The sun., 1904-08-21
THE SUN. SUNDAY. AUGUST 81. 1904.

have named two other friends Of Hobbies
Harvey and Selden. OF the former. who's
Ediscovery Of the circulation OF the bloot
had been published in 1919, Hobbies Away
spoke with profound admiration. The ac
quaintance with Selden began by Hobbes''
i sending him copy Of the "Leviathan.
According to Baxter, who alleges the au
] thority Of Sir Matthew Hale for the story
. Selden on one occasion attacked Hobbes'i
sceptical opinions 80 forcibly as to drive
| him out of the room. According TO Aubrey
on the other hand, Hobbies dissuaded Selder
| from sending for a clergyman when he was
dying. what" he is supposed to have
| said, will you that have wrote like man
! now die like a woman?"
For some years after his return to Eng
land Hobbies was involved in bitter con-
troversy with the Oxford professors, Wallis
and Ward, who were leaders in the re-
markable group Of men interested In science,
including Robert Boyle, Christopher Wren
and Petty. Unfortunately for Hobbies, in
the book DE Corpore. published in Latin
in 1856. wherein he undertook to set forth
the scientific foundations Of his philosophy,
he had allotted a chapter to an alleged
circle. or. in other words had solved the
problem which had baft1ed geometers
from Archimedes downward Wallis found
it easy to show that he had made an eyre
gious failure. When the Royal Society
was founded, in 1892 Hobbies was not in
vited to join body of which his antagonists
were leading members. Hobbies increased
the disrepute in which he stood among the
1rlt- IL
that with Bishop Bramhall, in which the
subjects Of discussion were fixed fate,
free will, foreknowledge absolute In
1855 the widespread animosity of the clergy
against man whom they stigmatized as
an atheist" was embodied by the House Of
Commons in a bill which authorized a
committee to receive information touching
such books as tend to atheism, blasphemy
and profaneness, and in particular the
book of Mr.. Hobbies called the -Levia-
than"
Hobbies was greatly terrified at the pros
pect of being treated as a hereto, and
hastened to burn such papers as he thought
might prove compromising; but the only
outcome Of the Parliamentary scare was
that he never afterward could get per-
mission to print anything on subjects re-
lating to human conduct. The collected
edition OF his Latin works appeared at
Amsterdam in 1888. because he could not
obtain license for its publication in Eng
land. Other writings on contr ques-
tions, which he had finished or on which he
must have been engaged. were not made
public until after his death, the King, ap-
parently, having stipulated as the price Of
his protection that no fresh provocation
should be offered to the popular sentiment.
Amid such troubles, Hobbies was not with
out consolation. He was better known
and more admired abroad than any other
Of his day, and foreigners,
noble or learned, who came to England,
never forgot to pay their respects to the old
man whose vigor Of intellect no progress of
years seemed able to quench. Moreover,
the favor Of the King made Hobbesism
fashionable creed, even at the English
Court. Charles H.. il he had ever himself
the apparent disloyalty Of the
conclusion Of -Leviathan," had not retained
the feeling long, and could appreciate the
principles Of the book when the applica-
ton of them happened to be turned in his
own favor. He had, besides, relish for his
former tutors lively wit; and did not like :
the old man the less because his presence
at Court scandalized Bishops and such ,
staid men as Clarendon. He had H Hobbes's !
portrait hung up in the royal closet, and went !
10 the length of bestowing on the philos-
opher Though he did not always pay iD a
yearly pension Of f1O0.