ing. New Edition.
2 vols. 8vo. 1830.

John Locke, says the biographer, was the eldest of two sons, and was
educated with great care by his father, of whom he always spoke with the
greatest respect and affection. In the early part of his life, his father
exacted the utmost respect from his son, but gradually treated him with
less and less reserve, and, when grown up, lived with him on terms of the
most entire friendship; so much so, that Locke mentioned the fact of his
father having expressed his regret for giving way to his anger, and
striking him once in his childhood, when he did not deserve it. In a
letter to a friend, written in the latter part of his life, Locke thus
expresses himself on the conduct of a father towards his
son:--"That which I have often blamed as an indiscreet and dangerous
practice in many fathers, viz. to be very indulgent to their children
whilst they are little, and as they come to ripe years to lay great
restraint upon them, and live with greater reserve towards them, which
usually produces an ill understanding between father and son, which cannot
but be of bad consequences; and I think fathers would generally do better,
as their sons grow up, to take them into a nearer familiarity, and live
with them with as much freedom and friendship as their age and temper will
allow." The following letter from Locke to his father, which is without a
date, but must have been written before 1660, shows the feeling of
tenderness and affection which subsisted between them. It was probably
found by Locke amongst his father's papers, and thus came again into his
possession:--

"December 20.

"_Most dear and ever-loving Father_,

"I did not doubt but that the noise of a very dangerous sickness here
would reach you, but I am alarmed with a more dangerous disease from
Pensford, and were I as secure of your health as (I thank God) I am of my
own, I should not think myself in danger; but I cannot be safe so long as
I hear of your weakness, and that increase of your malady upon you, which
I beg that you would, by the timely application of remedies, endeavour to
remove. Dr. Meary has more than once put a stop to its encroachment;--the
same skill, the same means, the same God to bless you, is left still. Do
not, I beseech you, by that care you ought to have of yourself, by that
tenderness I am sure you have of us, neglect your own and our safety too;
do not, by a too pressing care for your children, endan