Books: Leviathan

T >> Thomas Hobbes >> Leviathan

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47

And if it were so, that there were a Language without any Verb
answerable to Est, or Is, or Bee; yet the men that used it would bee
not a jot the lesse capable of Inferring, Concluding, and of all kind
of Reasoning, than were the Greeks, and Latines. But what then would
become of these Terms, of Entity, Essence, Essentiall, Essentially,
that are derived from it, and of many more that depend on these,
applyed as most commonly they are? They are therefore no Names
of Things; but Signes, by which wee make known, that wee conceive
the Consequence of one name or Attribute to another: as when we say,
"a Man, is, a living Body," wee mean not that the Man is one thing,
the Living Body another, and the Is, or Beeing a third: but that the Man,
and the Living Body, is the same thing: because the Consequence,
"If hee bee a Man, hee is a living Body," is a true Consequence, signified
by that word Is. Therefore, "to bee a Body, to Walke, to bee Speaking,
to Live, to See, and the like Infinitives; also Corporeity, Walking,
Speaking, Life, Sight, and the like, that signifie just the same,
are the names of Nothing; as I have elsewhere more amply expressed.

But to what purpose (may some man say) is such subtilty in a work
of this nature, where I pretend to nothing but what is necessary
to the doctrine of Government and Obedience? It is to this purpose,
that men may no longer suffer themselves to be abused, by them,
that by this doctrine of Separated Essences, built on the Vain Philosophy
of Aristotle, would fright them from Obeying the Laws of their Countrey,
with empty names; as men fright Birds from the Corn with an empty doublet,
a hat, and a crooked stick. For it is upon this ground, that when a Man
is dead and buried, they say his Soule (that is his Life) can walk
separated from his Body, and is seen by night amongst the graves.
Upon the same ground they say, that the Figure, and Colour, and Tast of
a peece of Bread, has a being, there, where they say there is no Bread:
And upon the same ground they say, that Faith, and Wisdome,
and other Vertues are sometimes powred into a man, sometimes
blown into him from Heaven; as if the Vertuous, and their Vertues
could be asunder; and a great many other things that serve to lessen
the dependance of Subjects on the Soveraign Power of their Countrey.
For who will endeavour to obey the Laws, if he expect Obedience to be
Powred or Blown into him? Or who will not obey a Priest, that can make God,
rather than his Soveraign; nay than God himselfe? Or who, that is in fear
of Ghosts, will not bear great respect to those that can make
the Holy Water, that drives them from him? And this shall suffice
for an example of the Errors, which are brought into the Church,
from the Entities, and Essences of Aristotle: which it may be he knew
to be false Philosophy; but writ it as a thing consonant to,
and corroborative of their Religion; and fearing the fate of Socrates.

Being once fallen into this Error of Separated Essences, they are
thereby necessarily involved in many other absurdities that follow it.
For seeing they will have these Forms to be reall, they are obliged
to assign them some place. But because they hold them Incorporeall,
without all dimension of Quantity, and all men know that Place
is Dimension, and not to be filled, but by that which is Corporeall;
they are driven to uphold their credit with a distinction,
that they are not indeed any where Circumscriptive, but Definitive:
Which Terms being meer Words, and in this occasion insignificant,
passe onely in Latine, that the vanity of them may bee concealed.
For the Circumscription of a thing, is nothing else but the Determination,
or Defining of its Place; and so both the Terms of the Distinction
are the same. And in particular, of the Essence of a Man, which
(they say) is his Soule, they affirm it, to be All of it in his
little Finger, and All of it in every other Part (how small soever)
of his Body; and yet no more Soule in the Whole Body, than in any one
of those Parts. Can any man think that God is served with such
absurdities? And yet all this is necessary to beleeve, to those
that will beleeve the Existence of an Incorporeall Soule,
Separated from the Body.

And when they come to give account, how an Incorporeall Substance
can be capable of Pain, and be tormented in the fire of Hell,
or Purgatory, they have nothing at all to answer, but that it
cannot be known how fire can burn Soules.

Again, whereas Motion is change of Place, and Incorporeall Substances
are not capable of Place, they are troubled to make it seem possible,
how a Soule can goe hence, without the Body to Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory;
and how the Ghosts of men (and I may adde of their clothes which they
appear in) can walk by night in Churches, Church-yards, and other
places of Sepulture. To which I know not what they can answer,
unlesse they will say, they walke Definitive, not Circumscriptive,
or Spiritually, not Temporally: for such egregious distinctions
are equally applicable to any difficulty whatsoever.

Nunc-stans
For the meaning of Eternity, they will not have it to be an Endlesse
Succession of Time; for then they should not be able to render a reason
how Gods Will, and Praeordaining of things to come, should not be
before his Praescience of the same, as the Efficient Cause before
the Effect, or Agent before the Action; nor of many other their
bold opinions concerning the Incomprehensible Nature of God.
But they will teach us, that Eternity is the Standing still of
the Present Time, a Nunc-stans (as the Schools call it;) which
neither they, nor any else understand, no more than they would
a Hic-stans for an Infinite greatnesse of Place.

One Body In Many Places,
And Many Bodies In One Place At Once
And whereas men divide a Body in their thought, by numbring parts of it,
and in numbring those parts, number also the parts of the Place
it filled; it cannot be, but in making many parts, wee make also
many places of those parts; whereby there cannot bee conceived in the
mind of any man, more, or fewer parts, than there are places for:
yet they will have us beleeve, that by the Almighty power of God,
one body may be at one and the same time in many places;
and many bodies at one and the same time in one place; as if it were
an acknowledgment of the Divine Power, to say, that which is, is not;
or that which has been, has not been. And these are but a small part
of the Incongruities they are forced to, from their disputing
Philosophically, in stead of admiring, and adoring of the Divine
and Incomprehensible Nature; whose Attributes cannot signifie what he is,
but ought to signifie our desire to honour him, with the best
Appellations we can think on. But they that venture to reason
of his Nature, from these Attributes of Honour, losing their
understanding in the very first attempt, fall from one Inconvenience
into another, without end, and without number; in the same manner,
as when a man ignorant of the Ceremonies of Court, comming into the
presence of a greater Person than he is used to speak to, and stumbling
at his entrance, to save himselfe from falling, lets slip his Cloake;
to recover his Cloake, lets fall his Hat; and with one disorder after
another, discovers his astonishment and rusticity.

Absurdities In Naturall Philosophy,
As Gravity The Cause Of Heavinesse
Then for Physiques, that is, the knowledge of the subordinate, and
secundary causes of naturall events; they render none at all, but
empty words. If you desire to know why some kind of bodies sink
naturally downwards toward the Earth, and others goe naturally from it;
The Schools will tell you out of Aristotle, that the bodies that sink
downwards, are Heavy; and that this Heavinesse is it that causes them
to descend: But if you ask what they mean by Heavinesse, they will
define it to bee an endeavour to goe to the center of the Earth: so that
the cause why things sink downward, is an Endeavour to be below: which is
as much as to say, that bodies descend, or ascend, because they doe.
Or they will tell you the center of the Earth is the place of Rest,
and Conservation for Heavy things; and therefore they endeavour
to be there: As if Stones, and Metalls had a desire, or could discern
the place they would bee at, as Man does; or loved Rest, as Man does not;
or that a peece of Glasse were lesse safe in the Window,
than falling into the Street.

Quantity Put Into Body Already Made
If we would know why the same Body seems greater (without adding to it)
one time, than another; they say, when it seems lesse, it is Condensed;
when greater, Rarefied. What is that Condensed, and Rarefied?
Condensed, is when there is in the very same Matter, lesse Quantity
than before; and Rarefied, when more. As if there could be Matter,
that had not some determined Quantity; when Quantity is nothing else
but the Determination of Matter; that is to say of Body, by which we say
one Body is greater, or lesser than another, by thus, or thus much.
Or as if a Body were made without any Quantity at all, and that
afterwards more, or lesse were put into it, according as it is intended
the Body should be more, or lesse Dense.

Powring In Of Soules
For the cause of the Soule of Man, they say, Creatur Infundendo,
and Creando Infunditur: that is, "It is Created by Powring it in,"
and "Powred in by Creation."

Ubiquity Of Apparition
For the Cause of Sense, an ubiquity of Species; that is, of the Shews
or Apparitions of objects; which when they be Apparitions to the Eye,
is Sight; when to the Eare, Hearing; to the Palate, Tast;
to the Nostrill, Smelling; and to the rest of the Body, Feeling.

Will, The Cause Of Willing
For cause of the Will, to doe any particular action, which is called
Volitio, they assign the Faculty, that is to say, the Capacity
in generall, that men have, to will sometimes one thing,
sometimes another, which is called Voluntas; making the Power
the cause of the Act: As if one should assign for cause of the
good or evill Acts of men, their Ability to doe them.

Ignorance An Occult Cause
And in many occasions they put for cause of Naturall events,
their own Ignorance, but disguised in other words: As when they say,
Fortune is the cause of things contingent; that is, of things
whereof they know no cause: And as when they attribute many
Effects to Occult Qualities; that is, qualities not known to them;
and therefore also (as they thinke) to no Man else. And to Sympathy,
Antipathy, Antiperistasis, Specificall Qualities, and other like Termes,
which signifie neither the Agent that produceth them, nor the Operation
by which they are produced.

If such Metaphysiques, and Physiques as this, be not Vain Philosophy,
there was never any; nor needed St. Paul to give us warning to avoid it.

One Makes The Things Incongruent,
Another The Incongruity
And for their Morall, and Civill Philosophy, it hath the same,
or greater absurdities. If a man doe an action of Injustice,
that is to say, an action contrary to the Law, God they say is the prime
cause of the Law, and also the prime cause of that, and all other Actions;
but no cause at all of the Injustice; which is the Inconformity of the
Action to the Law. This is Vain Philosophy. A man might as well say,
that one man maketh both a streight line, and a crooked, and another
maketh their Incongruity. And such is the Philosophy of all men that
resolve of their Conclusions, before they know their Premises;
pretending to comprehend, that which is Incomprehensible;
and of Attributes of Honour to make Attributes of Nature;
as this distinction was made to maintain the Doctrine of Free-Will,
that is, of a Will of man, not subject to the Will of God.

Private Appetite The Rule Of Publique Good:
Aristotle, and other Heathen Philosophers define Good, and Evill,
by the Appetite of men; and well enough, as long as we consider them
governed every one by his own Law: For in the condition of men that
have no other Law but their own Appetites, there can be no generall
Rule of Good, and Evill Actions. But in a Common-wealth this measure
is false: Not the Appetite of Private men, but the Law, which is the Will
and Appetite of the State is the measure. And yet is this Doctrine
still practised; and men judge the Goodnesse, or Wickednesse of their own,
and of other mens actions, and of the actions of the Common-wealth
it selfe, by their own Passions; and no man calleth Good or Evill,
but that which is so in his own eyes, without any regard at all to the
Publique Laws; except onely Monks, and Friers, that are bound by Vow
to that simple obedience to their Superiour, to which every Subject ought
to think himself bound by the Law of Nature to the Civill Soveraign.
And this private measure of Good, is a Doctrine, not onely Vain,
but also Pernicious to the Publique State.

And That Lawfull Marriage Is Unchastity:
It is also Vain and false Philosophy, to say the work of Marriage
is repugnant to Chastity, or Continence, and by consequence
to make them Morall Vices; as they doe, that pretend Chastity,
and Continence, for the ground of denying Marriage to the Clergy.
For they confesse it is no more, but a Constitution of the Church,
that requireth in those holy Orders that continually attend the Altar,
and administration of the Eucharist, a continuall Abstinence from women,
under the name of continuall Chastity, Continence, and Purity.
Therefore they call the lawfull use of Wives, want of Chastity,
and Continence; and so make Marriage a Sin, or at least a thing
so impure, and unclean, as to render a man unfit for the Altar.
If the Law were made because the use of Wives is Incontinence,
and contrary to Chastity, then all marriage is vice; If because it is
a thing too impure, and unclean for a man consecrated to God;
much more should other naturall, necessary, and daily works
which all men doe, render men unworthy to bee Priests, because
they are more unclean.

But the secret foundation of this prohibition of Marriage of Priests,
is not likely to have been laid so slightly, as upon such errours
in Morall Philosophy; nor yet upon the preference of single life,
to the estate of Matrimony; which proceeded from the wisdome
of St. Paul, who perceived how inconvenient a thing it was,
for those that in those times of persecution were Preachers
of the Gospel, and forced to fly from one countrey to another,
to be clogged with the care of wife and children; but upon the design
of the Popes, and Priests of after times, to make themselves the Clergy,
that is to say, sole Heirs of the Kingdome of God in this world;
to which it was necessary to take from them the use of Marriage,
because our Saviour saith, that at the coming of his Kingdome
the Children of God shall "neither Marry, nor bee given in Marriage,
but shall bee as the Angels in heaven;" that is to say, Spirituall.
Seeing then they had taken on them the name of Spirituall,
to have allowed themselves (when there was no need) the propriety
of Wives, had been an Incongruity.

And That All Government But Popular, Is Tyranny:
From Aristotles Civill Philosophy, they have learned, to call all manner
of Common-wealths but the Popular, (such as was at that time the state
of Athens,) Tyranny. All Kings they called Tyrants; and the Aristocracy
of the thirty Governours set up there by the Lacedemonians that
subdued them, the thirty Tyrants: As also to call the condition
of the people under the Democracy, Liberty. A Tyrant originally
signified no more simply, but a Monarch: But when afterwards
in most parts of Greece that kind of government was abolished,
the name began to signifie, not onely the thing it did before,
but with it, the hatred which the Popular States bare towards it:
As also the name of King became odious after the deposing of the Kings
in Rome, as being a thing naturall to all men, to conceive some
great Fault to be signified in any Attribute, that is given in despight,
and to a great Enemy. And when the same men shall be displeased
with those that have the administration of the Democracy, or Aristocracy,
they are not to seek for disgraceful names to expresse their anger in;
but call readily the one Anarchy, and the other Oligarchy,
or the Tyranny Of A Few. And that which offendeth the People,
is no other thing, but that they are governed, not as every one
of them would himselfe, but as the Publique Representant, be it one Man,
or an Assembly of men thinks fit; that is, by an Arbitrary government:
for which they give evill names to their Superiors; never knowing
(till perhaps a little after a Civill warre) that without such
Arbitrary government, such Warre must be perpetuall; and that
it is Men, and Arms, not Words, and Promises, that make the
Force and Power of the Laws.

That Not Men, But Law Governs
And therefore this is another Errour of Aristotles Politiques,
that in a wel ordered Common-wealth, not Men should govern, but the Laws.
What man, that has his naturall Senses, though he can neither write
nor read, does not find himself governed by them he fears,
and beleeves can kill or hurt him when he obeyeth not? or that beleeves
the Law can hurt him; that is, Words, and Paper, without the Hands,
and Swords of men? And this is of the number of pernicious Errors:
for they induce men, as oft as they like not their Governours,
to adhaere to those that call them Tyrants, and to think it lawfull
to raise warre against them: And yet they are many times cherished
from the Pulpit, by the Clergy.

Laws Over The Conscience
There is another Errour in their Civill Philosophy (which they never
learned of Aristotle, nor Cicero, nor any other of the Heathen,)
to extend the power of the Law, which is the Rule of Actions onely,
to the very Thoughts, and Consciences of men, by Examination,
and Inquisition of what they Hold, notwithstanding the Conformity
of their Speech and Actions: By which, men are either punished
for answering the truth of their thoughts, or constrained to answer
an untruth for fear of punishment. It is true, that the Civill
Magistrate, intending to employ a Minister in the charge of Teaching,
may enquire of him, if hee bee content to Preach such, and such Doctrines;
and in case of refusall, may deny him the employment: But to force him
to accuse himselfe of Opinions, when his Actions are not by Law forbidden,
is against the Law of Nature; and especially in them, who teach,
that a man shall bee damned to Eternall and extream torments, if he die
in a false opinion concerning an Article of the Christian Faith.
For who is there, that knowing there is so great danger in an error,
when the naturall care of himself, compelleth not to hazard his Soule
upon his own judgement, rather than that of any other man that
is unconcerned in his damnation?

Private Interpretation Of Law
For a Private man, without the Authority of the Common-wealth,
that is to say, without permission from the Representant thereof,
to Interpret the Law by his own Spirit, is another Error in
the Politiques; but not drawn from Aristotle, nor from any other
of the Heathen Philosophers. For none of them deny, but that in
the Power of making Laws, is comprehended also the Power of
Explaining them when there is need. And are not the Scriptures,
in all places where they are Law, made Law by the Authority
of the Common-wealth, and consequently, a part of the Civill Law?

Of the same kind it is also, when any but the Soveraign restraineth
in any man that power which the Common-wealth hath not restrained:
as they do, that impropriate the Preaching of the Gospell to
one certain Order of men, where the Laws have left it free.
If the State give me leave to preach, or teach; that is, if it
forbid me not, no man can forbid me. If I find my selfe amongst
the Idolaters of America, shall I that am a Christian, though not
in Orders, think it a sin to preach Jesus Christ, till I have
received Orders from Rome? or when I have preached, shall not
I answer their doubts, and expound the Scriptures to them;
that is shall I not Teach? But for this may some say, as also
for administring to them the Sacraments, the necessity shall be
esteemed for a sufficient Mission; which is true: But this is true also,
that for whatsoever, a dispensation is due for the necessity,
for the same there needs no dispensation, when there is no Law
that forbids it. Therefore to deny these Functions to those, to whom
the Civill Soveraigne hath not denyed them, is a taking away of a
lawfull Liberty, which is contrary to the Doctrine of Civill Government.

Language Of Schoole-Divines
More examples of Vain Philosophy, brought into Religion by the Doctors
of Schoole-Divinity, might be produced; but other men may if they please
observe them of themselves. I shall onely adde this, that the Writings
of Schoole-Divines, are nothing else for the most part, but insignificant
Traines of strange and barbarous words, or words otherwise used,
then in the common use of the Latine tongue; such as would pose Cicero,
and Varro, and all the Grammarians of ancient Rome. Which if any man
would see proved, let him (as I have said once before) see whether
he can translate any Schoole-Divine into any of the Modern tongues,
as French, English, or any other copious language: for that which cannot
in most of these be made Intelligible, is no Intelligible in the Latine.
Which Insignificancy of language, though I cannot note it for
false Philosophy; yet it hath a quality, not onely to hide the Truth,
but also to make men think they have it, and desist from further search.

Errors From Tradition
Lastly, for the errors brought in from false, or uncertain History,
what is all the Legend of fictitious Miracles, in the lives of
the Saints; and all the Histories of Apparitions, and Ghosts,
alledged by the Doctors of the Romane Church, to make good their
Doctrines of Hell, and purgatory, the power of Exorcisme,
and other Doctrines which have no warrant, neither in Reason,
nor Scripture; as also all those Traditions which they call
the unwritten Word of God; but old Wives Fables? Whereof, though they
find dispersed somewhat in the Writings of the ancient Fathers;
yet those Fathers were men, that might too easily beleeve false reports;
and the producing of their opinions for testimony of the truth of
what they beleeved, hath no other force with them that (according to
the Counsell of St. John 1 Epist. chap. 4. verse 1.) examine Spirits,
than in all things that concern the power of the Romane Church,
(the abuse whereof either they suspected not, or had benefit by it,)
to discredit their testimony, in respect of too rash beleef of reports;
which the most sincere men, without great knowledge of naturall causes,
(such as the Fathers were) are commonly the most subject to: For
naturally, the best men are the least suspicious of fraudulent purposes.
Gregory the Pope, and S. Bernard have somewhat of Apparitions of Ghosts,
that said they were in Purgatory; and so has our Beda: but no where,
I beleeve, but by report from others. But if they, or any other, relate
any such stories of their own knowledge, they shall not thereby confirm
the more such vain reports; but discover their own Infirmity, or Fraud.

Suppression Of Reason
With the Introduction of False, we may joyn also the suppression
of True Philosophy, by such men, as neither by lawfull authority,
nor sufficient study, are competent Judges of the truth.
Our own Navigations make manifest, and all men learned in humane
Sciences, now acknowledge there are Antipodes: And every day it
appeareth more and more, that Years, and Dayes are determined by
Motions of the Earth. Neverthelesse, men that have in their Writings
but supposed such Doctrine, as an occasion to lay open the reasons for,
and against it, have been punished for it by Authority Ecclesiasticall.
But what reason is there for it? Is it because such opinions are contrary
to true Religion? that cannot be, if they be true. Let therefore
the truth be first examined by competent Judges, or confuted by them
that pretend to know the contrary. Is it because they be contrary
to the Religion established? Let them be silenced by the Laws of those,
to whom the Teachers of them are subject; that is, by the Laws Civill:
For disobedience may lawfully be punished in them, that against
the Laws teach even true Philosophy. Is it because they tend
to disorder in Government, as countenancing Rebellion, or Sedition?
then let them be silenced, and the Teachers punished by vertue of
his power to whom the care of the Publique quiet is committed;
which is the Authority Civill. For whatsoever Power Ecclesiastiques
take upon themselves (in any place where they are subject to the State)
in their own Right, though they call it Gods Right, is but Usurpation.

CHAPTER XLVII

OF THE BENEFIT THAT PROCEEDETH FROM SUCH DARKNESSE,
AND TO WHOM IT ACCREWETH

He That Receiveth Benefit By A Fact,
Is Presumed To Be The Author
Cicero maketh honorable mention of one of the Cassii, a severe Judge
amongst the Romans, for a custome he had, in Criminal causes,
(when the testimony of the witnesses was not sufficient,)
to ask the Accusers, Cui Bono; that is to say, what Profit, Honor,
or other Contentment, the accused obtained, or expected by the Fact.
For amongst Praesumptions, there is none that so evidently declareth
the Author, as doth the BENEFIT of the Action. By the same rule
I intend in this place to examine, who they may be, that have
possessed the People so long in this part of Christendome,
with these Doctrines, contrary to the Peaceable Societies of Mankind.