He yet stated more clearly than either the general problem of the modern State.

Hobbes, after all, worked with an impossible psychology and sought no more than the prescription against disorder.

Burke wrote rather a text-book for the cautious administrator than a guide for the liberal statesman.

But Locke saw that the main problem of the State is the conquest of freedom and it was for its definition in terms of individual good that he above all strove.
Much, doubtless, of his neglect is due to the medium in which he worked.
He wrote at a time when the social contract seemed the only possible retort to the theory of Divine Right.

He so emphasized the principle of consent that when contractualism came in its turn to be discarded, it was discovered that Locke suffered far more than Hobbes by the change so made.