The Second Treatise outlines a theory of civil society. From a general summary to chapter summaries to explanations of famous quotes, the SparkNotes Locke's Second Treatise on Civil Government Study Guide has … Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by Project Gutenberg. In this work, Locke argues that the purpose of government is to preserve people's life, freedom, and property, or as he writes life, "liberty," and property. I'm happy to have read John Locke's Second Treatise of Government. Locke begins by describing the state of nature, a picture much more stable than Thomas Hobbes' state of "war of every man against every man," and argues that all men are created equal in the state of nature by God.