knowledge with as much diligence as 
 they often do to a great many other things that are 
 useless, and had but those 1 that would enter them, 
 according to their several capacities, in a right way to 
 this knowledge. Th,e original make of their minds is like 
 that of other men, and they would be found not to want 
 understanding fit to receive the knowledge of religion if 
 they were a little encouraged and helped in it as they 
 should be. For there are instances of very mean people 
 who have raised their minds to a great sense and under- 
 standing of religion ; and though these have not been so 
 frequent as could be wished, yet they are enough to clear 
 that condition of life from a necessity of gross ignorance, 
 and to show that more might be brought to be rational 
 creatures and Christians, (for they can hardly be thought 
 really to be so who, wearing the name, know not so much 
 as the very principles of that religion,) if due care were 
 taken of them. For, if I mistake not, the peasantry lately 
 in France (a rank of people under a much heavier pressure 
 of want and poverty than the day-labourers in England) 2 
 of the reformed religion understood it much better and 
 could say more for it than those of a higher condition 
 among us. 
 
 But if it shall be concluded that the meaner sort of 
 people must give themselves up to brutish stupidity in 
 the things of their nearest concernment, which I see no 
 reason for, this excuses not those of a freer fortune and 
 education, if they neglect their understandings, and take 
 no care to employ them as they ought and set them right 
 in the knowledge of those things for which principally 
 they were given them. At least those whose plentiful 
 fortunes allow them the opportunities and helps of 
 improvement are not so few, but that it might be hoped 
 great advancements might be made in knowledge of all 
 kinds, especially in that of the greatest concern and largest 
 views, if men would make a right use of their faculties 
 and study their own understandings. 
 
 1 I.e., if they had but teachers. 
 
 2 Lccke is speakirg frcm personal experience. When in France, 
 he took careful note of the condition of the peasantry.
 
 9. IDEAS 203 
 
 9. Ideas. Outward corporeal objects that constantly 
 importune our senses and captivate our appetites, fail not 
 to fill our heads with lively and lasting ideas of that" kind. 
 Here the mind needs not to be set upon getting greater 
 store ; they offer themselves fast enough, and are usually 
 entertained in such plenty and lodged so carefully, that 
 the mind wants room or attention for others that it has 
 more use and need of. To fit the understanding, there- 
 fore, for such reasoning as I have been above speaking of, 
 care should be taken to fill it with moral and more abstract 
 ideas ; for these not offering themselves to the senses, but 
 being to be framed to the understanding, people are 
 generally so neglectful of a faculty they are apt to think 
 wants nothing, that I fear most men's minds are more 
 unfurnished with such ideas than is imagined. 1 They 
 often use the words, and how can they be suspected to 
 want the ideas ? What I have said in the third book of 
 my essay 2 will excuse me from any other answer to this 
 question. But to convince people of what moment it is 
 to their understandings to be furnished with such abstract 
 ideas, steady and settled in them, give me leave to ask 
 how any one shall be able to know whether he be obliged 
 to be just, if he has not established ideas in his mind of 
 obligation and of justice, since knowledge consists in 
 nothing but the perceived agreement or disagreement of 
 those ideas ? and so of all others the like which concern 
 our lives and manners. And if men do find a difficulty 
 to see the agreement or disagreement of two angles which 
 lie before their eyes unalterable in a diagram, how utterly 
 impossible will it be to perceive it in ideas that have no 
 other sensible object to represent them to the mind but 
 sounds, with which they have no manner of conformity, 
 and therefore had need to be clearly settled in the mind 
 themselves, if we would make any clear judgment about 
 
 1 The criticism applies to an undue prolongation in education 
 of what may be called the perceptual stage, that is, " sense- 
 training," " observation," and " kindergarten methods " gener- 
 ally. Cf. p. 186. 
 
 2 Concerning Hitman Understanding, chaps, ix., x., xi.
 
 204 CONDUCT OF THE UNDEKSTANDING 
 
 them ? This therefore, is one of the first things the mind 
 should be employed about in the right conduct of 
 the understanding, without which it is impossible it 
 should be capable of reasoning right about those 
 matters. But in these, and all other ideas, care must 
 be taken that they harbour no inconsistencies, and 
 that they have a real existence where real existence is 
 supposed, and are not mere chimeras 1 with a supposed 
 existence. 
 
 10. Prejudice. Every one is forward to complain of the 
 prejudices that mislead other men or parties, as if he were 
 free and had none of his own. This being objected on all 
 sides, it is agreed that it is a fault and an hindrance to 
 knowledge. What now is the cure ? No other but this, 
 that every man should let alone other[s'] prejudices and 
 examine his own. Nobody is convinced of his by the 
 accusation of another ; he recriminates by the same rule, 
 and is clear. The only way to remove this great cause of 
 ignorance and error out of the world is, for every one 
 impartially to examine himself. If others will not deal 
 fairly with their own minds, does that make my errors 
 truths ? or ought it to make me in love with them and 
 willing to impose on myself ? If others love cataracts in 
 their eyes, should that hinder me from couching 2 of mine 
 as soon as I can ? Every one declares against blindness, 
 and yet who almost is not fond of that which dims his 
 sight, and keeps the clear light out of his mind, which 
 should lead him into truth and knowledge ? False or 
 doubtful positions, relied upon as unquestionable maxims, 
 keep those in the dark from truth who build on them. 
 Such are usually the prejudices imbibed from education, 
 party, reverence, fashion, interest, &c. This is the mote 
 which every one sees in his brother's eye, but never 
 regards the beam in his own. For who is there almost 
 that is ever brought fairly to examine his own principles, 
 and see whether they are such as will bear the trial ? But 
 yet this should be one of the first things every one 
 
 1 Idle fancies, whose existence is only supposed, not actual. 
 
 2 The surgical operation for removing a cataract.
 
 10. PREJUDICE 205 
 
 should set about, and be scrupulous in, who would rightly 
 conduct his understanding in the search of truth and 
 knowledge. 
 
 To those who are willing to get rid of this great hin- 
 drance of knowledge (for to such only I write), to those 
 who would shake off this great and dangerous impostor, 
 prejudice, who dresses up falsehood in the likeness of truth, 
 and so dexterously hoodwinks men's minds as to keep 
 them in the dark with a belief that they are more in the 
 light than any that do not see with their eyes, I shall offer 
 this one mark whereby prejudice may be known. He 
 that is strongly of any opinion must suppose (unless he be 
 self-condemned) that his persuasion is built upon good 
 grounds, and that his assent is no greater than what the 
 evidence of the truth he holds forces him to, and that 
 they are arguments, and not inclination or fancy, that 
 make him so confident and positive in his tenets. Now 
 if, after all his profession, he cannot bear any opposition 
 to his opinion, if he cannot so much as give a patient 
 hearing, much less examine and weigh the arguments on 
 the other side, does he not plainly confess it is prejudice 
 governs him ? and it is not the evidence of truth, but some 
 lazy anticipation, some beloved presumption that he 
 desires to rest undisturbed in. For if what he holds be, 
 as he gives out, well fenced with evidence, and he sees it 
 to be true, what need he fear to put it to the proof ? If 
 his opinion be settled upon a firm foundation, if the 
 arguments that support it and have obtained his assent 
 be clear, good, and convincing, why should he be shy to 
 have it tried whether they be proof or not ? He whose 
 assent goes beyond this evidence, owes this excess of his 
 adherence only to prejudice ; and does in effect own it 
 when he refuses to hear what is offered against it, 
 declaring thereby that it is not evidence he seeks, 
 but the quiet enjoyment of the opinion he is fond of, 
 with a forward condemnation of all that may stand in 
 opposition to it. unheard and unexamined ; which, 
 what is it but prejudice? " qui sequum statuerit, parte 
 inaudita altera, etiamsi aequum statuerit, haud eequus
 
 206 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 fuerit." l He that would acquit himself in this case as a 
 lover of truth, not giving way to any pre-occupation or 
 bias that may mislead him, must do two things that are 
 not very common nor very easy. 
 
 11. Indifferency. First, he must not be in love with 
 any opinion, or wish it to be true till he knows it to be so, 
 and then he will not need to wish it ; for nothing that is 
 false can deserve our good wishes, nor a desire that it 
 should have the place and force of truth ; and yet nothing 
 is more frequent than this. Men are fond of certain 
 tenets upon no other evidence but respect and custom, 
 and think they must maintain them or all is gone, though 
 they have never examined the ground they stand on, 
 nor have ever made them out to themselves : or can make 
 them out to others : we should contend earnestly for the 
 truth, but we should first be sure that it is truth, or else 
 we fight against God, who is the God of truth, and do the 
 work of the devil, who is the father and propagator of 
 lies ; and our zeal, though ever so warm, will not excuse 
 us, for this is plainly prejudice. 
 
 12. Examine. Secondly, he must do that which he will 
 find himself very averse to, as judging the thing un- 
 necessary, or himself incapable of doing it. He must try 
 whether his principles be certainly true or not, and how 
 far he may safely rely upon them. This, whether fewer 
 have the heart or the skill to do, I shall not determine, 
 but this I am sure is that which every one ought to do 
 who professes to love truth, and would not impose upon 
 himself, which is a surer way to be made a fool of than 
 being exposed to the sophistry of others. The disposition 
 to put any cheat upon ourselves works constantly, and 
 we are pleased with it, but are impatient of being bantered 
 or misled by others. The inability I here speak of, is not 
 
 1 That is, a man has but small claim to be thought just who 
 decides upon the justice of a cause without hearing the other side, 
 even though he decides rightly. Fowler (Locke's Conduct of the 
 Understanding) quotes Seneca's Medea, 199, 200: 
 
 " Qui statuit aliquid parte inaudita altera, 
 
 licet statuerit, haud aequus fuit."
 
 12. EXAMINE 207 
 
 any natural defect that makes men incapable of examining 
 their own principles. To such, rules of conducting their 
 understandings are useless ; and that is the case of very 
 few. The great number is of those whom the ill habit of 
 never exerting their thoughts has disabled ; the powers 
 of their minds are starved by disuse and have lost that 
 reach and strength which nature fitted them to receive 
 from exercise. Those who are in a condition to learn the 
 first rules of plain arithmetic, and could be brought to 
 cast up an ordinary sum, are capable of this, if they had 
 but accustomed their minds to reasoning ; but they that 
 have wholly neglected the exercise of their understandings 
 in this way, will be very far at first from being able to do 
 it, and as unfit for it as one unpractised in figures to cast 
 up a shop-book, and perhaps think it as strange to be set 
 about it. And yet it must nevertheless be confessed to be 
 a wrong use of our understandings to build our tenets (in 
 things where we are concerned to hold the truth) upon 
 principles that may lead us into error. We take our 
 principles at hap-hazard upon trust, and without ever 
 having examined them, and then believe a whole system 
 upon a presumption that they are true and solid : and 
 what is all this but childish, shameful, senseless credulity ? 
 In these two things, viz., an equal indifferency for all 
 truth (I mean the receiving it, the love of it, as truth, but 
 not loving it for any other reason, before we know it to 
 be true) and in the examination of our principles, and not 
 receiving any for such, nor building on them, till we are 
 fully convinced as rational creatures of their solidity, truth, 
 and certainty, consists that freedom of the understanding 
 which is necessary to a rational creature, and without 
 which it is not truly an understanding. It is conceit, 
 fancy, extravagance, anything rather than understanding, 
 if it must be under the constraint of receiving and holding 
 opinions by the authority of anything but their own, not 
 fancied, but perceived evidence. This was rightly called 
 imposition, and is of all other the worst and most dan- 
 gerous sort of it. For we impose upon ourselves, which 
 is the strongest imposition of all others, and we impose
 
 208 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 upon ourselves in that part which ought with the greatest 
 care to be kept free from all imposition. The world is apt 
 to cast great blame on those who have an indifferency l for 
 opinions, especially in religion. I fear this is the founda- 
 tion of great error and worse consequences. To be in- 
 different which of two opinions is true, is the right temper 
 of the mind that preserves it from being imposed on, and 
 disposes it to examine with that indifferency .till it has 
 done its best to find the truth ; and this is the only direct 
 and safe way to it. But to be indifferent whether we 
 embrace falsehood or truth is the great road to error. 
 Those who are not indifferent which opinion is true are 
 guilty of this ; they suppose, without examining, that 
 what they hold is true, and then think they ought to be 
 zealous for it. Those, it is plain by their warmth and 
 eagerness, are not indifferent for their own opinions, but 
 methinks are very indifferent whether they be true or 
 false ; since they cannot endure to have any doubts raised 
 or objections made against them, and it is visible they 
 never have made any themselves, and so never having 
 examined them, know not, nor are concerned, as they 
 should be, to know whether they be true or false. 
 
 These are the common and most general miscarriages 
 which I think men should avoid or rectify in a right 
 conduct of their understandings, and should be particu- 
 larly taken care of in education. The business whereof 
 in respect of knowledge, is not, as I think, to perfect a 
 learner in all or any one of the sciences, but to give^his 
 mind that freedom, that disposition, and those habiiS 
 that may enable him to attain any part of knowledge he 
 shall apply himself to, or stand in need of, in the future 
 course of his life. 2 
 
 This, and this only, is well principling, and not the 
 instilling a reverence and veneration for certain dogmas 
 under the specious titje of principles, which are often so 
 remote from that truth and evidence which belongs to 
 principles, that they ought to be rejected as false and 
 erroneous ; and often cause men so educated when they 
 1 Impartiality. 2 Of. Thoughts, sees. 31-33, 75.
 
 12. EXAMINE 13. OBSERVATIONS 209 
 
 come abroad into the world and find they cannot maintain 
 the principles so taken up and rested in, to cast off all 
 principles, and turn perfect sceptics,' regardless of know- 
 ledge and virtue. 
 
 There are several weaknesses and defects in the under- 
 standing, either from the natural temper of the mind, or 
 ill habits taken up, which hinder it in its progress to 
 knowledge. Of these there are as many, possibly, to be 
 found, if the mind were thoroughly studied, as there are 
 diseases of the body, each whereof clogs and disables the 
 understanding to some degree, and therefore deserves to 
 be looked after and cured. I shall set down some few 
 to excite men, especially those who make knowledge their 
 business, to look into themselves, and observe whether 
 they do not indulge some weaknesses, allow some mis- 
 carriages in the management of their intellectual faculty 
 which is prejudicial to them in the search of truth. 
 
 13. Observations. Particular matters of fact are the 
 undoubted foundations on which our civil and natural 
 knowledge is built : the benefit the understanding makes 
 of them is to draw from them conclusions which may be 
 as standing rules of knowledge, and consequently of 
 practice. The mind often makes not that benefit it 
 should of the information it receives from the accounts 
 of civil or natural historians, by being too forward or too 
 slow in making observations on the particular facts 
 recorded in them. 
 
 There are those who are very assiduous in reading, and 
 yet do not much advance their knowledge by it. They 
 are delighted with the stories that are told, and perhaps 
 can tell them again, for they make all they read nothing 
 but history 1 to themselves ; but not reflecting on it, not 
 making to themselves observations from what they read, 
 they are very little improved by all that crowd of par- 
 ticulars that either pass through or lodge themselves in 
 their understandings. They dream on in a constant course 
 of reading and cramming themselves ; but not digesting 
 anything, it produces nothing but a heap of crudities. 
 1 That is, narrative and not principles.
 
 210 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 If their memories retain well, one may say, they have 
 the materials of knowledge, but like those for building 
 they are of no advantage if there be no other use made of 
 them but to let them lie heaped up together. Opposite 
 to these there are others, who lose the improvement they 
 should make of matters of fact by a quite contrary conduct. 
 They are apt to draw general conclusions and raise axioms 
 from every particular they meet with. These make as 
 little true benefit of history as the other ; nay, being of 
 forward and active spirits, receive more harm by it, it 
 being of worse consequence to steer one's thoughts by a 
 wrong rule than to have none at all, error doing to busy 
 men much more harm than ignorance to the slow and 
 sluggish. Between these, those seem to do best who, 
 taking material and useful hints, sometimes from single 
 matters of fact, carry them in their minds to be judged 
 of by what they shall find in history to confirm or reverse 
 their imperfect observations, which may be established 
 into rules fit to be relied on, when they are justified by a 
 sufficient and wary induction of particulars. He that 
 makes no such reflection, on what he reads, only loads his 
 mind with a rhapsody of tales, fit in winter nights for the 
 entertainment of others ; and he that will improve every 
 matter of fact into a maxim, will abound in contrary 
 observations that can be of no other use but to perplex 
 and pudder 1 him if he compares them, or else to misguide 
 him if he gives himself up to the authority of that^wMch 
 for its novelty or for some other fancy best pleases him. 2 
 
 14. Bias. Next to these we may place those who suffer 
 their own natural tempers and passions they are possessed 
 with to influence their judgments, especially of men and 
 things that may any way relate to their present circum- 
 stances and interest. Truth is all simple, all pure, will 
 bear no mixture of anything else with it. It is rigid and 
 inflexible to any by-interests, and so should the under- 
 standing be, whose use and excellency lies in conforming 
 itself to it. To think of everything just as it is in itself, 
 
 1 " Pother," " bother." 
 
 2 Topic continued in sees. 20, 24, 42.
 
 14. BIAS 15. AKGUMENTS 211 
 
 is the proper business of the understanding, though it be 
 not that which men always employ it to. This all men 
 at first hearing allow is the right use every one should 
 make of his understanding. Nobody will be at such an 
 open defiance with common sense, as to profess that we 
 should not endeavour to know and think of things as they 
 are in themselves ; and yet there is nothing more frequent 
 than to do the contrary ; and men are apt to excuse them- 
 selves, and think they have reason to do so, if they have 
 but a pretence that it is for God, or a good cause ; that 
 is, in effect, for themselves, their own persuasion or party : 
 for those in their turns the several sects of men, especially 
 in matters of religion, entitle God and a good cause. 
 But God requires not men to wrong or misuse their 
 faculties for him, nor to lie to others or themselves for his 
 sake, which they purposely do who will not suffer their 
 understandings to have right conceptions of the things 
 proposed to them, and designedly restrain themselves 
 from having just thoughts of every thing, as far as they 
 are concerned to inquire. And as for a good cause, that 
 needs not such ill helps ; if it be good, truth will support 
 it, and it has no need of fallacy or falsehood. 
 
 15. Arguments. Very much of- kin to this is the 
 hunting after arguments to make good one side of a 
 question, and wholly to neglect and refuse those which 
 favour the other side. What is this but wilfully to 
 misguide the understanding, and is so far from giving 
 truth its due value, that it wholly debases it : [to] espouse 
 opinions that best comport with their power, profit, or 
 credit, and then seek arguments to support them ? Truth 
 lighted upon this way, is of no more avail to us than error, 
 for what is so taken up by us may be false as well as true ; 
 and he has not done his duty who has thus stumbled upon 
 truth in his way to preferment. 
 
 There is another but more innocent way of collecting 
 arguments very familiar among bookish men, which is to 
 furnish themselves with the arguments they meet with 
 pro and con in the questions they study. This helps 
 them not to judge right nor argue strongly, but only to
 
 212 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 talk copiously on either side without being steady and 
 settled in their own judgments. For such arguments 
 gathered from other men's thoughts, floating only in the 
 memory, are there ready indeed to supply copious talk 
 with some appearance of reason, but are far from helping 
 us to judge right. Such variety of arguments only dis- 
 tract[s] the understanding that relies on them, unless it 
 has gone farther than such a superficial way of examining ; 
 this is to quit truth for appearance, only to serve our 
 vanity. The sure and only way to get true knowledge, 
 is to form in our minds clear settled notions of things, 
 with names annexed to those determined ideas. 1 These 
 we are to consider with their several relations and habi- 
 tudes, and not amuse ourselves with floating names and 
 words of indetermined signification which we can use in 
 several senses to serve a turn. It is in the perception of 
 the habitudes and respects our ideas have one to another 
 that real knowledge consists, and when a man once per- 
 ceives how far they agree or disagree one with another, 
 he will be able to judge of what other people say, and 
 will not need to be led by the arguments of others, which 
 are many of them nothing but plausible sophistry. This 
 w r ill teach him to state the question right, and see whereon 
 it turns, and thus he will stand upon his own legs, and 
 know by his own understanding. Whereas by collecting 
 and learning arguments by heart, he will be but-aretainer 
 to others ; and when any one questions the foundations 
 they are built upon, he will be at a nonplus, 2 and be fain 
 to give up his implicit knowledge. 3 
 
 16. Haste. Labour for labour-sake is against nature. 
 The understanding, as well as all the other faculties, 
 chooses always the shortest way to its end, would pre- 
 sently 4 obtain the knowledge it is about, and then set 
 upon some new inquiry. But this, whether laziness or 
 haste, often misleads it and makes it content itself with 
 
 1 P. 184, note. 2 Will be unable to proceed. 
 
 3 "Knowledge," so called, which he cannot make explicit; 
 " second-hand or implicit knowledge," sec. 24. 
 
 4 I.e., at once.
 
 16. HASTE 213 
 
 improper ways of search, and such as will not serve the 
 turn : sometimes it rests upon testimony, when testimony 
 of right has nothing to do, 1 because it is easier to believe- 
 than to be scientifically instructed : sometimes it contents 
 itself with one argument, and rests satisfied with that as 
 it were a demonstration, whereas the thing under proof 
 is not capable of demonstration, and therefore must be 
 submitted to the trial of probabilities, and all the material 
 arguments pro and con be examined and brought to a 
 balance. In some cases the mind is determined by prob- 
 able topics in inquiries where demonstration may be had. 
 All these, and several others, which laziness, impatience, 
 custom, and want of use and attention lead men into, are 
 misapplications of the understanding in the search of 
 truth. In every question the nature and manner of the 
 proof it is capable of should be considered, to make our 
 inquiry such as it should be. This would save a great deal 
 of frequently misemployed pains, and lead us sooner to 
 that discovery and possession of truth we are capable of. 
 The multiplying variety of arguments, especially frivolous 
 ones, such as are all that are merely verbal, is not only 
 lost labour, but cumbers the memory to no purpose, and 
 serves only to hinder it from seizing and holding of the 
 truth in all those cases which are capable of demonstration. 
 In such a way of proof, the truth and certainty is seen, 
 and the mind fully possesses itself of it ; when in the other 
 way of assent it only hovers about it, is amused with 
 uncertainties. In this superficial way, indeed, the mind 
 is capable of more variety of plausible talk, but is not 
 enlarged, as it should be, in its knowledge. It is to this 
 same haste and impatience of the mind also, that a not 
 due tracing of the arguments to their true foundation is 
 owing ; men see a little, presume a great deal, and so 
 jump to the conclusion. This is a short way to fancy 
 and conceit, and (if firmly embraced) to opinionatry, 2 
 
 1 When in strictness the matter does not call for testimony, but 
 for demonstration. 
 
 2 I.e., obstinate and unreasonable adherence to one's own opinion. 
 See sec. 26.
 
 214 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 but is certainly the farthest way about to knowledge. 
 For he that will know, must by the connexion of the 
 proofs see the truth and the ground it stands on ; and 
 therefore if he has for haste skipt over what he should 
 have examined, he must begin and go over all again, or 
 else he will never come to knowledge. 1 
 
 17. Desultory. Another fault of as ill consequence as 
 this, which proceeds also from laziness, with a mixture of 
 vanity, is the skipping from one sort of knowledge to 
 another. Some men's tempers are quickly weary of one 
 thing. Constancy and assiduity is what they cannot 
 bear ; the same study long continued in is as intolerable to 
 them, as the appearing long in the same clothes or fashion 
 is to a court-lady. 
 
 18. Smattering. Others, that they may seem univer- 
 sally knowing, get a little smattering in everything. 
 Both these may fill their heads with superficial notions of 
 things, but are very much out of the way of attaining 
 truth or knowledge. 
 
 19. Universality. I do not here speak against the 
 taking a taste of every sort of knowledge ; it is certainly 
 very useful and necessary to form the mind ; but then it 
 must be done in a different way and^frxa different end. 
 Not for talk and vanity to fill the head with shreds of all 
 kinds, that he who is possessed of such a frippery 2 may 
 be able to match the discourses of all he shall meet with, 
 as if nothing could come amiss to him, and his head was 
 so well stored a mazagine, that nothing could be proposed 
 which he was not master of, and was readily furnished 
 to entertain any one on. This is an excellency indeed, 
 and a great one too, to have a real and true knowledge in 
 all or most of the objects of contemplation. But it is 
 what the mind of one and the same man can hardly attain 
 unto ; and the instances are so few of those who have in 
 any measure approached towards it, that I know not 
 whether they are to be proposed as examples in the 
 
 1 See sec. 25. 
 
 2 A " rag-fair." Of. Thoughts, sec. 193, on " fitting one's self 
 for conversation."
 
 19. UNIVERSALITY 215 
 
 ordinary conduct of the understanding. For a man to 
 understand fully the business of his particular calling in 
 the commonwealth, and of religion, which is his calling 
 as he is a man in the world, is usually enough to take up 
 his whole time, 1 and there are few that inform themselves 
 in these, which is every man's proper and peculiar 
 business, so to the bottom as they should do. But 
 though this be so, and there are very few men that extend 
 their thoughts towards universal knowledge ; yet I do 
 not doubt but if the right way were taken, and the 
 methods of inquiry were ordered as they should be, men 
 of little business and great leisure might go a great deal 
 farther in it than is usually done. To turn to the business 
 in hand ; the end and use of a little insight in those parts 
 of knowledge which are not a man's proper business, is 
 to accustom our minds to all sorts of ideas, and the 
 proper ways of examining their habitudes and relations. 
 This gives the mind a freedom, and the exercising the 
 understanding in the several ways of inquiry and reasoning 
 which the most skilful have made use of, teaches the 
 mind sagacity and wariness, and a suppleness to apply 
 itself more closely and dexterously to the bents and turns 
 of the matter in all its researches. Besides, this universal 
 taste of all the sciences, with an indifferency before the 
 mind is possessed with any one in particular, and grown 
 into love and admiration of what is made its darling, will 
 prevent another evil very commonly to be observed in 
 those who have from the beginning been seasoned only 
 by one part of knowledge. Let a man be given up to the 
 contemplation of one sort of knowledge, and that will 
 become everything. The mind will take such a tincture 
 from a familiarity with that object, that everything else, 
 how remote soever, will be brought under the same view. 
 A metaphysician will bring plowing and gardening im- 
 mediately to abstract notions, the history of nature shall 
 signify nothing to him. An alchemist, on the contrary, 
 
 1 These two constitute Locke's conception of the education of 
 persons outside the leisured class. See Introduction ; also sec. 8, 
 above.
 
 216 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 shall reduce divinity to the maxims of his laboratory : 
 explain morality by sal, 1 sulphur and mercury, and 
 allegorize the scripture itself, and the sacred mysteries 
 thereof, into the philosopher's stone. And I heard once 
 a man who had a more than ordinary excellency in music 
 seriously accommodate Moses's seven days of the first 
 week to the notes of music, as if from thence had been 
 taken the measure and method of the creation. It is of 
 no small consequence to keep the mind from such a 
 possession, which I think is best done by giving it a fair 
 and equal view of the whole intellectual world, wherein 
 it may see the order, rank, and beauty of the whole, and 
 give a just allowance to the distinct provinces of the 
 several sciences in the due order and usefulness of each 
 of them. 
 
 If this be that which old men will not think necessary, 
 nor be easily brought to, it is fit at least that it should be 
 practised in the breeding of the young. The business of 
 education, as I have already observed, 2 is not, as I think, 
 to make them perfect in any one of the sciences, but so 
 to open and dispose their minds as may best make them 
 capable of any when they shall apply themselves to it. 
 If men are for a long time accustomed only to on3 sort or 
 method of thoughts, their minds grow stiff in it, and do 
 not readily turn to another. It is therefore to give them 
 this freedom that I think they should be made to look 
 into all sorts of knowledge, and exercise their under- 
 standings in so wide a variety and stock of knowledge. 
 But I do not propose it as a variety and stock of know- 
 ledge, but a variety and freedom of thinking ; as an 
 increase of the powers and activity of the mind, not as an 
 enlargement of its possessions. 
 
 20. Beading. 3 This is that which I think great readers 
 are apt to be mistaken in. Those who have read of 
 every thing are thought to understand every thing too ; 
 but it is not always so. Beading furnishes the mind only 
 with materials of knowledge, it is thinking makes what 
 we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is 
 1 Salt. a Sec. 12. 3 See sees. 13, 24, 42.
 
 20. BEADING 217 
 
 not enough to cram our selves with a great load of col- 
 lections ; unless we chew them over again they will not 
 give us strength and nourishment. There are indeed 
 in some writers visible instances of deep thoughts, 
 close and acute reasoning, and ideas well pursued. The 
 light these would give would be of great use if their 
 reader would observe and imitate them ; all the rest 
 at best are but particulars fit to be turned into know- 
 ledge; but that can be done only by our own medita- 
 tion and examining the reach, force, and coherence of 
 what is said, and then as far as we apprehend and 
 see the connexion of ideas, so far it is ours ; without 
 that, it is but so much loose matter floating in our brain. 
 The memory may be stored, but the judgment is little 
 better, and the stock of knowledge not increased by being 
 able to repeat what others have said, or produce the 
 arguments we have found in them. Such a knowledge 
 as this is but knowledge by hearsay, and the ostentation 
 of it is at best but talking by rote, and very often upon 
 weak and wrong principles. For all that is to be found 
 in books is not built upon true foundations, nor always 
 rightly deduced from the principles it is pretended to be 
 built on. Such an examen as is requisite to discover 
 that, every reader's mind is not forward to make, especially 
 in those who have given themselves up to a party, and 
 only hunt for what they can scrape together that may 
 favour and support the tenets of it. Such men wilfully 
 exclude themselves from truth, and from all true benefit 
 to be received by reading. Others of more indifferency 1 
 often want attention and industry. The mind is back- 
 ward in itself to be at the pains to trace every argument 
 to its original, and to see upon what basis it stands and 
 how firmly ; but yet it is this that gives so much the ad- 
 vantage to one man more than another in reading. The 
 mind should by severe rules be tied down to this, at first, 
 uneasy task ; use and exercise will give it facility. So 
 that those who are accustomed to it readily, as it were 
 with one cast of the eye, take a view of the argument, and 
 1 Impartiality.
 
 218 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 presently, 1 in most cases, see where it bottoms. Those 
 who have got this faculty, one may say, have got the true 
 key of books, and the clue to lead them through the 
 mizmaze 2 of variety of opinions and authors to truth and 
 certainty. This young beginners should be entered in, 
 and showed the use of, that they might profit by their 
 reading. Those who are strangers to it will be apt to 
 think it too great a clog in the way of men's studies, and 
 they will suspect they shall make but small progress if, 
 in the books they read, they must stand to examine and 
 unravel every argument, and follow it step by step up 
 to its original. 
 
 I answer, this is a good objection, and ought to weigh 
 with those whose reading is designed for much talk and 
 little knowledge, and I have nothing to say to it. But I 
 am here inquiring into the conduct of the understanding in 
 its progress towards knowledge ; and to those who aim at 
 that I may say, that he who fair and softly goes steadily 
 forward in a course that points right, will sooner be at his 
 journey's end than he that runs after every one he meets, 
 though he gallop all day full speed. 
 
 To which let me add, that this way of thinking on and 
 profiting by what we read will be a clog and rub to any 
 one only in the beginning : when custom and exercise 
 have made it familiar, it will be despatched on most 
 occasions without resting or interruption in the course of 
 our reading. The motions and views of a mind exercised 
 that way are wonderfully quick, and a man used to such 
 sort of reflections sees as much at one glimpse as would 
 require a long discourse to lay before another, and make 
 out in an entire and gradual deduction. Besides that, 
 when the first difficulties are over, the delight and sensible 
 advantage it brings mightily encourages and enlivens the 
 mind in reading, which without this is very improperly 
 called study. 
 
 21. Intermediate Principles. As a help to this, I think 
 it may be proposed, that for the saving the long progres- 
 sion of the thoughts to remote and first principles in every 
 1 I.e., at once. 2 I.e., maze ; cf. " tee-total,"
 
 21. INTERMEDIATE PRINCIPLES 219 
 
 case, the mind should provide it l several stages ; that is to 
 say, intermediate principles which it might have recourse 
 to in the examining those positions that come in its way. 
 These, though they are not self-evident principles, yet 
 if they had been made out from them by a wary and 
 unquestionable deduction, may be depended on as certain 
 and infallible truths, and serve as unquestionable truths 
 to prove other points depending on them by a nearer and 
 shorter view than [by] remote and general maxims. 2 
 These may serve as landmarks to show what lies in the 
 direct way of truth, or is quite beside it. And thus 
 mathematicians do, who do not in every new problem run 
 it back to the first axioms, through all the whole train of 
 intermediate propositions. Certain theorems that they 
 have settled to themselves upon sure demonstration, 
 serve to resolve to them multitudes of propositions which 
 depend on them, and are as firmly made out from thence 
 as if the mind went afresh over every link of the whole 
 chain that ties them to first self-evident principles. Only 
 in other sciences great care is to be taken that they 
 establish those intermediate principles with as much 
 caution, exactness, and indifferency as mathematicians 
 use in the settling any of their great theorems. When 
 this is not done, but men take up the principles in this 
 or that science upon credit, inclination, interest, &c., in 
 haste, without due examination and most unquestionable 
 proof, they lay a trap for themselves, and, as much as in 
 them lies, captivate their understandings, to mistake 
 falsehood and error. 
 
 1 " It " is equivalent to " the progression, or course, of the 
 thoughts," " the flow of thought." The mind should provide 
 several stages for the course of thought. 
 
 2 Cf. Bacon, Novum Organum, I. civ. " Nor can we suffer the 
 understanding to jump and fly from particulars to remote and 
 most general axioms . . . and thus prove and make out their 
 intermediate axioms according to the supposed unshaken truth of 
 the former. . . . We can then only augur well for the sciences, 
 when the ascent shall proceed by a true scale and successive steps, 
 without interruption, or breach, from particulars to the lesser 
 axioms, thence to the intermediate (rising one above the other), 
 and lastly to the most general."
 
 220 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 22. Partiality. As there is a partiality to opinions, 
 which, as we have already observed, is apt to mislead the 
 understanding, so there is often a partiality to studies 
 which is prejudicial also to knowledge and improvement. 
 Those sciences which men are particularly versed in they 
 are apt to value and extol, as if that part of knowledge 
 which every one has acquainted himself with were that 
 alone which was worth the having, and all the rest were 
 idle and empty amusements, comparatively of no use or 
 importance. This is the effect of ignorance and not know- 
 ledge, the being vainly puffed up with a flatulency arising 
 from a weak and narrow comprehension. It is not amiss 
 that every one should relish the science that he has made 
 his peculiar study ; a view of its beauties and a sense of 
 its usefulness carries a man on with the more delight and 
 warmth in the pursuit and improvement of it. But the 
 contempt of all other knowledge, as if it were nothing in 
 comparison of law or physic, of aslronomy or chemistry, 1 
 or perhaps some yet meaner part of knowledge wherein 
 I have got some smattering or am somewhat advanced, 
 is not only the mark of a vain or little mind, but does this 
 prejudice in the conduct of the understanding, that it 
 coops it up within narrow bounds, and hinders it looking 
 abroad into other provinces of the intellectual world, 
 more beautiful possibly, and more fruitful than that 
 which it had till then laboured in, wherein it might find, 
 besides new knowledge, ways or hints whereby it might 
 be enabled the better to cultivate its own. 
 
 23. Theology. There is indeed one science (as they are 
 now distinguished) incomparably above all the rest, where 
 
 1 Chemistry was a favourite study with the seventeenth-century 
 amateur. Anthony Wood says that in 1663 he and " John Lock" 
 were members of a private chemistry club, or class, at Oxford. 
 " This J. L. was a man of a turbulent spirit, clamorous and r.evcr 
 contented. The club wrote and took notes from the mouth of their 
 master, who sate at the upper end of a table, but the said J. Lock 
 scorned to do it ; so that while every man besides of the club were 
 writing, he would be prating and troublesome." (Clark, Life and 
 Times of Anthony Wood, vol. i., p. 472. Not everything can be 
 accepted which Wood says of a political opponent.
 
 23. THEOLOGY 24. PARTIALITY 221 
 
 it is not by corruption narrowed into a trade or faction 
 for mean or ill ends and secular interests ; I mean theology, 
 which, containing the knowledge of God and his creatures, 
 our duty to him and our fellow-creatures, and a view of 
 our present and future state, is the comprehension of all 
 other knowledge directed to its true end ; i.e., the honour 
 and veneration of the Creator and the happiness of man- 
 kind. This is that noble study which is every man's t 
 duty, and every one that can be called a rational creature 
 is capable of. The works of nature and the words of 
 revelation display it to mankind in characters so large and 
 visible, that those who are not quite blind may in them 
 read and see the first principles and most necessary parts 
 of it ; and from thence, as they have time and industry, 
 may be enabled to go on to the more abstruse parts of it. 
 and penetrate into those infinite depths filled with the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is that science 1 
 which would truly enlarge men's minds, were it studied | 
 or permitted to be studied everywhere with that freedom, 
 love of truth, and charity which it teaches, and were not j 
 made, contrary to its nature, the occasion of strife, j 
 faction, malignity, and narrow impositions. I shall sayo 
 no more here of this, but that it is undoubtedly a wrong 
 use of my understanding to make it the rule and measure 
 of another man's, a use which it is neither fit for nor 
 capable of. 
 
 24. Partiality. 1 This partiality, where it is not per- 
 mitted an authority to render all other studies insignificant 
 or contemptible, is often indulged so far as to be relied 
 upon and made use of in other parts of knowledge to 
 which it does not at all belong, and wherewith it has no 
 manner of affinity. Some men have so used their heads 
 to mathematical figures, that giving a preference to the 
 methods of that science, they introduce lines and diagrams 
 into their study of divinity or politic 2 inquiries, as if 
 nothing could be known without them ; and others 
 accustomed to retired speculations run natural philosophy 
 into metaphysical notions and the abstract generalities 
 
 1 Continuation of sec. 22, 23 being a digression. ' 2 Political.
 
 222 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 of logic ; and how often may one meet with religion and 
 morality treated of in the terms of the laboratory, and 
 thought to be improved by the methods and notions of 
 chemistry ? But he that will take care of the conduct of 
 his understanding, to direct it right to the knowledge of 
 things, must avoid those undue mixtures, and not by a 
 fondness for what he has found useful and necessary in 
 one, transfer it to another science, where it serves only to 
 perplex and confound the understanding. It is a certain 
 truth that " res nolunt male administrari j" 1 it is no less 
 certain " res nolunt male intelligi." 2 Things themselves 
 are to be considered as they are in them selves, and then 
 they will show us in what way they are to be understood. 
 For to have right conceptions about them we must bring 
 our understandings to the inflexible natures and unalter- 
 able relations of things, and not endeavour to bring things 
 to any preconceived notions of our own. 
 
 There is another partiality very commonly observable 
 in men of study, no less prejudicial or ridiculous than the 
 former, and that is a fantastical and wild attributing all 
 knowledge to the ancients alone, or to the moderns. This 
 raving upon antiquity in matter of poetry, Horace has 
 wittily described and exposed in one of his satires. 3 The 
 same sort of madness may be found in reference to all the 
 other sciences. Some will not admit an opinion not 
 authorized by men of old, who were then all giants in 
 knowledge. Nothing is to be put into the treasury of 
 truth or knowledge which has not the stamp of Greece or 
 Kome upon it, and since their days 4 will scarce allow that 
 men have been able to see, think or write. Others, with a 
 like extravagancy, contemn all that the ancients have left 
 us, and being taken with the modern inventions and dis- 
 coveries, lay by all that went before, as if whatever is 
 called old must have the decay of time upon it, and truth 
 too were liable to mould and rottenness. Men I think 
 have been much the same for natural endowments in all 
 
 1 Affairs will not suffer themselves to be- badly administered. 
 
 2 Affairs will not submit to be misunderstood. 
 
 3 Epistles, bk. ii., ep. 1, 34 ff. * Subaud. " seme."
 
 24. PARTIALITY 223 
 
 times. Fashion, discipline, and education have put 
 eminent differences in the ages of several countries, and 
 made one generation much differ from another in arts 
 and sciences : but truth is always the same ; time alters it 
 not, nor is it the better or worse for being of ancient or 
 modern tradition. Many were eminent in former ages of 
 the world for their discovery and delivery of it ; but 
 though the knowledge they have left us be worth our study, 
 yet they exhausted not all its treasure ; they left a great 
 deal for the industry and sagacity of after-ages, and so 
 shall we. That was once new to them which any one 
 now receives with veneration for its antiquity, nor was it 
 the worse for appearing as a novelty ; and that which is 
 now embraced for its newness, will to posterity be old, 
 but not thereby be less true or less genuine. There is 
 no occasion on this account to oppose the ancients and 
 the moderns to one another, or to be squeamish on either 
 side. 1 He that wisely conducts his mind in the pursuit 
 of knowledge, will gather what lights and get what helps 
 he can from either of them, from whom they are best to be 
 had, without adoring the errors or rejecting the truths 
 which he may find mingled in them. 
 
 Another partiality may be observed in some to vulgar, 
 in others to heterodox tenets ; some are apt to conclude 
 that what is the common opinion cannot but be true : so 
 many men's eyes they think cannot but see right ; so 
 many men's understandings of all sorts cannot be deceived ; 
 and therefore will not venture to look beyond the received 
 notions of the place and age, nor have so presumptuous a 
 thought as to be wiser than their neighbours. They are 
 content to go with the crowd, and so go easily, which they 
 think is going right, or at least serves them as well. But 
 however " vox populi vox Dei " has prevailed as a maxim, 
 yet I do not remember wherever God delivered his oracles 
 
 1 A characteristic attitude towards the controversy then raging 
 concerning the respective merits of ancient and modern learning. 
 Up to 1693, Perrault and Fontenelle in France, and Temple in 
 England had been prominent in the discussion ; Bentley and Swift 
 were the most notable contributors at a later dale. See A. 
 Guthkelch's The Battle of the Books, etc., 1908.
 
 224 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 by the multitude, or nature, truths by the herd. On the 
 other side, some fly all common opinions as either false or 
 frivolous. The title of many-headed beast is a sufficient 
 reason to them to conclude that no truths of weight or 
 consequence can be lodged there. Vulgar opinions are 
 suited to vulgar capacities, and adapted to the ends of those 
 that govern. He that will know the truth of things must 
 leave the common and beaten track, which none but weak 
 and servile minds are satisfied to trudge along continually 
 in. Such nice palates relish nothing but strange notions 
 quite out of the way : whatever is commonly received has 
 the mark of the beast on it, and they think it a lessening 
 to them to hearken to it or receive it : their mind runs 
 only after paradoxes ; these they seek, these they embrace, 
 these alone they vent, and so as they think distinguish 
 themselves from the vulgar. But common or uncommon 
 are not the marks to distinguish truth or falsehood, and 
 therefore should not be any bias to us in our inquiries. 
 We should not judge of things by men's opinions, but of 
 opinions by things. The multitude reason but ill, and 
 therefore may be well suspected, and cannot be relied on, 
 nor should be followed as a sure guide ; but philosophers 
 who have quitted the orthodoxy of the community and 
 the popular doctrines of their countries have fallen into as 
 extravagant and as absurd opinions as ever common 
 reception countenanced. It would be madness to refuse 
 to breathe the common air or quench one's thirst with 
 water, because the rabble use them to these purposes ; 
 and if there are conveniences of life which common use 
 reaches not, it is not reason to reject them because they are 
 not grown into the ordinary fashion of the country, and 
 every villager doth not know them. 
 
 Truth, whether in or out of fashion, is the measure of 
 knowledge and the business of the understanding ; what- 
 soever is besides that, however authorized by consent or 
 recommended by rarity, is nothing but ignorance or some- 
 thing worse. 
 
 Another sort of partiality there is, whereby men impose 
 upon them selves ; and by it make their reading little useful
 
 24. PARTIALITY 225 
 
 to themselves ; I mean the making use of the opinions of 
 writers and laying stress upon their authorities wherever 
 they find them to favour their own opinions. 
 
 There is nothing almost has done more harm to men 
 dedicated to letters than giving the name of study to 
 reading, 1 and making a man of great reading to be the 
 same with a man of great knowledge, or at least to be a 
 title of honour. All that can be recorded in writing are 
 only facts or reasonings. Facts are of three sorts : 
 
 (1) Merely of natural agents observable in the ordinary 
 operations of bodies one upon another, whether in the 
 visible course of things left to themselves, or in experi- 
 ments made by them, 2 applying agents and patients to 
 one another after a peculiar and artificial manner. 
 
 (2) Of voluntary agents, more especially the actions of 
 men in society, which makes civil and moral history. 
 
 (3) Of opinions. 
 
 In these three consists, as it seems to me, that which 
 commonly has the name of learning ; to which perhaps 
 some may add a distinct head of critical writings, which 
 indeed at bottom is nothing but matter of fact, and 
 resolves itself into this, that such a man or set of men 
 used such a word or phrase in such a sense, i.e., that they 
 made such sounds the marks of such ideas. 3 
 
 Under reasonings I comprehend all the discoveries of 
 general truths made by human reason, whether found by 
 intuition, demonstration, or probable deductions. And 
 this is that which is, if not alone knowledge (because the 
 truth or probability of particular propositions may be 
 known too), yet is, as may be supposed, most properly the 
 business of those who pretend to improve their under- 
 standings and make themselves knowing by reading. 
 
 Books and reading are looked upon to be the great helps 
 of the understanding and instruments of knowledge, as it 
 must be allowed that they are ; and yet I beg leave to 
 question whether these do not prove an hindrance to 
 many, and keep several bookish men from attaining to 
 
 1 See sees. 13, 20. 2 I.e., " by means of them." 
 
 3 Characteristic of Locke to ignore cesthetic criticism. 
 
 15
 
 226 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 solid and true knowledge. This I think I may be per- 
 mitted to say. that there is no part wherein the under- 
 standing needs a more careful and wary conduct than in 
 the use of books ; without which they will prove rather 
 innocent amusements than profitable employments of our 
 time, and bring but small additions to our knowledge. 
 
 There is not seldom to be found, even amongst those 
 who aim at knowledge, who 1 with an unwearied industry 
 employ their whole time in books, who scarcely allow 
 themselves time to eat or sleep, but read, and read, and 
 read on, yet make no great advances in real knowledge, 
 though there be no defect in their intellectual faculties to 
 which their little progress can be imputed. The mistake 
 here is, that it is usually supposed that by reading, the 
 author's knowledge is transfused into the reader's under- 
 standing ; and so it is, but not by bare reading, but by 
 reading and understanding what he writ. Whereby I 
 mean, not barely comprehending what is affirmed or 
 denied in each proposition (though that great readers do 
 not always think themselves concerned precisely to do), 
 but to see and follow the train of his reasonings, observe 
 the strength and clearness of their connexion, and examine 
 upon what they bottom. Without this a man may read 
 the discourses of a very rational author, writ in a language 
 and in propositions that he very well understands, and 
 yet acquire not one jot of his knowledge ; which consist- 
 ing only in the perceived, certain, or probable connexion 
 of the ideas made use of in his reasonings, the reader's 
 knowledge is no farther increased than he perceives that ; 
 so much as he sees of this connexion, so much he knows 
 of the truth or probability of that author's opinions. 
 
 All that he relies on without this perception he takes 
 upon trust, upon the author's credit, without any know- 
 ledge of it at all. This makes me not at all wonder to see 
 some men so abound in citations and build so much upon 
 authorities, it being the sole foundation on which they 
 bottom most of their own tenets ; so that in effect they 
 
 1 That is, " There are ... to be found . . . [those] who' with 
 an unwearied," etc. Cf. sunt . . . qui.
 
 24. PAETIALITY 227 
 
 have but a second-hand or implicit 1 knowledge, i.e., are 
 in the right if such an one from whom they borrowed it 
 were in the right in that opinion which they took from 
 him ; which indeed is no knowledge at all. Writers of this 
 or former ages may be good witnesses of matters of fact 
 which they deliver, which we may do well to take upon 
 their authority ; but their credit can go no farther than 
 this ; it cannot at all affect the truth and falsehood of 
 opinions which have no other sort of trial but reason and 
 proof, which they themselves made use of to make them- 
 selves knowing ; and so must others too that will partake 
 in their knowledge. Indeed it is an advantage that they 
 have been at the pains to find out the proofs and lay them 
 in that order that may show the truth or probability of 
 their conclusions ; and for this we owe them great acknow- 
 ledgments for saving us the pains in searching out those 
 proofs which they have collected for us, and which possibly 
 after all our pains we might not have found, nor been 
 able to have set them in so good a light as that which they 
 left them us in. Upon this account we are mightily 
 beholden to judicious writers of all ages for those dis- 
 coveries and discourses they have left behind them for 
 our instruction, if we know how to make a right use of 
 them, which is not to run them over in an hasty perusal, 
 and perhaps lodge their opinions or some remarkable 
 passages in our memories ; but to enter into their reason- 
 ings, examine their proofs, and then judge of the truth or 
 falsehood, probability or improbability of what they 
 advance ; not by any opinion we have entertained of the 
 author, but by the evidence he produces and the convic- 
 tion he affords us, drawn from things themselves. Know- 
 ing is seeing, and if it be so, it is madness to persuade 
 ourselves that we do so by another man's eyes, let him use 
 ever so many words to tell us that what he asserts is very 
 visible. Till we ourselves see it with our own eyes and 
 perceive it by our own understandings, we are as much 
 in the dark and as void of knowledge as before, let us 
 believe any learned author as much as we will. 2 
 
 1 Cf. sec. 15, second paragraph. 2 See Introduction, p. 8.
 
 228 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 Euclid and Archimedes are allowed to be knowing and 
 to have demonstrated what they say ; and yet whoever 
 shall read over their writings without perceiving the con- 
 nexion of their proofs, and seeing what they show, 
 though he may understand all their words, yet he is not 
 the more knowing : he may believe indeed, but does not 
 know what they say, and so is not advanced one jot in 
 mathematical knowledge by all his reading of those 
 approved mathematicians. 1 
 
 25. Haste. 2 The eagerness and strong bent of the mind 
 after knowledge, if not warily regulated, is often a hin- 
 drance to it. It still presses into farther discoveries and 
 new objects, and catches at the variety of knowledge ; 
 and therefore often stays not long enough on what is 
 before it to look into it as it should, for haste to pursue 
 what is yet out of sight. He that rides post through a 
 country may be able from the transient view to tell how 
 in general the parts lie, and may be able to give some loose 
 description of here a mountain and there a plain, here a 
 morass and there a river, woodland in one part and savan- 
 nahs in another. Such superficial ideas and observations 
 as these he may collect in galloping over it ; but the more 
 useful observations of the soil, plants, animals, and in- 
 habitants, with their several sorts and properties, must 
 necessarily escape him ; and it is seldom men ever discover 
 the rich mines without some digging. Nature commonly 
 lodges her treasure and jewels in rocky ground. If the 
 matter be knotty and the sense lies deep, the mind must 
 
 1 ' ' The great Mr. Locke was the first who became a Newtonian 
 philosopher without the help of geometry; for having asked Mr. 
 Huygens whether all the mathematical propositions in Sir Isaac's 
 Principia were true, and being told he might depend upon their 
 certainty, he took them for granted, and carefully examined the 
 reasonings and corollaries drawn from them, became master of all 
 the Physics, and was fully convinced of the great discoveries con- 
 tained in that book : thus also he read the Optics with pleasure, 
 acquainting himself with everything in them that was not merely 
 mathematical. This I was told several times by Sir Isaac Newton 
 himself " (J. T. Desaguliers, A Course of Experimental Philosophy 
 (1734), vol. i., preface. 
 
 2 See sec. 16.
 
 25. HASTE 229 
 
 stop and buckle to it, and stick upon it with labour and 
 thought and close contemplation, and not leave it till it 
 has mastered the difficulty and got possession of truth. 
 But here care must be taken to avoid the other extreme ; 
 a man must not stick at every useless nicety, and expect 
 mysteries of science in every trivial question or scruple 
 that he may raise. He that will stand to pick up and 
 examine every pebble that comes in his way, is as un- 
 likely to return enriched and loaden with jewels, as the 
 other that travelled full speed. Truths are not the better 
 nor the worse for their obviousness or difficulty, but their 
 value is to be measured by their usefulness and tendency. 
 Insignificant observations should not take up any of our 
 minutes, and those that enlarge our view and give light 
 towards farther and useful discoveries, should not be 
 neglected, though they stop our course and spend some 
 of our time in a fixed attention. 
 
 There is another haste that does often and will mislead 
 the mind, if it be left to itself and its own conduct. The 
 understanding is naturally forward, not only to learn its 
 knowledge by variety (which makes it skip over one to 
 get speedily to another part of knowledge), but also eager to 
 enlarge its views by running too fast into general observa- 
 tions and conclusions without a due examination of par- 
 ticulars enough whereon to found those general axiom,?. 
 This seems to enlarge their stock, but it is of fancies, not 
 realities ; such theories, built upon narrow foundations, 
 stand but weakly, and if they fall not of themselves, are 
 at least very hardly to be supported against the assaults 
 of opposition. And thus men being too hasty to erect 
 to themselves general notions and ill-grounded theories, 
 find themselves deceived in their stock of knowledge when 
 they come to examine their hastily assumed maxims 
 themselves, or to have them attacked by others. General 
 observations drawn from particulars are the jewels of 
 knowledge, comprehending great store in a little room ; 
 but they are therefore to be made with the greater care 
 and caution, lest if we take counterfeit for true our loss 
 and shame be the greater, when our stock comes to a severe
 
 230 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 scrutiny. 1 One or two particulars may suggest hints of 
 inquiry, and they do well to take those hints ; but if they 
 turn them into conclusions, and make them presently 
 general rules, they are forward indeed, but it is only to 
 impose on themselves by propositions assumed for truths 
 without sufficient warrant. To make such observations 
 is, as has been already remarked, to make the head a 
 magazine of materials which can hardly be called know- 
 ledge, or at least it is but like a collection of lumber not 
 reduced to use or order ; and he that makes everything 
 an observation has the same useless plenty and much 
 more falsehood mixed with it. The extremes on both 
 sides are to be avoided, and he will be able to give the 
 best account of his studies who keeps his understanding 
 in the right mean 2 between them. 
 
 26. Anticipation. Whether it be a love of that which 
 brings the first light and information to their minds, and 
 want of vigour and industry to inquire ; or else that men 
 content themselves with any appearance of knowledge, 
 right or wrong, which when they have once got they will 
 hold fast ; this is visible, that many men give themselves 
 up to the first anticipations of their minds, and are very 
 tenacious of the opinions that first possess them ; they 
 are as often fond of their first conceptions as of their 
 first-born, and will by no means recede from the judgment 
 they have once made, or any conjecture or conceit which 
 they have once entertained. This is a fault in the con- 
 duct of the understanding, since this firmness or rather 
 stiffness of the mind is not from 3 an adherence to truth, 
 but a submission to prejudice. It is an unreasonable 
 homage paid to prepossession, whereby we show a 
 reverence not to (what we pretend to seek) truth, but 
 what by haphazard we chance to light on, be it what it 
 will. This is visibly a preposterous use of our faculties, 
 and is a downright prostituting of the mind to resign it 
 thus and put it under the power of the first comer. This 
 can never be allowed or ought to be followed as a right 
 
 1 Verification is an essential procedure in the inductive method. 
 
 2 Not necessarily the mathematical mean. 3 I.e., owing to.
 
 27. RESIGNATION 28. PRACTICE 231 
 
 way to knowledge, till the understanding (whose business 
 it is to conform itself to what it finds in the objects with- 
 out) can by its own opinionatry 1 change that, and make 
 the unalterable nature of things comply with its own 
 hasty determinations, which will never be. Whatever we 
 fancy, things keep their course, and the habitudes, corre- 
 spondence, and relations keep the same to one another. 
 
 27. Resignation. Contrary to these, but by a like 
 dangerous excess on the other side, are those who always 
 resign their judgment to the last man they heard or read. 
 Truth never sinks into these men's minds nor gives any 
 tincture to them, but chameleon-like, they take the colour 
 of what is laid before them, and, as soon, lose and resign 
 it to the next that happens to come in their way. The 
 order wherein opinions are proposed or received by us is 
 no rule of their rectitude, nor ought to be a cause of their 
 preference. First or last in this case is the effect of 
 chance, and not the measure of truth or falsehood. This 
 every one must confess, and therefore should in the pur- 
 suit of truth keep his mind free from the influence of any 
 such accidents. A man may as reasonably draw cuts 2 
 for his tenets, regulate his persuasion by the cast of a 
 die, as take it up for its novelty, or retain it because it 
 had his first assent and he was never of another mind. 
 Well-weighed reasons are to determine the judgment ; 
 those the mind should be always ready to hearken and 
 submit to, and by^their testimony and suffrage 3 entertain 
 or reject any tenet indifferently, whether it be a perfect 
 stranger or an old acquaintance. 
 
 28. Practice. Though the faculties of the mind are 
 improved by exercise, yet they must not be put to a 
 stress beyond their strength. " Quid valeant humeri, 
 quid ferre recusent," 4 must be made the measure of every 
 
 1 See sec. 16. 2 Lots ; " toss up." 
 
 3 Suffragium, decision marked by casting a vote. 
 
 4 " What the shoulders are strong enough for, and what they 
 refuse to bear" (Horace, Ars Poetica, 39). The analogy between 
 muscular and mental activity, weak as it is, has been greatly over- 
 pressed. Muscles can be isolated by the anatomist's knife ; mental 
 powers arc only discriminated by logical analysis, that is, by a
 
 232 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 one's understanding who has a desire not only to per- 
 form well, but to keep up the vigour of his faculties and 
 not to balk his understanding by what is too hard for it. 
 The mind by being engaged in a task beyond its strength, 
 like the body strained by lifting at a weight too heavy, 
 has often its force broken, and thereby gets an unaptness 
 or an aversion to any vigorous attempt ever after. A 
 sinew cracked seldom recovers its former strength, or at 
 least the tenderness of the sprain remains a good while 
 after, and the memory of it longer, and leaves a lasting 
 caution in the man not to put the part quickly again to 
 any robust employment. So it fares in the mind once 
 jaded by an attempt above its power ; it either is dis- 
 abled for the 'future, or else checks at any vigorous under- 
 taking ever after, at least is very hardly brought to exert 
 its force again on any subject that requires thought and 
 meditation. The understanding should be brought to 
 the difficult and knotty parts of knowledge, that try the 
 strength of thought and a full bent of the mind, by in- 
 sensible degrees ; and in such a gradual proceeding nothing 
 is too hard for it. Nor let it be objected that such a slow 
 progress will never reach the extent of some sciences. 
 It is not to be imagined how far constancy will carry a 
 man ; however, it is better walking slowly in a rugged 
 way than to break a leg and be a cripple. He that begins 
 with the calf may carry the ox, but he that will at first 
 go to take up an ox may so disable himself as not to be 
 able to lift up a calf after that. When the mind by 
 insensible degrees has brought itself to attention and close 
 thinking, it will be able to cope with difficulties and master 
 them without any prejudice to itself, and then it may go 
 on roundly. Every abstruse problem, every intricate 
 question, will not baffle, discourage, or break it. But 
 though putting the mind unprepared upon an unusual 
 
 process of abstraction. " Faculties," not being real entities of the 
 kind to which muscles belong, are not capable of such very special 
 exercise as can be applied, for example, to the biceps. The con- 
 trary opinion is responsible for much bad pedagogy. See sees, (first 
 paragraph) 29, 31, and Some Thoughts, sec. 176.
 
 28. PRACTICE 29. WORDS 233 
 
 stress that may discourage or damp it for the future 
 ought to be avoided, yet this must not run it by an over- 
 great shyness of difficulties into a lazy sauntering about 
 ordinary and obvious things that demand no thought or 
 application. This debases and enervates the understand- 
 ing, makes it weak and unfit for labour. This is a sort of 
 hovering about the surface of things without any insight 
 into them or penetration ; and when the mind has been 
 once habituated to this lazy recumbency and satisfaction 
 on the obvious surface of things, it is in danger to rest 
 satisfied there and go no deeper, since it cannot do it 
 without pains and digging. He that has for some time 
 accustomed himself to take up with what easily offers 
 itself at first view, has reason to fear he shall never recon- 
 cile himself to the fatigue of turning and tumbling things 
 in his mind to discover their more retired and more 
 valuable secrets. 
 
 It is not strange that methods of learning which 
 scholars have been accustomed to in their beginning and 
 entrance upon the sciences should influence them all 
 their lives, and be settled in their minds by an over- 
 ruling reverence ; especially if they be such as universal 
 use has established. Learners must at first be believers, 
 and their master's rules having been once made axioms 
 to them, it is no wonder they should keep that dignity, 
 and by the authority they have once got, mislead those 
 who" think it sufficient to excuse them if they go out of 
 their way in a well-beaten track. 
 
 29. Words. I have copiously enough spoken of the 
 abuse of words in another place, 1 and therefore shall 
 upon this reflection, that the sciences are full of them, 
 warn those that would conduct their understandings right 
 not to take any term, howsoever authorized by the lan- 
 guage of the schools, to stand for anything till they have 
 an idea of it. A word may be of frequent use and great 
 credit with several authors, and be by them made use of 
 as if it stood for some real being ; but yet, if he that reads 
 cannot frame any distinct idea of that being, it is cer- 
 
 1 Essay on the Human Understanding, iii., especially chaps, x., xi.
 
 234 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 tainly to him a mere empty sound without a meaning, 
 and he learns no more by all that is said of it or attributed 
 to it than if it were affirmed only of that bare empty 
 sound. They who would advance in knowledge, and not 
 deceive and swell themselves with a little articulated air, 
 should lay down this as a fundamental rule, not to take 
 words for things, nor suppose that names in books signify 
 real entities in nature, till they can frame clear and dis- 
 tinct ideas of those entities. It will not perhaps be 
 allowed, if I should set down " substantial forms " and 
 " intentional species," as such that may justly be sus- 
 pected to be of this kind of insignificant 1 terms. But this 
 I am sure, to one that can form no determined ideas of 
 what they stand for, they signify nothing at all ; and all 
 that he thinks he knows about them is to him so much 
 knowledge about nothing, and amounts at most but to be 
 a learned ignorance. It is not without all reason sup- 
 posed that there are many such empty terms to be found 
 in some learned writers, to which they had recourse to 
 etch 2 out their systems, where their understandings could 
 not furnish them with conceptions from things. But yet 
 I believe the supposing of some realities in nature answer- 
 ing those and the like words, have much perplexed some 
 and quite misled others in the study of nature. That 
 which in any discourse signifies, " I know not what," 
 should be considered " I know not when." Where men 
 have any conceptions, they can, if they are never so 
 abstruse or abstracted, explain them and the terms they 
 use for them. 3 For our conceptions being nothing but 
 ideas, which are all made up of simple ones, if they can- 
 not give us the ideas their words stand for it is plain they 
 have none. To what purpose can it be to hunt after 
 his conceptions who has none, or none distinct ? He 
 that knew not what he himself meant by a learned term, 
 cannot make us know anything by his use of it, let us 
 
 1 I.e., meaningless. The phrases belong to the Peripatetic as 
 opposed to the Corpuscular philosophy. See Thoughts, sec. 193. 
 
 2 I.e., to eke. 
 
 3 See sec. 31, " He that has settled in his mind," etc., and sec. 32.
 
 29. WORDS 30. WANDERING 235 
 
 beat our heads about it never so long. Whether we are 
 able to comprehend all the operations of nature and the 
 manners of them, it matters not to inquire ; but this is 
 certain, that we can comprehend no more of them than 
 we can distinctly conceive, and therefore to obtrude terms 
 where we have no distinct conceptions, as if they did 
 contain, or rather conceal something, is but an artifice of 
 learned vanity to cover a defect in an hypothesis or our 
 understandings. Words are not made to conceal, but to 
 declare and show something ; where they are by those 
 who pretend to instruct otherwise used, they conceal 
 indeed something ; but that that they conceal is nothing 
 but the ignorance, error, or sophistry of the talker, for 
 there is in truth nothing else under them. 
 
 30. Wandering. That there is a constant succession 
 and flux of ideas in our minds I have observed in the 
 former part of this essay, and every one may take notice 
 of it in himself. This, I suppose, may deserve some part 
 of our care in the conduct of our understandings ; and 
 I think it may be of great advantage if we can, by use, 
 get that power over our minds, as to be able to direct that 
 train of ideas, that so, since there will new ones perpetually 
 come into our thoughts by a constant succession, we may 
 be able by choice so to direct them, that none may come 
 in view but such as are pertinent to our present inquiry, 
 and in such order as may be most useful to the discovery 
 we are upon ; or, at least, if some foreign and unsought 
 ideas will offer themselves, that yet we might be able to 
 reject them and keep them from taking off our minds 
 from its present pursuit, and hinder them from running 
 away with our thoughts quite from the subject in hand. 
 This is not, I suspect, so easy to be done as perhaps may 
 be imagined ; and yet, for aught I know, this may be, 
 if not the chief, yet one of the great differences that carry 
 some men in their reasoning so far beyond others, where 
 they seem to be naturally of equal parts. 1 A proper and 
 
 1 Experiment seems to show that intellectual differences between 
 man and man greatly depend upon differences in power of attention, 
 of concentration of mind.
 
 236 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 effectual remedy for this wandering of thoughts I would 
 be glad to find. He that shall propose such an one would 
 do great service to the studious and contemplative part 
 of mankind, and perhaps help unthinking men to become 
 thinking. I must acknowledge that hitherto I have dis- 
 covered no other way to keep our thoughts close to their 
 business, but the endeavouring as much as we can, and 
 by frequent attention and application, getting the habit 
 of attention and application. He that will observe 
 children will find that even when they endeavour their 
 utmost, they cannot keep their minds from straggling. 
 The way to cure it, I am satisfied, is not angry chiding 
 or beating, for that presently fills their heads with all 
 the ideas that fear, dread, or confusion can offer to them. 
 To bring back gently their wandering thoughts, by lead- 
 ing them into the path and going before them in the train 
 they should pursue, without any rebuke, or so much as 
 taking notice (where it can be avoided) of their roving, 
 I suppose, would sooner reconcile and inure them to 
 attention than all these rougher methods, which more 
 distract their thought, and hindering the application they 
 would promote, introduce a contrary habit. 1 
 
 31. Distinction. Distinction and division are (if I 
 mistake not the import of the words) very different things ; 
 the one 2 being the perception of a difference that nature 
 has placed in things ; the other, 3 our making a division 
 where there is yet none ; at least if it may be permitted 
 to consider them in this sense, I think I may say of them, 
 that one 2 of them is the most necessary and conducive 
 to true knowledge that can be ; the other, 3 when too much 
 made use of, serves only to puzzle and confound the under- 
 standing. To observe every the least difference that is 
 in things argues a quick and clear sight, and this keeps 
 the understanding steady and right in its way to know- 
 ledge. But though it be useful to discern every variety 
 that is to be found in nature, yet it is not convenient to 
 consider every difference that is in things, and divide 
 
 1 See Thoughts, sec. 167. 2 Sc. division 
 
 3 Sc. distinction. See Thoughts, close of sec. 195.
 
 31. DISTINCTION 237 
 
 them into distinct classes under every such difference. 1 
 This will run us, if followed, into particulars (for every 
 individual has something that differences it from another), 
 and we shall be able to establish no general truths, or else 
 at least shall be apt to perplex the mind about them. 
 The collection of several things into several classes gives 
 the mind more general and larger views, but we must 
 take care to unite them only in that, 2 and so far as they 
 do agree, for so far they may be united under the con- 
 sideration ; for entity 3 itself, that comprehends all things, 
 as general as it is, may afford us clear and rational con- 
 ceptions. If we would weigh and keep in our minds what 
 it is we are considering, that would best instruct us when 
 we should or should not branch into farther distinctions, 
 which are to be taken only from a due contemplation of 
 things ; to which there is nothing more opposite than the 
 art of verbal distinctions made at pleasure in learned 
 and arbitrarily invented terms, to be applied at a venture, 
 without comprehending or conveying any distinct notions ; 
 and so altogether fitted to artificial talk or empty noise 
 in dispute, without any clearing of difficulties or advance 
 in knowledge. Whatsoever subject we examine and 
 would get knowledge in, we should, I think, make as 
 general and as large as it will bear ; nor can there be any 
 danger of this, if the idea of it be settled and determined : 
 for if that be so, we shall easily distinguish it from any 
 other idea, though comprehended under the same name. 
 For it is to fence against the entanglements of equivocal 
 words, and the great art of sophistry which lies in them, 
 that distinctions have been multiplied and their use 
 thought so necessary. But had every distinct abstract idea 
 a distinct known name, there would be little need of these 
 multiplied scholastic distinctions, though there would be 
 nevertheless as much need still of the mind's observing 
 the differences that are in things, and discriminating them 
 thereby one from another. It is not therefore the right 
 way to knowledge to hunt after and fill the head with 
 
 1 A truth commonly defied by writers on English grammar. 
 
 2 Subaud., " they agree." 3 Being.
 
 238 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 abundance of artificial and scholastic distinctions, where- 
 with learned men's writings are often filled : we sometimes 
 find what they treat of so divided and subdivided that 
 the rnind of the most attentive reader loses the sight of it, 
 as it is more than probable the writer himself did ; for 
 in things crumbled into dust it is in vain to affect or 
 pretend order, or expect clearness. To avoid confusion 
 by too few or too many divisions, is a great skill in thinking 
 as well as writing, which is but the copying our thoughts ; 
 but what are the boundaries of the mean between the 
 two vicious excesses on both hands, I think is hard to 
 set down in words : clear and distinct ideas 1 is [sic] all 
 that I yet know able to regulate it. But as to verbal 
 distinctions received and applied to common terms, i.e., 
 equivocal words, 2 they are more properly, I think, the 
 business of criticisms and dictionaries than of real know- 
 ledge and philosophy, since they for the most part explain 
 the meaning of words, and give us their several significa- 
 tions. The dexterous management of terms, and being 
 able to fend 3 and prove with them, I know has and does 
 pass in the world for a great part of learning ; but it is 
 learning distinct from knowledge, for knowledge consists 
 only in perceiving the habitudes and relations of ideas 
 one to another, which is done without words ; the inter- 
 vention of a sound helps nothing to it. And hence we see 
 that there is least use of distinctions where there is most 
 knowledge, I mean in mathematics, where men have deter- 
 mined ideas without 4 known names to them, and so there 
 being no room for equivocations, there is no need of 
 distinctions. In arguing, the opponent uses as compre- 
 hensive and equivocal terms as he can, to involve his 
 adversary in the doubtfulness of his expressions : this is 
 
 1 Essay, ii., chap. xxix. ; Thoughts, sec. 195, note on concluding 
 words of section. 
 
 2 The fact that terms are common, or general, renders them 
 equivocal on occasion. 
 
 3 Ward off (an opponent). The disputations so familiar in the 
 universities of his day were Locke's pet aversion. See sec. 43. 
 
 4 So the text reads, but the fact seems to require " with." See 
 next page.
 
 31. DISTINCTION 239 
 
 expected, and therefore the answerer on his side makes 
 it his play to distinguish as much as he can, and thinks 
 he can never do it too much ; nor can he indeed in that 
 way wherein victory may be had without truth and with- 
 out knowledge. This seems to me to be the art of dis- 
 puting. Use your words as captiously as you can in 
 your arguing on one side, and apply distinctions as much 
 as you can on the other side to every term, to nonplus 
 your opponent ; so that in this sort of scholarship, there 
 being no bounds set to distinguishing, some men have 
 thought all acuteness to have lain in it, and therefore in 
 all they have read or thought on, their great business has 
 been to amuse themselves with distinctions, and multiply 
 to themselves divisions ; at least, more than the nature of 
 the thing required. There seems to me, as I said, to be 
 no other rule for this but a due and right consideration 
 of things as they are in themselves. He that has settled 
 in his mind determined ideas, with names affixed to them, 
 will be able both to discern their differences one from 
 another, which is really distinguishing ; and where the 
 penury of words affords not terms answering every dis- 
 tinct idea, will be able to apply proper distinguishing 
 terms to the comprehensive and equivocal names he is 
 forced to make use of. 1 This is all the need I know of 
 distinguishing terms, and in such verbal distinctions each 
 term of the distinction, joined to that whose signification 
 it distinguishes, is but a distinct name for a distinct idea. 
 Where they are so, and men have clear and distinct con- 
 ceptions that answer their verbal distinctions, they are 
 right, and are pertinent as far as they serve to clear any- 
 thing in the subject under consideration. And this is 
 that which seems to me the proper and only measure of 
 distinctions and divisions ; which he that will conduct his 
 understanding right must not look for in the acuteness of 
 invention nor the authority of writers, but will find only in 
 the consideration of things themselves, whether he is led 
 into it by his own meditations or the information of books. 
 An aptness to jumble things together wherein can be 
 1 See sec. 29.
 
 240 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 found any likeness, is a fault in the understanding on 
 the other side which will not fail to mislead it, and by thus 
 lumping of things, hinder the mind from distinct and 
 accurate conceptions of them. 
 
 32. Similes. To which let me here add another near 
 of kin to this, at least in name, and that is letting the 
 mind, upon the suggestion of any new notion, run im- 
 mediately after similes to make it the clearer to itself ; 
 which, though it may be a good way and useful in the ex- 
 plaining our thoughts to others, yet it is by no means a 
 right method to settle true notions of anything in our- 
 selves, because similes always fail in some part, and come 
 short of that exactness which our conceptions should 
 have to things if we would think aright. 1 This indeed 
 makes men plausible talkers, for those are always most 
 acceptable in discourse who have the way to let their 
 thoughts into other men's minds with the greatest ease 
 and facility ; whether these thoughts are well formed and 
 correspond with things matters not ; few men care to 
 be instructed but at an easy rate. They who in their 
 discourse strike the fancy, and take the hearers' concep- 
 tions along with them as fast as their words flow, are the 
 applauded talkers, and go for the only men of clear 
 thoughts. Nothing contributes so much to this as similes, 
 whereby men think they themselves understand better, 
 because they are the better understood. But it is one 
 thing to think right, and another thing to know the right 
 way to lay our thoughts before others with advantage 
 and clearness, be they right or wrong. Well-chosen 
 similes, metaphors, and allegories, with method and order, 
 do this the best of anything, because being taken from 
 objects already known and familiar to the understanding, 
 they are conceived as fast as spoken, and the corre- 
 spondence being concluded, the thing they are brought 
 to explain and elucidate is thought to be understood 
 too. Thus fancy passes for knowledge, and what is 
 prettily said is mistaken for solid. I say not this to decry 
 
 1 Locke's own similes of " blank paper " and " wax " might be 
 retorted upon him. See sec. 2 note.
 
 32. SIMILES 33. ASSENT 241 
 
 metaphor, or with design to take away that ornament of 
 speech ; my business here is not with rhetoricians and 
 orators, 1 but with philosophers and lovers of truth, to 
 whom I would beg leave to give this one rule whereby 
 to try whether in the application of their thoughts to 
 anything for the improvement of their knowledge, they 
 do in truth comprehend the matter before them really 
 such as it is in itself. The way to discover this is to 
 observe whether, in the laying it before themselves or 
 others, they make use only of borrowed representations 
 and ideas foreign to the things which are applied to it 
 by way of accommodation, as bearing some proportion 
 or imagined likeness to the subject under consideration. 
 Figured and metaphorical expressions do well to illus- 
 trate more abstruse and unfamiliar ideas which the mind 
 is not yet thoroughly accustomed to, but then they must 
 be made use of to illustrate ideas that we already have, 
 not to paint to us those which we yet have not. Such 
 borrowed and allusive ideas may follow real and solid 
 truth, to set it off when found, but must by no means 
 be set in its place and taken for it. If all our search has 
 yet reached no farther than simile and metaphor, we 
 may assure ourselves we rather fancy than know, and 
 have not yet penetrated into the inside and reality of the 
 thing, be it what it will, but content ourselves with 
 what our imaginations, not things themselves, furnish 
 us with. 
 
 33. Assent. In the whole conduct of the understand- 
 ing, there is nothing of more moment than to know when 
 and where, and how far to give assent, and possibly 
 there is nothing harder. It is very easily said, and nobody 
 questions it, that giving and withholding our assent and 
 the degrees of it should be regulated by the evidence 
 which things carry with them ; and yet we see men are 
 not the better for this rule ; some firmly embrace doc- 
 trines upon slight grounds, some upon no grounds, and 
 some contrary to appearance : some admit of certainty, 
 
 1 But men who " have business " with rhetoricians should bear 
 Locke's warning in mind. 
 
 16
 
 242 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 and are not to be moved in what they hold ; others waver 
 in everything, and there want not those that reject all 
 as uncertain. What then shall a novice, an inquirer, a 
 stranger do in the case ? I answer, use his eyes. There 
 is a correspondence in things, and agreement and dis- 
 agreement in ideas, discernible in very different degrees, 
 and there are eyes in men to see them if they please ; 
 only their eyes may be dimmed or dazzled, and the dis- 
 cerning sight in them impaired or lost. Interest and 
 passion dazzle ; the custom of arguing on any side, even 
 against our persuasions, dims the understanding, and 
 makes it by degrees lose the faculty of discerning clearly 
 between truth and falsehood, and so of adhering to the 
 right side. It is not safe to play with error and dress 
 it up to ourselves or others in the shape of truth. The 
 mind by degrees loses its natural relish of real solid truth, 
 is reconciled insensibly to anything that can be dressed 
 up into any feint 1 appearance of it; and if the fancy be 
 allowed the place of judgment at first in sport, it after- 
 wards comes by use to usurp it, and what is recommended 
 by this flatterer (that studies but to please) is received 
 for good. There are so many ways of fallacy, such arts of 
 giving colours, appearances, and resemblances by this 
 court-dresser, the fancy, that he who is not wary to admit 
 nothing but truth itself, very careful not to make his 
 mind subservient to anything else, cannot but be caught. 
 He that has a mind to believe, has half assented already ; 
 and he that by often arguing against his own sense im- 
 poses falsehood on others, is not far from believing him- 
 self. This takes away the great distance there is be- 
 twixt truth and falsehood ; it brings them almost together, 
 and makes it no great odds, in things that approach so 
 near, which you take ; and when things are brought to 
 that pass, passion, or interest, &c., easily, and without 
 being perceived, determine which shall be the right. 
 
 34. Indifferency. 2 I have said above that we should 
 keep a perfect indifferency for all opinions, not wish any 
 of them true, or try to make them appear so, but being 
 1 Feigned. 2 Impartiality. See sec. 11.
 
 34. INDIFFEEENCY 243 
 
 indifferent, receive and embrace them according as 
 evidence, and that alone, gives the attestation of truth. 
 They that do thus, i.e., keep their minds indifferent to 
 opinions, to be determined only by evidence, will always 
 find the understanding has perception enough to distin- 
 guish between evidence and no evidence, betwixt plain 
 and doubtful ; and if they neither give nor refuse their 
 assent but by that measure, they will be safe in the 
 opinions they have. Which being perhaps but few, this 
 caution will have also this good in it, that it will put them 
 upon considering, and teach them the necessity of 
 examining more than they do ; without which the mind 
 is but a receptacle of inconsistencies, not the storehouse 
 of truths. They that do not keep up this indifferency 
 in themselves for all but truth, not supposed, but evi- 
 denced in themselves, put coloured spectacles before their 
 eyes, and look on things through false glasses, and then 
 think themselves excused in following the false appear- 
 ances which they themselves put upon them. I do not 
 expect that by this way the assent should in every one be 
 proportioned to the grounds and clearness wherewith 
 every truth is capable to be made out, or that men 
 should be perfectly kept from error ; that is more than 
 human nature can by any means be advanced to ; I aim 
 at no such unattainable privilege : I am only speaking 
 of what they should do, who would deal fairly with their 
 own minds, and make a right use of their faculties in the 
 pursuit of truth ; we fail them l a great deal more than 
 they fail us. It is mismanagement more than want of 
 abilities that men have reason to complain of, and which 
 they actually do complain of in those that differ from 
 them. He that by indifferency for all but truth, suffers 
 not his assent to go faster than his evidence, nor beyond 
 it, will learn to examine, and examine fairly instead of 
 presuming, and nobody will be at a loss or in danger for 
 want of embracing those truths which are necessary in his 
 station and circumstances. In any other way but this 
 all the world are born to orthodoxy ; they imbibe at first 
 1 I.e., our faculties.
 
 244 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 the allowed opinions of their country and party, and so 
 never questioning their truth, not one of an hundred ever 
 examines. They are applauded for presuming they are 
 in the right. He that considers, is a foe to orthodoxy, 
 because possibly he may deviate from some of the received 
 doctrines there. And thus men, without any industry 
 or acquisition of their own, inherit local truths (for it is 
 not the same everywhere) and are inured to assent with- 
 out evidence. This influences farther than is thought, 
 for what one of an hundred of the zealous bigots in all 
 parties ever examined the tenets he is so stiff in, or ever 
 thought it his business or duty so to do ? It is suspected 
 of lukewarmness to suppose it necessary, and a tendency 
 to apostacy to go about it. And if a man can bring his 
 mind, once to be positive and fierce for positions whose 
 evidence he has never once examined, and that in matters 
 of greatest concernment to him, what shall keep him from 
 this short and easy way of being in the right in cases of 
 less moment ? Thus we are taught to clothe our minds 
 as we do our bodies, after the fashion in vogue, and it is 
 accounted fantasticalness, or something worse, not to do 
 so. This custom (which who dares oppose ?) makes the 
 short-sighted, bigots, and the warier, sceptics, as far as 
 it prevails : and those that break from it are in danger of 
 heresy : for taking the whole world, how much of it doth 
 truth and orthodoxy possess together ? Though it is by 
 the last alone (which has the good luck to be everywhere) 
 that error and heresy are judged of : for argument and 
 evidence signify nothing in the case, and excuse no where, 
 but are sure to be borne down in all societies by the 
 infallible orthodoxy of the place. Whether this be the 
 way to truth and right assent, let the opinions that take 
 place and prescribe in the several habitable parts of the 
 earth declare. I never saw any reason yet why truth 
 might not be trusted on its own evidence : I am sure if 
 that be not able to support it there is no fence against 
 error ; and then truth and falsehood are but names that 
 stand for the same things. Evidence therefore is that by 
 which alone every man is (and should be) taught to
 
 34, 35. INDIFFERENCY 245 
 
 regulate his assent, who is then, and then only, in the 
 right way when he follows it. 
 
 Men deficient in knowledge are usually in one of these 
 three states : either wholly ignorant, or as doubting of 
 some proposition they have either embraced formerly, 
 or are at present inclined to ; or lastly, they do 
 with assurance hold and profess without ever having 
 examined and being convinced by well-grounded argu- 
 ments. 
 
 The first of these are in the best state of the three, by 
 having their minds yet in their perfect freedom and 
 indifferency, the likelier to pursue the truth better, having 
 no bias yet clapped on to mislead them. 
 
 35. For ignorance with an indifferency for truth is 
 nearer to it than opinion with ungrounded inclination, 
 which is the great source of error ; and they are more in 
 danger to go out of the way who are marching under the 
 conduct of a guide l that it is a hundred to one will mislead 
 them, than he that has not yet taken a step, and is likelier 
 to be prevailed on to inquire after the right way. The 
 last of the three sorts are in the worst condition of all ; 
 for if a man can be persuaded and fully assured of any- 
 thing for a truth, without having examined, what is there 
 that he may not embrace for truth ? and if he has given 
 himself up to believe a lie, what means is there left to 
 recover one who can be assured without examining ? 
 To the other two, this I crave leave to say, that as he 
 that is ignorant is in the best state of the two, so he 
 should pursue truth in a method suitable to that state ; 
 i.e., by inquiring directly into the nature of the thing 
 itself, without minding the opinions of others, or troubling 
 himself with their questions or disputes about it ; but to 
 see what he himself can, sincerely searching after truth, 
 find out. He that proceeds upon other principles in his 
 inquiry into any sciences, though he be resolved to examine 
 them and judge of them freely, does yet at least put himself 
 on that side, and post himself in a party which he will not 
 quit till he be beaten out : by which the mind is insensibly 
 1 Viz., inclination.
 
 246 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 engaged to make what defence 1 it can, and so is unawares 
 biassed. I do not say but a man should embrace some 
 opinion when he has examined, else he examines to no 
 purpose ; but the surest and safest way is to have no 
 opinion at all till he has examined, and that without any 
 the least regard to the opinions or systems of other men 
 about it. For example, were it my business to under- 
 stand physic, would not the safe and readier way be to 
 consult nature herself, and inform myself in the history 
 of diseases and their cures, than espousing the principles 
 of the dogmatists, methodists, or chemists, to engage in 
 all the disputes concerning either of those systems, and 
 suppose it to be true, till I have tried what they can say 
 to beat me out of it ? Or, supposing that Hippocrates, 2 
 or any other book, infallibly contains the whole art of 
 physic ; would not the direct way be to study, read, and 
 consider that book, weigh and compare the parts of it to 
 find the truth, rather than espouse the doctrines of any 
 party ? who, though they acknowledge his authority, have 
 already interpreted and wire-drawn all his text to their 
 own sense ; the tincture whereof when I have imbibed, I 
 am more in danger to misunderstand his true meaning, 
 than if I had come to him with a mind unprepossessed by 
 doctors and commentators of my sect ; whose reasonings, 
 interpretation, and language which I have been used to, 
 will of course make all chime that way, and make another, 
 and perhaps the genuine, meaning of the author seem 
 harsh, strained, and uncouth to me. For words having 
 naturally none of their own, carry that signification to 
 the hearer that he is used to put upon them, whatever be 
 the sense of him that uses them. This, I think, is visibly 
 so ; and if it be, he that begins to have any doubt of any 
 of his tenets, which he received without examination, 
 ought as much as he can, to put himself wholly inta this 
 state of ignorance in reference to that question ; and 
 throwing wholly by all his former notions, and the opinions 
 
 1 Edition of 1706: the 1812 edition reads, " difference." 
 
 2 Hippocrates, a great Greek physician of the fifth century B.C. 
 It is probable that by the " other book " Locke means the Bible.
 
 36. QUESTION 37. PEESEVERANCE 247 
 
 of others, examine, with a perfect indifferency, the ques- 
 tion in its source, without any inclination to either side 
 or any regard to his or others' unexamined opinions. 
 This I own is no easy thing to do ; but I am not inquiring 
 the easy way to opinion, but the right way to truth, 
 which they must follow who will deal fairly with their 
 own understandings and their own souls. 
 
 36. Question. The indifferency that I here propose will 
 also enable them to state the question right which they 
 are in doubt about, without which they can never come 
 to a fair and clear decision of it. 
 
 37. Perseverance. Another fruit from this indifferency, 
 and the considering things in themselves abstract 1 from 
 our own opinions and other men's notions and discourses 
 on them, will be, that each man will pursue his thoughts 
 in that method which will be most agreeable to the nature 
 of the thing, and to his apprehension of what it suggests 
 to him, in which he ought to proceed with regularity and 
 constancy, until he come to a well-grounded resolution 
 wherein he may acquiesce. If it be objected that this 
 will require every man to be a scholar, and quit all his 
 other business and betake himself wholly to study, I 
 answer, I propose no more to any one than he has time 
 for. Some men's state and condition require no great 
 extent of knowledge ; the necessary provision for life 
 swallows the greatest part of their time. But one man's 
 want of leisure is no excuse for the oscitancy 2 and ignor- 
 ance of those who have time to spare ; and every one has 
 enough to get as much knowledge as is required and 
 expected of him, and he that does not that, is in love with 
 ignorance, and is accountable for it. 
 
 38. Presumption. The variety of distempers in men's 
 minds is as great as of those in their bodies ; some are 
 epidemic, few escape them ; and every one too, if he 
 would look into himself, would find some defect of his 
 particular genius. There is scarce any one without some 
 idiosyncrasy that he suffers by. This man presumes 
 upon his parts, that they will not fail him at time of need ; 
 
 1 I.e., abstracted. a Yawning.
 
 248 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 and so thinks it superfluous labour to make any provision 
 beforehand. His understanding is to him like Fortu- 
 natus's purse, 1 which is always to furnish him, without 
 ever putting anything into it beforehand ; and so he sits 
 still satisfied, without endeavouring to store his under- 
 standing with knowledge. It is the spontaneous product 
 of the country, and what need of labour in tillage ? Such 
 men may spread their native riches before the ignorant ; 
 but they were best not come to stress and trial with the 
 skilful. We are born ignorant of everything. The 
 superficies of things that surround them make impressions 
 on the negligent, but nobody penetrates into the inside 
 without labour, attention, and industry. Stones and 
 timber grow of themselves, but yet there is no uniform 
 pile with symmetry and convenience to lodge in without 
 toil and pains. God has made the intellectual world 
 harmonious and beautiful without us ; but it will never 
 come into our heads all at once ; we must bring it home 
 piecemeal, and there set it up by our own industry, or else 
 we shall have nothing but darkness and a chaos within, 
 whatever order and light there be in things without us. 
 
 39. Despondency. On the other side, there are others 
 that depress their own minds, despond at the first diffi- 
 culty, and conclude that the getting an insight in any of 
 the sciences, or making any progress in knowledge farther 
 than serves their ordinary business, is above their capaci- 
 ties. These sit still, because they think they have not 
 legs to go ; as the others I last mentioned do, because 
 they think they have wings to fly, and can soar on high 
 when they please. To these latter one may for answer 
 apply the proverb, " Use legs and have legs." Nobody 
 knows what strength of parts he has till he has tried them. 
 And of the understanding one may most truly say, that 
 its force is greater generally than it thinks, till it is put 
 to it. " Viresque acquirit eundo." 2 
 
 And therefore the proper remedy here is but to set the 
 
 1 Fortune at his request gave Fortunatus an inexhaustible purse, 
 which proved his ruin. 
 
 2 " And it gathers strength in the going" (MnziA, iv. 175). On 
 this section, cf. Thoughts, sec. 195.
 
 39. DESPONDENCY 249 
 
 mind to work, and apply the thoughts vigorously to the 
 business ; for it holds in the struggles of the mind as in 
 those of war, " dum putant se vincere vicere." 1 A per- 
 suasion that we shall overcome any difficulties that we 
 meet with in the sciences seldom fails to carry us through 
 them. Nobody knows the strength of his mind, and the 
 force of steady and regular application, till he has tried. 
 This is certain, he that sets out upon weak legs, will not 
 only go farther, but grow stronger too than one who, with 
 a vigorous constitution and firm limbs, only sits still. 
 
 Something of kin to this men may observe in themselves, 
 when the mind frights itself (as it often does) with any- 
 thing reflected on in gross, and transiently viewed con- 
 fusedly and at a distance. Things thus offered to the 
 mind carry the show of nothing but difficulty in them, 
 and are thought to be wrapt up in impenetrable obscurity. 
 But the truth is, these are nothing but spectres that the 
 understanding raises to itself to flatter its own laziness. 
 It sees nothing distinctly in things remote and in a huddle ; 
 and therefore concludes too faintly, that there is nothing 
 more clear to be discovered in them. It is but to ap- 
 proach nearer, and that mist of our own raising that 
 enveloped them will remove ; and those that in that mist 
 appeared hideous giants not to be grappled with, will be 
 found to be of the ordinary and natural size and shape. 
 Things that in a remote and confused view seem very 
 obscure, must be approached by gentle and regular steps ; 
 and what is most visible, easy, and obvious in them first 
 considered. Eeduce them into their distinct parts ; and 
 then in their due order bring all that should be known 
 concerning every one of those parts into plain and simple 
 questions ; and then what was thought obscure, per- 
 plexed, and too hard for our weak parts, will lay itself 
 open to the understanding in a fair view, and let the 
 mind into that which before 2 it was awed with, and kept 
 at a distance from, as wholly mysterious. I appeal to 
 
 1 " They conquered as long as they believed they were conquer- 
 ing," (Liv., ii. 64). 
 
 2 Previously.
 
 250 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 my reader's experience, whether this has never happened 
 to him, especially when, busy on one thing, he has occa- 
 sionally reflected on another. I ask him whether he has 
 never thus been scared with a sudden opinion of mighty 
 difficulties, which yet have vanished, when he has seriously 
 and methodically applied himself to the consideration 
 of this seeming terrible subject ; and there has been no 
 other matter of astonishment left, but that he amused 
 himself with so discouraging a prospect of his own raising, 
 about a matter which in the handling was found to have 
 nothing in it more strange nor intricate than several 
 other things which he had long since, and with ease, 
 mastered. This experience would teach us how to deal 
 with such bugbears another time, which should rather 
 serve to excite our vigour than enervate our industry. 
 The surest way for a learner in this, as in all other cases, 
 is not to advance by jumps and large strides ; let that 
 which he sets himself to learn next be indeed the next, 
 i.e., as nearly conjoined with what he knows already as 
 is possible ; let it be distinct, but not remote from it ; let 
 it be new, and what he did not know before, that the 
 understanding may advance ; but let it be as little at once 
 as may be, that its advances may be clear and sure. 1 All 
 the ground that it gets this way it will hold. This distinct 
 gradual growth in knowledge is firm and sure ; it carries 
 its own light with it in every step of its progression in 
 an easy and orderly train ; 2 than which there is nothing 
 of more use to the understanding. And though this 
 perhaps may seem a very slow and lingering way to 
 knowledge, yet I dare confidently affirm, that whoever 
 will try it in himself, or any one he will teach, shall find 
 the advances greater in this method, than they would in 
 the same space of time have been in any other he could 
 have taken. The greatest part of true knowledge lies in 
 a distinct perception of things in themselves distinct. 
 And some men give more clear light and knowledge by 
 the bare distinct stating of a question, than others by 
 talking of it in gross, whole hours together. In this, they 
 1 See Thoughts, sec. 180. 2 Sequence.
 
 39. DESPONDENCY 40. ANALOGY 251 
 
 who so state a question, do no more but separate and dis- 
 entangle the parts of it one from another, and lay them, 
 when so disentangled, in their due order. This often, 
 without any more ado, resolves the doubt, and shows the 
 mind where the truth lies. The agreement or disagree- 
 ment of the ideas in question, when they are once separated 
 and distinctly considered, is, in many cases, presently 
 perceived, and thereby clear and lasting knowledge 
 gained, 1 whereas things in gross taken up together, and 
 so lying together in confusion, can produce in the mind 
 but a confused, which in effect is no, knowledge ; or at 
 least, when it comes to be examined and made use of, will 
 prove little better than none. I therefore take the liberty 
 to repeat here again what I have said elsewhere, 2 that in 
 learning anything, as little should be proposed to the 
 mind at once as is possible ; and, that being understood 
 and fully mastered, to proceed to the next adjoining part, 
 yet unknown, simple, unperplexed proposition, belonging 
 to the matter in hand, and tending to the clearing what is 
 principally designed. 3 
 
 40. Analogy. 4 Analogy is of great use to the mind in 
 many cases, especially in natural philosophy ; and that 
 part of it chiefly which consists in happy and successful 
 experiments. But here we must take care that we keep 
 ourselves within that wherein the analogy consists. For 
 example : the acid oil of vitriol is found to be good in such 
 a case, therefore the spirit of nitre or vinegar may be 
 used in the like case. If the good effect of it be owing 
 wholly to the acidity of it, the trial may be justified ; 
 
 1 Cf. Thoughts, sec. 195, at close. 
 
 2 See sec. 28, and Thoughts, sees. 167, 180, 195. 
 
 3 Save for differences of punctuation, this is the reading of the 
 editions of 1706 and 1714. The following emendation is suggested : 
 " and, that being understood and fully mastered, to proceed to the 
 next adjoining part yet unknown ; [to state] what is belonging to 
 the matter in hand as simple, unperplexed proposition [s, and so] 
 tending to clear it, [is] what is principally designed." The reader 
 will remember that the Conduct is a posthumous work. 
 
 4 Analogy ( dvaXoyia, proportion) is an inference from resemblance, 
 or partial identity: A and B are alike in possessing the qualities 
 :, y, z ; A has the quality I and, by analogy, B also has it.
 
 252 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 but if there be something else besides the acidity in the 
 oil of vitriol, which produces the good we desire in the 
 case, we mistake that for analogy which is not, and suffer 
 our understanding to be misguided by a wrong supposition 
 of analogy where there is none. 
 
 41. Association. Though I have, in the second book of 
 my Essay concerning Human Understanding, 1 treated 
 of the association of ideas ; yet having done it there 
 historically, as giving a view of the understanding in this 
 as well as its several other ways of operating, rather 
 than designing there to inquire into the remedies that 
 ought to be applied to it ; it will, under this latter con- 
 sideration, afford other matter of thought to those who 
 have a mind to instruct themselves thoroughly in the right 
 way of conducting their understandings : and that the 
 rather, because this, if I mistake not, is as frequent a 
 cause of mistake and error in us as perhaps anything else 
 that can be named ; and is a disease of the mind as hard 
 to be cured as any, it being a very hard thing to convince 
 any one that things are not so, and naturally so, as they 
 constantly appear to him. 
 
 By this one easy and unheeded miscarriage of the under- 
 standing, sandy and loose foundations become infallible 
 principles, and will not suffer themselves to be touched or 
 questioned ; such unnatural connexions become by custom 
 as natural to the mind as [that] sun and light, fire and 
 warmth go together, and so seem to carry with them as 
 natural an evidence as self-evident truths themselves. 
 And where then shall one with hopes of success begin 
 the cure ? Many men firmly embrace falsehood for truth ; 
 not only because they never thought otherwise, but also 
 because, thus blinded as they have been from the begin- 
 ning, they never could think otherwise ; at least without 
 a vigour of mind able to contest the empire of habit, and 
 look into its own principles ; a freedom which few men 
 have the notion of in themselves, and fewer are allowed 
 the practice of by others ; it being the great art and busi- 
 ness of the teachers and guides in most sects to suppress, 
 1 Chap, xxxiii.
 
 41. ASSOCIATION 253 
 
 as much as they can, this fundamental duty which every 
 man owes himself, and is the first steady step towards 
 right and truth in the whole train of his actions and 
 opinions. This would give one reason to suspect, that 
 such teachers are conscious to themselves of the falsehood 
 or weakness of the tenets they profess, since they will 
 not suffer the grounds whereon they are built to be 
 examined ; whereas those who seek truth only, and 
 desire to own and propagate nothing else, freely expose 
 their principles to the test ; are pleased to have them 
 examined; give men leave to reject them if they can; 
 and if there be anything weak and unsound in them, are 
 willing to have it detected, that they themselves, as well 
 as others, may not lay any stress upon any received 
 proposition beyond what the evidence of its truths will 
 warrant and allow. 
 
 There is, I know, a great fault among all sorts of people 
 of principling their children and scholars ; which at least, 
 when looked into, amounts to no more but making them 
 imbibe their teacher's notions and tenets by an implicit 
 faith, and firmly to adhere to them whether true or false. 
 What colours may be given to this, or of what use it may 
 be when practised upon the vulgar, destined to labour, 
 and given up to the service of their bellies, I will not here 
 inquire. But as to the ingenuous part of mankind, 
 whose condition allows them leisure, and letters, and in- 
 quiry after truth, I can see no other right way of prin- 
 cipling them, but to take heed, as much as may be, that 
 in their tender years, ideas that have no natural cohesion 
 come not to be united in their heads ; and that this rule 
 be often inculcated to them to be their guide in the whole 
 course of their lives and studies, viz., that they never 
 suffer any ideas to be joined in their understandings in 
 any other or stronger combination than what their own 
 nature 1 and correspondence give them ; and that they 
 often examine those that they find linked together in 
 their minds, whether this association of ideas be from the 
 visible agreement that is in the ideas themselves, or from 
 1 I.e., the nature of the ideas.
 
 254 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 the habitual and prevailing custom of the mind joining 
 them thus together in thinking. 
 
 This is for caution against this evil, before it be thor- 
 oughly riveted by custom in the understanding ; but he 
 that would cure it when habit has established it, must 
 nicely observe the very quick and almost imperceptible 
 motions of the mind in its habitual actions. What I 
 have said in another place 1 about the change of the ideas of 
 sense into those of judgment may be proof of this. Let 
 any one, not skilled in painting, be told when he sees 
 bottles and tobacco-pipes, and other things so painted, 
 as they are in some places shown, that he does not see 
 protuberances, and you will not convince him but by the 
 touch ; he will not believe that by an instantaneous 
 legerdemain of his own thoughts, one idea is substituted 
 for another. How frequent instances may one meet with 
 of this in the arguings of the learned, who not seldom, 
 in two ideas that they have been accustomed to join in 
 their minds, substitute one for the other ; and I am apt 
 to think, often without perceiving it themselves ! This, 
 whilst they are under the deceit of it, makes them incapable 
 of conviction, and they applaud themselves as zealous 
 champions for truth, when indeed they are contending 
 for error. And the confusion of two different ideas, 
 which a customary connexion of them in their minds 
 hath made to them almost one, fills their head with false 
 views, and their reasonings with false consequences. 
 
 42. Fallacies. Right understanding consists in the dis- 
 covery and adherence to truth, and that in the perception 
 of the visible or probable agreement or disagreement of 
 ideas, as they are affirmed and denied one of another. 
 From whence it is evident, that the right use and conduct 
 of the understanding, whose business is purely truth and 
 nothing else, is, that the mind should be kept in a perfect 
 indifferency, not inclining to either side, any farther 
 than evidence settles it by knowledge, or the over-balance 
 
 1 Essay, ii., chap. ix. : " We are farther to consider concerning per- 
 ception, that the ideas we received by sensation are often by grown 
 people altered by the judgment without our taking notice of it," etc.
 
 42. FALLACIES 255 
 
 of probability gives it the turn of assent and belief ; but 
 yet it is very hard to meet with any discourse wherein 
 one may not perceive the author not only maintain (for 
 that is reasonable and fit) but inclined and biassed to one 
 side of the question, with marks of a desire that that 
 should be true. If it be asked me, how authors who have 
 such a bias and lean to it may be discovered ; I answer, 
 by observing how in their writings or arguings they are 
 often led by their inclinations to change the ideas of the 
 question, either by changing the terms, or by adding and 
 joining others to them, whereby the ideas under considera- 
 tion are so varied as to be more serviceable to their 
 purpose, and to be thereby brought to an easier and nearer 
 agreement, or more visible and remoter disagreement one 
 with another. This is plain and direct sophistry ; but I 
 am far from thinking that wherever it is found it is made 
 use of with design to deceive and mislead the readers. 
 It is visible that men's prejudices and inclinations by this 
 way impose often upon themselves ; and their affection 
 for truth, under their prepossession in favour of one side, 
 is the very thing that leads them from it. Inclination 
 suggests and slides into their discourse favourable terms, 
 which introduce favourable ideas ; till at last by this 
 means that is concluded clear and evident, thus dressed 
 up, which, taken in its native state, by making use of 
 none but the precise determined ideas, would find no 
 admittance at all. The putting these glosses on what 
 they affirm, these, as they are thought, handsome, easy, 
 and graceful explications of what they are discoursing 
 on, is so much the character of what is called and esteemed 
 writing well, that it is very hard to think that authors 
 will ever be persuaded to leave what serves so well to 
 propagate their opinions, and procure themselves credit 
 in the world, for a more jejune and dry way of writing, 
 by keeping to the same terms precisely annexed to the 
 same ideas ; a sour and blunt stiffness tolerable in mathe- 
 maticians only, who force their way, and make truth pre- 
 vailjby irresistible demonstration. 
 
 But yet if authors cannot be prevailed with to quit the
 
 256 CONDUCT OP THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 looser, though more insinuating ways of writing ; if they 
 will not think fit to keep close to truth and instruction 
 by unvaried terms and plain unsophisticated arguments ; 
 yet it concerns readers not to be imposed on by fallacies 
 and the prevailing ways of insinuation. To do this, 1 the 
 surest and most effectual remedy is to fix in the mind 
 the clear and distinct ideas of the question stripped of 
 words ; and so likewise in the train of argumentation, to 
 take up the author's ideas, neglecting his words, observing 
 how they connect or separate those in question. He 
 that does this will be able to cast off all that is superfluous ; 
 he will see what is pertinent, what coherent, what is 
 direct to, what slides by the question. This will readily 
 show him all the foreign ideas in the discourse, and where 
 they were brought in ; and though they perhaps dazzled 
 the writer, yet he will perceive that they give no light nor 
 strength to his reasonings. 
 
 This, though it be the shortest and easiest way of 
 reading 2 books with profit, and keeping one's self from 
 being misled by great names or plausible discourses ; yet 
 it being hard and tedious to those who have not accus- 
 tomed themselves to it, it is not to be expected that every 
 one (amongst those few who really pursue truth) should 
 this way guard his understanding from being imposed on 
 by the wilful, or at least undesigned sophistry, which 
 creeps into most of the books of argument. They that 
 write against their conviction, or that, next to them, are 
 resolved to maintain the tenets of a party they were 
 engaged in, cannot be supposed to reject any arms that 
 may help to defend their cause, and therefore such should 
 be read with the greatest caution. And they who write 
 for opinions they are sincerely persuaded of and believe 
 to be true, think they may so far allow themselves to 
 indulge their laudable affection to truth, as to permit 
 their esteem of it to give it the best colours, and set it 
 off with the best expressions and dress they can, thereby 
 to gain it the easiest entrance into the minds of their 
 readers, and fix it deepest there. 
 
 1 I.e., to prevent this imposition. 2 See sec, 20.
 
 42. FALLACIES 43. FUNDAMENTAL VERITIES 251 
 
 One of those being the state of mind we may justly 
 suppose most writers to be in, it is fit their readers, who 
 apply to them for instruction, should not lay by that 
 caution which becomes a sincere pursuit of truth, and 
 should make them always watchful against whatever 
 might conceal or misrepresent it. If they have not the 
 skill of representing to themselves the author's sense by 
 pure ideas separated from sounds, and thereby divested 
 of the false lights 1 and deceitful ornaments of speech ; 
 this yet they should do, they should keep the precise 
 question steadily in their minds, carry it along with them 
 through the whole discourse, and suffer not the least 
 alteration in the terms, either by addition, subtraction, 
 or substituting any other. This every one can do who 
 has a mind to it ; and he that has not a mind to it, it is 
 plain, makes his understanding only the warehouse of 
 other men's lumber ; I mean false and unconcluding 2 
 reasonings, rather than a repository of truth for his own 
 use, which will prove substantial, and stand him in stead, 
 when he has occasion for it. And whether such an one 
 deals fairly by his own mind, and conducts his own 
 understanding right, I leave to his own understanding to 
 judge. 
 
 43. Fundamental Verities. The mind of man being 
 very narrow, and so slow in making acquaintance with 
 things, and taking in new truths, that no one man is 
 capable, in a much longer life than ours, to know all 
 truths ; it becomes our prudence, in our search after 
 knowledge, to employ our thoughts about fundamental 
 and material questions, carefully avoiding those that are 
 trifling, and not suffering ourselves to be diverted from 
 our main even purpose, by those that are merely incidental. 
 How much of many young men's time is thrown away in 
 purely logical inquiries 3 I need not mention. This is no 
 better than if a man, who was to be a painter, should spend 
 all his time in examining the threads of the several cloths 
 he is to paint upon, and counting the hairs of each pencil 
 
 1 Wreckers' beacons. 2 Inconclusive. 
 
 3 Cf. sees. 7, 31, 44, and Thoughts, sees. 166, 188, 189. 
 
 17
 
 258 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 and brush he intends to use in the laying on of his colours. 
 Nay, it is much worse than for a young painter to spend 
 his apprenticeship in such useless niceties ; for he, at the 
 end of all his pains to no purpose, finds that it is not 
 painting, nor any help to it, and so is really to no purpose ; 
 whereas men designed for scholars have often their heads 
 so filled and warmed with disputes on logical questions, 
 that they take those airy useless notions for real and 
 substantial knowledge, and think their understandings so 
 well furnished with science, that they need not look any 
 farther into the nature of things, or descend to the 
 mechanical drudgery of experiment and inquiry. This is 
 so obvious a mismanagement of the understanding, and 
 that in the professed way to knowledge, that it could not 
 be passed by ; to which might be joined abundance of 
 questions, and the way of handling of them in the schools. 1 
 What faults in particular of this kind every man is or 
 may be guilty of would be infinite to enumerate ; it suffices 
 to have shown that superficial and slight discoveries, and 
 observations that contain nothing of moment in them- 
 selves, nor serve as clues to lead us into farther knowledge, 
 should not be thought worth our searching after. 
 
 There are fundamental truths that lie at the bottom, 
 the basis upon which a great many others rest, and in 
 which they have their consistency. These are teeming 
 truths, rich in store, with which they furnish the mind, 
 and, like the lights of heaven, are not only beautiful and 
 entertaining in themselves, but give light and evidence 
 to other things, that without them could not be seen or 
 known. Such is that admirable discovery 2 of Mr. Newton, 
 that all bodies gravitate to one another, which may be 
 counted as the basis of natural philosophy ; which, of what 
 use it is to the understanding of the great frame of our 
 solar system, he has to the astonishment of the learned 
 world shown ; and how much farther it would guide us 
 in other things, if rightly pursued, is not yet known. 
 
 1 I.e., in the formal exercises of the universities. An examina- 
 tion or course of study is still termed a " school " at Oxford. 
 
 2 First made public in his Principia, 1687.
 
 43. FUNDAMENTAL VERITIES 44. BOTTOMING 259 
 
 Our Saviour's great rule, that " we should love our neigh- 
 bour as ourselves," is such a fundamental truth for the 
 regulating human society, that I think by that alone one 
 might without difficulty determine all the cases and 
 doubts in social morality. 1 These and such as these are 
 the truths we should endeavour to find out, and store our 
 minds with. Which leads me to another thing in the 
 conduct of the understanding that is no less necessary, viz. : 
 
 44. Bottoming. To accustom ourselves, in any question 
 proposed, to examine and find out upon what it bottoms. 
 Most of the difficulties that come in our way, when well 
 considered and traced, lead us to some proposition, 
 which, known to be true, clears the doubt, and gives an 
 easy solution of the question ; whilst topical and superficial 
 arguments, of which there is store to be found on both 
 sides, filling the head with variety of thoughts, and the 
 mouth with copious discourse, serve only to amuse the 
 understanding, and entertain company, without coming 
 to the bottom of the question, the only place of rest and 
 stability for an inquisitive mind, whose tendency is only 
 to truth and knowledge. 
 
 For example, if it be demanded whether the grand 
 seignior 2 can lawfully take what he will from any of his 
 people ? This question cannot be resolved without 
 coming to a certainty whether all men are naturally equal, 
 for upon that it turns ; and that truth well settled in the 
 understanding, and carried in the mind through the 
 various debates concerning the various rights of men in 
 society, will go a great way in putting an end to them, 
 and snowing on which side the truth is. 
 
 45. Transferring of Thoughts. There is scarcely any- 
 thing more for the improvement of knowledge, for the 
 ease of life, and the despatch of business, than for a man 
 to be able to dispose of his own thoughts ; and there is 
 
 1 " I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will 
 that my maxim should become a universal law " (Kant). 
 
 2 The Turkish Sultan. In 1690, Locke (Two Treatises of Govern- 
 ment) had maintained that man is born with a title to perfect free- 
 dom and uncontrolled enjoyment of all the rights and privileges 
 of the law of nature.
 
 260 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 scarcely anything harder in the whole conduct of the 
 understanding than to get a full mastery over it. The 
 mind, in a waking man, has always some object that it 
 applies itself to ; which, when we are lazy or unconcerned, 
 we can easily change, and at pleasure transfer our thoughts 
 to another, and from thence to a third, which has no 
 relation to either of the former. Hence men forwardly 
 conclude, and frequently say, nothing is so free as thought, 
 and it were well it were so ; but the contrary will be found 
 true in several instances ; and there are many cases 
 wherein there is nothing more resty and ungovernable 
 than our thoughts ; they will not be directed what objects 
 to pursue, nor be taken off from those they have once 
 fixed on, but run away with a man in the pursuit of those 
 ideas they have in view, let him do what he can. 
 
 I will not here mention again what I have above taken 
 notice of, how hard it is to get the mind, narrowed by a 
 custom of thirty or forty years' standing to a scanty 
 collection of obvious and common ideas, to enlarge itself 
 to a more copious stock, and grow into an acquaintance 
 with those that would afford more abundant matter of 
 useful contemplation ; it is not of this I am here speaking. 
 The inconveniency I would here represent, and find a 
 remedy for, is the difficulty there is sometimes to transfer 
 our minds from one subject to another, in cases where the 
 ideas are equally familiar to us. 
 
 Matters that are recommended to our thoughts by any 
 of our passions, take possession of our minds with a kind 
 of authority, and will not be kept out or dislodged ; but 
 as if the passion that rules were for the time the sheriff 
 of the place, and came with all the posse, 1 the under- 
 standing is seized and taken with the object it introduces, 
 as if it had a legal right to be alone considered there. 
 There is scarce anybody I think of so calm a temper who 
 hath not some time found this tyranny on his under- 
 standing, and suffered under the inconvenience of it. 
 
 1 The " posse comitatus," or body of persons summoned by the 
 sheriff of the county (comitatus) to help him in maintaining order 
 and securing obedience to the King's writ.
 
 45. TRANSFERRING OF THOUGHTS 261 
 
 Who is there almost whose mind, at some time or other, 
 love or anger, fear or grief, has not so fastened to some 
 clog that it could not turn itself to any other object ? I 
 call it a clog, for it hangs upon the mind so as to hinder 
 its vigour and activity in the pursuit of other contem- 
 plations ; and advances itself little or not at all in the 
 knowledge of the thing which it so closely hugs and 
 constantly pores on. Men thus possessed are sometimes 
 as if they were so in the worse sense, and lay under the 
 power of an enchantment. They see not what passes 
 before their eyes, hear not the audible discourse of the 
 company, and when by any strong application to them 
 they are roused a little, they are like men brought to 
 themselves from some remote region ; whereas in truth 
 they come no farther than their secret cabinet within, 
 where they have been wholly taken up with the puppet, 
 which is for that time appointed for their entertainment. 
 The shame that such dumps cause to well-bred people, 
 when it carries them away from the company, where 
 they should bear a part in the conversation, is a sufficient 
 argument that it is a fault in the conduct of our under- 
 standing not to have that power over it as to make use of 
 it to those purposes and on those occasions wherein we 
 have need of its assistance. The mind should be always 
 free and ready to turn itself to the variety of objects 
 that occur, and allow them as much consideration as shall 
 for that time be thought fit. To be engrossed so by one 
 object as not to be prevailed on to leave it for another 
 that we judge fitter for our contemplation, is to make 
 it of no use to us. Did this state of mind remain always 
 so, every one would, without scruple, give it the name of 
 perfect madness ; and whilst it does last, at whatever 
 intervals it returns, such a rotation of thoughts about the 
 same object no more carries us forward towards the attain- 
 ment of knowledge, than getting upon a mill-horse whilst he 
 jogs on in his circular track would carry a man a journey. 
 I grant something must be allowed to legitimate passions 
 and to natural inclinations. Every man, besides occa- 
 sional affections, has beloved studies, and those the mind
 
 262 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 will more closely stick to ; but yet it is best that it should 
 be always at liberty, and under the free disposal of the 
 man, and to act how and upon what he directs. This 
 we should endeavour to obtain unless we would be content 
 with such a flaw in our understanding, that sometimes we 
 should be, as it were, without it ; l for it is very little better 
 than so in cases where we cannot make use of it to those 
 purposes we would, and which stand in present need of it. 
 
 But before fit remedies can be thought on for this disease 
 we must know the several causes of it, and thereby regu- 
 late the cure, if we will hope to labour with success. 
 
 One we have already instanced in, whereof all men that 
 reflect have so general a knowledge, and so often an 
 experience in themselves, that nobody doubts of it. A 
 prevailing passion so pins down our thoughts to the object 
 and concern of it, that a man passionately in love cannot 
 bring himself to think of his ordinary affairs, or a kind 
 mother, drooping under the loss of a child, is not able to 
 bear a part as she was wont in the discourse of the com- 
 pany, or conversation of her friends. 
 
 But though passion be the most obvious and general, 
 yet it is not the only cause that binds up the understand- 
 ing, and confines it for the time to one object, from which 
 it will not be taken off. 
 
 Besides this, we may often find that the understanding, 
 when it has a while employed itself upon a subject which 
 either chance or some slight accident offered to it, without 
 the interest or recommendation of any passion, works itself 
 into a warmth, and by degrees gets into a career, wherein, 
 like a bowl down a hill, it increases its motion by going, 
 and will not be stopped or diverted ; though, when the 
 heat is over, it sees all this earnest application was about 
 a trifle not worth a thought, and all the pains employed 
 about it lost labour. 
 
 There is a third sort, if I mistake not, yet lower than 
 
 this ; it is a sort of childishness, if I may so say, of the 
 
 understanding, wherein, during the fit, it plays with and 
 
 dandles some insignificant puppet to no end, nor with 
 
 1 I.e., our understanding.
 
 45. TRANSFERRING OF THOUGHTS 263 
 
 any design at all, and yet cannot easily be got off from it. 
 Thus some trivial sentence, or a scrap of poetry, will some- 
 times get into men's heads, and make such a chiming 
 there, that there is no stilling of it ; no peace to be ob- 
 tained, nor attention to anything else, but this impertinent 
 guest will take up the mind and possess the thoughts in 
 spite of all endeavours to get rid of it. Whether every 
 one hath experimented 1 in themselves this troublesome 
 intrusion of some frisking ideas which thus importune 
 the understanding, and hinder it from being better em- 
 ployed, I know not. But persons of very good parts, 
 and those more than one, I have heard speak and com- 
 plain of it themselves. The reason I have to make this 
 doubt, is from what I have known in a case something of 
 kin to this, though much odder, and that is of a sort of 
 visions that some people have lying quiet, but perfectly 
 awake, in the dark, or with their eyes shut. It is a great 
 variety of faces, most commonly very odd ones, that 
 appear to them in a train 2 one after another ; so that 
 having had just the sight of the one, it immediately passes 
 away to give place to another, that the same instant suc- 
 ceeds, and has as quick an exit as its leader ; and so they 
 march on in a constant succession ; nor can any one of 
 them by any endeavour be stopped or restrained beyond 
 the instant of its appearance, but is thrust out by its 
 follower, which will have its turn. Concerning this fan- 
 tastical phenomenon I have talked with several people, 
 whereof some have been perfectly acquainted with it, 
 and others have been so wholly strangers to it that they 
 could hardly be brought to conceive or believe it. I 
 knew a lady of excellent parts, who had got past thirty 
 without having ever had the least notice of any such 
 thing ; she was so great a stranger to it, that when she 
 heard me and another talking of it, could scarcely forbear 
 thinking we bantered her ; but some time after, drinking 
 a large dose of dilute tea (as she was ordered by a physi- 
 cian) going to bed, she told us at next meeting, that she 
 had now experimented 1 what our discourse had much ado 
 1 I.e., experienced. 2 I.e., in succession.
 
 264 CONDUCT OF THE UNDERSTANDING 
 
 to persuade her of. She had seen a great variety of faces 
 in a long train, succeeding one another, as we had de- 
 scribed ; they were all strangers and intruders, such as 
 she had no acquaintance with before, nor sought after 
 then ; and as they came of themselves, they went too ; 
 none of them stayed a moment, nor could be detained by 
 all the endeavours she could use, but went on in their 
 solemn procession, just appeared and then vanished. 
 This odd phenomenon seems to have a mechanical cause, 
 and to depend upon the matter and motion of the blood 
 or animal spirits. 1 
 
 When the fancy is bound by passion, I know no way 
 to set the mind free and at liberty to prosecute what 
 thoughts the man would make choice of, but to allay the 
 present passion, or counterbalance it with another ; which 
 is an art to be got by study, and acquaintance with the 
 passions. 
 
 Those who find themselves apt to be carried away with 
 the spontaneous current of their own thoughts, not 
 excited by any passion or interest, must be very wary 
 and careful in all the instances of it to stop it, and never 
 humour their minds in being thus triflingly busy. Men 
 know the value of their corporeal liberty, and therefore 
 suffer not willingly fetters and chains to be put upon them. 
 To have the mind captivated is, for the time, certainly 
 the greater evil of the two, and deserves our utmost care 
 and endeavours to preserve the freedom of our better 
 part. In this case our pains will not be lost ; striving 
 and struggling will prevail, if we constantly on all such 
 occasions make use of it. We must never indulge these 
 trivial attentions of thought ; as soon as we find the mind 
 makes itself a business of nothing, we should immediately 
 disturb and check it, introduce new and more serious 
 considerations, and not leave till we have beaten it off 
 
 1 A reference to the ancient opinion that only the veins contained 
 blood, while the arteries during life were filled with a fluid of extreme 
 tenuity, the " animal spirits." The whole of the preceding para- 
 graph is interesting, as exhibiting Locke's use of the comparative 
 method in the study of psychology.
 
 45. TRANSFERRING OF THOUGHTS 265 
 
 from the pursuit it was upon. This, at first, if we have 
 let the contrary practice grow to an habit, will perhaps 
 be difficult ; but constant endeavours will by degrees 
 prevail, and at last make it easy. And when a man is 
 pretty well advanced, and can command his mind off at 
 pleasure from incidental and undesigned pursuits, it may 
 not be amiss for him to go on farther, and make attempts 
 upon meditations of greater moment, that at the last he 
 may have a full power over his own mind, and be so fully 
 master of his own thoughts as to be able to transfer 
 them from one subject to another, with the same ease that 
 he can lay by anything he has in his hand, and take 
 something else that he has a mind to in the room of it. 
 This liberty of mind is of great use both in business and 
 study, and he that has got it will have no small advantage 
 of ease and despatch in all that is the chosen and useful 
 employment of his understanding. 
 
 The third and last way which I mentioned the mind to 
 be sometimes taken up with, I mean the chiming of some 
 particular words or sentence in the memory, and, as it 
 were, making a noise in the head, and the like, seldom 
 happens but when the mind is lazy, or very loosely and 
 negligently employed. It were better indeed to be without 
 such impertinent and useless repetitions : any obvious 
 idea, when it is roving carelessly at a venture, being of 
 more use, and apter to suggest something worth con- 
 sideration, than the insignificant buzz of purely empty 
 sounds. But since the rousing of the mind, and setting 
 the understanding on work with some degree of vigour, 
 does for the most part presently set it free from these 
 idle companions, it may not be amiss whenever we find 
 ourselves troubled with them, to make use of so profitable 
 a remedy that is always at hand.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ABSTINENCE, 27, 36 
 
 Academic Francaise, 157 n. 
 
 Academies, the, 4 
 
 Academies (learned societies), 159 n. 
 
 Acapulco, 186 
 
 Accomplishments, 168 
 
 Accounts, merchants', 173 
 
 ALsop, 119/., 128, 146, 155 
 
 " Age of Reason," 11 
 
 Air. 26, 28 
 
 Alchemist, 215/. 
 
 Algebra, 16, 200 
 
 Allegory, 240 
 
 America, 183 
 
 Amusement as educational prin 
 
 ciple, 14/. 
 Analogy, 251 
 Anatomy, 127, 138 
 Ancient v. modern, 222 /. 
 Angels, 185 
 Anticipation, 230 
 Apparitions. 160 
 Appetite, 28, 30, 38, 39, 101 
 Archimedes, 228 
 Argument, 199, 211 /. 
 
 verbal, 213 
 Arithmetic, 69, 147 
 Assent, 240 /., 243 /. 
 Association, 252 /f. 
 Astronomy. 127/138, 148, 220 
 Athens, 183 
 Attention, 18, 130 /., 217, 232, 
 
 235 /., 248 
 
 " Aufklarung," the, 10 
 Authority, 8, 32 f., 43, 45, 68, 82, 
 
 184, 207, 217. 225 f., 233 
 Aversion, 101, 170 
 Awe, 32 /., 78, 131, 133 
 Axioms, middle, 219 
 
 Bacon, 2, 10, 182 
 
 Basedow, 15./f. 
 
 Beast, the many-headed, 224 
 
 Beating, 34, 36 f., 40, 42, 61, 63, 
 
 66. 69/., 88, 131 
 Bias, 21 Of., 255 
 Bible, 121/., 151, 159/. 
 Blame, 43 
 Bodies, 159 
 
 Bookish men, 211, 225 
 Book-keeping, 173 
 Books, 217 /., 225 /. 
 Bottoming, 259 
 Boyle, 162 
 
 Breaking the mind, 37 
 Breeding, 74. /f.. 105. 110, 179 
 Breviarium Chronologicum, 150 
 Brow-beating, 33 
 Burgersdicius, 76 
 Busby, 2 
 
 Caithness, Lady, 3 
 
 Cambridge, 4 
 
 Capacities, 248 
 
 Cards, 171 /. 
 
 Carmarthen, Marquis of, 54 n. 
 
 Cartesian, 74 
 
 Castalio, 72 
 
 Catechism, 122 
 
 Chameleon minds, 231 
 
 Charity schools, 19 
 
 "Chemical Club," the Oxford, 
 
 220 n. 
 
 Chemistry, 220, 222 
 Chemists (in medicine), 246 
 Chicaner. 189 
 Chiding, 36, 42, 45, 60 
 Child and his Hook, The, 121 n. 
 Childishness, 43 
 
 266
 
 INDEX 
 
 267 
 
 Children, "tame," 37 
 
 should be studied, 46, 116 
 
 Children's fears, 106 /. 
 questions, 94 ff. 
 
 Chillingworth, 17^ 153 
 
 Chronology, 12. 127, 149, 151 
 
 Civil Law, 151 
 
 Clarke, Edward, 13, 21 
 
 Clownishness, 47 
 
 Coffee-house gleaner, the, 188 
 
 Commandments, the Ten, 120 
 
 Commendation, 40/., 43. 47, 168 
 
 Company, 48/., 113, 261 
 
 Complaints, 86 
 
 Composition, 155 
 
 Compulsion as educational prin- 
 ciple, 15, 59, 100 ff., 116 ff., 170 
 
 Condillac, 10 
 
 Cmuhust of the Understanding, Of 
 the, 4, 12, 13. 19, 75 n., 181 ff. ' 
 
 Conversation, 50/., 261 
 
 Copernican system, the, 148 
 
 Corpuscularians, 162, 234 n. 
 
 Coste, Pierre, 13 
 
 Countryman, the, 195 
 
 Courage, 53, 115 
 
 Court, the, 191 
 
 Courtesy, the doctrine of, 4, 24 n., 
 74 
 
 Craving, 31. 84 
 
 Credit, 40/., 47, 168 
 
 Credulity, 207 
 
 Creed, The, 120 
 
 Criticism, 225 
 
 Cruelty, 90 ff. 
 
 Crying, 87 /. 
 
 Cudworth, 17, 162 
 
 Cunnine;, 109 
 
 Curiosity. 85, 93 /. 
 
 Curriculum, 1 ff , 5, 14 f. 
 
 Custom, 29, 31, 206, 213, 218, 252, 
 260 
 
 MXincing, 5, 16. 38, 47 69, 165 
 
 master, 190 
 De Inventione, 155 
 Deism, 9 
 Dejected, 35 
 Democritus, 162 n. 
 Demonstration, 198 /., 213 
 Djsaguliers (Course of Experimm'al 
 Philosophy), 228 n. 
 
 Descartes, 1, 10, 161, 162 n. 
 Desire, 30/., 38/., 41 
 Despondency, 248 ff. 
 Dessau Philanthropinum, 16 
 Desultory. 214 
 Dibstones, 118 
 Dice, 117 ff., 172 
 Discipline, 32, 34, 37 
 
 of consequences, 38/., 47 
 Disgrace, 40 /. 
 D spleasure, 42 
 Disposition, 57. 191 
 Disputation, 154, 199, 237 ff., 212, 
 
 258 
 
 Distinction, 164, 236 ff. 
 Division, 236, 239 
 Dogmas, 208 
 
 Dogmatists (in medicine), 246 
 Dominion, b3/. 
 Don Quixote, 18 
 Drawing, 69, 124 
 Drinking, 172 
 Duelling, 167 /. 
 Dumps, 261 
 
 ^"Education, 18, 25, 28, 34 ff., 40, 
 
 49/., 183, 198, 203,216 
 aim of, 35 
 faults in, 23, 28 ff., 32, 38/1, 
 
 44 
 
 in sixteenth century, 152 n. 
 popular, 18/. 
 public r. private, 49./f. 
 Employment, ripe for, 152 
 Endowment, mental, 183, 190, 198, 
 
 202 
 
 English, 146 n., 157 
 Enylish Grammar Schools, The, 
 
 126 n. 
 
 English law, 152 
 literature, 17 
 style, 140, 153 
 Epicurus, 162 n 
 Equality of all men, 259 
 Equivocal terms, 237 ff. 
 Error, 210, 235, 242. '244/. 
 Essay concerning Human Under- 
 standing, 6, 9, 10, 12, 252 
 Essay on the 'leasonablencss of 
 
 Christianity. 9 
 Esteem, 38, 40 f., 47 
 Ethics, 151
 
 268 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Eton, 2 
 
 Euclid, 149, 228 
 Eutropius, 133, 146, 151 
 Evidence, 241, 243/. 
 Examine, 206 ff., 244 /., 253, 259 
 Example, 46, 48, 55, 65 
 Exchange, The, 191 
 Excuses, 103 
 
 , Experience 6/., 11, 41, 107 
 Experiment, 225 
 
 Facts, 225, 227 
 
 Faculties, 181, 183 ff., 191, 195, 
 
 203, 212, 230 ff., 232 n., 243 
 Fallacy, 242, 264/1 
 Familiarity, 78/'. 
 Fancy, "the court-dresser," 242 
 Farnaby's Rhetoric, 157 
 Fear, 33/., 39, 47 
 Fencing, 69, 166/. 
 Finery, 30, 38 
 Foreign languages, 158 
 Formal training, 192, 196, 231, 
 
 232 n. See Habit 
 Fortunatus, 248 
 Foundations, 192 A, 197, 205, 209, 
 
 212, 226, 229, 252, 258 
 French, 69, 124, 127, 138 
 
 peasantry, 202 
 Frippery, 214 
 Froebel, 15 
 Fundamental verities, 257. /f. 
 
 Games, 102, 118 
 
 "Gamesome humour," 44 
 
 Gardening, 169/. 
 
 General conclusions, 210, 225, 229 
 
 Gentleman, the country, 170, 187/. 
 
 not scholar, 163 
 Gentleman's calling, the, 24 n., 75, 
 
 170 
 
 Geographer. 189 
 
 Geography, 1, 12, 127, 138, 146 /. 
 Geometry, 149 
 Girls' education, 18, 26 f. 
 Globe, the, 146 ff. 
 Goblins, 106 /., 160 
 God, 105, 159 /., 211, 221, 223, 248 
 Goshen, 185 
 Governesses, 18, 46 
 Government, Two Treatises of, 259 n 
 Governor, 7l/., 177 
 
 Grammar, 2, 38, 130, 134 /., 153 
 
 schools, 69, 142, 144 
 Grand Seignior, 259 
 Graving. 173, 194 
 Gravitation, 161, 258 
 Great horse, the, 166 
 Greek, 2, 16, 50, 69, 74, 114, 136 /., 
 
 142, 157 /., 163, 222 
 Grotius, 151, 152 n. 
 Grown men, 197 /., 200 
 
 Habit, 29, 34, 44 f., 190/. 
 Handwork, 5, 16, 169 /., 190, 
 
 196 
 
 Happiness, 38 
 Haste, 212 ff., 219, 228 /. 
 Health, 25/., 38, 169 
 Hebrew, 2 
 Hedger, 191 
 Helvicus (Helwig), 150 
 Heresy, 244 
 Heterodox opinion, 223 
 Hippocrates, 246 
 History, 1, 5, 12, 92, 127, 149 ff., 
 
 209 /., 225 
 
 History of the Royal Society, 1 
 Hope, 39 
 Hopkins, 114 n. 
 Horace, 151, 222 
 Horn-book, 121 
 Hume, 10 
 
 Ideas, 182, 192, 203, 234, 251, 254 
 abstract, 203, 234, 237 
 association of, 252 
 clear and distinct, 165, 192, 
 
 200, 233//'., 237 ff., 256 f. 
 determined, 184, 189, 192, 212, 
 
 234, 237 ff., 255 
 frisking, 263, 265 
 innate, 6 
 
 intermediate, 184 
 of sense (percepts), 254 
 train of, 235, 256, 263 
 
 Idleness, 97 ff., 173 
 
 Ignorance, 210, 220, 234 f., 245, 
 248 
 
 Imitation, 43 
 
 Impartiality, 184. See Indifferency 
 
 Importunity, 3 If. 
 
 Imposition, 207 
 
 Inattention, children's, 130 /., 236
 
 INDEX 
 
 269 
 
 Inclination, 35 /., 56 ff., 97,166. 
 
 255, 261 
 
 Index Rhetoricus (Farnaby), 157 n. 
 Indifferency, 184, 206 /., 215, 217, 
 
 219, 242 /., 254 
 Individualism, 9 
 Individuality, 46 
 Induction, 209 /. See Particulars, 
 
 General Conclusion 
 Indulgence, 32, 35 /. 
 Inns of Court, 3, 153 ., 191 
 Inoculating, 171 
 Intellectual System (Cudworth), 
 
 162 n. 
 
 " Intentional species," 234 
 Interest, 16 
 
 Intermediate principles, 218 
 " Invisible College," the, 162 n. 
 Iron-work, 169 
 Italian, 69, 138 
 
 James, William, 57 n., 143 n. 
 Joiner, 170 
 Julian period, 151 
 Justin, 133, 146, 151 
 
 Kant, 10, 17, 259 n. 
 " Knowing is seeing," 227 
 Knowledge, 6, 9 /., 93, 169, 211/., 
 224 /., 238, 240, 250, 257, 
 259 
 
 deficient, 245 
 
 dominating, 215 /., 220 
 
 hearsay, 217 
 
 implicit, 212, 227 
 
 more and less, 187 
 
 obligatory, 19, 201, 215 
 
 true end of, 221 
 
 Laboratory, 222 
 
 Labour, 212 
 
 Labourer, the day, 197 
 
 La Bruyere, 164 
 
 La Chalotais, 11, 17 n. 
 
 Ladies as linguists, 134, 157 
 
 Ladies of quality, two, 113 
 
 Language, 17 
 
 Languages, foreign, 158, 164, 175 
 
 Lapidary, 173 
 
 Latin, 2, 16, 50, 69, 74/., 114/., 
 
 125 /., 151, 155, 157 A, 187 
 Law, 12, 151 /., 220 
 
 Laziness, 212 /., 233, 265 
 
 Learners, 233 
 
 Learning, 3, 5, 15, 75, 105, 114 ff., 
 
 116 7i., 145, 168, 187, 225 
 Leisure, duty of, 200 /., 253 
 Letters, 156 
 Liberality, 86 
 
 Liberty, 32/., 43, 48, 99, 115 
 Lily, William, 126 
 Listlessness, 99 
 Locke : 
 
 and the French peasantry, 
 
 202?i. 
 educational experience, 14 
 
 writings, 11 
 
 influence abroad, 5, 10/., 17 
 Latin correspondence, 140 n. 
 practice as physician, 26 n., 27 
 studies chemistry, 220 n. 
 French, 146 n. 
 the Principia, 228 n. 
 Logic, 12, 74, 115, 127, 153, 182/., 
 
 222, 257 /. 
 
 Lord's Prayer, the, 120 
 Lying, 67/..108 
 
 Manilla, 186 
 
 Manners, 2, 5, 44, 46/., 74/., Ill 
 Manual arts, 190, 196. See Hand- 
 work 
 
 trade, a, 169 
 Map, 147 
 
 Marian Islands, 186 
 Masham, 23, 147 n. 
 Mathematics, 163, 196, 198 /., 219, 
 
 221, 228, 238,255 
 Memory, 15, 18, 44/., 127, 142 /. 
 
 See Rote 
 Mental discipline,.208, 215/. , 248/. 
 
 endowment, 183 
 Metal-work, 173 
 Metaphor, 240 /. 
 Metaphysics, 74, 127, 159, 221 
 Method, 164/., 215, 250/. 
 
 the direct, 127 
 
 Methodists (in medicine), 246 
 Milton, Of Education, 4, 114 n. 
 Mind, 28, 37, 39, 46 /., 145, 183 
 
 192, 195, 200, 208, 215, 219, 228, 
 
 232, 242 /., 246/., 249, 254, 257, 
 
 260 /., 264 
 Minerva (Sanctii), 129
 
 270 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mizmaze, 218 
 
 Modern studies, 1, 2, 14, 222 
 
 v. ancient, 222 /. 
 Montaigne, 4, 10, 14/., 29., 33 n., 
 
 36 n., (31 n., 72, 110 n., 125 n. 
 Moot-point, 139 
 Morals, 12, 169 
 Moses, 216 
 Mote and beam , 204 
 Mother teaching Latin, the, 145 
 Mother-tongue, 17, 135, 140, 154 ff. 
 Motives, 16, 36, 39 
 Music, 5, 165, 191, 216 
 
 Narrowness, 184 /., 220, 260 
 
 " Native stock," 46 
 
 Natural philosophy, 74, 158 ff. , 
 
 251, 258 
 
 Nature, 46, 190 /T. 
 Neglect, 40 /. 
 >ew Philosophy, the, If. 
 Newton, Isaac, 1, 10, 163, 258 
 Noah's Flood, 161 
 Notes sur la Correspondence de John 
 
 Locke, 146 n. 
 Novum Organum, 182, 219 n. 
 
 Obedience, 32/., 35, 37 
 Observations, '209 /"., 225, 229 /'., 
 
 258 
 
 Obstinacy, 60 ff., 88, 132 
 Offices, Tully's, 151 
 Opiniatrety (vel opinionatry), 9, 
 
 213 231 
 
 Opinion, 223 /., 244, 246, 256 
 Optician, 173 
 Oral composition, 155 
 Orators, 241 
 Orthodoxy, 244 
 " Over and over again," 44 /. 
 Over-exertion, 232 
 Oxford, 4, 220 n. 
 
 Pain. 36, 39 
 
 Painting, 169 /., 191, 258 
 
 Paradox, 224 
 
 Parnassus, 141 
 
 Partiality, 220 /. 
 
 Particulars, 209 /., 217, 229 /., 
 
 237 
 
 "Parts," 183, 198, 248 
 Passion, 260 f., 264 
 
 "Patriot," the, 188 
 Perception, 254 n. 
 Perfuming, 173 
 Peripatetics, 74, 162, 234 n. 
 Perixonius, 129 
 Perseverance, 247 
 Pertness, 96 
 Pestalozzi, 11, 120 n. 
 Philanthropinists. He". Kasedow 
 Philosophia Compmdiosa (Schei- 
 
 bler), 76 
 
 Physic, 27, 37, 220, 246 
 Physical exercises, 5 
 Physics, 162 xr v 
 >Play, 14/.,(2# 31, 43 /'., 48, 57, 
 
 101 /'./1 15, 171 
 Playthings, 102. 117 
 Pleasure, 36/., 41 
 Ploughman, 190, 197 
 Poet, the, 141/. 
 Poetic vein, 17, 141, 191 
 Poetry, 142 
 Politics, 12 
 Poor Law reform, 19 
 Poppy-water, 27 
 Popular education, 18 j. 
 Portuguese, 115, 118 ' 
 Posse (comitatas), 260 n. 
 Practice, 31, 45 /'., 190, 231 ff. 
 Praise, 40/., 43', 47, 168 
 Prejudice, 184, 204/., 230 
 Premises, 185 
 
 Presumption, 187, 200, 247 /. 
 Primer, 121 
 Principia (Newton), 163, 228 n., 
 
 258 n. 
 
 Principles, 192 /., 208 /. 
 intermediate, 218 /. 
 Principling children, 258 
 Probabilities, 199, 201, 213, 227 
 Proof, 213, 228 
 Prudence, 5 
 Psalter, 121 
 Psychology, 6 /., 11 
 Public 17. private education, 49 ff'. 
 "Pudder," 210 
 Puftendorf, 151, 152 u. 
 , Punishment, 34 f., 38 ff., 45, 
 
 60/., 89, 101 
 
 Questions, 94/., 246, 249 /., 257 f. 
 Quintus Curtius, 151
 
 INDEX 
 
 271 
 
 Rational creature, 28, 33, 39, 196, 
 
 201/., 207, 221 
 Rationalism, 9, 11 
 Readers, great, 216, 225/. 
 Reading, 115 ff., 209, 216 ff., 225 ff., 
 
 256 
 "Real knowledge," 8, 16/., 127, 
 
 138 
 
 Reason, 28, 30 ff., 35, 38, 159, 
 184 /., 187 
 
 miscarriages of, 184 /"., 208 
 Reasoning, 64, 184, 194 /., 215, 
 225, 257 
 
 trains of, 194 /'., 198, 201 
 Records, 225, 227 " 
 Recreation, 57, 166, 171 
 Reflection, 7, 44, 216 /'. 
 Religion, 201 /., 208 ' 
 Religions belief, 193 /. 
 
 controversy, 188 
 
 instruction, 19, 120, 12-3 n , 169 
 Renascence, 4 
 
 Reputation, 33, 40/., 43, 151 
 Research, 227 
 Resignation, 231 
 Restraint. 32/., 37, 48 
 
 Revelation, 159 i 
 
 Reverence, 99 
 Rewards, 37 /. 
 Reynard the Fox, 120' 
 Rhetoric, 2, 12, 153/., 241 
 Rich, Jeremiah, 124 
 Riding, 16, 166 
 
 post. 228 
 
 Ripe for employment. 152 
 Rochow, Von, 17 
 Rod, the, 15, 33, 36/., 39 
 Rome, 222 
 
 Rope dancers, 190, 194 
 Rote, 120, 123, 130, 175 /. 
 Rousseau, 11, 39 n., 120 n. 
 Royal Oak lottery, 117, 119 
 Royal Society, the. 1. 162 n. 
 Rule, the Golden, 259 
 Rules, 44 ./f., 191 
 
 Sanctius (Sanchez), 129 
 Sauntering, 76, 96/., 173 
 Savannah, 228 
 Saviour, our. 259 
 Scepticism, 9 
 Scheibler, 76 
 
 Scholar, 163, 200, 258 
 
 Schools, 1 ff., 15, 52, 69, 74. 138, 
 
 142 
 
 Science, 10 
 
 Scioppius (Schoppe), 129 
 Sectarianism, 184 /., 211, 217, 246, 
 
 252 /., 256 
 
 Self-denial, 28, 30/., 35, 38 /. 
 Seneca, 76 
 
 Sense-impressions, 7, 203 
 Senses, instruction by the, 15, 127, 
 
 186, 203 
 Sequence, 250 /. 
 
 Servants, /., 46, 4:8 f., 70, 85, 93 
 Severity, 32, 34/., 37' 
 Shame, 36, 40 ff., 61, 168 
 Sheriff', 260 
 Short-hand, 124 
 Similes, 240/. 
 Smattering, 214 
 Solon, 29 
 
 Some Thoughts concerning Educa- 
 tion, 4, 12/., 21 ff. 
 translations of, 13 
 Some Thoughts concerning Heading 
 
 and Study, 12, 18 
 Sophistry, 235, 237, 255 /. 
 Spectres, 160 
 Spelling, 118 
 Spencer, Herbert, 39 n. 
 Spirits, 106, 159 ./p., 185 
 Squire Western, 3 
 Standards, 192 
 Standpoints, different, 185 
 Sternhold, 114 n. 
 Strauchius, 150 
 Study, 12, 214, 217, 225 
 
 men of, 185, 211, 222 
 " Substantial forms," 234 
 Sugar-plums, 30, 37 
 
 Tabula rasa, the, 6, 11, 183 n. 
 Talk, 212 ff., 218, 237, 240, 259 
 Task, 56, 58, 97, 115 
 Temper (temperament), 82 /., 97 
 
 108, 130, 166, 179, 193, 214 
 Testimony, 213 See Evidence 
 Theatrum Historicum (Helwig), 
 
 150 n. 
 
 Themes, 139 
 Theology, 16, 220 
 Theory, educational, 5, 11
 
 272 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Theory of the Earth (Burnet), 161 n. 
 Things as they are in themselves, 
 
 89 /., 245,253 
 Thinking, 216, 260 
 Trade, 169, 172 
 
 Transferring of thoughts, 259 ff. 
 Translations, 133, 138 
 Travel, 3, 12, 175 /. 
 Truth, 108, 187, 199, 206, 210/., 
 
 224, 227, 229, 241 /., 244, 258 /. 
 Truths, local, 244 
 Tully (Marcus Tullius Cicero), 127, 
 
 151, 153 /. 
 Tumblers, 190 
 Turkish Sultan, the, 259 n. 
 Turning, 169 
 
 Tutor, 70/., 115, 145 /., 164, 177 
 private, 3, 36, 44, 47 
 
 Understanding, the, 181 /., 192 
 defects of, 209 ff., 221, 229 /., 
 
 247, 252, 258, 261 ff. 
 right, 254 
 
 Universality (omniscience), 214 ff. 
 Universities, 1, 4, 187, 191 
 Utility as educational principle, 14, 
 16, 76/., 166 
 
 Vagary, 80 
 
 Variety of mental endowment, 133 
 
 Varnishing, 173 
 
 Verses, 141 /. 
 
 Verulam, 182 
 
 Vices, 38, 46, 48 
 
 Virgil, 151 
 
 Virtue, 5, 28, 31, 33, 35, 38/., 41, 
 
 43, 54, 105, 145, 151, 168 
 Visions, a sort of, 263 /. 
 Voiture, 156 
 Voltaire, 9/. 
 "Vox populi," 223 
 Vulgar, the, 253 
 opinion, 223 /. 
 
 Wandering of thought, 130, 132, 
 
 235 /. 
 Westminster, 2/. 
 
 Hall, 191 
 Whipping, 66 ff. 
 Whitehall, 188 
 Will, 181 
 
 Wisdom, 105, 109, 168 
 Wood-work, 170 
 Words, 233 /., 246 
 Working schools, 19 
 World, entering the, 73 ff., 177 
 
 the intellectual, 248 
 Worthington, Dr. John, 122 
 Writing, 123, 194, 255 
 Writings, 225 
 
 Xerxes, 144 
 Zedlitz, Von, 17 
 
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