Page:The ethics of Hobbes (IA ethicsofhobbes00hobb).pdf/22

sies concerning the relations between civil and spiritual power were becoming more intense. In 1640 he wrote a "little treatise," expressing his political views. In it he attempted to vindicate the supremacy of the royal prerogative. The "little treatise" was circulated rather freely in manuscript form, and, according to Hobbes's own opinion, he incurred the hostility of the leaders of Parliament by it. He continued to ventilate his political views, and, feeling himself in danger, he fled to Paris, where, rejoining the scientific circle, he remained eleven years. In 1641 he wrote the De Cive in Latin, a work treating of the origin, nature, and power of civil government. In this work the absoluteness of sovereignty is advocated. Only a small number of copies was printed in 1642. The next three years were spent largely in scientific study. In 1647 a new edition of the De Cive was published in Amsterdam, bearing the title Elementa Philosophica de Cive, the date of dedication being 1641-46. The Preface to this edition indicates the circumstances which impelled not only its publication but doubtless also the publication of the previous edition.

He says, in the "Preface to the Reader" of the Philosophical Rudiments concerning Government and Society, which is an English translation of the De Cive: "I was studying Philosophy for my mind sake, and I had gathered together its first elements in all kinds; and having digested them into three sections by degrees, I thought to have written them, so as in the first I would have treated of Body and its general properties; in the second, of Man and his special faculties and affections; in the third, of Civil Government and the duties of subjects. Wherefore the first section would have contained the First Philosophy, and certain elements of Physic; in it we would have considered the reasons of Time, Place, Cause, Power, Relation, Proportion, Quantity, Figure, and Motion. In the second we