The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11) — Thomas Hobbes — John Shaqi
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury, Volume 03 (of 11)
Thomas Hobbes · en
fire, as a man deprived of his senses; so also in the body politic, when
the spiritual power, moveth the members of a commonwealth, by the terror
of punishments, and hope of rewards, which are the nerves of it,
otherwise than by the civil power, which is the soul of the
commonwealth, they ought to be moved; and by strange, and hard words
suffocates their understanding, it must needs thereby distract the
people, and either overwhelm the commonwealth with oppression, or cast
it into the fire of a civil war.
[Sidenote: Mixed government.]
Sometimes also in the merely civil government, there be more than one
soul; as when the power of levying money, which is the nutritive
faculty, has depended on a general assembly; the power of conduct and
command, which is the motive faculty, on one man; and the power of
making laws, which is the rational faculty, on the accidental consent,
not only of those two, but also of a third; this endangereth the
commonwealth, sometimes for want of consent to good laws; but most often
for want of such nourishment, as is necessary to life, and motion. For
although few perceive, that such government, is not government, but
division of the commonwealth into three factions, and call it mixed
monarchy; yet the truth is, that it is not one independent commonwealth,
but three independent factions; nor one representative person, but
three. In the kingdom of God, there may be three persons independent,
without breach of unity in God that reigneth; but where men reign, that
be subject to diversity of opinions, it cannot be so. And therefore if
the king bear the person of the people, and the general assembly bear
also the person of the people, and another assembly bear the person of a
part of the people, they are not one person, nor one sovereign, but
three persons, and three sovereigns.
To what disease in the natural body of man, I may exactly compare this
irregularity of a commonwealth, I know not. But I have seen a man, that
had another man growing out of his side, with a head, arms, breast, and
stomach, of his own: if he had had another man growing out of his other
side, the comparison might then have been exact.
[Sidenote: Want of money.]