JOHN LOCKE: SOME THOUGHTS CONCERNING EDUCATION

CONTEXT

In This extract from a longer essay, philospher John Locke gives his views om what the education of a young man should include.

MODE,AUDIENCE & PURPOSE

MODE - Written didactic Essay

AUDIENCE - Primary: Upper Class parents who have boys mainly parents

PURPOSE - To persuade readers about effective child-rearing methods

I have said he here, because the principal aim of my discourse is, how a young

gentleman should be brought up from his infancy, which in all things will not so perfectly suit

the education of daughters; though where the difference of sex requires different treatment, 'twill

be no hard matter to distinguish.

Lexis

• “gentleman” → class-specific noun → reflects social hierarchy

• Semantic field of education and upbringing

Grammar

• Declarative, explanatory clause → establishes authority

• Use of first person “I” → personal authority typical of Enlightenment prose

Discourse

• Frames the “principal aim” → didactic purpose

• Signals male-focused education (links to Q1)

Morphology

• “brought up” → phrasal verb → informal but widely used → accessible tone

Rhetorical / Linguistic Devices

• Metadiscourse: “I have said… because” → explains authorial choices

Analysis

Locke immediately positions himself as a rational instructor, narrowing his focus to boys, reinforcing individualism and structured education.

no hard matter”
→ minimises difficulty (reassurance)

Analysis

• Repetition creates semantic cohesion

• Builds central theme: strength through hardship

I will also advise his feet to be wash'd every day in cold water, and to have his shoes

so thin, that they might leak and let in water, whenever he comes near it. Here, I fear I shall have

the mistress and maids too against me. One will think it too filthy, and the other perhaps too

much pains, to make clean his stockings. But yet truth will have it, that his health is much more

worth than all such considerations, and ten times as much more.

Tone:

“I will also advise…”

Calm, instructional

“truth will have it…”

Rational, assertive

Lexis

• “wash’d” → archaic contraction → reflects 17th-century orthography

• “cold water” → repeated motif → semantic field of hardship and health

Grammar

• Modal construction: “I will also advise” → authoritative but advisory tone

Discourse

• Instructional → practical parenting guidance

Morphology

• Elision in “wash’d” → phonological economy in Early Modern English

Phonology

• Alliteration: “wash’d… water” → subtle emphasis

Analysis

This begins Locke’s argument that habit shapes the body (links to Enlightenment malleability).

And he that considers how

mischievous and mortal a thing taking wet in the feet is, to those who have been bred nicely, will

wish he had, with the poor people's children, gone bare-foot, who, by that means, come to be so

reconcil'd by custom to wet in their feet, that they take no more cold or harm by it, were wet in their hands. And what is it, I pray, that makes this great difference between the

hands and the feet in others, but only custom? I doubt not, but if a man from his cradle had been

always us'd to go bare-foot, whilst his hands were constantly wrapt up in warm mittins, and

cover'd with hand-shoes, as the Dutch call gloves; I doubt not, I say, but such a custom would

make taking wet in his hands as dangerous to him, as now taking wet in their feet is to great

many others.

Lexis

• “worth” → economic metaphor → health framed as value

• Semantic contrast: health vs comfort (“filthy”, “pains”)

Grammar

• Comparative structure: “much more worth” → emphatic prioritisation

Discourse

• Counters objections (maids, mothers)

Rhetorical Devices

• Antithesis: health vs inconvenience

Analysis

Demonstrates reason over emotion (Q2d), privileging rational benefit over social discomfort.

Lexis

• “custom” → key Enlightenment concept (habit, environment)

Grammar

• Rhetorical question → challenges reader assumptions (Q4)

Discourse

• Shifts from advice → philosophical reasoning

Rhetorical Devices

• Interrogative form → persuasive

• Reduction: “only custom” → simplifies argument

Analysis

Locke argues that human weakness is learned, not natural, reinforcing malleability (Q2b).

Lexis

• “dangerous” → exaggeration to emphasise point

Grammar

• Conditional clause (“if… had been always us’d”) → hypothetical reasoning

Discourse

• Logical thought experiment

Rhetorical Devices

• Repetition: “I doubt not… I doubt not” (Q6)

• Parallelism: hands vs feet

Analysis

• Repetition builds certainty and authority

• Shows differences are constructed, not natural

The way to prevent this, is, to have his shoes made so as to leak water, and his feet

wash'd constantly every day in cold water. It is recommendable for its cleanliness; but that which

I aim at in it, is health; and therefore I limit it not precisely to any time of the day. I have known

it us'd every night with very good success, and that all the winter, without the omitting it so

much as one night in extreme cold weather; when thick ice cover'd the water, the child bathed his

legs and feet in it, though he was of an age not big enough to rub and wipe them himself, and

when he began this custom was puling and very tender. But the great end being to harden those

parts by a frequent and familiar use of cold water, and thereby to prevent the mischiefs that

usually attend accidental taking wet in the feet in those who are bred otherwise, I think it may be

left to the prudence and convenience of the parents, to chuse either night or morning.

“harden those parts”
→ physical strengthening (literal)

Analysis

• Repetition creates semantic cohesion

• Builds central theme: strength through hardship

The time I

deem indifferent, so the thing be effectually done. The health and hardiness procured by it,

would be a good purchase at a much dearer rate. To which if I add the preventing of corns, that

to some men would be a very valuable consideration

But begin first in the spring with luke-

warm, and so colder and colder every time, till in a few days you come to perfectly cold water,

and then continue it so winter and summer. For it is to be observed in this, as in all other

alterations from our ordinary way of living, the changes must be made by gentle and insensible

degrees; and so we may bring our bodies to any thing, without pain, and without danger.

Lexis

• “gentle… insensible” → semantic field of gradualism

Grammar

• Modal verb “must” → strong instruction

Discourse

• Procedural / instructional (Q7)

Morphology

• “insensible” → older meaning = gradual/unnoticed

Analysis

Reflects Enlightenment belief in controlled progress and rational method.

“health and hardiness”
→ positive outcome (virtue)

Analysis

• Repetition creates semantic cohesion

• Builds central theme: strength through hardship

How fond mothers are like to receive this doctrine, is not hard to foresee. What can it be less,

than to murder their tender babes, to use them thus? What! put their feet in cold water in frost

and snow, when all one can do is little enough to keep them warm? A little to remove their fears

by examples, without which the plainest reason is seldom hearken'd to: Seneca tells us of

himself, Ep. 53, and 83, that he used to bathe himself in cold spring-water in the midst of winter.

This, if he had not thought it not only tolerable, but healthy too, he would scarce have done, in an

exorbitant fortune, that could well have borne the expence of a warm bath, and in an age (for he

was then old) that would have excused greater indulgence. If we think his stoical principles led

him to this severity, let it be so, that this sect reconciled cold water to his sufferance.

Tone:

“How fond mothers…”

Defensive, persuasive

Lexis

• “murder” → hyperbolic, emotive

• “tender babes” → sentimental language

Grammar

• Interrogative → mimics critics’ voice

Discourse

• Anticipates counterarguments

Rhetorical Devices

• Hyperbole (Q9)

• Irony → exaggerates opposition

Analysis

Locke:

• Acknowledges emotional resistance

• Then undermines it with reason → reason over emotion

“Seneca… bathe himself in cold spring-water in the midst of winter”

Lexis

• Proper noun → authority reference

Discourse

• Appeals to authority (classical education)

“not hard to foresee”
→ logical predictability

Analysis

• Repetition creates semantic cohesion

• Builds central theme: strength through hardship

What made

it agreeable to his health? For that was not impair'd by this hard usage. But what shall we say to

Horace, who warm'd not himself with the reputation of any sect, and least of all affected stoical

austerities? yet he assures us, he was wont in the winter season to bathe himself in cold water.

But, perhaps, Italy will be thought much warmer than England, and the chillness of their waters

not to come near ours in winter.

“hard usage”
→ reframes harshness as acceptable

Analysis

• Repetition creates semantic cohesion

• Builds central theme: strength through hardship

If the rivers of Italy are warmer, those of Germany and Poland

are much colder, than any in this our country, and yet in these, the Jews, both men and women,

bathe all over, at all seasons of the year, without any prejudice to their health. And every one is

not apt to believe it is miracle, or any peculiar virtue of St. Winifred's Well, that makes the cold

waters of that famous spring do no harm to the tender bodies that bathe in it. Every one is now

full of the miracles done by cold baths on decay'd and weak constitutions, for the recovery of health and strength; and therefore they cannot be impracticable or intolerable for the improving

and hardening the bodies of those tho are in better circumstances.

“the Germans… the Irish… the Jews…”

Lexis

• Cultural groups → diversity of examples

Discourse

• Cross-cultural comparison (Q2a, Q10)

Analysis

• Shows practice is universal and proven

• Strengthens argument with empirical evidence

“hardening the bodies”
→ links hardship → improvement

Analysis

• Repetition creates semantic cohesion

• Builds central theme: strength through hardship

If these examples of grown men be not thought yet to reach the case of children, but that they

may be judg'd still to be too tender, and unable to bear such usage, let them examine what the

Germans of old, and the Irish now, do to them, and they will find, that infants too, as tender as

they are thought, may, without any danger, endure bathing, not only of their feet, but of their

whole bodies, in cold water. And there are, at this day, ladies in the Highlands of Scotland who

use this discipline to their children in the midst of winter, and find that cold water does them no

harm, even when there is ice in it.

Tone:

Confident, authoritative

Lexis

• “without any danger” → reassurance

Grammar

• Modal “may” → possibility framed as fact

Discourse

• Extends argument to youngest subjects

Analysis

Supports idea of early conditioning and malleability