HOBBES, Thomas, a metaphysical and political writer of the greatest eminence, was born at Malmesbury on the 5th of April 1588. He was the son of a clergyman; and having completed his studies at Oxford, he was appointed governor to the eldest son of William Cavendish, earl of Devonshire. He travelled with that young nobleman through France and Italy, and at length applied himself entirely to the study of literature. He translated Thucydides into English, and in 1628 published his translation, in order to show his countrymen, from the Athenian history, the disorders and confusions of a democratical government. In 1626 his patron the Earl of Devonshire died, and in 1628 the earl’s son also died; a loss which affected Mr Hobbes to such a degree, that he willingly accepted an offer made him of going abroad a second time with the son of Sir Gervase Clifton, whom he accordingly accompanied to France. But whilst he resided there, he was solicited to return to England, and resume his charge of the hope of that family to which he had so early attached himself. In 1631 the Countess Dowager of Devonshire desired to put under his care the young earl, who was then about the age of thirteen. This proved agreeable to the inclinations of Mr Hobbes, who discharged the trust with great diligence and fidelity. In 1634 he republished his translation of Thucydides, and prefixed to it a dedication to that young nobleman, in which he gives a high character of his father, and represents in the strongest terms the obligations he was under to the Devonshire family. The same year he accompanied his pupil to Paris, where he applied his leisure hours to the study of natural philosophy, and more especially to the understanding of mechanism, and the causes of animal motion. Upon these subjects he had frequent conversations with Father Mersenne, a man deservedly celebrated, and who maintained a correspondence with almost all the learned in Europe. From Paris he accompanied his pupil to Italy, where, on visiting Pisa, he became known to Galileo, who freely communicated to him his discoveries; and after having seen all that was remarkable in that country, he returned with the Earl of Devonshire to England. Afterwards, foreseeing the civil wars, he went to seek a retreat at Paris, where, by the good offices of his friend Father Mersenne, he became known to Descartes, and afterwards corresponded with him upon several mathematical subjects, as appears from the letters of Mr Hobbes published in the works of Descartes. But when this philosopher afterwards printed his Meditations, in which he attempted to establish points of the highest consequence, on the assumption of innate ideas, Mr Hobbes took the liberty of dissenting from him; and so also did Gassendi, with whom Mr Hobbes contracted a very intimate friendship, which was not interrupted till the death of the former. In 1642 Mr Hobbes printed a few copies of his book De Give, which, in proportion as it became known, raised him many adversaries, who charged him with instilling principles which had a dangerous tendency. Amongst many illustrious persons who, upon the shipwreck of the royal cause, retired to France for safety, was Sir Charles Cavendish, brother of the Duke of Newcastle; and this gentleman, being skilled in every branch of the mathematics, proved a constant friend and patron of Mr Hobbes, who, having in 1645 embarked in a controversy about squaring the circle, became so celebrated, that in 1647 he was recommended to instruct the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles II., in mathematical learning. His diligence in the discharge of this office gained him the esteem of that prince; and though he afterwards withdrew his public favour from Mr Hobbes on account of his writings, yet he always retained a sense of the services which the latter had rendered him, showed him various marks of favour after the Restoration, and, as some say, had his picture suspended in his closet. This year also was printed in Holland, under the care of Sorbière, a second and more complete edition of the treatise De Cive, to which are prefixed two Latin letters to the editor, the one by Μ. Gassendi, the other by Father Mersenne, in commendation of it; and in 1650 was published at London his small but profound and original treatise on Human Nature, with another De Corpore Politico or on the Elements of the Law.

All this time Mr Hobbes had been occupied in digesting his religious, political, and moral principles into a [7:11:501]complete system, which he called Leviathan, and which was printed in English at London in 1650 and 1651. After the publication of his Leviathan he returned to England, and passed the summer commonly at the scat of his patron the Earl of Devonshire, in Derbyshire, and spent some of his winters in town, where he had as his intimate friends some of the greatest men of the age. Upon the occurrence of the Restoration in 1660, he repaired to London, where he obtained from the king assurance of protection, and had an annual pension of L.100 settled upon him out of the privy purse. Yet even this did not render him entirely safe; for, in the year 1666, his Leviathan and his treatise De Cive were censured by parliament; a circumstance which, taken in connexion with the bringing in of a bill into the House of Commons to punish atheism and profaneness, gave him serious alarm. When the storm had blown over, however, he began to think of publishing a beautiful edition of his pieces in Latin; but finding this impracticable in England, he caused it to be undertaken abroad, where they were published in three volumes quarto in 1668, from the press of John Bleau. In 1669 he was visited by Cosmo de’ Medicis, then prince, and afterwards Duke of Tuscany, who gave him ample proofs of esteem and respect, and having rer ceived his picture, with a complete collection of his writings, caused them to be deposited, the former amongst his curiosities, and the latter in his noble library at Florence. He received similar visits from foreign ambassadors and other strangers of distinction, who were curious to see a person whose singular opinions and numerous writings had made so much noise all over Europe. In 1672 he wrote his own life in Latin verse, when he had completed his eighty-fourth year; and, in 1674, he published, in English verse, four books of Homer’s Odyssey, which was so well received, that it encouraged him to undertake the whole Iliad and Odyssey, both of which he translated and published in 1675. About this time he took leave of London, and went to spend the remainder of his days in Derbyshire. He died on the 4th of December 1679, aged ninety-two.

As to his deportment and manners, they are thus described by Dr White Kennet, in his Memoirs of the Cavendish family. “The Earl of Devonshire,” says he, “for his whole life entertained Mr Hobbes in his family, as his old tutor rather than as his friend or confidant. He let him live under his roof in ease and plenty, and in his own way, without making use of him in any public, or so much as domestic affairs. He would frequently put off the mention of his name, and say, ζ He was a humorist, and nobody could account for him.’ There is a tradition in the family, of the manners and customs of Mr Hobbes, somewhat observable. His professed rule of health was to dedicate the morning to his exercise, and the afternoon to his studies. And therefore, at his first rising, he walked out, and climbed any hill within his reach; or, if the weather was not dry, he fatigued himself within doors by some exercise or other, to be in a sweat; recommending that practice upon this opinion, that an old man had more moisture than heat, and therefore by such motion heat was to be acquired and moisture expelled. After this, he took a comfortable breakfast; and then went round the lodgings to wait upon the earl, the countess, and the children, and any considerable strangers, paying some short addresses to all of them. He kept these rounds till about twelve o’clock, when he had a little dinner provided for him, which he ate always by himself without ceremony, ⅛oon after dinner he retired to his study, and had his candle, with ten or twelve pipes of tobacco laid by him; then shutting his door, he fell to smoking, thinking, and writing for several hours. He retained a friend or two at court, and especially the Lord Arlington, to protect him d occasion should require. He used to say, that it was lawful to make use of ill instruments to do ourselves good: ‘ If I were cast,’ says he, ‘ into a deep pit, and the devil should put down his cloven foot, I would take hold of it to be drawn out by it.’ After the Restoration, he watched all opportunities to ingratiate himself with the king and his prime ministers; and looked upon his pension to be more valuable, as an earnest of favour and protection, than upon any other account. His future course of life was to be free from danger. He could not endure to be left in an empty house. Whenever the earl removed, he would go along with him, even to his last stage, from Chatsworth to Hardwick. When he was in a very weak condition, he dared not to be left behind, but made his way upon a feather-bed in a coach, though he survived the journey but a few days. He could not bear any discourse of death, and seemed to cast off all thoughts of it. He delighted to reckon upon longer life. The winter before he died, he made a warm coat, which he said must last him three years, and then he would have such another. In his last sickness his frequent questions were, Whether his disease was curable? and when intimations were given that he might have ease, but no remedy, he used this expression, ‘ I shall be glad to find a hole to creep out of the world at ;’ which are reported to have been his last sensible words; and his lying some days following in a silent stupefaction, did seem owing to his mind more than to his body.”

Lord Clarendon says of him, that he “was a man for whom he had a great esteem, and who was always regarded as a person of probity, and of a life free from scandal.” As to his character as a philosopher and political writer, it is only necessary here to refer to the admirable sections regarding him in the Dissertations by Mr Stewart and Sir James Mackintosh, prefixed to this work. A collection of his “moral and political” writings, comprised in a folio volume, was published at London in the year 1750.