There was more bathing because private homes in towns now had indoor baths. The public baths came into disuse.
For childbirth, only rich women were attended by physicians. Most
physicians used talismen such as the eagle stone at deliveries.
Caesarian section almost always led to the death of the mother.
Midwives were licensed by the church and could baptize babies. Jane
Sharp wrote "The Midwives Book" with anatomical illustrations.
Women over thirty had fewer children and the last child born was at an earlier age than before. This was in part due to birth control such as coitus-interruptus, long breast-feeding of a current child and/or the taboo against sex if the wife was still breast-feeding. Rich women often employed wet-nurses to breast- feed their babies. Babies seldom thrived, or even survived, without out a regular supply of breast milk.
John Locke, an Oxford don, physician, and son of an attorney, expressed a view that the monarchy was not based on divine right, but rather on a contractual relationship with the people, who were reasonable, free, and equal by nature. This idea was first adopted by revolutionists and then became accepted as orthodoxy. Also, he articulated the right of resistance, the supremacy of legislative assemblies, and the responsibility of rulers to answer to their subjects. He theorized that men turn to forming a civil government when there is a need to protect accumulated property from some unreasonable men. This, along with the protection of life and liberty, was the primary function of government, before royal pleasure, national pride, or foreign conquest. He wrote theories on the interaction of supply, demand, interest rates, rents, coinage, and foreign exchange rates. He believed that interest rates should be the natural ones determined by market forces rather than by the legislature, especially if there was an attempt to lower interest rates below their natural rate, which was not only undesirable but easily circumvented. He thought that attempting to legislate contrary to natural economic laws, e.g. prices, was doomed to failure from unexpected consequences. He agreed with most mercantilists that by maintaining a large inflow of precious metals through consistent export of surpluses in foreign trade would lead to low interest rates, increased trade, increased capital stock, high employment, and high prices, and therefore a healthy economy and enrichment of the nation.
Locke thought that knowledge comes primarily from experience, i.e. sensation and reflection, rather than from innate ideas placed in the mind by God, so that observation and experimentation are necessary to find truth. He theorized that propositions of truth have probability rather than certainty. Probable propositions included opinion, belief, and revelation. His "Thoughts on Education" was a great book on the formation of character. Locke also advocated the use of a large field for inventing labor-saving and economic devices for agriculture. He espoused freedom of thought in "Letters on Toleration" and wrote "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding", which described how the mind functions in learning about the world and which attempted to reconcile science and Christianity. He was a great admirer and friend of Newton and they shared religious views. He was also a member of the Royal Society.
At Oxford and Cambridge Universities, there were the most enlightened theologians, classicists, orientalists, philologists, mathematicians, chemists, architects, and musicians. There were professors of Anglo-Saxon, Hebrew, and Arabic. John Locke's influence caused modern philosophy to supercede traditional scholasticism. There were no more disputations to qualify for degrees. Some of the students were the sons of noblemen and sat at meals with the heads, tutors, and fellows of the colleges. Most students were the sons of landowners, clergymen, professional men, or prosperous men of business. They were known as the gentlemen commoner students. The few poor students were known as servitors and paid for their education by menial work. Corporal punishment ceased. Instead there were fines, suspension, and expulsion. Fellows of colleges had common rooms for drinking and smoking together as they had done in taverns outside college walls. The king had authority to grant licenses in sell or give land in perpetuity, to encourage founding and augmenting colleges and schools. The two universities were vested with the presentation of benefices that had belonged to Papists.
English nonconformists such as Presbyterians were excluded from
Oxford and Cambridge Universities, so they were educated at Glasgow in
Scotland.
Grammar schools were blamed for the past civil war by educating too many people above their station, so ecclesiastical control now stifled them. A few dissenting schools were established. Charity was given to schools for children of the poor for placement as apprentices, but not to educate them above their stations.
In the 1670s, about 70% of males in London were literate. By 1680, illiteracy was a special characteristic of the poor instead of a characteristic of the vast majority of common people as in 1580. Fountain pens came into use.
Many books written tended to be about the author's experiences, for instance Samuel Pepys' "Diary", Gilbert Burnet's "History of my own Times", John Evelyn's lifelong diary with vivid descriptions of striking events of the day, and nonconformist Celia Fiennes' description of her tour of England on horseback. There were many political biographies. Historians did not yet study history as a continuous process, but narrated self-contained stories to instruct by example. William Fleetwood wrote about economic history in "Chronicon Preciogum". George Hicks put together a "Thesaurus" of the northern languages. Thomas Hyde wrote on ancient Persian religion. John Spenser compared Jewish rites with those of other Semitic people, thus starting comparative religion. Richard Bentley, William's librarian, wrote a "Dissertation" on the ancient Greeks. He compared the ancient Greek life with modern life. He also confuted atheism on the Newtonian system. A translated version of "Critical History of Old Testament" by Frenchman Richard Simon identified the old testament as history instead of divine revelation. John Milton wrote "Paradise Lost", which retells the Biblical story of the Creation and the fall of Adam and Eve against the backdrop of Satan's rebellion and expulsion from heaven and emphasized God's justice in spite of everything. The poem deals with the puritan struggling against evil and the problem of sin and redemption. It has a cold and severe conception of moral virtue and stoical self-repression in its characters. There is no sympathy with the human condition. Reading this book made the English more serious, earnest, and sober in life and conduct and more firm in the love of freedom. John Bunyan wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" in which a tinker takes a journey to find the Everlasting City of heaven and on the way meets people who try to harm him. But he derives strength from his adversities. The journey is a metaphor for the Christian soul trying to find salvation. It is Puritan in its sympathies and has insights into human nature. John Dryden wrote on large social, political, and humanistic issues, often by political satire. William Congreve wrote plays such as a comedy on manners. William Wycherley wrote cynical satires and portrayed folly, affection, and vice. John Vanbrugh wrote plays satirizing London high society and social institutions. John Toland wrote "Christianity and Mysterious" on deism. "Puss in Boots", "Red Ridinghood", and "Cinderella" became available in print. There were many female poets, bookwriters, and playwrights. Anne Finch, later Vicountess Conway, wrote the philosophical book: "Principle of the Most Ancient and Modern Philosophy" to reconcile the new science with Christian belief. In it every creature had a body and a spirit. Mrs. Aphra Behn wrote "Oroonoko", one of the first novels. Basua Makin, governess of the little sister of Charles II wrote an essay to revive the education of women, arguing that women's activity in wartime showed that they were fit to be educated. Elizabeth Elstob, who studied Teutonic languages, was one of the founders of women's education. Mary Astell proposed a college for women. Some women painted portraits.