Hobbes took literally the philosophy which says that all our ideas are the result of sensory impressions. He did not fear the consequences of this position, and said boldly that the soul is subject to necessity as society is to despotism. Now, the worship of all the pure and lofty sentiments is so consolidated in England by their political and religious institutions that all their spiritual speculations wind round these two imposing columns without ever shaking them. Thus Hobbes had few followers in his own country. The influence of Locke, however, was more universal: for he was moral and religious, and did not follow the corruptive reasoning which derived necessarily from his metaphysics. Most of his countrymen, too, when they adopted his ideas, had the noble inconsistency to separate the ideas from their logical ends. But when Hume and the French philosophers took up the principles they applied them much more logically.

"The theories of Locke have no more effect in England than to tarnish their natural originality a little. For although they withered the source of England's great philosophical thoughts, they couldn't destroy her religious feeling, which could compensate so well. But the rest of Europe (save Germany) accepted Locke's theories readily, and those theories were one of the principle causes of immorality"--which immorality now had a theory to support it.

Madame de Staël upon Locke––'Hobbes prit à la lettre la philosophie qui fait dériver toutes nos idées des impressions des sens; il n'en craignit point les conséquences, et il a dit hardiment que l'âme était, soumise à la nécessité comme la société au despotisme. Le culte des tous les sentiments éléves et purs est tellement consolidé en Angleterre par les institutions politiques et religieuses, que les spéculations de l'esprit tournent autour de ces imposantes colonnes sans jamais les ébranler. Hobbes eut donc peu de partisans dans son pays; mais l'influence de Locke fut plus universelle. Comme son caractère était morale et religieuse, il ne se permit aucun des raisonnements corrupteurs qui derivaient nécessairement de sa métaphysique; et la plupart de ses compatriotes, en l'adoptant, ont eu comme lui la noble inconséquence de séparer les résultats des principes, tandis que Hume et les philosophes français, après avoir admis le système, l'ont appliqué d'une manière beaucoup plus logique.