174 



The effect and influence of the writings of HoLbes appears to me to 

 have been usually underrated. It is true that they never became 

 popular in their original form — that the " Leviathan" was condemned 

 by Parliament to be bm"nt by the hands of the common hangman ; — 

 still the principles of these works exercised a very great, though a 

 silent influence, especially among the higher ranks of society, and that 

 large class who adopt opinions, as they do money, because they are 

 current ; and clothe their minds as they do their bodies, according to 

 the newest fashion in vogue. The selfish nature of Hobbes's morality 

 appears to have extensively leavened the literatiu'e of the succeeding 

 age ; and many a sparlding couplet of the poets of the reign of Charles 

 II. owes much of its wit and causticity to one or other of Hobbes's 

 definitions of our human passions and affections ; — nay. Bishop Burnet, 

 in the " History of his Own Times," goes so far as to ascnbe the 

 corruption of the monarch himself to the influence of his old tutor. 



Before dismissing Hobbes, I must call your attention to the solidit}', 

 brilliancy, and lucid clearness of his style. His intellect, keen and 

 clear, and cold as it is clear, liable to be led asti'ay by no glimmer of 

 affection, or fire of passion — nay, through the very want of these 

 passions and affections, ignoring and misrepresenting many of the 

 fairest and richest tracts on the map of the human heart — rarely, 

 indeed, rises above the creeping selfishness of his ordinary morality ; 

 but still, as far as it does see and know, it illustrates with wonderful 

 force and clearness, and expresses many a worldly maxim with an 

 epigrammatic terseness, which has anticipated celebrated proverbial 

 dicta of after-writers. One example of the happy manner in which he 

 can express an universally-allowed truth will suffice : " Words are wise 

 men's counters ; but they are the money of fools,"-' — an observation 

 which we shall do well to bear in mind, when reading Hobbes himself. 



* As e.xamples of one cr two more of such pregnant expressions, we may quote, " The 

 errours of definitions multiply themselves as the reckoning proceeds ;" " Men measure, 

 not only all other men, but all other things, by themselves;" " Thought is cj^uick." 



