Yet neither his unmoved adhesion to Protestantism, nor even his affection for episcopal government, could disarm the wrath of the theologians, who continued to wage an unsparing warfare against him, and to inflict on his reputation, and even on his fortunes, such mischief as they were able. On the other hand, his singular qualities and talents failed not to procure him many powerful protectors; and he stood so balanced (says his biographer) between his friends and his enemies, that the former were just strong enough to prevent his destruction, the latter to obstruct his advancement. So that he continued, with a mighty reputation and a slender fortune, to remain, even to the end of his days, under the same noble patronage, under which his first distinctions had been acquired. But in this comparative obscurity he was consoled by the society of the learned, the courtesy of the great, and the admiration of almost all men. Among his personal friends or acquaintances were numbered Francis Bacon of Verulam, Ben Jonson (who is said to have revised his Translation of Thucydides), the astronomer Galileo, the antiquarian Selden, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Harvey, physician to Charles I., Des Cartes, Gassendi; and his praises were celebrated by the contemporary muse of Cowley. He was sought by distinguished foreigners who visited England, even nobles and ambassadors; especially by Cosmo de’ Medici, then Prince, afterwards Duke of Tuscany, who offered him ample proofs of his esteem; and there were many among his own compatriots who received his opinions with respect, if not with favour. During the long period of his declining life, Hobbes is related to have pursued with most assiduity his studies in natural philosophy; but the publications of his old age (if we except the Decameron Physiologicum, published in 1676) rather indicate a return to his earliest tastes, which inclined, we are told, to history and poetry. At the age of about 80, he wrote, in English, the _Behemoth_, or History of the Civil Wars between Charles and the Parliament; besides a long Latin poem on the origin and increase of the pontifical power. At about 86, he translated the Odyssey into English verse, and the Iliad at 87: and he persevered for the four following years, which were his last, in the same peaceful course of literary recreation. A list of his works, forty-two in number, is given in Chalmers’ ‘Biographical Dictionary:’ the great majority of them are forgotten.