Abstract:
John Locke, - born in 1632, entered Westminister School in 1646, studying there for six years until he accepted a junior studentship at Christ Church in Oxford, under John Owen, the Puritan Dean and Vice-chancellor. Despite Puritan control of the University, scholastic disputations were still pursued, and these aroused little interest and less sympathy in Locke who was now lecturing in Greek, rhetoric and philosophy, but also giving more devoted attention to chemical experiments, meterological recordings, and medical study.
He had been attracted to theology, being of a religious disposition, but as free enquiry was then given no place in the Church of England, he chose to follow the medical profession. Nevertheless he was persuaded to undertake diplomatic services as secretary to Sir Walter Vane, and in this capacity he chanced to meet Lord Ashley, - later the first Earl of Shaftesbury, and thus began in 1666 a lifelong association which drew Locke into practical political life as he accepted the post of confidential agent and secretary, and medical adviser to his new found friend. Resident in London in Ashley's Exeter House in the Strand he now met Sydenham, the great London physician, who, as did Robert Boyle the chemist, adopted the latest empirical methods in his work.
