istinguished
man's memory in high respect.

That admirable gossip, John Aubrey, who lived in habits of intimacy with
Hobbes, has left us such a lively picture of the man, his person, and his
manners, as to leave nothing to desire. In reading it we cannot but regret
that Aubrey had not been a cotemporary of our great poet, about whom he has
been only able to furnish us with some hearsay anecdotes.

Aubrey tells us that--

"Sir Charles Scarborough, M.D., Physician to his Royal Highness the
Duke of York, much loved the conversation of Hobbes, and hath a picture
of him (drawne about 1655), under which is this distich:

'Si quaeris de me, mores inquire, sed ille
Qui quaerit de me, forsitan alter erit.'"

"In their meeting (_i. e._ the Royal Society) at Gresham College is his
picture drawne by the life, 1663, by a good hand, which they much
esteeme, and several copies have been taken of it."

In a note Aubrey says:

"He did me the honour to sit for his picture to Jo. Baptist Caspars, an
excellent painter, and 'tis a good piece. I presented it to the Society
twelve years since."

In other places he tells us:

"Amongst other of his acquaintance I must not forget Mr. Samuel Cowper
(Cooper), the prince of limners of this last age, who drew his picture
as like as art could afford, and one of the best pieces that ever he
did which his Majesty, at his returne, bought of him, and conserves as
one of his greatest rarities in his closet at Whitehall."

In a note he adds:

"This picture I intend to be borrowed of his Majesty for Mr. Loggan to
engrave an accurate piece by, which will sell well both at home and
abroad."

Again he says:

"Mr. S. Cowper (at whose house Hobbes and Sir William Petty often met)
drew his picture twice: the first the King has; the other is yet in the
custody of his (Cooper's) widowe; but he (Cowper) gave it indeed to me
(and I promised I would give it to the archives at Oxon), but I, like a
fool, did not take possession of it, for something of the garment was
not quite finished, and he died, I being then in the country."

{369}

This picture is, I believe, now in my possession. It is a small half-length
oil painting, measuring about twelve inches by nine. Hobbes is represented
at an open arch or window, with his book, the Leviathan, open before him;
the dress is, as Aubrey states, unfinishe