THE Glorious Revolution of I688-I689 can be taken as a convenient point of departure for many developments within the British Isles, in colonial America, and in the relationships between the two. Changes, including important ones in views about the nature of the state and government, attitudes about society, education, and even colonial policies, developed during the last years of the seventeenth century and first years of the eighteenth. It was at this period that the Anglo-American Enlightenment emerged. Specific evidence in the New World of changes which took place and the influence of the philosophy were the founding of the College of William and Mary and the creation of Williamsburg. Perhaps it would be better not to separate the College from the town, for, as they were brought into existence, they were really aspects of one thing-the capital, which has been rather cogently described as the seat of empire. John Locke was a very powerful force in Britain at this time. Some scholars have gone so far as to describe him as the intellectual voice of the Revolution. Through his influential connections, his writings, and his active participation in government, he helped to bring about a general shift from traditional appeals to authority, royal prerogative, and the divine right of kings, characteristic of the Stuarts, to a greater dependence on empiricism, reason, knowledge, and experience in dealing with problems. Dissatisfaction among Englishmen with affairs of the colonies and the weaknesses of the whole structure of control had been developing for a long time. It continued to mount until it was brought to a head in the middle of the last decade of the seventeenth century. Edward Randolph, King William's Surveyor-General of Customs in North America, reported after an extensive and careful investigation that the whole colonial administration was disintegrating and called for urgent reforms. A step in the direction of change was made when a Board of Trade (His Majesty's Commissioners for promoting the Trade of this Kingdom and for inspecting and improving the Plantations in America and elsewhere) was established under Parliamentary control. Locke accepted a position on this Board and assumed a leading role in its activities. He took a special interest in the colony of Virginia.1 It is not always sufficiently recognized that the age of the Enlightenment also involved a new approach to imperialism. Insofar as Williamsburg and the College were concerned, this imperialism was of two kinds. One came from Britain, the other had its center of development within the colony and can be called American. Locke was an enthusiastic advocate of commercial imperialism on the part of the English nation, both for personal and national enrichment. His interest appeared very early and has been related to his close association with the Earl of Shaftesbury. In I668, he became involved with the Lords Proprietors of Carolina, and he continued with them for about seven years. The experience was not a remunerative one but may have been profitable in other ways.2 Later, he accepted the position on the Board of Trade to help put the colonies in a rational and profitable order, realizing the connection between a powerful empire and the preservation of English liberties. Virginia had no city and very little cohesive order; much about the colony tended toward isolation, decentralization, and fragmentation. Furthermore, it had missed the opportunity of having a center of learning when the project for establishing a university at Henrico in 1617 came to noth-