The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
But it is an easy thing, for men to be deceived, by the specious name of
liberty; and for want of judgment to distinguish, mistake that for their
private inheritance, and birth-right, which is the right of the public
only. And when the same error is confirmed by the authority of men in
reputation for their writings on this subject, it is no wonder if it
produce sedition, and change of government. In these western parts of
the world, we are made to receive our opinions concerning the
institution, and rights of commonwealths, from Aristotle, Cicero, and
other men, Greeks and Romans, that living under popular states, derived
those rights, not from the principles of nature, but transcribed them
into their books, out of the practice of their own commonwealths, which
were popular; as the grammarians describe the rules of language, out of
the practice of the time; or the rules of poetry, out of the poems of
Homer and Virgil. And because the Athenians were taught, to keep them
from desire of changing their government, that they were freemen, and
all that lived under monarchy were slaves; therefore Aristotle puts it
down in his _Politics_, (_lib._ 6. _cap._ ii.) _In democracy_, LIBERTY
_is to be supposed: for it is commonly held, that no man is_ FREE _in
any other government_. And as Aristotle; so Cicero, and other writers
have grounded their civil doctrine, on the opinions of the Romans, who
were taught to hate monarchy, at first, by them that having deposed
their sovereign, shared amongst them the sovereignty of Rome; and
afterwards by their successors. And by reading of these Greek, and Latin
authors, men from their childhood have gotten a habit, under a false
show of liberty, of favouring tumults, and of licentious controlling the
actions of their sovereigns, and again of controlling those controllers;
with the effusion of so much blood, as I think I may truly say, there
was never any thing so dearly bought, as these western parts have bought
the learning of the Greek and Latin tongues.
[Sidenote: Liberty of subjects how to be measured.]