general tenor of the treatise is the rule in which are illustrated alike
the works of the philosophers and the dreams of the sophists (priests.)
We give part of the introduction. "Nature (the art whereby God hath made
and governs the world) is, by the art of man, as in many other things,
so in this also, imitated, that it can make an artificial animal. For
seeing life is but a motion of limbs, the beginning whereof is in some
principal part within; why may we not say that all automata (engines
that move themselves by springs and wheels, as doth a watch) have an
artificial life? For what is the heart but a spring; and the nerves but
so many strings; and the joints but so many wheels, giving motion to the
whole body, such as was intended by the Artificer? Art goes yet further,
imitating that rational and most excellent work of nature, man. For by
art is created that great leviathan, called a Commonwealth, or State,
which is but an artificial man though of greater stature and strength
than the natural, for whose protection and defence it was intended,
and the sovereignty of which is an artificial soul, as giving life and
motion to the whole body. To describe the nature of this artificial man,
I will consider,

"1st. The _matter_ thereof, and the _artificer_, both which is man.

"2nd. _How_, and by what _covenants_ it is made, what are the _rights_
and _just_ power or authority of a sovereign; and what it is that
_preserveth_ and dissolveth it.

"3rd. What is a Christian Commonwealth.

"Lastly, what is the kingdom of darkness.

"The first chapter treats of 'Senses.' Concerning the thoughts of man, I
will consider them first singly, and afterwards in train, or dependence
upon one another. Singly, they are every one a representation, or
appearance, of some quality or accident of a body without us, which is
commonly called an object. Which object worketh on the eyes, ears, and
other parts of a man's body, and by diversity of working, produceth
diversity of appearances. The original of them all is that which we call
sense, for there is no conception in a man's mind, which hath not at
first totally or by parts been begotten upon the organs of sense; the
rest are derived from that original."

Speaking of "Imagination," Hobbes says, "That when a thing lies still,
unless somewhat else stir it, it will lie still forever, is a truth no
one doubts of. But that when a thing is in motion, it will eternally
be in motion, unless so