There are always a number of different historical arcs on which it is appropriate to place any complex intellectual performance in the effort to disclose its ‘meaning’. The choice of the appropriate are is neither a simple nor an arbitrary matter but it plainly does depend to a considerable extent on the purposes of the historian. The set of possible contexts which would be needed to exhibit the full meaning of Locke's intellectual life is so vast that there is no significant possibility that anyone will ever be competent to grasp them all and, should such a paragon of learning and imagination exist, it is a little difficult to believe that he would choose to devote his talents to the elucidation of the intellectual achievement of John Locke.