by the habit of rigid demonstration, so destructive of the finer feelings of moral evidence, which must however determine the actions and opinions of our lives." (Vide Gibbon's Miscellaneous Works.*) We have noticed some of the merits of Hobbes. In addition we remark that rare power he possest in common with Bacon and Aristotle as a system-maker. Of the three the Stagyrite was the greatest. Of the Englishmen, Hobbes entered more into detail. The eagle-eye of Bacon led him to take a wider range, to lose himself in the pure empyWhatever may be said of the claims of Descartes, in England Hobbes was certainly the first who attempted mental psychology. Here at any rate he was the father of the true science of mind. He opened the right way to that field in which since have been won golden fame and deathless laurels. rean. 66 To the end of the Leviathan Hobbes appended a Review and Conclusion; the design of which Clarendon saw and indignantly exposed. Hyde had too much of the Roman in him not to hold up to scorn the doctrines of the Leviathan. Though in disgrace, banished from the court by the king he had truly loved and honourably served-though according to Hobbes's theory a banished subject is no longer a subject, is henceforth free, under no tie whatever to his royal master—yet did one of the oldest servants," as he styled himself in his dedication," to "your father and yourself," from his place of banishment, volunteer a reply to the dangerous doctrines of Hobbes. He exposes the unmanly conduct of the philosopher; he says truly of the Conclusion "that it is "a contracting the most contagious poison that runs through the whole "book into a less vessel;" and also considers it as "a sly address to "Cromwell, that being then out of the kingdom, and so neither being conquered nor his subject, he might by his return submit to his govern"ment and be bound to obey it; which being uncompelled by 'any necessity or want, but having as much to sustain him abroad as he "had to live upon at home, could not proceed from a clear heart and "incorrupted. This Review and Conclusion he made short enough to "hope that Cromwell himself might read it; where he should not only "receive the pawn of his new subjects' allegiance, by his declaring his own obligation and obedience, but by publishing such doctrine, as "being diligently infused by such a master in the mystery of govern 66 66 J. E. R. has chosen the example of Hobbes and the reflection of Gibbonboth of whom by their own admission stopped on the threshhold of mathematical science-to prove the evil of the study.-ED. 66 ment, might secure the people of the kingdom (over whom he had no "right to command) to acquiesce and submit to his brutal power."* We think we may pledge ourselves to the correctness of Clarendon's remarks on Hobbes. The morality of the Leviathan was gladly received, and shamelessly avowed, by the profligate courtiers of a profligate king. In those days of debauchery, of political and moral debasement, when vice was a passport to the presence of royalty, and degradation the high road to rank; when virtue was driven from the seat of the noble, from the palace of the king; when patriotism was a name, and religion was a lie; then the talented philosopher vied with the fool in supporting a creed that might sanction the profligacy of the day. There were some Notwithstanding, Hobbes met many antagonists. who were yet willing to advocate the claims of liberty denounced, of virtue insulted, of religion blasphemed. Harrington and Clarendon, Cumberland and Cudworth in England, and Puffendorf on the Continent, attacked him. His writings gave rise to the works of Shaftesbury, of Clarke, of Butler, and of Hutcheson, and their influence is still felt in speculations on morals, and on mind. We hold up to praise such studies as those of Hobbes, infinitely preferable to all others; in subserviency to which should others be followed. Well has Hume written, "All the sciences have a relation "to human nature; and however wide any of them may seem to run "of it, they still return back by one passage or another; this is the "centre and capital of the sciences, which being once masters of, we may easily extend their conquests every where." It is the high praise, the chief glory of speculations such as those of Hobbes, of Locke, of Stewart, and of Brown, that they, above all others, are subjective; that they turn the eye within; that they lead us from the outer court into the very sanctuary and dwelling-place of τὸ αγαθὸν καὶ τὸ καλὸν; that they teach us the nothingness of external circumstance and accident, and proclaim, in language intelligible to all, that the same divinely-fashioned and wonderful heart beats, whether above it be th fustian of the peasant, or the gorgeous robe of royalty. More than this, they call us from the glare of life, from the fever of the world, to reflect, with Hamlet, (would that there were more such madmen !) "What a piece of work is man!-how noble in reason!-how infinite “in faculties !—in form and moving, how express and admirable!—in action, how like an angel!-in apprehension, how like a god!—the 66 *Clarendon's Survey of the Leviathan, page 319. "beauty of the world!-the paragon of animals!" And dull is he whom they teach not that this life of ours is an altogether serious and earnest affair; that it is given man for some infinitely higher end than that he should be the beloved of the frivolous-the lion of the ballroom-the star of Bond-street-the Magnus Apollo of the sensualist and the fop! Divinum est opus Animam creare-proximum huic ostendere ! Nor is this all; studied aright, they have a higher import—a more sacred meaning. They teach the harmony of the universe; they make audible the music of the spheres; they tell of the links that bind the soul within to the Godhead above, and sanction and confirm all that is holy and venerable in religion. In the language of the philosopher and poet, the universe itself is to the ear of faith, what the shell is to the ear of the child, who learnt from its murmurings and sonorous cadences, its mysterious union with its native sea;" and when we have purged the mental eye, and cleansed the heart of its idola, then it is ours to learn "Authentic tidings of invisible things, Of ebb and flow and ever-during power, 3. TREWE LOVE'S VICTORIE: AN ANCIENT BALLAD. J. E. R. [The following ballad is founded on the well-known and romantic legend of the parents of Thomas à Becket. of the second part.] Some verses appear to be lost at the conclusion 1. FYTTE THE PIRST. AROUND a gloomy donjon hold, Enthralled by Paynim foes. |