About a week after his arrival in England, Locke was offered, through
Lord Mordaunt, the post of ambassador to Frederick the First, Elector
of Brandenburg. The letter to Lord Mordaunt, in which he declines the
post, shows the feeble condition in which, notwithstanding all his
precautions, his health still continued. "It is the most touching
displeasure I have ever received from that weak and broken constitution
of my health, which has so long threatened my life, that it now
affords me not a body suitable to my mind in so desirable an occasion
of serving his Majesty.... What shall a man do in the necessity of
application and variety of attendance on business who sometimes, after
a little motion, has not breath to speak, and cannot borrow an hour
or two of watching from the night without repaying it with a great
waste of time the next day?" But there was another reason, besides his
health, why he could not accept a mission to the Court of Brandenburg.
"If I have reason to apprehend the cold air of the country, there is
yet another thing in it as inconsistent with my constitution, and that
is their warm drinking." It was true that he might oppose obstinate
refusal, but then that would be to take more care of his own health
than of the king's business. "It is no small matter in such stations
to be acceptable to the people one has to do with, in being able to
accommodate one's self to their fashions; and I imagine, whatever I
may do there myself, the knowing what others are doing is at least one
half of my business, and I know no such rack in the world to draw out
men's thoughts as a well-managed bottle. If, therefore, it were fit
for me to advise in this case, I should think it more for the king's
interest to send a man of equal parts that could drink his share
than the soberest man in the kingdom." But, though Locke shrank from
this post, the importance of which could hardly be exaggerated, for
Frederick was the ally on whom William most confided in his opposition
to Louis the Fourteenth, he was ready to place his services at the
disposal of the Government for domestic work. "If there be anything
wherein I may flatter myself I have attained any degree of capacity to
serve his Majesty, it is in some little knowledge I perhaps may have
in the constitutions of my country, the temper of my countrymen, and
the divisions amongst them, whereby I persuade myself I may be more
useful to him at home, though I cannot but see that such an employment
would be of greater advantage to myself abroad, would but my health
assent to it." The disinterested patriotism of this letter was only of
a piece with the whole of Locke's political life. He was next offered
the embassy to Vienna, and, in fact, invited to name any diplomatic
appointment which he would be prepared to accept; but he regarded his
health as an insuperable bar to work of this kind at so critical a
time in the history of Europe. Having declined all foreign employment,