ial thinkings.

We lay no claim to originality in the mode of treatment--we will
endeavor to cull the choicest flowers from the garden, and if others
can make a brighter or better bouquet, we shall be glad to have their
assistance. We have only one object in view, and that is, the presenting
of free and manly thoughts to our readers, hoping to induce like
thinking in them, and trust-ing that noble work may follow noble
thoughts. The Freethinkers we intend treating of have also been Free
Workers, endeavoring to raise men's minds from superstition and bigotry,
and place before them a knowledge of the real.

We have been the more inclined to issue the "Half-Hours with the
Freethinkers" in consequence, not only of the difficulty which many have
in obtaining the works of the Old Freethinkers, but also as an effective
answer to some remarks which have lately appeared in certain religious
publications, implying a dearth of thought and thinkers beyond the pale
of the Church. We wish all men to know that great minds and good men
_have_ sought truth apart from faith for many ages, and that it is
because few were prepared to receive them, and many united to _crush_
them, their works are so difficult of access to the general mass at the
present day.

THOMAS HOBBES.

This distinguished Freethinker was born on the 5th of April, 1588, at
Malmesbury; hence his cognomen of "the philosopher of Malmesbury." In
connection with his birth, we are told that his mother, being a loyal
Protestant, was so terrified at the rumored approach of the Spanish
Armada, that the birth of her son was hastened in consequence. The
subsequent timidity of Hobbes is therefore easily accounted for. The
foundation of his education was laid in the grammar school of his native
town, where most probably his father (being a clergyman) would officiate
as tutor. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Oxford. Five years of
assiduous study made him proficient as a tutor; this, combined with his
amiability and profound views of society, gained him the respect of the
Earl of Devonshire, and he was appointed tutor to the Earl's son, Lord
Cavendish. From 1610 to 1628, he was constantly in the society of this
nobleman, in the capacity of secretary. In the interval of this time he
travelled in France, Germany, and Italy; cultivating in each capital
the society of the leading statesmen and philosophers. Lord Herbert, of
Cherbury, the first great English Deist, and Ben J