viathan, which appeared in 1550-1; but, on accidentally seeing him some years after, his majesty's regard for him returned, and he settled upon him a pension of one hundred pounds per annum from his privy purse.

At this period, he commonly passed his summers at Chatsworth, the seat of the earl of Devonshire, in Derbyshire, and his winters in town, where he associated with most of the greatest men of the age, among whom may be mentioned Dr. Harvey, Selden, and Cowley. As an instance of the high consideration in which Hobbes was held by his cotemporaries, he was visited, in 1669, by Cosmo de Medicis, then prince, and afterwards grand duke of Tuscany, who, among other marks of esteem and admiration, received his picture, with a complete collection of his works, which he caused to be reposited in his library at FloHe died in 1679, at the great age

rence.

ninety-twe years.

of

1. The first work given by Hobbes to the public, was his Translation of Thucydides, first published in 1628. This was undertaken with the laudable desire of preventing those disturbances which he already apprehended, by shewing the fatal consequences of intestine di

visions; and is still regarded as an excellent translation of that admirable historian; indeed, it has been affirmed to be the best translation of any Greek writer extant. It is of importance too, as it relates particularly to Hobbes; for, it is asserted by Dr. Tennison, (afterwards archbishop of Canterbury,) one of the ablest, as well as the most candid of Hobbes's antagonists, that he derived his fundamental maxims in politics from the oration of Euphemus, in the sixth book of the History of Thucydides.

2. His next work was his book De Cive, written in Latin, as an antidote to those democratical opinions which began now to prevail, and which he deemed subversive of all order and peace in society. He had the hope, too, that it might contribute to appease those popular discontents already kindled in Scotland, and which had begun to spread with inflammatory violence towards the south. Its Latin title was, Elementa Philosophica de Cive. Auctore Thom. Hobbes, Malmesburiensis. In the English translation, the more enlarged title is as follows:

Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society; or, a Dissertation concerning Man in his several habitudes and respects, as the member of a society, first se

cular and then sacred: containing the Elements of Civil Polity, in the agreement which it hath both with natural and divine laws; in which is demonstrated, both what the origin of Justice is, and wherein the Christian Religion doth consist; together with the natural limits and qualifications both of regimen and subjection." The book is dedicated to William earl of Devonshire, and the dedication is curious, as explaining by what train of reasoning he was led to these enquiries. It is valuable, too, as characteristic of the man, and of that philosophical spirit by which he was distinguished. After pointing out the great advantages which mathematicians derive from their skilful method of prosecuting their enquiries, he affirms, that the inferior success of moralists has arisen chiefly from their adopting a different and less perfect method:

For (says he) we may not as in a circle, begin the handling of a science from what point we please. There is a certain clue of reason, whose beginning is in the dark, but, by the benefit of whose conduct, we are led, as it were by the hand, into the clearest light; so that the principal of tractation is to be taken from that darkness, and then the light to be carried thither

for the irradiating its doubts. As often, therefore, as any writer doth either weakly forsake that clue, or wilfully cut it asunder, he describes the footsteps, not of his progress in science, but of his wanderings from it. And upon this it was, that when I applied my thoughts to the investigation of natural justice, I was presently advertised from the very word justice, which signifies a steady will to give every one his own; that my first enquiry was to be, from whence it proceeded that any man should call any thing rather his own than another man's; and when I found that this proceeded not from nature, but consent, for what nature at first laid forth in common, men did afterwards distribute into several impropriations; I was conducted from thence into another enquiry, namely, to what end, and upon what impulsives, when all was equally every man's in common, men did rather think it fitting that every man should have his inclosure; and I found the reason was, that from a community of goods, there must needs arise contention whose enjoyment should be greater, and from that contention all kind of calamities must unavoidably ensue, which, by the instinct of nature, every man is taught to shun. Having, therefore, thus arrived at twą maxims of human nature, the one arising from the concupiscible part, which desires to appropriate to itself the use of those things in which all others have a joint interest; the other proceeding from the ra

tional, which teaches every man to fly a contra-natural dissolution as the greatest mischief that can arrive to nature; which principals being laid down, I seem from them to have demonstrated by a most evident connection, in this little work of mine, first the absolute necessity of leagues and contracts, and thence the rudiments both of moral and civil prudence. That appendage, which is added, concerning the regimen of God, hath been done with this intent, that the dictates of God Almighty, in the law of nature, might not seem repugnant to the written law, revealed to us in his word. I have also been very wary in the whole tenor of my discourse, not to meddle with the civil laws of any particular nation whatsoever; that is to say, I have avoided coming on a shore which the times have so infested with shelves and tempests. At what expence of time and industry I have been, in this scrutiny after truth, I am not ignorant, but to what purpose I know not: for, being partial judges of ourselves, wẹ lay a partial estimate upon our own productions. I therefore offer up this book to your lordship's, not favour, but censure; first, as having found, by many experiments, that it is not the credit of the author, nor the newness of the work, nor yet the ornament of the style, but only the weight of reason which recommends any opinion to your lordship's favour and approbation. If it fortune to please, that is to