The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II.Cibber, Theophilus
History
The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) Volume II.
Cibber, Theophilus
Poets, English -- Biography -- Early works to 1800; Poets, Irish -- Biography -- Early works to 1800
In 1637 he was recalled to England, but finding the civil war ready to
break out, and the Scots in arms against the King, instigated by a
mean cowardice, he deferred his country in distress, and returned to
Paris, that he might without interruption pursue his studies there,
and converse with men of eminence in the sciences. The Parliament
prevailing, several of the Royalists were driven from their own
country, and were obliged to take shelter in France. The Prince of
Wales was reduced likewise to quit the kingdom and live at Paris:
Hobbs was employed to teach the young Prince mathematics, in which he
made great proficiency; and our author used to observe, that if the
Prince's application was equal to the quickness of his parts, he would
be the foremost man in his time in every species of science. All the
leisure hours that Hobbs enjoyed in Paris, he dedicated to the
composition of a book called, The Leviathan, a work by which he
acquired a great name in Europe; and which was printed at London while
he remained at Paris. Under this strange name he means the body
politic. The divines of the church of England who attended King
Charles II. in France, exclaimed vehemently against this performance,
and said that it contained a great many impious assertions, and that
the author was not of the royal party. Their complaints were regarded,
and Hobbs was discharged the court; and as he had extremely provoked
the Papists, he thought it not safe for him to continue longer in
France, especially as he was deprived of the protection of the King of
England. He translated his Leviathan into Latin, and printed it with
an appendix in 1668.
About ten years afterwards, the Leviathan was printed in Low Dutch.
The character of this work is drawn as under, by bishop Burnet.
'His [Hobbs's] main principles were, that all men acted under an
absolute necessity, in which he seemed protected by the then received
doctrine of absolute decrees. He seemed to think that the universe was
god, and that souls were material, Thought being only subtle and
imperceptible motion. He thought interest and fear were the chief
principles of society; and he put all morality in the following that
which was our own private will or advantage. He thought religion had
no other foundation than the laws of the land; and he put all the law
in the will of the Prince, or of the people: For he writ his book at
first in favour of absolute monarchy, but turned it afterwards to
gratify the Republican party.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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