ON THE WRITINGS OF HOBBES
This and the four succeeding papers were first published in Literary Remains, where the author’s son says of them (vol. I. p. 115): ‘The following Essays form part of a series of Lectures delivered with very great effect by my father at the Russell Institution, in 1813. I found them with other papers in an old hamper which many years ago he stuffed confusedly full of MSS. and odd volumes of books, and left in the care of some lodging-house people, by whom it was thrown into a cellar, so damp that even the covers of some of the books were fast mouldering when I first looked over the collection. The injury to the MSS. may be imagined. Some of the Lectures, indeed, to my deep regret, are altogether missing, burnt, probably, by the ignorant people of the house; and I have had the greatest difficulty in preparing those which remain for the press. They are, however, most valuable.’ The course, consisting of ten Lectures, was delivered in 1812, not 1813. The syllabus will be found in Mr. W. C. Hazlitt’s Memoirs of William Hazlitt, 1. 192 et seq. The first lecture was ‘On the Writings of Hobbes, showing that he was the father of the modern system of philosophy.’
[27]. ‘They were made fierce,’ etc. Advancement of Learning, I. iv. 6. [28]. ‘Four champions fierce,’ etc. Cf. Paradise Lost, II. 898. [29]. It has been generally supposed, etc. Cf. the essay ‘Mr. Locke a Great Plagiarist,’ post, p. 284. [32]. ‘Discourse of Human Nature.’ This work, though circulated in MS. as early as 1640, was not published till 1650, the year before the publication of Leviathan. [45]. ‘This difference of quickness,’ etc. Leviathan, part I. chap. VIII. Harris, the author of Hermes, etc. Cf. vol. VIII. (The English Comic Writers) p. 19, where the same passages are quoted from Locke, Hobbes, and Harris. [46]. ‘Though the effect of folly,’ etc. Leviathan, part I. chap. VIII. ‘The foolish daughters of Pelias’ [Peleus], etc. Ibid. part II. chap. XXX. The same allusion in Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France (Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 113). [48]. ‘Soft collar of social esteem.’ Ibid. II. 90. ‘Order of thoughts,’ etc. Leviathan, part I. chap. III. ‘Stood all astonied,’ etc. The Faerie Queene, VII. VI. 28. [50]. Jonathan Edwards. Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), the American theologian and metaphysician, published his work On the Freedom of the Will in 1754.