the nature of that supplement? In answer to this question, Hobbes enters into one of those obscure and half-scholastic biblical inquiries which he probably introduced for the sake of making his speculations look more orthodox than they really were, and which certainly have the effect of making it exceedingly difficult for a modern reader to understand precisely what he means to say.

There, is, for instance, a strange inquiry into the terms of the contract between God and Abraham, and about the limits of the provinces of Moses and Aaron. To a modern reader all this is by no means edifying. The general drift of the argument, however, is that, under the old dispensation, there was always a positive institution, a definite form of government in the strict sense of the word, which represented God

to men.

The chapter on the Christian dispensation is more interesting, though it too is expressed in such a crabbed and unfamiliar way that it is hard to understand it fully. The most remarkable point of it appears to be that, though God is a King, Christ was not sent to govern mankind in the full sense of the word. His main function was advice or counsel, which, as Hobbes with profound truth observes, is continually confounded with law, though the two are radically distinct.

'The government whereby Christ rules the faithful ones in this life is not properly a kingdom or dominion, but a pastoral charge or the right of teach

ing. That is to say, God the Father gave him not a power to judge of meum and tuum as he doth to the kings of the earth; nor a coercive power nor legislative; but of showing to the world, and teaching them the way and knowledge of salvation-that is to say, of preaching and declaring what they were to do who would enter into the kingdom of heaven.'

The kingdom of God, under the new dispensation, in the full sense of the word kingdom, 'is heavenly and begins from the day of judgment.' The Christian revelation, he adds, affected not the laws of God, but the sanction of those laws. In instituting the sacraments, Christ gave a law in the strict sense of the word, but it was the only law which he gave. As to moral duties, in general he gave none. He only showed that morality was a law, and not a mere theory, by revealing the fact that punishments would be inflicted after death for breaches of morality. Besides this, he forgave sins, and entrusted others with the power of doing so. There is another strange chapter on this point, discussing the powers of absolution vested in the clergy in the same singular way in which the rights of Abraham and Moses are discussed.

From this general view of the character of the Christian revelation, and of the divine origin of government, Hobbes proceeds to investigate the relations between the Church and the State. He arrives at much the same conclusion as that of Hooker. The Church and the State are identical.

other titles to God than what reason commands must use such as are either negative, as infinite, eternal, incomprehensible, etc.; or superlative, as most good, most great, most powerful; or indefinite, as good, just, strong, Creator, King, and the like-in such sense as not desiring to declare what he is (which were to circumscribe him within the narrow limits of our phantasy), but to confess his own admiration and obedience, which is the property of humility and of a mind yielding all the honour it possibly can do. For reason dictates one name which doth signify the nature of God (i.e.) existent, or simply that he is, and one in order to, and in relation to, us-namely, God, under which is contained both King, and Lord, and Father.'

We should not be disposed to consider Hobbes's religion as mere pretence. The irreligious impression made by his books is rather the consequence of a cold, melancholy, timorous disposition than of disbelief of the doctrines of religion.

HOBBES's treatise on Government contains, in (their earliest and stiffest form, his theory of the conditions of stable equilibrium in the body politic. Assuming that all change is to be regarded as an evil, and that permanent tranquillity is the very essence of a political society and the great object for which it exists, he investigates the inferences which are to be drawn from this principle.

The Leviathan covers a much wider space. It discusses not merely the principles of government, but those of human nature on which government is founded, as well as those of religion. It also contains, under the quaint title of the 'Kingdom of Darkness,' a treatise on the principal forms of error, which is perhaps the most curious part of the book. The Leviathan, in short, is Hobbes's general system, and

1 Leviathan; or the Matter and Form of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil. By Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury. (Vol. III. of Sir William Molesworth's Edition of Hobbes's Works.)

includes the result of all his previous works on politics, human nature, and metaphysics.

It was published when he was sixty-three years old, eleven years after the book upon Government. It is thus one of the ripest, the most complete, and the most perfectly well-written books of the sort in the whole range of literature. Hardly any magnum opus of the speculative kind has been so maturely weighed, so completely thought out, and so deliberately fashioned to express in every point the whole mind of its author. For these reasons it is much to be preferred to the earlier works. There is less of that mathematical stiffness about it which makes the work on Government such hard reading; and the liveliness of the style, produced by continual thought and the rejection of everything that on mature consideration appeared superfluous, is wonderful in itself, and carries the reader on with singularly little effort.

There is only one peculiarity about it which gives it an archaic character. This is its quaint wit, which frequently recalls Hobbes's master, Bacon. Take, for instance, the following consolation under the necessary evils of government. All men are by nature provided of notable multiplying glasses—that is, their passions and self-love-through which every little payment appeareth a great grievance, but are destitute of those prospective glasses-namely, moral and civil science-to see afar off the miseries which hang over them, and cannot without such payments be avoided.'