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LEVIATHAN

By Thomas Hobbes

1651

LEVIATHAN OR THE MATTER, FORME, & POWER OF A COMMON-WEALTH ECCLESIASTICAL AND CIVILL

Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury

TO MY MOST HONOR’D FRIEND Mr. FRANCIS GODOLPHIN of GODOLPHIN

HONOR’D SIR.

Your most worthy Brother Mr SIDNEY GODOLPHIN, when he lived, was pleas’d to think my studies something, and otherwise to oblige me, as you know, with reall testimonies of his good opinion, great in themselves, and the greater for the worthinesse of his person. For there is not any vertue that disposeth a man, either to the service of God, or to the service of his Country, to Civill Society, or private Friendship, that did not manifestly appear in his conversation, not as acquired by necessity, or affected upon occasion, but inhaerent, and shining in a generous constitution of his nature. Therefore in honour and gratitude to him, and with devotion to your selfe, I humbly Dedicate unto you this my discourse of Common-wealth. I know not how the world will receive it, nor how it may reflect on those that shall seem to favour it. For in a way beset with those that contend on one side for too great Liberty, and on the other side for too much Authority, ’tis hard to passe between the points of both unwounded. But yet, me thinks, the endeavour to advance the Civill Power, should not be by the Civill Power condemned; nor private men, by reprehending it, declare they think that Power too great. For the publishing of the doctrines of Civill and Ordinarie Philosophie, is not only a thing of private consideration, but a serving of the Publick, if it tend to peace and obedience. And this is the end of this following discourse. For it is written to no other end, than to prepare men’s minds to lay down that misconstrued Right of Nature, which is the cause of all their discords, and to erect such a Soveraign Power, as may be capable to defend them from foreign invasion, and from injuries one another; and thereby to secure them in such use of their former Rights, as without it, no Industry, nor Foundation of great, and wel- flourishing Commonwealth, can so much as arrive at the dignity of keeping up its own former condition. For where there is no Common Power to keep them under awe, there is no incentive to industry, no culture of the earth, no navigation, nor use of the commodities requiring labour, no knowledge of the face of the earth, no account of time, no arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short. This may seem a very harsh judgement, though it was intended to be a sad truth, and is the reason why it is prefixed to the Booke. And as I am the better contented to be obnoxious to be accounted a Paceseeker, so I feare not to be thought a Pusillanimous, or Factious Man, if I can shew that in the Civill Life, no man can be more a Soldier then my selfe. For I have seen the misery of a Divided, and the Miseries of a Conquered people, then that I should be an Adorer of Faction, or a Friend to those that strive to have the liberty to destroy one another. I have done my endeavour to be singular in this opinion, because I see it is so, that those that are addicted to it, are the first to suffer by it. And as the danger is common to all, so the remedy must be common to all. Which is, to have that Power which I attribute to the Soveraign, established; and to obey those Laws which he shall ordain. Which is the argument of this my present Discourse. I have the rather inclined to this designe, for that the common sort of men are not used to look beyond the immediate consequence of their actions; and are contented with those things that are easily seen, and are present, without any desire to look into the causes, that make them so. But, me thinks, the very contemplation of the nature of man, and of the world, should be enough to perswade them to be quiet. For if men be naturally such as I have described them, it is not to be wondred at, that they are so disordered as they are. And if they be not so, yet the very contradiction of the two opinions, is enough to make them at least to suspect, that the former is true. But I will not trouble you any farther with my Apologies, for I have no occasion to excuse what I have written, but onely to give you an account of the Booke.

CHAPTER I. OF SENSE

Concerning the thoughts of men, it is manifest that they are generated, and are no other than the Corporeall bodies, which, by some accident or other, are applyed to the Organs of Sense, and thereby produce in us divers Impressions, variously compounded; and it is from these that all those which we call Ideas, are derived, and that by degrees. For the cause of Sense, and Appetite, and Desire, and Appetite, and Avoidance, and of all motion in the Will, which is the small remainder of those first motions, that divers motions there are, which seem to arise from the Will, but are indeed the motions of the Appetites, and Aversions, such as are the motions of the inward parts of Man, as Digestion, Blood-flowing, Excretion, &c. which proceed from the motion of the Heart, which is always in the state of Descant, and Motion, and that motion never ceaseth, but in Death.

The sense of the world without, is by the consequence of the motion, that is in the bodies without, upon the organs of our senses, which are Corporeall, and subject to the passion of motion.

CHAPTER II. OF IMAGINATION

That when the Body is once in motion, it remaineth long after in the same motion, unlesse it be by some other thing hinder’d, is a thing knowne by Experience. And thus when the water of a pond is troubled, it remaineth troubled a long time after the stone that troubled it is removed. So that it is evident, that the motion produced by the sense, remaineth after the sense is gone; which motion, when it is declining, is what we call Imagination. As when we see Colours, or hear sounds, after the Cause of the Sense is removed, we see the remnant of the impression; and this is so in all the Senses. For the impression made by the action of an external object upon an object, or any other body, remaineth in the moving body, though the moving body be removed. And this is more or less according as the motion is more or less strong.

CHAPTER III. OF THE CONSEQUENCE OR TRAIN OF IMAGINATIONS

When we say that any thing is in our Thought, we mean we have it actually in our Imagination. This Imagination is nothing else but the Ghost of the Sense, decayed, and more faint than when it was in Sense. And these successive thoughts, as they are indeed successive phantasms, are that which we call Imagination. For when the sense is decayed, the motion remaineth in the brain, and is stirr’d again by some other motion, either from some other sense, or from some internal accident. For we see that in sleep, when the Senses are shut up, we dream, and see as it were in our mind, the things that were formerly perceived by our Senses. And this is the motion of the brain, which, when it is declining, is called Imagination; and when it is strong, is called Sense.

But these successive imaginations, when they are so ordered, that the preceding, suggest the following, are that which is called Thought or Reasoning; and the end of such reasoning, is the beginning of some new Thought, or Appetite.

The Train of regulated Thoughts, is called Ordinary Reasoning, or Discourse.

When the beginning of the Train of Thoughts is some desire, or Appetite, the rest of the Train are the means, which the Man imagines profitable, for the obtaining of the thing desired.

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