Page:The ethics of Hobbes (IA ethicsofhobbes00hobb).pdf/28
this, which is said, the will is also caused by other things whereof it disposeth not, it followeth, that voluntary actions have all of them necessary causes, and therefore are necessitated."[1]
Another controversy, bitter and undignified in character, which extended through a number of years almost to the time of his death, was a mathematical controversy with John Wallis, Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. In this contest Hobbes met more than his match, and was undoubtedly defeated. Wallis, in his Elenchus and other writings, revealed the inconsistencies and fallacies involved in the mathematical reasoning of Hobbes. About a dozen works were brought forth by Hobbes in connection with this long and rather useless controversy.
In 1668 a Latin edition of his collected works was published in Amsterdam. In this edition the Leviathan was considerably modified. In 1675 an English translation of the Iliad and Odyssey was published by him. Another work belonging to this closing period of his life was the Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England, and of the Counsels and Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to 1660. The authorized edition of this work was not published before 1679, shortly after his death. Some works also of a minor character belong to this period. These works, together with the controversial writings referred to above, are evidence sufficient that the last twenty-five years of Hobbes's life constitute a period of great literary activity, evincing a good deal of mental vigor.
The closing years of his life, 1675-79, were spent with the family of the Earl of Devonshire at Hardwick and Chadsworth. In October, 1679, he became ill, and on December 4 of the same year death closed the long and varied career of Thomas Hobbes.
- ↑ Of Liberty and Necessity, p. 274.