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 pro ́ceeded 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 contertion all kind of calamities must unavoidably ensue, which, by the instinct of nature, every man is taught to shun. Having, therefore, thus arrived at two 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, we lay a partial estimate upon our own productions. Į 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

say, if it be sound, if it be useful, if it be not vulgar, I humbly offer it to your lordship, as both my glory and my protection. But if in any thing I have erred, your lordship will yet accept it as a testimony of my gratitude; for that the means of study, which I enjoyed by your lordship's goodness, I have employed in the procurement of your lordship's favour. The God of Heaven crown your lordship with length of days in this earthly station, and in the Heavenly Jerusalem with a crown of glory.

3. In 1650, Hobbes published at London his treatise of " Human Nature."

4. The same year also appeared a larger treatise, entitled De Corpore Politico; or, Of the Body Politic.

5. In the mean time, he was digesting, with great care, the whole body of his principles, religious, moral, and political, into one complete system, which he published under the title of" Leviathan; or the Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth, ecclesiastical and civil."-Lond. 1651, folio.

This important work is divided into four parts. The first treats of man in the abstract. The second regards him as a member of a commonwealth. The third examines the nature

of a christian commonwealth. The fourth is entitled, The Kingdom of Darkness.-The extracts will be too short to give a complete view of the peculiar principles of Hobbes; I shall, however, attempt it as far as my plan will admit. He observes in his introduction:

Nature (the art whereby God hath made and governs the world) is by the art of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an artificial animal: for seeing life is but a motion of limbs, the beginning whereof is in some principal part within; why may we not say, that all automata (engines that move themselves by springs and wheels, as doth a watch) have an artificial life? For what is the heart but a spring, and the nerves but so many strings, and the joints but so many wheels, giving motion to the whole body, such as was intended by the artificer? Art goes yet further, imitating that rational and most excellent work of nature, man; for by art is created that great leviathan, called a Commonwealth, or State, (in Latin Civitas) which is but an artificial man, though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which the sovereignty is an artificial soul, as giving life and motion to the whole body; the magistrates and other officers of judicature and execution, artifi

cial joints; reward and punishment (by which fastened to the seat of the sovereignty, every joint and member is moved to perform his duty,) are the nerves, that do the same in the body natural; the wealth and riches of all the particular members, are the strength; salus populi (the people's safety) its business; counsellors, by whom all things needful for it to know are suggested unto it, are the memory; equity and laws, an artificial reason and will; concord health; sedition, sickness; and civil war, death. Lastly, the pacts and covenants, by which the parts of this body politic were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that fiat, or "let us make man," pronounced by God in the creation.

To describe the nature of this artificial man, I will consider, first, the matter thereof, and the artificer; both which is man. Second, how and by what covenants it is made; what are the rights and just power or authority of a sovereign; and what it is that preserveth and dissolveth it. Third, what is a christian commonwealth. Fourth, and lastly, what is the kingdom of darkness.

Of the first and second Natural Laws. Chap. 14.

The right of nature, which writers commonly call jus naturale, is the liberty each man hath to use his