to this end than is existence in a state of nature in which a man has a right to all things. The State, then, is a moral institution. It subserves a moral purpose."the procu ration of the safety of the people." It rests upon moral laws, Outward the laws of nature or the laws of reason. Submission to all that the State decrees, as long as it accomplishes the end for which it is established, is the most moral thing a man can do. The will of the sovereign, inasmuch as it makes for peace, which makes for the preservation of -men, is morally binding. The sovereign's commands, inthat they make for peace, are rational. And what is thus rational is morally obligatory. Thus we see that the relation between the two aspects of Hobbes's ethical philosophy is not an artificial, but an exceedingly natural one. In fact, there is really only one kind of morality, the morality of reason; and the political morality, founded on the will of the sovereign, is, in the final analysis, merely a form of the morality of reason.

Considerations in Studying the Ethics of Hobbes.

To fully appreciate the ethical and political philosophy of Hobbes, we must take into consideration the nature of the man as it affected his speculations. Hobbes was a creature of fear. He himself says, speaking of his birth and disposition, "I was the victim of unjust time, and along with me numerous ills were also born. For the report was spread abroad among our towns that with that fleet [the Spanish Armada] the last day of our nation was at hand. And then my mother conceived such fear that she gave birth to twins, myself and Fear. Hence it is, as I believe, that I detest my country's enemies, and love peace, in the company of the Muses and pleasant

companions." This fear, which held Hobbes in its vicelike grip, did not simply manifest itself in a detestation of his country's enemies and in a general inclination for peace, but in an almost constant concern with regard to his personal safety and in an almost morbid terror of death. This anxiety for his personal safety and horrible fear of death, intensified by the uncertain and troublous condition of the times, had a tendency to beget in him a general distrust of men, so that the unworthy conceptions of human nature which underlie his ethical and political philosophy must be studied in the light of this fact.

A second thing which must be taken into consideration in studying the ethical and political philosophy of Hobbes is the character of the times in which he lived. Hardly any fact is more familiar to the student of the history of speculative thought than the influence of an age upon the reflective thought of that age. Speculative thinkers do not escape the effects of environment. Hobbes is no exception to the rule. He lived in one of the most unsettled and stormy periods of English history. It was a period of confusion and strife. The State was torn with political and ecclesiastical contentions. Parliament contended with the Crown. The Church contended with the State. Politics had bred a number of hostile factions. The Church had split into a variety of warring sects. So that Hobbes lived almost constantly in an atmosphere of strife. Such a condition of things undoubtedly had its influence upon him, both in suggesting for consideration problems of an ethico-political character as well as affecting his thought in the solution of the same. Studying his ethical and political philosophy in the light of the condi tions under which he reflected and wrote, one can, in a measure, at least, understand how he was led to form a conception of human nature so utterly selfish and unsocial.

1 Quoted from Morris's British Thought and Thinkers, chap. VI.

It would be extravagant, of course, to suppose that his conclusions concerning the nature of men revealed in his psychological analysis were merely the product of his sur roundings. But, on the other hand, it would be erroneous to suppose they were merely the result of self-examination, as he informs us,' or of speculations born of "the_den." Hobbes, to a very large extent, dealt with human nature as he constantly observed it in the men of his time. He did not so much deal with human nature in the abstract as in the emorete; not so much with man as with men and with men as they came under his observation. And what an exhibition of human nature did these men afford. As one has said, "the men by whom he was surrounded were distrustful of each other. Anarchy, as he judged, had gained the ascendency. In the civil wars men had returned to the state of nature. Hobbes saw them as children of wrath, hateful and hating each other." This sel fishness and unsociality, so manifest in his day, undoubtedly appealed to Hobbes as of the very essence of human nature. And with such a conception of the essential nature of men we can further understand how Hobbes was led to form what many of his critics regarded as extreme and dangerous views of the nature of sovereignty. What, human nature being the Ishmaelitish thing the age is constantly demonstrating it to be, is to help men out of this state of strife? Nothing, thought Hobbes, but the establishment of a supreme authority, possessed of sufficient power to compel men, through fear of penalty, to live like creatures of "reason" rather than like creatures of "passion." This, and this only, is the means by which men are to emerge from a state of nature which is a state of war, into a state of peace which is a state of safety and contentment. This, and this only, is the means by which men, who are already

1 Introduction to the Leviathan.

2 Hunt, Religious Thought in England, Vol. I., p. 385.

members of an organized society, can be kept from relaps ing into a state of nature. A sovereign power is necessary for peace, and the sovereign power must be sovereign. Tt must be the measure of all things necessary for the " procuration of the safety of the people."

Another point to be considered in an attempt to properly understand the practical philosophy of Hobbes is its relation to preceding and contemporary thought. Concerning the former, there is comparatively little to be said. Hobbes was not an erudite man. He was wont to say that had he read as much as others he would be as ignorant as they. Still, he was more or less acquainted with the works of some of his predecessors in these departments of thought. This is undoubtedly true with reference to Aristotle. He was acquainted with both the Ethics and Politics of the Greek philosopher, and had no respect for either. He criticises some of the positions taken by Aristotle in the Politics. It is quite probable also that he was familiar with the views of Bodin, as expressed in his somewhat famous work entitled Six Livres de la République, and was to a certain extent influenced by them." Concerning his relation to contemporary thought, it may be said, that the age of Hobbes was signalized by a decided revolt against scholasticism, and especially against the scholastic conceptions and methods of studying nature. The philosophy of nature which had long prevailed was dominated by the conceptions of Aristotle. Physical phenomena were explained from the standpoint of final causes. Against this method of dealing with nature the new philosophy set itself. It pursued a different course. The scientific mind had begun to appreciate the value of mathematics for the explanation of physical phenomena. As a result, mechan

Leviathan, Pt. IV., chap. XLVI.

Cf. Dunning, Jean Bodin on Sovereignty, &c., Pol. Science Quar., Vol. XI., No. 1.

ism rather than final cause was the principle applied in accounting for the constitution and construction of things. Greatly impressed by the mechanical conception of nature, Hobbes not only made use of the principle of mechanism in the explanation of so-called physical phenomena, but extended it beyond the sphere of physical science into the domain of psychological, social, political, and ethical phenomena; and, as before stated, quoting the words of Falckenberg, "Mechanism applied to the world gives mate rialism; applied to knowledge, sensationalism of a mechanical type; applied to the will, determinism; to morality and the State, ethical and political naturalism." indeed in the application of this principle of mechanism, which he had received from his age, to the explanation of ethical and political life, resulting in "ethical and political naturalism," that much of Hobbes's historical significance as a writer on ethical and political subjects lies. One of the principal reasons why he is called the father of modern ethics is his treatment of ethics from this naturalistic standpoint, and thus he proves to be the first to liberate ethics from the domination of theology. Even Bacon, who stands out so conspicuously as the foe of scholasticism, did not succeed in freeing ethics entirely from theology. Indeed, he acknowledges "that a great part of the law moral is of that perfection whereunto the light of nature cannot aspire." The "light of nature" is simply "sufficient to check the vice, not to inform the duty." We are dependent on revelation for the latter.

IV.

Influence of the Speculations of Hobbes.

The doctrines of Hobbes exerted a marked influence on contemporary and subsequent thought. Warburton says: 4 Sidgwick, Outlines of the History of Ethics, p. 158.