Some Letters of Thomas Hobbes

Some Letters of Thomas HobbesAuthor(s): G. R. de BeerSource: Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 7, No. 2 (Apr., 1950), pp. 195-206Published by: The Royal SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/531319 .

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I95

SOME LETTERS OF THOMAS HOBBES

By G. R. DE BEER, F.R.S.

[Plate 6]

W l HEN Samuel de Sorbiere called on Charles II in 1663, the air had for some time been black with brickbats in the form

of pamphlet and counter,pamphlet which Thomas Hobbes had

exchanged with his redoubtable opponent John Wallis. Hobbes had made mistakes in his geometry, and these were visited upon him

unmercifully by Wallis. Hobbes defended himself and alluded to

something of which Wallis had once been proud, viz. that he had

deciphered Charles I's despatches after the battle of Naseby. Wallis

replied by the allegation that Hobbes had written his Leviathan in order to curry favour with Cromwell. This was the background to the state of affairs when Sorbiere wrote:

. . . le Roy n'a pas tenu compte des injures de M. Wallis, &

pour consoler M. Hobbes, il luy donne une pension de cent Jacobus. Sa Majeste me monstra son portraict de la main de Coper [Samuel Cooper] dans le Cabinet de ses curiositez naturelles & mechaniques, & me demanda si je connoissois cette personne, & quelle estime j'en faisois. Je lui dis ce que je devois, & l'on demeura d'accord, que s'il eust este un peu moins dogmatique, il eust este fort necessaire a 1'Academie Royale.' 1

It was indeed a matter of sensation that Hobbes was never elected into the Fellowship of the Royal Society, and the passage just quoted shows that it was not unnoticed in high quarters. Hobbes had known and been on intimate terms with the great Francis Bacon himself, for whom he is said to have acted as amanuensis; in Italy he had formed a personal friendship with Galileo Galilei; in Paris

1 Samuel de Sorbiere, Relation d'un voyage en Angleterre. Cologne, I667, p. 70.



196

he had known Rene Descartes; as a close friend of Marin Mersenne he had sat on a jury with Gilles de Roberval to adjudicate between

John Pell and Longomontanus on a claim of circle,quadrature; he was on intimate terms with Pierre Gassend. In England he enjoyed the friendship of William Harvey, and of such early Fellows of the

Royal Society as John Aubrey, William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, John Evelyn who as early as I65I referred to him as 'the famous philosopher of Malmesbury,' Sir William Petty who

thought him the greatest living English thinker, and Sir Kenelm

Digby who once wrote to Hobbes, 'you that know more than all men living.' In a letter written to Henry Oldenburg in I670, Leibniz said that he knew 'no writer on philosophy who was more exact, clearer, or more elegant, not excepting Descartes himself with his

godlike genius,' than Hobbes. 2

Hobbes himself was well aware of the slur cast upon him by his exclusion from the Royal Society, and did not shrink from telling it that' Not every one who brings from beyond seas a new gin, or other

janty device, is therefore a philosopher. For if you reckon that way, not only apothecaries and gardeners, but many other sorts of workmen, will put in for, and get, the prize.' 2

The young society must have had powerful reasons for excluding from its midst a man who in his own person constituted so direct a link with Bacon and all the other great men of the time. Even if the reason were not easy to see, it is explained in full by John Aubrey in his Life of Hobbes: ' . . . he had a high esteeme for the Royall Societie, having sayd . . . that " Natural Philosophy was removed from the Universities to Gresham Colledge," meaning the Royall Societie that meetes there; and the Royall Societie (generally) had the like for him: and he would long since have been ascribed a member there, but for the sake of one or two persons, whom he tooke to be his enemies.

A marginal note by Aubrey identified these enemies as 'Dr Wallis (surely their Mercuries are in opposition) and Mr Boyle. I

might add Sir Paul Neile, who disobliges everybody.' 3

2 Quoted by John Laird, Hobbes. London, I934. 3 John Aubrey, Brief Lives, edited by Andrew Clark. Oxford, I898, vol. I, p. 37I.



Plate 6

THOMAS HOBBES

Reproduction of a portrait attributed to J. B. Caspars presented to the Royal Society in I670 by John Aubrey, F.R.S.

(Facing page 196).



I97

Theological orthodoxy counted for much in the early days of the

Royal Society, and it was not for nothing that among its most in- fluential members John Wilkins and Seth Ward were bishops, John Wallis a D.D., and Robert Boyle and Christopher Wren devout churchmen. Hobbes on the other hand was a radical nominalist, and was accounted almost a free-thinker or even an atheist for his

independent views. To have excluded Hobbes from the Royal Society for this reason

only would have been inexcusable. But it was not the only reason, for there was another which, unfortunately, can only be called good: Hobbes was no scientist. For all the interest which he bore to natural

phenomena and the acuteness of his powers of thought and reasoning, he failed to appreciate the most important of his friend Bacon's gifts to posterity, the paramount value of experiment in deciding any question of natural philosophy. As an example may be mentioned the fact that thirty years after Pascal's experimental demonstration of the possibility of existence of vacuum, Hobbes could still argue: 'if sucking would make vacuum, what would become of those women that are nurses .' 4

The situation may to some extent be paralleled, though on a different scale, by the controversy between Darwin and Samuel Butler on natural selection.

It cannot be denied that while Hobbes was excluded, other men were elected into the Fellowship of the Royal Society with less apprecia- tion of the principles of experimental philosophy than he. But from the scientific and philosophical points of view, they were ineffective and harmless; Hobbes on the other hand was active and forceful to the end, and food for serious thought is provided by speculation on what the

consequences might have been had Hobbes played any conscious and official part in the framing of the policy of the young Royal Society.

In point of fact, it may be said that Hobbes did influence the early policy of the Royal Society, for he set for all time the standard of the sort of man who must not be elected into the Fellowship, except under Statute I2. That is not the only reason why Hobbes's life is of interest

4 Thomas Hobbes, 'Decameron Physiologicum,' in Works. edited by Sir William Molesworth. London, 1839.

APRIL 1950 N



198

and importance to the Society. He was Charles II's tutor in mathe- matics during the dark days of exile in France, and it is very possible that it was Hobbes who awakened in the future monarch the interest in natural philosophy which was to be so valuable to the Society on its foundation.5

Finally, the study of Hobbes's life is important because of his close personal relations with so many of Europe's leading men at a time when here and there they were gathering together to form Mersenne's circle, or Montmor's academy. It has been shown by Miss Syfret in these pages 6 that the notion of the identity of the ' Invisible College' and the Royal Society is erroneous and misleading. Much of what has for too long been taken for granted without critical

analysis must go by the board, and it is clear that there is much to learn

concerning the background of thought and opinion shortly before and at the time of the foundation of the Society. As is usual in such cases, the prime necessity is for more facts, and the most profitable field in which to find these is in the details of the lives of the great men of the

period. I was therefore interested and grateful when Professor Georges Bonnard, who represented the University of Lausanne at the installa- tion of the Chancellor at the University of Nottingham, drew my attention to the existence among the archives of the University of

Nottingham of some hitherto unknown letters of Thomas Hobbes, dated from Geneva in 1630. By the kindness of the University authorities, of Mr G. Ellis Flack, Librarian, and of Mrs Percy Clifton and Colonel Clifton, these letters are here published. Although they do not contain matter of direct scientific interest, Hobbes is a figure of such stature in the development of English thought that unknown letters of his are of value.

In 1626, Hobbes's patron, the ist Earl of Devonshire, died, followed

by the 2nd Earl two years later. In 1629, therefore, Hobbes accepted an engagement as travelling tutor to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton, Bart. (I587-I666). Of the ensuing tour on the continent scarcely anything was known except that Hobbes and his charge were at some

5 Cf. Laird, op. cit. 6 R. H. Syfret, 'The origins of the Royal Society.' Notes and Records, vol. 5, 1948,

P. 75-



199

time in Paris and at Orleans, and were thought to have visited Venice. It will be seen that in spite of the most determined attempt to enter

Italy, Hobbes and young Clifton were not able to do so, but that on the other hand they spent some time in Geneva, which was not

previously known. This is a matter of some interest because it was

during this journey that Hobbes started his interest in geometry: 'in peregrinatione illa inspicere coepit in Elementa Euclidis.' 7

John Aubrey, who knew Hobbes intimately, gives more informa, tion: ' Being in a gentleman's library in , Euclid's Elements lay open, and 'twas the 47 El. libri I. He read the proposition. "By G ," sayd he, " this is impossible !" So he reads the demonstration of it, which referred him back to such a proposition; which

proposition he read. That referred him back to another, which he also read. Et sic deinceps, that at last he was demonstratively con- vinced of that trueth. That made him in love with geometry.' 8

Aubrey's memory failed him in regard to the location of the

gentleman's library, candidates for which must now also include Geneva.

Of the five letters from Nottingham, three have never been published, one has been published in part, and one in whole. There had previously been known only one undated letter of Hobbes from this period, to which the new discoveries now allow a date to be ascribed. For this reason, and because it enables a complete picture of Hobbes's Grand Tour of I630 to be given, it is also reproduced.

Thomas Hobbes to Sir Gervase Clifton, circ. 5/I5 March 1629/30 9

Honorable Sir, Though I may goe whither and when I will for anie necessity you

have of my service, yet there is a necessity of good manners that obliges me as yor servant to lett you knowe att all times where to find me.

7 T. Hobbes Malmesburiensis vita,' Thomae Hobbes opera quae latine scripsit. Londini, I839, vol. I.

8 Aubrey, op. ct. 9 This letter is printed in English Works of Thomas Hobbes (ed. Molesworth), vol. 7,

p. 45I, where it is undated.



200

Wee goe out of Paris 3 weekes hence, or sooner, towards Venice, but by what way I knowe not, because the ordinary high way through the territory of Milan is encumbered with the warre betweene the French and the Spaniards.10 Howsoever, wee have to be there in October next. If you require anie service that I can doe there, it may please you to convey your command by Devonshire house. But if

you command me nothing, I have forbidden my letters to look for answer: their business being only to informe and to lett you knowe that the image of your noblenes decayes not in my memory, but abides fresh to keepe me eternally.

Your Tho: Hobbs

Thomas Hobbes to Sir Gervase Clifton, I9/29 April 1630 1

Hon :be sir. Mr Clifton wth his companie and followers, are safely arrived

here in Geneva, and every man I thanke God in perfect health. we set forth from Paris the 5th of Aprill stilo novo: in 13 dayes we came to Lyons in a Coach, wth more tediousnesse of mind then payne of

body, from Lyons after 4 dayes stay there we went on horsebacke to Geneva where we arrived the 23th of the same moneth. Wee lodge in the house of one Mr Prevost 12 a minister of the most estimation of

any man in the cittie, a very wise and honest man and not of the Geneva print, more then is necessary for an inhabitant and minister of the place. The towne is free fr6 noyse, company, and ill example, free fro contagion, and warre, and fitte for study and retirednesse, having also good ayre and walkes wch in other great townes are wantinge. Wee intend to stay here till the beginning of September, that if it be possible wee may get an opportunity to Winter in Italy. But I have no

hope of it, the warres have made all the wayes so dangerous, and

10 The War of the Succession of Mantua between the Spaniards and the French, 1629-1630.

n Clifton MSS. Univ. Nottingham, hitherto unpublished. 12 M. Bernard Gagnebin has kindly informed me that this was probably Pierre

Prevost, born at Issoudun I549, died at Geneva I639.



201

difficult, that not a man here, or any where by the way to whom we discovered our purpose but dissuades us from it. Peace is not expected till one or both parties be wearied, wch will not be this summer; Therefore I thinke we shall spend a winter most in France, and so come home by the low countries. This day I shall by virtue of our Letters of Credit take 6o" of our new allowance our old stocke ending now. if your letters of credit had bene for 25" more than they are I would at midsommer next have taken so much here, and caused it to be repayd you by Mr Parslow, so much being then due to me fro my Lady. I pray you therefor let me have a letter of credit for 25 apart by the next, for I know no other way to have my mony here at that time, and I will send Mr Parslow an acquittance as soone as mid' sommer day is past by wch that some shall be payd wthout scruple. In this time of our stay here Mr Clifton hath taken an Italian Master who hath promised to make him speake good Italian in 3 moneths, which he is apt to learne, and wthin few dayes there will come to him a master of writing for the Italian hand, wth wch two exercises I doubt not but he will spend his time profitably and to your Content.

There went from Lyons while we were there two Englishmen into

Italy whereof one perhaps you know, his name is Mr Smithy, the other is one Captayne Say or Sale. They go downe the Rhosne a

good way, and then by Land through Provence to Tolon, a iourney of seven or eight dayes in wch they can ly in no towne that hath not the plague, and most of the townes in Provence have it in vigor. fro Tolon they make the rest of their way by water, wch will be 4 dayes at least, and comminge so into Italy are sure to be receaved into no towne there till they have bene 40 dayes ayred in the fieldes, on these termes we might have gone wth them but I refused. Wee are I thanke God safe fro all dangers of that kind here in Geneva. and it were not discretion to passe through the plague on no greater an errand then ye curiosity of travellers. Thus wth my humble service remembred to my Lady & Mris Abbots I remayne

your most humble servant Tho: Hobbes from Geneva

Apr. I I630 29



202

Thomas Hobbes to Sir Gervase Clifton, 10 May I630, o.s.13

Hon :le Sir. This day fortnight, M' Clifton and I sent letters to you, whereby

you might know of our safe arrival at Geneva. In mine you might find I have taken up threescore pounds of our allowance for this halfe

year wee now are in. about 2 moneths hence I entend to take up the rest. I long much to know his name, and abiding place, whom you have left in London, during your absence, to receave our letters, and to do such thinges for us there, as wee shall have need to be done. For not being able yet to resolve to what place to go next, I shall have but little time for the procuringe from you of new Letters of Credit for the next halfe year. and yor being in the contry will cause our letters to be very old ere they arrive, and perhaps sometimes miscarry. Therefore I beseech you as soone as you can, let me know who it is in London that I should write to for those letters of credit, that I may receave them at such time and in such place as I shall require them. There is no possibility for the present nor hope for the future of going into Italy, in respect of the warres, and going up and downe of troupes in all partes betweene us and it. And though I know you would

gladly have your sonne see that contry, yet I presume you would not have him venture upon a iourney, where the danger so farre exceedes the profit. Wee are in a place where Mr Clifton lives contentedly & to the benefitting of his minde, as much as any place in the world can afford. He studies as much if not more then I desire, exercises his body enough, and learnes Italian so fast that I doubt not but he will be able to speake the Languadge though we be denyed to see the contry. Sorrily we begin to lay by the hope of Italy we begin also to advise of our next wintering place. There are but 3 places to be thought on. Eyther we must returne into France, and spend the winter at Orleans, or some other towne on the River of Loyre, wch

iourney will be not difficult, nor the place when we come to it un, profitable. Or else we must go into ye Low Contries, wch wee may well do next September, by Basil, and so downe the river of Rhine; But wee must have a passeport fro the Archduchesse, or Spaniards

13 Clifton MSS. Univ. Nottingham, hitherto unpublished.



203

(whensoever we go into Holland, whether it be before or after the

winter) will be necessary, and must be done by your meanes. Or

lastly wee must stay the winter in this towne, woh I like least of the 3 but leave all to your direction and Commandement, woh I desire to receave w"t as much speed as can be, and particularly who it is to whom I may addresse my letters (wch I shall write in August next) for the procuringe of our next letters of credit. The Duke of Savoy hath evilly entreated the French that lived in his court, as well the servants of his daughter in law the k. of France his sister, as others, sending them away stripped of all they had and w"t no security of their passage, so that many of them were murdered by the way. This

asperity of his hath so exasperated the k. that he thinkes of no lesse then putting the Duke out of all both Savoy and Piemont. Chambery he hath already if the report be true that came hither this morninge;14 but however, it is impossible for that towne to endure an assault of so

great an army as is wth the king. This newes is enough to let you see we are not likely to have good passage through Savoy. and this is all the newes I yet have. So I humbly take leave and remayne

your most humble servant Tho: Hobbes

Geneva May o0 stilo veteri 1630

To the Honorable Sir Gervas Clifton knight and Baronet present

these.

Thomas Hobbes to Robert Leeke, o July 1630, n.s.15

Sir I thanke you for yor letter of the 30th of May wch I have receaved

here the 8th of July. Sir Gervas should not have given his bond to 14 The report was correct: Memoires du Marechal de Bassompierre (one of the French

army commanders), Amsterdam, I723, vol. 4, p. I04: ' Le Jeudi 16 [mai] . . . Chambery capitula.... Le Vendredi 17. Le Chateau de Chambery capitula.' France was now at war with Savoy because Savoy had refused to join France against Spain.

15 Clifton MSS. Univ. Nottingham, hitherto unpublished.



204

sr W. Curten16 for ye payment of ye whole somme upon my receipt of the letter of Credit, but for the sommes particularly as I tooke them. but the matter is not great. I have now, (seeing nothing is saved by leaving it in the merchants hands) taken up the rest of this halfe yeares allowance. My other 2 billes of 65" and of 25 I meane not to take

up till the beginning of our next halfe year, at wch time I make account to be againe in Paris, wch I take to be the best place to stay in all winter, for us that have allready vewed so much of the contry. There is no newes fro the army, it seemes they do no wonders on neyther side. The french use to do most at first, and according to that, has bene their proceeding in Piemont & Savoy. God keepe you in health for our merry meeting in England wch I hope will be next

spring at farthest. Commend me kindly to Mr Babington and Mr Foukes. So I sign

yor most assured Frend Orleans July Io. stilo novo Th Hobbes

I630

To my very loving friend Mr Robert Leake 17 gives these at Clifton.

Thomas Hobbes to Mr Leeke, 4 August 1630, n.s.18

Good Mr Leeke, I have receaved your letter of the 5 of July. the other packets you

mention, I know not whether I have receaved them or not. But I have receaved a packet wherein I had letters of credit, one for 65" (part of our next halfe yeares allowance) and another for 25" for M' Cliftons private expence. If any other letters of credit besides these have bene sent, I have neyther receaved nor expected them. This

16 Sir William Courten (1S72-I636), silk and linen merchant. 17 Robert Leeke was the man to whom Sir Gervase Clifton had entrusted his business

during his absence from London. 18 Clifton MSS. Univ. Nottingham, hitherto published as far as 'enough' in Hist.

MSS. Comm. Rep., 'Report on MSS. in various collections,' vol. 7, 1914, p. 396, as being among MSS. of Sir Hervey Bruce.



205

towne is without newes, but for other passe/time here is enough.19 So praying for yor health & our merry meeting I rest

your most assured frend Tho: Hobbes

Orleans Aug. 4 stilo novo. 1630

I pray you commend my love to Mr Babington

Thomas Hobbes to Sir Gervase Clifton, 2 November 1630, o.s.20

Honorable Sir That I am welcome home, I must attribute to yor favorable Letter,

by wch my Lady understandes yor good acceptance of my service to Mr Clifton. This favor of yours I esteeme no small part of your Liberality, and shall hate my owne nature, when I shall cease to ac,

knowledge both that, and the rest of your benefits, by wch I am obliged to strive all I can to approve my selfe (when you shall be pleased to command me)

your most humble & obedient servant

Tho: Hobbes fro Hardwicke this 2 of Novemb.

1630

I made your man stay here till 12 a clocke, because I knew not whether she would write to you or not. but it seemes there is nothing in the letter that requires a present answer. I beseech you Sr to remember

my humble service to my Lady and Mes Abbots & Mr8s Leeke.

That the author of the Leviathan should have had first-hand know-

ledge of the institutions of Calvin's city is natural enough. In that 19 John Evelyn would have agreed with this. (Diary.) 20 Clifton MSS. Univ. Nottingham, hitherto published in Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep.,

'Report on MSS. in various collections,' vol. 7, 1914, p. 399, as being among MSS. of Sir Hervey Bruce.



206

same year 1630 there were two other Englishmen at Geneva 21; George Thomason, and Sir Henry Vane. It is not known if Hobbes met them, although in later years at any rate he must have been familiar with the romantic life and tragic death of the latter.

Six years later, in 1636, it appears that Hobbes was in Geneva

again, as tutor to the young 3rd Earl of Devonshire, for the Nomina et stemmata illustrium principum, generosorum comitum, baronum, dominorum ac nobilium quos pietatis et literarum amor in Scholam genevensem adduxit 21

contains an entry: ' Guiglielmus Cavendish Comes Devoniae

Anglus, 1636 Maij 26.' On this journey, as Hobbes himself wrote 22

many years later,

'Italiae multas, Gallorum et vidimus urbes; Secessus dulces vidimus Allobrogum.'

He cannot have stayed in Geneva long on this occasion, for in a letter 23

dated from Florence 6/I6 April 1636 he wrote that he hoped to be in Paris by the end of June, and in another,24 dated Paris 13/23

June 1636, he wrote that he had arrived there on i/II June. Never, theless, it is clear that when Hobbes wrote to Aubrey in 1664 approving his plan of seeing 'the Loyer and the country of Brittany and that about Geneva,' 25 he was speaking from personal knowledge.

21 A. Chopard,'Geneve et les Anglais.' Bulletin de la Socie'te'd'Histoire et d'Archeologie de Geneve, vol. 7, 1940.

22' T. Hobbes Malmesburiensis vita carmine expressa,' Thomae Hobbes opera quae latine scripsit (ed. Molesworth).

23 Printed in English Works of Thomas Hobbes (ed. Molesworth), vol. 7. 24 Printed in Hist. MSS. Comm. Rep. 13, App. 2, vol. 2, p. I28. 25 A. Powell, John Aubrey and hisfriends. London, 1949.



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Some Letters of Thomas Hobbes