68 





H O B B E S. 



llnbhcs. 



In 1642, he published, while at Paris, a few copies 

 of his book De Give. He became acquainted with Sir 

 Charles Cavendish, brother to the Duke of Newcastle, 

 who admired his mathematical talents, and attached him- 

 celf warmly to him as a friend and patron. In 1647, his 

 fame in mathematics procured for him a recommenda- 

 tion to instruct the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles 

 II., in this branch of science. His fidelity and care in 

 the execution of his trust secured to him the esteem 

 of that prince, which continued ever after, though on 

 some occasions prevented from being manifested by 

 the obnoxiousness of his principles. In this year, a 

 more complete edition of his work De Cive was pub- 

 lished in Holland under the care of Dr Sorbiere, to 

 which two recommendatory letters were prefixed, one 

 by Father Mersenne, and another by Gassendi. 



In 1650, his book DC Humiiie was published in Lon- 

 don, containing a developement of his doctrines of 

 sensation, particularly as illustrated by the mechanism 

 of vision, with a dissertation on human speech, intel- 

 lect, appetite, passion, action, and character : also ano- 

 ther work, entitled, De Corpore Politico, or " Elements 

 of Law." In this and the year 1651, he published in 

 London his Leviathan, a work in which his opinions 

 on moral and political subjects were more complete- 

 ly embodied. After the publication of this work, he 

 returned to England, though Cromwell was now at 

 the head of the government, and lived at the Earl of 

 Devonshire's country seat in Derbyshire. It is remark- 

 ed that he lived in communion with a congregn. 

 tion belonging to the church of England, and regularly 

 resorted to their place of worship. His assertion of the 

 royal prerogative was not now construed to his disad- 

 vantage, as he had prudently intimated that his doc- 

 trine was applicable to any individual possessed of su- 

 preme power. 



In 165*, he published his letter on " Liberty and 

 Necessity," which occasioned a long controversy with 

 Dr Bramhall, afterwards lord primate of Ireland. He 

 advocated the doctrine of necessity. He sometimes 

 says he could not help being astonished that those 

 who argue that men can act without constraint, forget 

 that the determination of their actions depends on their 

 will, and that it is not to the actions as separated from 

 the will, but to the laws of the will itself that our in- 

 quiries must be directed. He must be allowed to have 

 added some precision to the nature of the arguments 

 embraced in this controversy. He now began a dis- 

 pute on his part not creditable, with Dr Wallis of Ox- 

 ford, which involved the greater part of mathema- 

 tical science. Not content with attacking the doc- 

 trines of his adversary, he exposes with grovelling 

 minuteness the inaccuracies of his language; and, 

 though afterwards repeatedly refuted to the satisfac- 

 tion of all the mathematicians of the age, he perse- 

 vered with unaccountable obstinacy in asserting his 

 first opinions. 



At the restoration of Charles II. in 1660, Hobbes re- 

 moved to London, where he now reckoned himself 

 safe. In the country, he was possessed of every ad- 

 vantage that books could surply, by the ample library 

 of his patron, which was always enriched with every 

 additional work that he chose to recommend ; but he 

 wished to enjoy the advantages of the conversation of 

 the learned, which he found necessary to his habits of 

 enjoyment, and to the full activity of his talents. Soon 

 after he came to London, the king observed him from 

 his carriage, and renewed his acquaintance with him : 

 He fondly cherished his conversation, and settled on 



him an annual pension of 100. But the personal fa- Hobbe. 

 vour of Charles was not sufficient to screen Hobbes S ~""V^ > '' 

 from the censure of the parliament, which, in 1C66, 

 was publicly pronounced against his book De Cive and 

 the Leviathan. This prince, though fond of absolute 

 power, was a tool of the high church party, to which 

 that controul on the part of the sovereign over ecclesi- 

 astical affairs which Hobbes recommended was ex- 

 tremely obnoxious. They professed the strictest attach- 

 ment to hereditary monarchy, but certainly exacted it 

 as a condition, that the king should maintain their hier- 

 archy and forms as the established religion of the state ; 

 and, if we may judge from subsequent events, would 

 have entertained but feeble objections to any prince 

 capable of being seated firmly on the throne, who would 

 shew himself most cheerful in assenting to this indis- 

 pensible condition. Hobbes maintained, that the na- 

 tural ferocity of man renders it necessary to vest the 

 absolute power in one person, to whom the church and 

 the consciences of the people ought to be subjected. 

 Thus, he made the radical truth of any religious system 

 a matter of little importance. To admit this, would be 

 to acknowledge the church to be wholly a plastic mu- 

 table engine of government, and to compromise the 

 dignity which she always asserts of having her princi- 

 ples founded in immutable truth. A bill was also 

 brought into Parliament to punish atheism and profane- 

 ness, which he considered as aimed at him ; for, though 

 neither atheism nor the denial of Christianity were 

 tenets maintained by him, he knew himself to be ac- 

 cused of them by the general voice, and therefore w;:s 

 somewhat uneasy. On this occasion, apprehending 

 that his house would be searched, and his papers seized, 

 he burned some of them, and particularly one which 

 was the most obnoxious of all, a Latin poem on the en- 

 croachments of the Romish and reformed clergy on 

 the civil power. The king was now obliged to with- 

 draw from him all public expressions of his personal 

 regard. He continued, however, to live in London 

 unmolested ; was held in high esteem among the learn- 

 ed ; and was honoured by the visits of ambassadors and 

 other illustrious foreigners, among whom was Cosmo 

 de Medicis, then prince, and afterwards Duke of Tus- 

 cany, who procured his picture for his cabinet, and a 

 collection of his writings for his magnificent library at 

 Florence, Hobbes had it in contemplation to publish 

 an elegant edition of his Latin works ; but finding it 

 impracticable in London, he had an inferior one exe- 

 cuted at Amsterdam in 1 668. In 1 675, he published 

 his English translation of the Iliad and Odyssey. 



About this time, he took a final leave of London to 

 pass the remainder of his days at the Earl of Devon- 

 shire's seat in Derbyshire, where he continued to prose- 

 cute his studies. In 1676, his dispute with Dr Laney, 

 Bishop of Ely, on liberty and necessity, made its ap- 

 pearance ; and, in 1678, his Decameron Physiolo<ncum, 

 or ten dialogues on natural philosophy ; also, his Art 

 of Rhetoric, and his History of the Civil Wars, from 

 1640 to 1660, which he entitled Behemoth, of the pub- 

 lication of which, however, his friend Charles the II. 

 who saw it in manuscript, did not approve. 



His mental powers continued vigorous till his last 

 illness, and his great delight consisted in exercising 

 them. In his 85th year, he wrote an account of his 

 own life in Latin verse, which evinced considerable 

 activity of mind, though the execution of his task af- 

 forded no bright display of literary taste. In the fol- 

 lowing quaint conceit, for example, he depicts the cir- 

 cumstances of his birth : 



