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THE
ENGLISH WORKS
OF
THOMAS HOBBES.
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THE
ENGLISH WORKS
OF
THOMAS HOBBES
OF MALMESBURY;
NOW FIRST COLLECTED AND EDITED
BY
SIR WILLIAM MOLESWORTH, BART.
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VOL. IV.
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LONDON:
JOHN BOHN,
HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
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MDCCCXL.
LONDON:
C. RICHARDS, PRINTER, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
CONTENTS OF VOL. IV.
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PAGE
TRIPOS; in Three Discourses:
I. Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy 1
II. De Corpore Politico, or the Elements of Law 77
III. Of Liberty and Necessity 229
An Answer to Bishop Bramhall’s Book, called “The Catching of the
Leviathan” 279
An Historical Narration concerning Heresy, and the Punishment
thereof 385
Considerations upon the Reputation, Loyalty, Manners, and
Religion of Thomas Hobbes 409
Answer to Sir William Davenant’s Preface before “Gondibert” 441
Letter to the Right Honourable Edward Howard 458
HOBBES' TRIPOS
IN
=Three Discourses.=
THE FIRST,
HUMAN NATURE:
THE SECOND,
DE CORPORE POLITICO:
THE THIRD,
OF LIBERTY AND NECESSITY.
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BY
THOMAS HOBBES
OF MALMESBURY.
HUMAN NATURE,
OR THE
FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS
OF
POLICY.
BEING A DISCOVERY OF
THE FACULTIES, ACTS, AND PASSIONS,
OF
THE SOUL OF MAN,
FROM THEIR ORIGINAL CAUSES;
ACCORDING TO SUCH
PHILOSOPHICAL PRINCIPLES,
AS ARE NOT COMMONLY KNOWN OR ASSERTED.
BY
THOMAS HOBBES
OF MALMESBURY.
TO THE READER.
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READER,
It was thought good to let you know that _Mr. Hobbes_ hath written a
body of philosophy, upon such principles and in such order as are used
by men conversant in demonstration: this he hath distinguished into
three parts; _De Corpore_, _De Homine_, _De Cive_; each of the
consequents beginning at the end of the antecedent, and insisting
thereupon, as the later Books of _Euclid_ upon the former. The last of
these he hath already published in Latin beyond the seas; the second is
this now presented: and if these two receive justice in the world, there
is hope we may obtain the first. He whose care it is, and labour, to
satisfy the _judgment_ and _reason_ of mankind, will condescend so far,
we hope, to satisfy the _desire_ of those learned men whom these shall
either have found or made; which cannot be, until they shall
analytically have followed the grand _phænomena_ of states and kingdoms
through the passions of particular men, into the elemental principles of
natural and corporeal motions. The former work was published by the
Author, and so is out of danger; this by a friend, with leave from him:
and to secure this, you are intreated to consider the relations wherein
it stands, especially to the book _de Cive_. It was thought a part of
religion, not to make any change without the author’s advice, which
could not suddenly be obtained; and so it comes forth innocently,
supposing nothing to have happened since the Dedication of it; which if
it seem a solecism to some, it may to others give satisfaction, in
calling to mind those times and opportunities to which we are indebted
for these admirable compositions.
F. B.
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TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
WILLIAM, EARL OF NEWCASTLE,
GOVERNOR TO THE PRINCE HIS HIGHNESS,
ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL.
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MY MOST HONOURED LORD,
From the principal parts of Nature, Reason and Passion, have proceeded
two kinds of learning, _mathematical_ and _dogmatical_: the former is
free from controversy and dispute, because it consisteth in comparing
figure and motion only; in which things, _truth_, and _the interest of
men_, oppose not each other: but in the other there is nothing
undisputable, because it compareth men, and meddleth with their right
and profit; in which, as oft as reason is against a man, so oft will a
man be against reason. And from hence it cometh, that they who have
written of justice and policy in general, do all invade each other and
themselves with contradictions. To reduce this doctrine to the rules and
infallibility of reason, there is no way, but, first, put such
principles down for a foundation, as passion, not mistrusting, may not
seek to displace; and afterwards to build thereon the truth of cases in
the law of nature (which hitherto have been built in the air) by
degrees, till the whole have been inexpugnable. Now, my Lord, the
principles fit for such a foundation, are those which heretofore I have
acquainted your Lordship withal in private discourse, and which by your
command I have here put into a method. To examine cases thereby between
_sovereign_ and _sovereign_, or between _sovereign_ and _subject_, I
leave to them that shall find leisure and encouragement thereto. For my
part, I present this to your Lordship for the true and only foundation
of such science. For the style, it is therefore the worse, because,
whilst I was writing, I consulted more with logic than with rhetoric:
but for the doctrine, it is not slightly proved; and the conclusions
thereof of such nature, as, for want of them, government and peace have
been nothing else, to this day, but mutual fears; and it would be an
incomparable benefit to commonwealth, that every one held the opinion
concerning _law_ and _policy_ here delivered. The ambition therefore of
this book, in seeking by your Lordship’s countenance to insinuate itself
with those whom the matter it containeth most nearly concerneth, is to
be excused. For myself, I desire no greater honour than I enjoy already
in your Lordship’s favour, unless it be that you would be pleased, in
continuance thereof, to give me more exercise in your commands; which,
as I am bound by your many great favours, I shall obey, being,
My most honoured Lord,
Your most humble and most obliged Servant,
THOMAS HOBBES.
_May 9, 1640._
IN LIBELLUM PRÆSTANTISSIMI
THOMÆ HOBBII,
VIRI VERE PHILOSOPHI,
“DE NATURA HOMINIS.”
Quæ magna cœli mœnia, et tractus maris
Terræque fines, siquid aut ultra est, capit,
Mens ipsa tandem capitur: omnia hactenus
Quæ nosse potuit, nota jam primum est sibi.
Accede, Lector, disce quis demum sies;
Et inquilinam jecoris agnoscas tui,
Qua propius hæret nil tibi, et nil tam procul.
Non hic scholarum frivola, aut cassi logi,
Quales per annos forte plus septem legit;
Ut folle pleno prodeat, rixæ artifex;
Vanasque merces futili lingua crepet:
Sed sancta rerum pondera, et sensus graves,
Quales parari decuit, ipsa cum fuit
Pingenda ratio, et vindici suo adstitit.
Panduntur omnes machinæ gyri tuæ,
Animæque vectes, trochleæ, cunei, rotæ;
Qua concitetur arte, quo sufflamine
Sistatur illa rursus, et constet sibi:
Nec, si fenestram pectori humano suam
Aptasset ipse Momus, inspiceret magis.
Hic cerno levia affectuum vestigia,
Gracilesque sensus lineas; video quibus
Vehantur alis blanduli cupidines,
Quibusque stimulis urgeant iræ graves.
Hic et dolores, et voluptates suos
Produnt recessus; ipse nec timor latet.
Has norit artes, quisquis in foro velit
Animorum habenas flectere, et populos cupit
Aptis ligatos nexibus jungi sibi.
Hic Archimedes publicus figat pedem,
Siquando regna machinis politicis
Urgere satagit, et feras gentes ciet,
Imisque motum sedibus mundum quatit:
Facile domabit cuncta, qui menti imperat.
Consultor audax, et Promethei potens
Facinoris anime! quis tibi dedit Deus
Hæc intueri sæculis longe abdita,
Oculosque luce tinxit ambrosia tuos?
Tu mentis omnis, at tuæ nulla est capax.
Hac laude solus fruere: divinum est opus
Animam creare; proximum huic, ostendere.
RAD. BATHURST, A.M.
COL. TRIN. OXON.
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HUMAN NATURE:
OR THE
FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS
OF POLICY.
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CHAPTER I.
[Sidenote: Introduction.]
1. The true and perspicuous explication of the elements of _laws
natural and politic_ (_which is my present scope_) dependeth upon
the knowledge of what is _human nature_, what is _body politic_, and
what it is we call a _law_; concerning which points, as the
_writings_ of men from antiquity downwards have still increased, so
also have the _doubts_ and _controversies_ concerning the same: and
seeing that true knowledge begetteth not doubt nor controversy, but
knowledge, it is manifest from the present controversies, that they,
which have _heretofore_ written thereof, have not well understood
their own subject.
2. _Harm_ I can do none, though I err no less than they; for I shall
leave men but as they are, in doubt and dispute: but, intending not
to take any principle upon _trust_, but only to put men in mind of
what they _know already_, or _may know_ by their own experience, I
hope to err the less; and when I do, it must proceed from too _hasty
concluding_, which I will endeavour as much as I can to avoid.
3. On the other side, if _reasoning aright_ win not _consent_, which
may very easily happen, from them that being confident of their own
knowledge weigh not what is said, the _fault_ is not mine, but
theirs; for as it is my part to _shew_ my reasons, so it is theirs
to bring _attention_.
4. Man’s _nature_ is the _sum of his natural faculties and powers_,
as the faculties of _nutrition_, _motion_, _generation_, _sense_,
_reason_, _&c._ These powers we do unanimously call _natural_, and
are contained in the definition of man, under these words, _animal_
and _rational_.
5. According to the two principal parts of man, I divide his
faculties into two sorts, faculties of the _body_, and faculties of
the _mind_.
6. Since the minute and distinct anatomy of the powers of the _body_
is nothing necessary to the present purpose, I will only sum them up
in these three heads, power _nutritive_, power _motive_, and power
_generative_.
7. Of the powers of the _mind_ there be two sorts, _cognitive_,
_imaginative_, or _conceptive_ and _motive_; and first of
_cognitive_.
For the understanding of what I mean by the power _cognitive_, we
must remember and acknowledge that there be in our minds continually
certain _images_ or conceptions of the things without us, insomuch
that if a man could be alive, and all the rest of the world
annihilated, he should nevertheless retain the _image_ thereof, and
all those things which he had before seen or perceived in it; every
one by his own experience knowing, that the _absence_ or
_destruction_ of things once imagined doth not cause the _absence_
or _destruction_ of the _imagination_ itself. This _imagery_ and
_representations_ of the qualities of the thing without, is that we
call our _conception_, _imagination_, _ideas_, _notice_ or
_knowledge_ of them; and the _faculty_ or power by which we are
capable of such knowledge, is that I here call _cognitive power_, or
_conceptive_, the power of knowing or conceiving.
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