he
composition of a book called, The Leviathan, a work by which he
acquired a great name in Europe; and which was printed at London while
he remained at Paris. Under this strange name he means the body
politic. The divines of the church of England who attended King
Charles II. in France, exclaimed vehemently against this performance,
and said that it contained a great many impious assertions, and that
the author was not of the royal party. Their complaints were regarded,
and Hobbs was discharged the court; and as he had extremely provoked
the Papists, he thought it not safe for him to continue longer in
France, especially as he was deprived of the protection of the King of
England. He translated his Leviathan into Latin, and printed it with
an appendix in 1668.

About ten years afterwards, the Leviathan was printed in Low Dutch.
The character of this work is drawn as under, by bishop Burnet.

'His [Hobbs's] main principles were, that all men acted under an
absolute necessity, in which he seemed protected by the then received
doctrine of absolute decrees. He seemed to think that the universe was
god, and that souls were material, Thought being only subtle and
imperceptible motion. He thought interest and fear were the chief
principles of society; and he put all morality in the following that
which was our own private will or advantage. He thought religion had
no other foundation than the laws of the land; and he put all the law
in the will of the Prince, or of the people: For he writ his book at
first in favour of absolute monarchy, but turned it afterwards to
gratify the Republican party.'

Upon his return to England, he lived retired at the seat of the earl
of Devonshire, and applied himself to the study of philosophy; and as
almost all men who have written any thing successfully would be
thought poets, so Hobbs laid claim to that character, tho' his poetry
is too contemptible for crit[i]cism. Dr. White Kennet in his memoirs
of the family of Cavendish informs us, 'That while Mr. Hobbs lived in
the earl of Devonshire's family, his professed rule was to dedicate
the morning to his health, and the afternoon to his studies; and
therefore at his first rising he walked out, and climbed any hill
within his reach; or if the weather was not dry, he fatigued himself
within doors, by some exercise or other till he was in a sweat,
recommending that practice upon his opinion, that an old man had more
moisture than heat; and the