until he was about
fourteen years old, when he entered Westminster School, a Puritan
institution, where he remained for six years. He then entered Oxford,
and in due time took his bachelor's and master's degrees. In 1660, when
twenty-eight years old, he was made tutor of Christ Church, Oxford,
where he lectured on Greek, rhetoric, and philosophy. He interested
himself in theology, but never took orders; and he also studied medicine
and for a time practiced it. His own health was precarious, he having
suffered, from chronic consumption nearly all his life. Nevertheless, he
accomplished a tremendous amount of work. The friendship of the Earl of
Shaftesbury gave Locke some political prestige. He lived in the family
of that nobleman for many years, and was the tutor of his son and
grandson.

Locke's great work, on which his fame securely rests, is the "Essay
concerning Human Understanding," which stamps him as the greatest of
English philosophers. This appeared in 1690. His most important
educational work is entitled "Some Thoughts concerning Education."
Compayre says, "From psychology to pedagogy the transition is easy, and
Locke had to make no great effort to become an authority on education
after having been an accomplished philosopher." Further, the same author
says concerning the essential principles discussed in "Thoughts
concerning Education," "These are: 1, in physical education, the
hardening process; 2, in intellectual education, practical utility; 3,
in moral education, the principle of honor, set up as a rule for the
free self-government of man."

In Locke, for the first time, we find a careful set of rules as to the
food, sleep, physical exercise, and clothing of children. While modern
science rejects some of these, most of them are regarded as sound in
practice. Plenty of outdoor exercise, clothing loose and not too warm,
plain food with but little meat or sugar, proper hours of sleep, and
beds not too soft, early retiring and rising, and cold baths, are means
prescribed to harden the body and prepare it to resist the attacks of
disease. "_A sound mind in a sound body_" is the celebrated aphorism
which sums up Locke's educational theory.

As to moral education, Locke declares, "That which a gentleman ought to
desire for his son, besides the fortune which he leaves him, is, 1,
virtue; 2, prudence; 3, good manners; 4, instruction." In his course of
study the idea of utility prevails. After reading, writing, d