But none of the former calumnies will stick: and therefore, it is at last charged upon me that Almanzor does all things; or if you will have an absurd accusation, in their nonsense who make it, that he performs impossibilities: they say, that being a stranger, he appeases two fighting factions, when the authority of their lawful sovereign could not. This is, indeed, the most improbable of all his actions; but, it is far from being impossible. Their king had made himself contemptible to his people as the "History of Granada " tells us; and Almanzor, though a stranger, yet was already known to them by his gallantry in the juego de toros, his engagement on the weaker side, and more especially by the character of his person and brave actions, given by Abdalla just before. And, after all, the greatness of the enterprise consisted only in the daring; for he had the king's guards to second him; but we have read both of Cæsar, and many other generals, who have not only calmed a mutiny with a word, but have presented themselves single before an army of their enemies; which, upon sight of them, has revolted from their own leaders, and come over to their trenches. In the rest of Almanzor's actions, you see him for the most part victorious; but the same fortune has constantly attended many heroes who were not imaginary. Yet, you see it no inheritance to him; for, in the first part, he is made a prisoner, and, in the last, defeated, and not able to preserve the city from being taken. If the history of the late Duke of Guise be true, he hazarded more, and performed not less in Naples than Almanzor is feigned to have done in Granada.1

I have been too tedious in this apology; but to make some satisfaction, I will leave the rest of my play exposed to the critics, without defence.

The concernment of it is wholly passed from me, and ought to be in them who have been favorable to it, and are somewhat obliged to defend their own opinions. That there are errors in it, I deny not;

“Ast opere in tanto fas est obrepere somnum.'

"5

But I have already swept the stakes; and, with the common good fortune of prosperous gamesters, can be content to sit quietly to hear my fortune cursed by some, and my faults arraigned by others; and to suffer both without reply.

Horace's line is, "Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum.'

"

OF PRACTICE AND HABITS

OF PRINCIPLES

OF PREJUDICES

OF OBSERVATION

OF READING

SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING

EDUCATION

BY

JOHN LOCKE

JOHN LOCKE

1632-1704

John Locke was born at Wrington, in Somersetshire, in 1632. He was educated at Westminster, from which he was removed to a studentship at Christ Church, Oxford, where he was greatly distinguished no less by industry than by superior ability. The writings of Descartes appear early to have excited his interest in the study of philosophy. After having taken the degree of M.A. in 1658 he applied himself to the study of medicine, but his health prevented his pursuing that profession. In 1666 he formed the acquaintance of Lord Ashley, afterwards Earl of Shaftesbury, to whose fortunes he was attached for many years, sharing his prosperity and his disgrace, and for a time acting first as tutor to his son, and then to his grandson, the future author of the " Characteristics." Locke commenced his famous "Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1670, but it was not till 1687 that he was able to complete it. It attracted great and immediate attention, not only in philosophical circles, but in the wider world of thoughtful readers. It was followed in the next few years by the "Letters on Toleration" and the "Treatises on Government" and "Thoughts on Education," as well as by several minor essays in vindication of opinions advanced in his larger works. He suffered severely from asthma during the later part of his life, and lived at Oates in the retirement of Sir Francis Masham's house for the last fourteen years. He died in 1704 in the seventy-third year of his age.

Locke is one of the most prominent of our philosophical and political authors; there is probably no writer on philosophy who has produced such a broad and solid effect on the mind of the English people. Few have turned their attention to metaphysical inquiries without reading his "Essay Concerning Human Understanding," which has lent to such inquiries whatever popularity they possess. D'Alembert says that Locke created the science of metaphysics in somewhat the same way as Newton created that of physics; and his inquiry into the origin, development, and combination of our thoughts justly entitle him to be called the founder of psychology in England. There is scarcely any English writer whose works bear such an impress of originality, power, patient sagacity, and good sense. The style of Locke has fine qualities, but is too incorrect to be taken as a model of English language. It is homely, racy, and masculine, though wanting in philosophical precision and sometimes too idiomatic and colloquial, or too indefinite and figurative for the abstruse subjects with which he has to deal. The six essays that follow have been carefully selected. The essay entitled Some Thoughts Concerning Education" has many valuable suggestions, and is generally considered to fill an important place in the literature on that subject.

W

OF PRACTICE AND HABITS

E are born with faculties and powers capable almost of anything, such at least as would carry us further than can be easily 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 naturally, without thought or pains, into regular and admirable motions. Bid them change their parts, and they will in vain endeavor 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 the 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 rail'ery; others for apologues and apposite 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 pur posely set themselves to the study of it as an art to be learned.