70 



HOBBES. 



Hobbe*. and the Protestant clergy to submit to some rite which 

 '"""Y""" would proclaim him a believer in their respective sys- 

 tem.', and told them, that if they did not desist, he 

 would expose the impostures of their whole fraternity 

 from Aaron downwards. 



It is with the writings of Hobbes, and the opinions 

 which he circulated, that the public is chiefly concern- 

 ed. His writings were fitted to make a powerful im- 

 pression at the time at which they appeared ; but the 

 character of society has subsequently so much changed, 

 that they are now comparatively of little interest. Mis 

 small treatise De Homine is regarded by the philoso- 

 phical world as the best of his works. In this he, in 

 some degree, advanced the science of optics, then in a 

 rude state. His notions, though crude and inaccurate, 

 are ingenious and interesting. His moral observations 

 sometimes breathe the sage spirit of Aristotle. At one 

 time he, like that author, condenses his meaning in a 

 few words ; at another he suddenly deviates into a style 

 of extreme expansion. This chiefly happens when he 

 applies his doctrines to the opinions and transactions 

 of his own times. A celebrated living author ( Profes- 

 sor Stewart) justly remarks, that Hobbes, whether right 

 or wrong, never fails to set his reader a-thinking, 

 which is the most indubitable proof of original genius. 



To attempt to collect a system of moral, political 

 and religious doctrine from his works, would now ap- 

 pear ludicrous In some parts his inquiries are shal- 

 low and deficient, most especially in his investiga- 

 tions of our ideas of morality and justice. He consi- 

 ders a regard for personal advantage as the only law 

 of man -in a state of natural liberty, and represents all 

 the obligations of justice and good conduct to our fel 

 ( , lows as the consequence of civil contracts formed un- 

 der the influence of individual prudence. The laws, 

 he says, are the foundation of justice: before them 

 justice and injustice are unmeaning words. If this 

 view of things had been advanced only as a general 

 description of the actual condition of man under a to- 

 tal want of laws, as well as the absence of generous 

 or deliberate reflection, and if he had considered pac- 

 tions and civil institutions as the means by which men 

 agree to execute beneficial ends, he could not have 

 been greatly blamed ; but he regards even eivil com- 

 pacts as the sole effect of the regard of each man for 

 his own safety ; and such feelings of kindness and 

 compassion as most loudly proclaim the social virtues 

 to be a part of our original nature, are represented as 

 arising solely from a reflection on the possibility that 

 exists of experiencing in our own persons the evils which 

 we deplore in others. 



In forming this, and some other views, he appears to 

 have been led astray by the desire of giving what ap- 

 peared to him a palpable account of human aff lirs ; but 

 it partakes too much of those gross maxims which 

 sometimes indecently obtrude on our -notice both 

 in conversation and books, which foster our worst 

 passions by boldly representing them as the neces- 

 sary springs of human conduct. No doctrines can 

 have a more destructive influence on those finer feel- 

 ings which arc connected with just reflection and the 

 encouragement of exalting sympathies, but which re- 

 quire to be delicately cherished if they are to be pre- 

 served from pollution and degradation. The same love 

 of palpability seems to have been the origin of that sys- 

 tem of materialism, or rather that preference of the 

 language of materialists, which appeared in tire expla- 

 nations which Hobbes gave of the origin and laws of 



thought. By representing justice as founded on positive Hobbe*. 

 law, he overturns the principles, of jurisprudence itself, N "T"* ' 

 which must precede law, and determine the propriety 

 of institutions. If he acknowledged the preservation of 

 the general welfare to be a valuable end, it was certain- 

 ly paradoxical to deny that a man, on his first interview 

 with a stranger on an unknown shore, previously to 

 the establishment of any mutual understanding, is un 

 der obligations to cultivate personal kindness, and to 

 abstain from violence arid domination. The boundaries 

 of these early feelings, and the modes in which they 

 may be best expressed, are not indeed easily defined, 

 especially if we encounter distraction from the circum- 

 stance of a numerous population. Therefore it ap- 

 peared the easiest method to pronounce them arbitrary, 

 and in no degree binding, compared to declared pra- 

 mises, compacts, and promulgated laws. But men may 

 differ both about the formation and the execution of 

 laws, and how are their differences to be decided ? 

 " They must," says Hobbes, " choose a sovereign power, 

 and to this their whole interests are at once committed." 

 Such is the origin of regal government ; and from this 

 simple fact he draws the monstrous conclusion, that 

 kings can do no wrong ; that tiiey must never be re- 

 sisted ; and that to their hands the lives, properties, 

 and consciences of the members of a state must be per. 

 petually and unconditionally entrusted. That such will 

 be the state of mankind, if they are barbarous in their 

 character, jarring in their views, or bereft of spirit ; that 

 it will even be worse than this, if they are subjugated by 

 the power of a brutal master, who feels no obligation to 

 consult their welfare farther than as it is subservient to 

 his imagined interest or the gratification of his caprice, is 

 a fact too often exemplified in the history of the world : 

 but to erect it into a principle that this ousjd to be the 

 case, and that no efforts of mankind should be directed 

 to the formation of any better state of society, is an 

 idea which, in a reflecting mind like that of Hobbes, 

 could enly be generated by the miserable dissensions 

 by which he was surrounded. In the days of Crom- 

 well anil the Charles's, the spirit of intolerance was ac- 

 tive, extravagance contended with extravagance, and 

 there seemed to be no possibility of terminating the 

 scene of violence by a temperate discussion of princi- 

 ples, or a mutual adjustment of views ; it was therefore 

 necessary to still the passions by some powerful agent. 

 The agent that occurred to Hobbes as. the most suit- 

 able, was the exertion of absolute authority in the hands 

 of the chief magistrate, and the perpetual establish- 

 ment of this power seemed necessary for the prevention 

 of future troubles. As a temporary expedient, he 

 might have been pardoned for advancing such a posi- 

 tion, even by those Who di*sented from him ; but when 

 he erects it into a universal principle, he must be re- 

 garded as an aggressor of the rights and interests of so- 

 ciety, and a deliberate apologist of tyranny. 



In theology Hobbes speculated with equal infelicity. 

 Insensible both of tiie mysterious mture of his subject, 

 and the reverence which it required, he examined it 

 with a minute and daring curiosity, and pronounced 

 his opinions in the same dogmatic spirit which charac- 

 terises his other discussions. To retail his notions 

 would be superfluous. Let it suffice to mention that, in 

 conformity with his general theory of right and wrong, 

 he asserts that the attribute of justice has no meaning as 

 applied to the divine Being, who possesses uncontrol- 

 led power, and is not accountable to any superior. His 

 comments on scripture cannot be read with interest by 



