Nature, the art whereby God hath made and governs the world, is by the _art_ of man, as in many other things, so in this also imitated, that it can make an artificial animal. For seeing life is but a motion of limbs, the beginning whereof is in some principal part within; why may we not say, that all _automata_ (engines that move themselves by springs and wheels as doth a watch) have an artificial life? For what is the _heart_, but a _spring_; and the _nerves_, but so many _strings_; and the _joints_, but so many _wheels_, giving motion to the whole body, such as was intended by the artificer? _Art_ goes yet further, imitating that rational and most excellent work of nature, _man_. For by art is created that great LEVIATHAN called a COMMONWEALTH, or STATE, in Latin CIVITAS, which is but an artificial man; though of greater stature and strength than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended; and in which the _sovereignty_ is an artificial _soul_, as giving life and motion to the whole body; the _magistrates_, and other _officers_ of judicature and execution, artificial _joints_; _reward_ and _punishment_, by which fastened to the seat of the sovereignty every joint and member is moved to perform his duty, are the _nerves_, that do the same in the body natural; the _wealth_ and _riches_ of all the particular members, are the _strength_; _salus populi_, the _people’s safety_, its _business_; _counsellors_, by whom all things needful for it to know are suggested unto it, are the _memory_; _equity_, and _laws_, an artificial _reason_ and _will_; _concord_, _health_; _sedition_, _sickness_; and _civil war_, _death_. Lastly, the _pacts_ and _covenants_, by which the parts of this body politic were at first made, set together, and united, resemble that _fiat_, or the _let us make man_, pronounced by God in the creation. To describe the nature of this artificial man, I will consider First, the _matter_ thereof, and the _artificer_; both which is _man_. Secondly, _how_, and by what _covenants_ it is made; what are the _rights_ and just _power_ or _authority_ of a _sovereign_; and what it is that _preserveth_ or _dissolveth_ it. Thirdly, what is a _Christian commonwealth_. Lastly, what is the _kingdom of darkness_.