teach the prince the elements of mathematics. The position, as he explained to Sorbière (letter of 4 Oct. 1646), had no political significance, and was a mere engagement by the month (22 March 1647). The last letter shows that he had already thoughts of returning to England, where his patron was now settled. In 1647 Hobbes had a dangerous illness. His old friend Mersenne came to his bedside and begged him not to die outside the catholic church. Hobbes observed that he had long ago considered that matter sufficiently, and turned the conversation by asking ‘When did you last see Gassendi?’ Some days later he welcomed Cosin (afterwards bishop of Durham), and took the sacrament according to the Anglican rites, a fact to which he afterwards referred in proof of his orthodoxy.
While the ‘Leviathan’ was progressing, Hobbes's unpublished treatise of 1640 was published in two parts, ‘Human Nature, or the Fundamental Elements of Policy,’ and ‘De Corpore Politico, or Elements of Law, Moral and Politic,’ and in 1651 he published an English translation of the ‘De Cive.’ His ‘Leviathan’ was now being printed in London, and appeared in the middle of 1651. When Charles II reached Paris about the end of October, Hobbes presented him with a beautifully written copy on vellum (now in the British Museum, Egerton MS. 1910). His position in Paris had become difficult. His orthodoxy was suspected, not without reason. In 1646 he had had a private discussion with Bramhall upon freewill in presence of the Marquis of Newcastle, which some years later produced a keen controversy. The ‘Leviathan’ was not likely to conciliate churchmen, and shortly after presenting his manuscript to the king he was denied access to the court, and told by the Marquis of Ormonde that he was suspected of disloyalty and atheism. His usual timidity was excited by the murders of Isaac Dorislaus [q. v.] and Anthony Ascham [q. v.] in 1649 and 1650, and he thought that similar dangers might await the author of the ‘Leviathan.’ The French clergy, irritated by his bitter assaults on the papacy, were also thought to be meditating an attack. His flight to England soon afterwards gave credit to the suspicion that he had written the book in the interests of Cromwell. Clarendon tells a story of a conversation with Hobbes, who, in answer to remonstrances against the forthcoming book, said: ‘The truth is, I have a mind to go home.’ The ‘Leviathan,’ however, would hardly recommend its author to either party. Its abstract principles might no doubt be applied in defence of the protectorate when definitely established, which, however, did not become an accomplished fact till the end of 1653. The only passages alleged in support of the imputation of subservience to Cromwell were some phrases in the brief ‘Review and Conclusion.’ These, it may be remarked, are in the copy presented to Charles. They endeavour to define the circumstances under which submission to a new sovereign becomes legitimate. Hobbes argues in favour of those who had compounded for their estates, saying that by submitting in order to retain a part of their rights they were really more detrimental to the usurper than if by not submitting they enabled him to seize the whole. He defended this position when afterwards attacked by Wallis, and said truly that he had never justified rebellion. It was indeed idle to blame an elderly and timid philosopher, upon whom the exiled court looked with disfavour, for submitting with so many others to the new government then thought to be permanently established. His defence of the compounders applied to his patron, who had himself compounded in 1646, and to whom he was soon to return. He fled secretly to England at the end of 1651, suffering from the hardships of the frontier journey after a second severe illness (described in Guy Patin's Letters, 1846, ii. 593–4); submitted to the council of state, and was allowed to live quietly in private. An intimation, apparently sanctioned by Clarendon's language, that he received some offer from Cromwell appears to be groundless. The charge was first expressly made by John Dowel in ‘The Leviathan Heretical’ in 1683. Hobbes, indeed, in 1656 ventured to boast of his having reconciled ‘a thousand gentlemen’ to submission to the government (Six Lessons, &c. E. vii. 336); but, in any case, he received nothing, and in 1653 resumed his position in the household of his old patron. He remained, however, in London, in Fetter Lane, in order to have the advantage of intellectual society while completing the exposition of his system. Selden and Harvey were at this period his chief friends. He received a legacy of 10l. from each, from Selden in 1654, and from Harvey in 1657 (for a doubtful story about Hobbes's visit to Selden when dying see Aubrey, Lives, ii. 532; Macray, Annals of the Bodleian, p. 77 n.) He took pains to find a church where he could take the sacrament according to the rites of the church of England.
Hobbes ultimately published the ‘De Corpore,’ representing the first part of his plan, in 1655. It had been delayed for a year by his difficulty in meeting objections raised by his friends to certain unlucky solutions of impossible geometrical problems. Finally the ‘De Homine’ should have completed the
