214 
HOB 
afterwards earl of Devonlhire, in the capacity of tutor to 
his foil William, lord Cavendifh, with whom he made 
the tour of France and Italy. This opportunity of feeing 
the celebrated monuments of antiquity, converfing with 
learned men, becoming acquainted with the policy and 
manners of foreign ftates, and learning their languages, 
Mr. Hobbes alliduoufly improved ; and he continued all 
his life long to be patronized and protected by the illuf- 
trious Devonihire family. 
In 1605, Mr. Hobbes pubiilhed a fmall treatife entitled. 
Human Nature, which Mr. Addifon pronounces to be 
his belt work ; and another, entitled, De Corpore Politico, 
or, Elements of the Law. He had alfo been for a confi- 
derable time employed in digefting his religious, moral, 
and political, principles into a fyllem, which was pub¬ 
iilhed at London, in 1651, in folio, under the title of Le¬ 
viathan ; or, the Matter, Form, and Power, of a Common¬ 
wealth, ecclefialtical and civil. In this work, in eltablilh- 
ing a lyftem of civil policy, he reprefents man as an un- 
tameable be'afr of prey, and government as the ftrong 
chain by which he is to be kept from mifchief. It is a 
learned and ingenious performance, and contains many 
found and important obfervations on the principles of go¬ 
vernment ; but at the fame time it abounds in extravagant, 
paradoxical, and dangerous, notions, tending to confound 
all diftinftion between right and wrong, and indirectly to 
undermine the foundations of all religion, natural and 
revealed. Upon its publication, the whole body of the 
Englilh clergy took the alarm ; and the author was not 
only fufpefted to be inimical to the caule of revelation, 
but in policy to favour the caufe of democracy. The in¬ 
dignation which it excited amonglt them, however, was 
probably in a great meafure owing to the freedom with 
which it inveighs againft ecclefialtical tyranny. In 1654, 
he pubiilhed his Letter upon Liberty and Neceflity, which 
occafioned along controverfy between him and Dr. Bram- 
hall, bilhop of Londonderry, and afterwards lord primate 
of Ireland. About the fame time he publifhed Elanento- 
Tum Philofophice, Seclio prima , de Corpore , 8vo, which occa¬ 
fioned a controverfy for upwards of twenty years between 
the author and Dr. Wallis, Savilian profelfor of geometry 
at Oxford, and in which he had the misfortune to have 
all the mathematicians againft him. To complete his body 
of philofophy, he pubiilhed, in 1658, A Differtation on 
Man, in which he advanced many lingular opinions con¬ 
cerning the intellectual and moral powers of human na¬ 
ture. Upon the reftoration of Charles II. Mr. Hobbes 
was particularly noticed by the king, who fettled a pen- 
fion upon him of one hundred pounds per annum, out of 
his privy purfe. Yet this proteftion djd not render him 
fecure from attacks ; for, in 1666, his Leviathan was cen- 
fured by parliament, which alarmed him much; and it is 
luppofed to have been on this occafion that he compofed 
his very learned and ingenious Hiftorical Narration con¬ 
cerning Herefy, and the Punifhment thereof; with the 
view of demonftrating that he could not be legally punilhed 
for herefy, in writing and publilhjng his Leviathan. He 
now entertained the defign of colle6ting and publilhing a 
beautiful edition of his Elementa Philofophica de Cive, and 
fuch other of his pieces as were in Latin 5 but, owing to 
the vigilance of the clergy, he found it impracticable in 
England, and therefore lent them to Amfterdam, where 
an entire edition of them was pubiilhed, in 1668, in 4to. 
Whilft the writings of Hobbes were reprobated by the 
general body of the clergy, and occafioned many learned 
and able replies, they were not without their admirers, 
both at home and abroad. Foreigners of the hr ft diftinc- 
tion vinted the author, among whom was Cofmo De Me- 
dicis, then prince of Tulcany, who gave him ample marks 
of his efteem and refpeft ; and having received his picture, 
and a complete collection of his writings, ordered the 
former to be depofited among his curiofities, and the lat¬ 
ter to be added to his celebrated library at Florence. Si¬ 
milar vilit^ .were paid him by feveral foreign ambafladors, 
and othqr perlbns of diftinftion, who were curious to fee 
B E S* 
a perfon, whofe fmgular opinions and numerous writings 
had made fo much noife all over Europe. 
In 1672, Mr. Hobbes wrote his own Life, in Latin 
verfe, when, as he obferves, he had completed his eighty- 
fourth year ; in which, whatever may be thought of the 
poetry, there is much wit difplayed, as well as a fufficient 
portion of vanity. In 1674., he pubiilhed a tranllation, in 
Englilh verfe, of four books of Homer’s Odyfley ; which 
were fo well received by the public, that he was encou¬ 
raged to undertake a verfion of the whole Iliad, and the 
remaining books of the Odyfley. This talk he completed, 
and pubiilhed his work in 1675. Of this performance 
Mr. Pope, in the preface to his own tranllation of the 
Iliad, fays, that the author has given a correft explanation, 
of the fenfe in general, but for particulars and circum- 
ftances he often omits the moll beautiful. His verifica¬ 
tion, however, is fo bad, that his tranllation is entirely 
fallen into negleft, though it was lb much efteemed in 
his own time, that in lefs than ten years it palled through 
three large editions. Before the appearance of this work, 
in 1674, Mr Hobbes had taken his leave of London, and 
retired to fpend the remainder of his days in Derbylhire. 
In this fituation, however, he ftill continued to prol’ecutc 
his ftudies with unwearied application, and fent into the 
world more productions of his pen. In 1676, he printed 
his difpute with Dr. Benjamin Laney, bilhop of Ely, con¬ 
cerning Liberty and Neceflity ; and in 1678, he pubiilhed 
his Decameron Phyfiologicum , or Ten Dialogues of Natural 
Philofophy. About the fame time he put the laft hand 
to a work formerly pubiilhed, though without his name, 
entitled, The Art of Rhetoric, collected from Ariftotle 
and Ramus 5 to which he added a book, compofed fome 
years before, entitled, A Dialogue between a Philofopher 
and a Student of the Common Law of England. In 1679, 
he fent another book, entitled, Behemoth, or, a Hiftory 
of the Civil Wars from 1640 to 1660, to the prefs. The 
work made its appearance loon after the author’s death, 
and is written in the form of a dialogue, in a perfpicuous 
and accurate ftyle. A few months after he had fent this 
work to the prefs, Mr. Hobbes was afflifted with a fup- 
prefiion of urine ; and he died on the 4th of December, 
1679, in the ninety-fecond year of his age. 
The following pofltions, chiefly felefted from his Le¬ 
viathan, may ferve as a fpecimen of his philofophy. “ All 
knowledge originates in lbnfation, and is produced by the 
preflure, either immediate or mediate, of external objefts 
upon the fenfes. Senfible qualities are, in their objects, 
nothing more than the motion of matter operating vari- 
oully upon the organs of fenfation. Imagination and me¬ 
mory are the permanent effefts of former impreflions upon 
the fenfes. Thinking is the fucceflion of one imagina¬ 
tion after another, which may be either irregular, or re¬ 
gulated with a view to fome end. Every conception, be¬ 
ing derived from the fenfes, is finite ; we have, therefore, 
no idea of infinity, and God is an objeft, not of appre- 
henlicn, but of reverence. No one can conceive of any 
thing but as exifting in fome place, of fome finite magni¬ 
tude, and divilible into parts ; nor can any thing be 
wholly in one place and wholly in another at the lame 
time, or two or more things be at the fame time in,the 
fame place. Truth and fallenood are attributes, not of 
things, but of language* The intellect peculiar to man 
is a faculty arifing from l'peech ; and the ule of reafon is 
the deduction of remote confequences from the definitions 
of terms. Science is the knowledge of thefe confequences. 
There are in animals two kinds of motion, one vital and 
involuntary, the other animal and voluntary. The latter,, 
if it tends towards an objeft, is appetite ; if it recedes, 
from it, averfion : and the objeft in the former cafe is 
faid to be good, in the latter, evil. Appetite is attended 
with pleaiure, averfion with pain. In deliberation, the 
laft impulfe of the appetite is will ; fuccefs in attaining 
its objeft, enjoyment. Moral equalities are tliofe by which 
the peace and lecurity of the ftate are preferved. Felicity 
confifts not in tranquility, but in a perpetual progrexs 
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