they appear to have reached their conclusions quite independently. Hobbes acquired many other eminent friends at different periods. Before his first foreign tour, presumably during the period between the chancellor's fall and his death (1621–6), he had been known to Bacon. Hobbes, according to Aubrey, wrote from Bacon's dictation, showing, as may be believed, more intelligence than other amanuenses, and helped in turning some of the essays into Latin. Hobbes, however, makes very slight reference to Bacon, and does not seem to have been directly influenced by his philosophy. Among other friends mentioned (see list in Vitæ Auctarium, Latin Works, i. lxii) are Herbert of Cherbury, whose rationalism would be congenial to him, Kenelm Digby, Chillingworth, and Harvey; while among literary friends were Sir Robert Ayton [q. v.], Ben Jonson, Cowley, D'Avenant, and Waller. He was admitted, probably after his third tour, to the circle of Falkland, Hyde, and Sidney Godolphin (1610–1643) [q. v.], the last of whom was especially dear to him. After his return to England with Devonshire in 1637, Hobbes continued to live with the earl, and set about composing the systematic treatises in which he had now resolved to embody his philosophy. He contemplated three treatises: the ‘De Corpore,’ containing his first principles, as well as his mathematical and physical doctrines; the ‘De Homine,’ upon psychology; and the ‘De Cive,’ giving his political and religious theories. The growing troubles led him to interrupt the systematic development of his philosophy by writing a treatise called ‘The Elements of Law, Natural and Politique,’ afterwards published in two separate parts, as ‘Human Nature’ and ‘De Corpore Politico.’ This treatise, which already contains his characteristic positions in psychology and politics, was circulated for the present in manuscript. The dedication to the Marquis of Newcastle, cousin of the second Earl of Devonshire, is dated 9 May 1640 (copies are preserved at Hardwick Hall and in the British Museum). The Short Parliament had been dissolved on 5 May. Hobbes, however, said long afterwards that his treatise had ‘occasioned much talk of the author, and had not his majesty dissolved the parliament it had brought him into danger of his life.’ He may have forgotten the order of events, and no doubt exaggerated the effect produced by his treatise. At any rate, when the Long Parliament met in November and impeached Strafford, Hobbes took fright and went over to Paris, ‘the first of all that fled, and there continued eleven years, to his damage some thousands of pounds deep.’ At Paris he took up his old friendships, and transmitted through Mersenne, in January 1641, sixteen objections to various points in Descartes's ‘Meditationes de primâ philosophiâ,’ and afterwards objections to some of Descartes's physical positions in the ‘Dioptrique.’ He concealed his name and the identity of the two objectors. Descartes received both criticisms contemptuously, and declared finally that he would not continue a correspondence with the author. The development of the struggle in England now led Hobbes to give a fuller exposition of his political theories. He composed his ‘De Cive,’ printed in 1642, and with a dedicatory epistle to the Earl of Devonshire, signed T. H., and dated 1 Nov. 1641. It is a developed statement of the doctrine already set forth in his unpublished treatise; he gives more explicitly and elaborately his favourite theory that peace could only be obtained by the complete subordination of the church to the state. Few copies were printed, and the book is now very rare. There are copies in the Bodleian (formerly Selden's) and Dr. Williams's Library. The authoritative edition was published, with notes in reply to objections, at Amsterdam in 1647, under the supervision of his friend Sorbière, a French physician. A preface explained its relation to his general scheme.
Although Hobbes contributed some scientific papers to books published by Mersenne, his interest in political events induced him again to postpone the systematic exposition of his philosophy, and to set about the composition of his great book, the ‘Leviathan.’ Refugees from England were coming over and discussing politics with him. He carried ‘a pen and inkhorn’ about with him, according to Aubrey, and entered any thoughts that occurred to him in a note-book. He was occasionally pressed for money. He had left England with five hundred pounds. Hyde afterwards brought him two hundred pounds, bequeathed to him by his friend Godolphin, and he received eighty pounds a year from the Earl of Devonshire (Vita carmine expressa). The earl had taken the royalist side, and had left England on being impeached before the House of Lords in July 1642, when his estates were sequestrated. Hobbes's salary would probably be precarious at this period. In 1645, however, the earl returned to England, submitted to the parliament, and in 1646 compounded for his estates. Hobbes was about this time on the point of retiring to Languedoc to live with a French friend and admirer, Du Verdus (Robertson, p. 62). The arrival of the Prince of Wales in the summer of 1646 induced him to stay at Paris where he was engaged to
