He was
a captain in the Parliamentary army during the civil wars, and his fortune
suffered so considerably in those times, that he left a smaller estate to
his son than he himself had inherited. It is not our intention to follow
the biographers of Locke further than by quoting from the last published
Life of the Philosopher[1] a brief example of his filial affection:--
[1] The Life of John Locke, with Extracts from his Correspondence,
Journals, and Commonplace Books. By Lord King. 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.
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