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  1660

First Tract on Government   [September-December 1660]

Location:   Bodleian Library, MS. Locke e. 7.

Description:   The manuscript is titled “Quest: whether the Civill Magistrate may lawfully impose and determine y^e use of indifferent things in reference to Religious Worship.” The title above was given the work by Philip Abrams (see publication #2 below); it is also referred to as “The English tract.”

The manuscript is written on the rectos of ff. 2-34 (1-34, [35] as numbered by Locke); additions and corrections are written on the opposite versos. Fols. 35-36 is the draft of a letter to Gabriel Towerson summarizing the work and dated December 11, 1660. The letter has been crossed out in the manuscript. Fols. 37-47 are blank.

The manuscript is a fair copy by Locke of a work written in response to Edward Bagshaw’s The great question concenring things indifferent in religious worship (published September 1660). A “Preface to the Reader” was added in 1661.

Publications:

1. Scritti editi e inediti sulla tolleranza / John Locke ; a cura di Carlo Augusto Viano. – Torino : Taylor, 1961. – p. 20-61. [Locke #949] – Also includes an Italian translation (p. 158-198)
2. Two tracts on government / John Locke ; edited … by Philip Abrams. – Cambridge : University Press, 1967. – p. 124-175. [Locke #950]
3. Political essays / Locke ; edited by Mark Goldie. – Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1997. – p. 10-53. [Locke #867+] – Does not include the deleted letter to Towerson.
4. [extract:] Political writings / John Locke ; edited and with an introduction by David Wootton. – London ; New York : Penguin Books, 1993. – p. 141-145. [Locke #867+]
5. [extracts:] The life of John Locke : with extracts from his correspondence, journals and common-place books / by Lord King. – London : H. Colburn, 1829. – p. 8-9 (1830 ed., v. 1, p. 13-15)
6. [extracts:] John Locke’s political philosophy : eight studies / by J.W. Gough. – Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1950. – p. 179-180.
7. [German translation:] Bürgerliche Gesellschaft und Staatsgewalt : Sozialphilosophische Schriften / John Locke ; herausgegeben … von Hermann Klenner ; aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Klaus Udo Szudra. – Leipzig : Reclam, 1980. – p. 7-74. [Locke #872]

Discussions:   Von Leyden, Introduction to Essays on the law of nature (1954), p. 21-30; Cranston, John Locke, a biography (1957), p. 59-63; Abrams, Introduction to Two tracts on government (1967); J. Dunn, The political thought of John Locke (1969), ch. 2; De Beer i. 108.