[[1]]
But it is worth while to remark that the copies of Human
Nature which are to be found in that unique collection in the
British Museum called "the King's Pamphlets," have the year of the first
edition altered by an old hand to 1649, and the date February 2nd added;
and the year of the second edition altered to 1650, with the date
December 30th; also in the copy of De Corpore Politico there is
added to the year 1650, the date May 4th.
[[2]]
It had been published at Paris, 1642, in 4to (being then entitled
Elementorum Philosophiae Sectio
Tertia), and again at Amsterdam, 1647, in 12mo, together
with a Praefatio ad lectores,
containing an announcement of the whole plan on which the author was
working. But the Sectio Prima, De Corpore, did not follow
earlier than 1655 (published in London), and the Sectio Secunda, De
Homine, some years later (Lond., 1658).
[[3]]
From a pamphlet addressed in the year 1656 by Hobbes to the two
Oxford Professors, Ward and Wallis: English Works, ed. Molesworth, vol.
vii. p. 336.
[[4]]
I am greatly indebted to the kindness of His Grace the Duke of
Devonshire in allowing me to examine these papers at Hardwick in 1878.
[[5]]
Needham was also the author of a book entitled The case of the
Commonwealth of England stated, etc. (1649), of which a second edition
came out in 1650 with extracts from Salmasius' Defensio Regia and Mr. Hobbes's De
Corpore Politico.
It should not be forgotten that about this time the philosopher himself
made his peace with the new order of things by publishing the Review
and Conclusion of his Leviathan; though he himself asserts
(Considerations l.c. pp. 415, 423) that the work was not
written to secure his own return to England, but to justify and direct
the conduct of a number of gentlemen who compounded, or were willing to
compound, with the Parliament for the saving of their estates from
confiscation. For his own part, he assures us that he never "sought any
benefit either from Oliver or from any of his party," and asks "why [if
the Leviathan had been written in order to gain the favour of
the Parliament] did they not thank him for it, both they and Oliver in
their turns?" This may perhaps serve for a refutation of a rumour spread
by an antagonist (J. Dowell, The Leviathan heretical, 1683),
that Oliver, on gaining the Protectorship, "had proffered him the great
place of being secretary," a statement which has been several times
repeated. Meanwhile it is by a sarcastic verse in the Vita
written by himself in Latin couplets, that the old man himself seems to
account for a certain courtesy bestowed upon him after his return
(Regia conanti calamo defendere
iura. Quis vitio vertat regia iura petens?). And no doubt
he was fully conscious of the wide gulf which separated him from the
orthodox defenders of the divine right of kings: a difference, however,
which many of his critics, up to this day, have not been able to
perceive.
