nated the maxims of the Grecian sage with the epithet of divine wisdom. Cosmo de Medici was so enraptured with them, that he founded an academy at Florence for the express purpose of teaching and propagating among the youth of that day the doctrines of Plato ;—and caused translations to be made of all the works of the most eminent of his disciples and followers. The Aristotelian and Platonic theories were thus placed in hostile array against each other, and nothing was to be heard in the sanctuaries of learning but violent disputes as to the comparative merits of the two systems.

But while the learned were discussing the principles and rules of moral obligation through the medium of opposite speculative tenets, the religious world in general seemed to be losing every just notion of the plain dictates and maxims of virtue. Instead of paying attention to the simple declarations of Scripture, and the important and explicit duties therein contained, every thing was viewed through the murky medium of scholastic learning and philosophical mysticism. Men were striving after the shadow, but neglected the substance; they argued and contended about the nature of the sign, while they totally disregarded the thing signified. In consequence of this state of matters, practical morality fell into a very languishing state; and from

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the concurrent testimony of writers of every grade and party, we are fully authorized in maintaining the fact, that the two or three centuries which immediately preceded the Reformation, formed the most generally profligate and immoral period since the establishment of the Christian dispensation. To be a pious and good man, did not mean in those days one who attended to his duties to his Maker, to mankind, or to himself, as stated in the Scriptures, but one who should be well skilled in all the babbling sophistries of the day; one who should leave his riches to the priesthood, for the purpose of building churches, universities, and monasteries; and above all things, one who should submit to the implicit dictation, in all spiritual and moral matters, to the Roman pontiffs, or to those to whom he had immediately delegated his power and authority. Some really good and able men struggled hard against this tide of immorality and licentiousness, by dwelling upon the pure simplicity of the gospel truths, and the authority of the ancient fathers of the church; but these counsels were generally disregarded; or if noticed at all, it was only to brand their authors with the epithet of heretics, or to overwhelm them with a torrent of senseless jargon, which passed current in that age for the words of soberness and wisdom.

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CHAPTER IV.

MR. THOMAS HOBBES OF MALMESBURY.

MR. HOBBES was born at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, on the 5th of April, 1588. His father was vicar of West-port, within the liberties of Malmesbury, and of Charlton in Wilts; a man of but little learning, and in moderate circumstances. His mother's terror at the approach of the Spanish armada caused her premature delivery; an accident which many have supposed sufficient to account for that fearfulness of temper which characterised our author during his whole life; and which might also produce that delicate state of health which attended him till near his fortieth

year, and which obliged him to practise those rules of temperance and exercise which no doubt contributed

very materially to prolong his life to the advanced period of ninety years.

At the age of eight years he was sent to the grammar school of Malmesbury, and in his fourteenth he was entered at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and continued there for five years, supported chiefly by his uncle, Francis Hobbes, then alderman of Malmesbury, and who at his death left him a small estate to enable him to remain at college. He took his batchelor's degree in 1607, and the next year was recommended by the Principal of the college as tutor to the son of Lord Hardwicke, afterwards Earl of Devonshire, whom he accompanied in his travels through France, Italy, and Germany.

In 1629, he published his translation of Thucydides, in one volume folio. He had kept this work a long time by him, and had submitted it to the revisal of his friends, Ben Jonson, and Sir Robert Ayton, then secretary to the consort of James I. By the death of his patron, he quitted the Devonshire family and went to Paris, where he remained till 1631, when he was recalled to England by invitation of the Dowager Countess of Devonshire, who wished to commit to his care the education of the young Earl, then only 13 years of age. In 1634 he set off with his pupil on a tour through

France, Italy, and Savoy; and during his visit to these countries, he formed an extensive acquaintance with many of the most distinguished writers and philosophers of the age, particularly with Gallileo and Martin Mersenne, two very eminent men in their day. After remaining at Paris a few months, he returned with his pupil to England in 1637; and such was their regard for each other, that he resided in the Earl's family at Chatsworth, which he celebrated in a poem on the Wonders of the Peak, written some years before, but not published till about this time.

He now became immersed in those studies for which his travels in various countries in Europe, and his previous habits of thinking and reading, had afforded him ample materials, and which have principally contributed to his fame as a philosopher. In 1642 he printed privately at Paris a few copies of his book, De Cive, and distributed them among his friends. This publication brought him into distinguished notice by the learned men in that polite and intelligent city. A few years after, he published his little treatise "On Human Nature." In the same year was published in London his "De Corpore Politico," or "The Elements of Laws, Moral and Politic; with Discourses upon several