YEAR 1640 TO THE YEAR 1660. --- “Bella per Angliacos plusquam civilia campos, Jusque datum sceleri loquimur.——” THE BOOKSELLER TO THE READER. My duty, as well to the public as to the memory of Mr. Hobbes, has obliged me to procure with my utmost diligence, that these tracts should come forth with the most correct exactness.[A] I am compelled by the force of truth to declare, how much both the world and the memory of Mr. Hobbes have been abused by the several spurious editions of the _History of the Civil Wars_; wherein, by various and unskilful transcriptions, are committed above a thousand faults, and in above a hundred places whole lines left out, as I can make appear. I must confess Mr. Hobbes, upon some considerations, was averse to the publishing thereof; but since it is impossible to suppress it, no book being more commonly sold by all booksellers, I hope I need not fear the offence of any man by doing right to the world and this work, which I now publish from the original manuscript, done by his own amanuensis, and given me by himself above twelve years since. To this I have joined the treatise against Archbishop Bramhall, to prevent the like prejudice, which must certainly have fallen on it, there being so many false copies abroad, if not thus prevented; as also the Discourse of Heresy from a more correct copy; and have likewise annexed his Physical Problems, as they were translated by himself and presented to his Majesty, with the epistle prefixed, in the year 1662, at the same time they came forth in Latin. These things premised, there remains nothing but to wish for myself good sale, to the buyer much pleasure and satisfaction. Your humble servant, WILLIAM CROOKE. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Footnote A: This preface is prefixed to the edition of 1682, in which the _Behemoth_ is printed along with the _Answer to Archbishop Bramhall_, the _Discourse of Heresy_, and the _Physical Problems_. BEHEMOTH, OR THE EPITOME OF THE CIVIL WARS OF ENGLAND. ========== _A._ If in time, as in place, there were degrees of high and low, I verily believe that the highest of time would be that which passed between 1640 and 1660. For he that thence, as from the Devil’s Mountain, should have looked upon the world and observed the actions of men, especially in England, might have had a prospect of all kinds of injustice, and of all kinds of folly, that the world could afford, and how they were produced by their hypocrisy and self-conceit, whereof the one is double iniquity, and the other double folly.