Books: Leviathan

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Hate, From Difficulty Of Requiting Great Benefits
To have received from one, to whom we think our selves equall,
greater benefits than there is hope to Requite, disposeth to
counterfiet love; but really secret hatred; and puts a man into
the estate of a desperate debtor, that in declining the sight
of his creditor, tacitely wishes him there, where he might never
see him more. For benefits oblige; and obligation is thraldome;
which is to ones equall, hateful. But to have received benefits
from one, whom we acknowledge our superiour, enclines to love;
because the obligation is no new depession: and cheerfull
acceptation, (which men call Gratitude,) is such an honour done
to the obliger, as is taken generally for retribution. Also to
receive benefits, though from an equall, or inferiour, as long as
there is hope of requitall, disposeth to love: for in the intention
of the receiver, the obligation is of ayd, and service mutuall;
from whence proceedeth an Emulation of who shall exceed in benefiting;
the most noble and profitable contention possible; wherein the victor
is pleased with his victory, and the other revenged by confessing it.

And From Conscience Of Deserving To Be Hated
To have done more hurt to a man, than he can, or is willing to expiate,
enclineth the doer to hate the sufferer. For he must expect revenge,
or forgivenesse; both which are hatefull.

Promptnesse To Hurt, From Fear
Feare of oppression, disposeth a man to anticipate, or to seek
ayd by society: for there is no other way by which a man can
secure his life and liberty.

And From Distrust Of Their Own Wit
Men that distrust their own subtilty, are in tumult, and sedition,
better disposed for victory, than they that suppose themselves wise,
or crafty. For these love to consult, the other (fearing to be
circumvented,) to strike first. And in sedition, men being alwayes
in the procincts of Battell, to hold together, and use all advantages
of force, is a better stratagem, than any that can proceed from
subtilty of Wit.

Vain Undertaking From Vain-glory
Vain-glorious men, such as without being conscious to themselves
of great sufficiency, delight in supposing themselves gallant men,
are enclined onely to ostentation; but not to attempt: Because when
danger or difficulty appears, they look for nothing but to have
their insufficiency discovered.

Vain-glorious men, such as estimate their sufficiency by the
flattery of other men, or the fortune of some precedent action,
without assured ground of hope from the true knowledge of themselves,
are enclined to rash engaging; and in the approach of danger,
or difficulty, to retire if they can: because not seeing the way
of safety, they will rather hazard their honour, which may be salved
with an excuse; than their lives, for which no salve is sufficient.

Ambition, From Opinion Of Sufficiency
Men that have a strong opinion of their own wisdome in matter of
government, are disposed to Ambition. Because without publique
Employment in counsell or magistracy, the honour of their
wisdome is lost. And therefore Eloquent speakers are enclined
to Ambition; for Eloquence seemeth wisdome, both to themselves
and others

Irresolution, From Too Great Valuing Of Small Matters
Pusillanimity disposeth men to Irresolution, and consequently
to lose the occasions, and fittest opportunities of action.
For after men have been in deliberation till the time of
action approach, if it be not then manifest what is best to be done,
tis a signe, the difference of Motives, the one way and the other,
are not great: Therefore not to resolve then, is to lose the occasion
by weighing of trifles; which is pusillanimity.

Frugality,(though in poor men a Vertue,) maketh a man unapt to
atchieve such actions , as require the strength of many men
at once: For it weakeneth their Endeavour, which is to be nourished
and kept in vigor by Reward.

Confidence In Others From Ignorance Of The Marks Of Wisdome and Kindnesse
Eloquence, with flattery, disposeth men to confide in them that have it;
because the former is seeming Wisdome, the later seeming Kindnesse.
Adde to them Military reputation, and it disposeth men to adhaere,
and subject themselves to those men that have them. The two former,
having given them caution against danger from him; the later gives
them caution against danger from others.

And From The Ignorance Of Naturall Causes
Want of Science, that is, Ignorance of causes, disposeth, or rather
constraineth a man to rely on the advise, and authority of others.
For all men whom the truth concernes, if they rely not on their own,
must rely on the opinion of some other, whom they think wiser than
themselves, and see not why he should deceive them.

And From Want Of Understanding
Ignorance of the signification of words; which is, want of
understanding, disposeth men to take on trust, not onely the
truth they know not; but also the errors; and which is more,
the non-sense of them they trust: For neither Error, nor non-sense,
can without a perfect understanding of words, be detected.

From the same it proceedeth, that men give different names,
to one and the same thing, from the difference of their own passions:
As they that approve a private opinion, call it Opinion; but they
that mislike it, Haeresie: and yet haeresie signifies no more
than private opinion; but has onely a greater tincture of choler.

From the same also it proceedeth, that men cannot distinguish,
without study and great understanding, between one action of many men,
and many actions of one multitude; as for example, between the one
action of all the Senators of Rome in killing Catiline, and the many
actions of a number of Senators in killing Caesar; and therefore
are disposed to take for the action of the people, that which is
a multitude of actions done by a multitude of men, led perhaps by
the perswasion of one.

Adhaerence To Custome, From Ignorance Of The Nature Of Right And Wrong
Ignorance of the causes, and originall constitution of Right,
Equity, Law, and Justice, disposeth a man to make Custome and Example
the rule of his actions; in such manner, as to think that Unjust
which it hath been the custome to punish; and that Just, of the
impunity and approbation whereof they can produce an Example,
or (as the Lawyers which onely use the false measure of Justice
barbarously call it) a Precedent; like little children, that have
no other rule of good and evill manners, but the correction
they receive from their Parents, and Masters; save that children
are constant to their rule, whereas men are not so; because grown
strong, and stubborn, they appeale from custome to reason,
and from reason to custome, as it serves their turn; receding from
custome when their interest requires it, and setting themselves
against reason, as oft as reason is against them: Which is the
cause, that the doctrine of Right and Wrong, is perpetually disputed,
both by the Pen and the Sword: whereas the doctrine of Lines,
and Figures, is not so; because men care not, in that subject
what be truth, as a thing that crosses no mans ambition, profit,
or lust. For I doubt not, but if it had been a thing contrary
to any mans right of dominion, or to the interest of men that
have dominion, That The Three Angles Of A Triangle Should Be Equall
To Two Angles Of A Square; that doctrine should have been,
if not disputed, yet by the burning of all books of Geometry,
suppressed, as farre as he whom it concerned was able.

Adhaerence To Private Men, From Ignorance Of The Causes Of Peace
Ignorance of remote causes, disposeth men to attribute all events,
to the causes immediate, and Instrumentall: For these are all the
causes they perceive. And hence it comes to passe, that in all places,
men that are grieved with payments to the Publique, discharge their
anger upon the Publicans, that is to say, Farmers, Collectors,
and other Officers of the publique Revenue; and adhaere to such
as find fault with the publike Government; and thereby, when
they have engaged themselves beyond hope of justification,
fall also upon the Supreme Authority, for feare of punishment,
or shame of receiving pardon.

Credulity From Ignorance Of Nature
Ignorance of naturall causes disposeth a man to Credulity,
so as to believe many times impossibilities: for such know
nothing to the contrary, but that they may be true; being unable
to detect the Impossibility. And Credulity, because men love
to be hearkened unto in company, disposeth them to lying: so that
Ignorance it selfe without Malice, is able to make a man bothe
to believe lyes, and tell them; and sometimes also to invent them.

Curiosity To Know, From Care Of Future Time
Anxiety for the future time, disposeth men to enquire into the
causes of things: because the knowledge of them, maketh men
the better able to order the present to their best advantage.

Naturall Religion, From The Same
Curiosity, or love of the knowledge of causes, draws a man from
consideration of the effect, to seek the cause; and again,
the cause of that cause; till of necessity he must come to this thought
at last, that there is some cause, whereof there is no former cause,
but is eternall; which is it men call God. So that it is impossible
to make any profound enquiry into naturall causes, without being
enclined thereby to believe there is one God Eternall; though they
cannot have any Idea of him in their mind, answerable to his nature.
For as a man that is born blind, hearing men talk of warming themselves
by the fire, and being brought to warm himself by the same, may easily
conceive, and assure himselfe, there is somewhat there, which men
call Fire, and is the cause of the heat he feeles; but cannot
imagine what it is like; nor have an Idea of it in his mind,
such as they have that see it: so also, by the visible things of
this world, and their admirable order, a man may conceive there is
a cause of them, which men call God; and yet not have an Idea,
or Image of him in his mind.

And they that make little, or no enquiry into the naturall causes
of things, yet from the feare that proceeds from the ignorance it selfe,
of what it is that hath the power to do them much good or harm,
are enclined to suppose, and feign unto themselves, severall kinds
of Powers Invisible; and to stand in awe of their own imaginations;
and in time of distresse to invoke them; as also in the time of an
expected good successe, to give them thanks; making the creatures
of their own fancy, their Gods. By which means it hath come to passe,
that from the innumerable variety of Fancy, men have created in the world innumerable sorts of Gods. And this Feare of things invisible, is the
naturall Seed of that, which every one in himself calleth Religion;
and in them that worship, or feare that Power otherwise than they do,
Superstition.

And this seed of Religion, having been observed by many; some of
those that have observed it, have been enclined thereby to nourish,
dresse, and forme it into Lawes; and to adde to it of their own
invention, any opinion of the causes of future events, by which
they thought they should best be able to govern others, and make
unto themselves the greatest use of their Powers.

CHAPTER XII

OF RELIGION

Religion, In Man Onely
Seeing there are no signes, nor fruit of Religion, but in Man onely;
there is no cause to doubt, but that the seed of Religion, is also
onely in Man; and consisteth in some peculiar quality, or at least in
some eminent degree thereof, not to be found in other Living creatures.

First, From His Desire Of Knowing Causes
And first, it is peculiar to the nature of Man, to be inquisitive
into the Causes of the Events they see, some more, some lesse;
but all men so much, as to be curious in the search of the causes
of their own good and evill fortune.

From The Consideration Of The Beginning Of Things
Secondly, upon the sight of any thing that hath a Beginning,
to think also it had a cause, which determined the same to begin,
then when it did, rather than sooner or later.

From His Observation Of The Sequell Of Things
Thirdly, whereas there is no other Felicity of Beasts, but the
enjoying of their quotidian Food, Ease, and Lusts; as having little,
or no foresight of the time to come, for want of observation,
and memory of the order, consequence, and dependance of the things
they see; Man observeth how one Event hath been produced by another;
and remembreth in them Antecedence and Consequence; And when he cannot
assure himselfe of the true causes of things, (for the causes of good
and evill fortune for the most part are invisible,) he supposes
causes of them, either such as his own fancy suggesteth; or trusteth
to the Authority of other men, such as he thinks to be his friends,
and wiser than himselfe.

The Naturall Cause Of Religion, The Anxiety Of The Time To Come
The two first, make Anxiety. For being assured that there be causes
of all things that have arrived hitherto, or shall arrive hereafter;
it is impossible for a man, who continually endeavoureth to secure
himselfe against the evill he feares, and procure the good he desireth,
not to be in a perpetuall solicitude of the time to come; So that
every man, especially those that are over provident, are in an estate
like to that of Prometheus. For as Prometheus, (which interpreted,
is, The Prudent Man,) was bound to the hill Caucasus, a place of
large prospect, where, an Eagle feeding on his liver, devoured
in the day, as much as was repayred in the night: So that man,
which looks too far before him, in the care of future time,
hath his heart all the day long, gnawed on by feare of death,
poverty, or other calamity; and has no repose, nor pause of
his anxiety, but in sleep.

Which Makes Them Fear The Power Of Invisible Things
This perpetuall feare, alwayes accompanying mankind in the ignorance
of causes, as it were in the Dark, must needs have for object something.
And therefore when there is nothing to be seen, there is nothing to
accuse, either of their good, or evill fortune, but some Power,
or Agent Invisible: In which sense perhaps it was, that some of
the old Poets said, that the Gods were at first created by humane Feare:
which spoken of the Gods, (that is to say, of the many Gods of
the Gentiles) is very true. But the acknowledging of one God Eternall,
Infinite, and Omnipotent, may more easily be derived, from the
desire men have to know the causes of naturall bodies, and their
severall vertues, and operations; than from the feare of what was
to befall them in time to come. For he that from any effect hee
seeth come to passe, should reason to the next and immediate cause
thereof, and from thence to the cause of that cause, and plonge himselfe
profoundly in the pursuit of causes; shall at last come to this,
that there must be (as even the Heathen Philosophers confessed)
one First Mover; that is, a First, and an Eternall cause of all things;
which is that which men mean by the name of God: And all this without
thought of their fortune; the solicitude whereof, both enclines to fear,
and hinders them from the search of the causes of other things;
and thereby gives occasion of feigning of as many Gods, as there be
men that feigne them.

And Suppose Them Incorporeall
And for the matter, or substance of the Invisible Agents, so fancyed;
they could not by naturall cogitation, fall upon any other conceipt,
but that it was the same with that of the Soule of man; and that
the Soule of man, was of the same substance, with that which appeareth
in a Dream, to one that sleepeth; or in a Looking-glasse, to one
that is awake; which, men not knowing that such apparitions are
nothing else but creatures of the Fancy, think to be reall,
and externall Substances; and therefore call them Ghosts;
as the Latines called them Imagines, and Umbrae; and thought them
Spirits, that is, thin aereall bodies; and those Invisible Agents,
which they feared, to bee like them; save that they appear,
and vanish when they please. But the opinion that such Spirits
were Incorporeall, or Immateriall, could never enter into the mind
of any man by nature; because, though men may put together words
of contradictory signification, as Spirit, and Incorporeall;
yet they can never have the imagination of any thing answering to them:
And therefore, men that by their own meditation, arrive to the
acknowledgement of one Infinite, Omnipotent, and Eternall God,
choose rather to confesse he is Incomprehensible, and above
their understanding; than to define his Nature By Spirit Incorporeall,
and then Confesse their definition to be unintelligible: or if they
give him such a title, it is not Dogmatically, with intention to
make the Divine Nature understood; but Piously, to honour him
with attributes, of significations, as remote as they can from
the grossenesse of Bodies Visible.

But Know Not The Way How They Effect Anything
Then, for the way by which they think these Invisible Agents
wrought their effects; that is to say, what immediate causes they used,
in bringing things to passe, men that know not what it is that
we call Causing, (that is, almost all men) have no other rule
to guesse by, but by observing, and remembring what they have seen
to precede the like effect at some other time, or times before,
without seeing between the antecedent and subsequent Event,
any dependance or connexion at all: And therefore from the
like things past, they expect the like things to come; and hope
for good or evill luck, superstitiously, from things that have no
part at all in the causing of it: As the Athenians did for their
war at Lepanto, demand another Phormio; the Pompeian faction for
their warre in Afrique, another Scipio; and others have done in
divers other occasions since. In like manner they attribute their
fortune to a stander by, to a lucky or unlucky place, to words spoken,
especially if the name of God be amongst them; as Charming,
and Conjuring (the Leiturgy of Witches;) insomuch as to believe,
they have power to turn a stone into bread, bread into a man,
or any thing, into any thing.

But Honour Them As They Honour Men
Thirdly, for the worship which naturally men exhibite to Powers
invisible, it can be no other, but such expressions of their reverence,
as they would use towards men; Gifts, Petitions, Thanks, Submission
of Body, Considerate Addresses, sober Behaviour, premeditated Words,
Swearing (that is, assuring one another of their promises,)
by invoking them. Beyond that reason suggesteth nothing;
but leaves them either to rest there; or for further ceremonies,
to rely on those they believe to be wiser than themselves.

And Attribute To Them All Extraordinary Events
Lastly, concerning how these Invisible Powers declare to men
the things which shall hereafter come to passe, especially
concerning their good or evill fortune in generall, or good or
ill successe in any particular undertaking, men are naturally
at a stand; save that using to conjecture of the time to come,
by the time past, they are very apt, not onely to take casuall things,
after one or two encounters, for Prognostiques of the like encounter
ever after, but also to believe the like Prognostiques from other men,
of whom they have once conceived a good opinion.

Foure Things, Naturall Seeds Of Religion
And in these foure things, Opinion of Ghosts, Ignorance of second
causes, Devotion towards what men fear, and Taking of things Casuall
for Prognostiques, consisteth the Naturall seed of Religion;
which by reason of the different Fancies, Judgements, and Passions
of severall men, hath grown up into ceremonies so different,
that those which are used by one man, are for the most part
ridiculous to another.

Made Different By Culture
For these seeds have received culture from two sorts of men.
One sort have been they, that have nourished, and ordered them,
according to their own invention. The other, have done it,
by Gods commandement, and direction: but both sorts have done it,
with a purpose to make those men that relyed on them, the more
apt to Obedience, Lawes, Peace, Charity, and civill Society.
So that the Religion of the former sort, is a part of humane Politiques;
and teacheth part of the duty which Earthly Kings require of
their Subjects. And the Religion of the later sort is Divine
Politiques; and containeth Precepts to those that have yeelded
themselves subjects in the Kingdome of God. Of the former sort,
were all the Founders of Common-wealths, and the Law-givers
of the Gentiles: Of the later sort, were Abraham, Moses,
and our Blessed Saviour; by whom have been derived unto us
the Lawes of the Kingdome of God.

The Absurd Opinion Of Gentilisme
And for that part of Religion, which consisteth in opinions
concerning the nature of Powers Invisible, there is almost nothing
that has a name, that has not been esteemed amongst the Gentiles,
in one place or another, a God, or Divell; or by their Poets feigned
to be inanimated, inhabited, or possessed by some Spirit or other.

The unformed matter of the World, was a God, by the name of Chaos.

The Heaven, the Ocean, the Planets, the Fire, the Earth, the Winds,
were so many Gods.

Men, Women, a Bird, a Crocodile, a Calf, a Dogge, a Snake, an Onion,
a Leeke, Deified. Besides, that they filled almost all places,
with spirits called Daemons; the plains, with Pan, and Panises,
or Satyres; the Woods, with Fawnes, and Nymphs; the Sea, with Tritons,
and other Nymphs; every River, and Fountayn, with a Ghost of his name,
and with Nymphs; every house, with it Lares, or Familiars;
every man, with his Genius; Hell, with Ghosts, and spirituall
Officers, as Charon, Cerberus, and the Furies; and in the night time,
all places with Larvae, Lemures, Ghosts of men deceased, and a whole
kingdome of Fayries, and Bugbears. They have also ascribed Divinity,
and built Temples to meer Accidents, and Qualities; such as are Time,
Night, Day, Peace, Concord, Love, Contention, Vertue, Honour, Health,
Rust, Fever, and the like; which when they prayed for, or against,
they prayed to, as if there were Ghosts of those names hanging over
their heads, and letting fall, or withholding that Good, or Evill,
for, or against which they prayed. They invoked also their own Wit,
by the name of Muses; their own Ignorance, by the name of Fortune;
their own Lust, by the name of Cupid; their own Rage, by the name Furies;
their own privy members by the name of Priapus; and attributed their
pollutions, to Incubi, and Succubae: insomuch as there was nothing,
which a Poet could introduce as a person in his Poem, which they
did not make either a God, or a Divel.

The same authors of the Religion of the Gentiles, observing the
second ground for Religion, which is mens Ignorance of causes;
and thereby their aptnesse to attribute their fortune to causes,
on which there was no dependence at all apparent, took occasion
to obtrude on their ignorance, in stead of second causes,
a kind of second and ministeriall Gods; ascribing the cause
of Foecundity, to Venus; the cause of Arts, to Apollo; of Subtilty
and Craft, to Mercury; of Tempests and stormes, to Aeolus;
and of other effects, to other Gods: insomuch as there was
amongst the Heathen almost as great variety of Gods, as of businesse.

And to the Worship, which naturally men conceived fit to bee used
towards their Gods, namely Oblations, Prayers, Thanks, and the rest
formerly named; the same Legislators of the Gentiles have added
their Images, both in Picture, and Sculpture; that the more ignorant
sort, (that is to say, the most part, or generality of the people,)
thinking the Gods for whose representation they were made,
were really included, and as it were housed within them,
might so much the more stand in feare of them: And endowed them
with lands, and houses, and officers, and revenues, set apart
from all other humane uses; that is, consecrated, and made holy
to those their Idols; as Caverns, Groves, Woods, Mountains,
and whole Ilands; and have attributed to them, not onely the shapes,
some of Men, some of Beasts, some of Monsters; but also the Faculties,
and Passions of men and beasts; as Sense, Speech, Sex, Lust,
Generation, (and this not onely by mixing one with another,
to propagate the kind of Gods; but also by mixing with men,
and women, to beget mongrill Gods, and but inmates of Heaven,
as Bacchus, Hercules, and others;) besides, Anger, Revenge,
and other passions of living creatures, and the actions proceeding
from them, as Fraud, Theft, Adultery, Sodomie, and any vice that
may be taken for an effect of Power, or a cause of Pleasure;
and all such Vices, as amongst men are taken to be against Law,
rather than against Honour.

Lastly, to the Prognostiques of time to come; which are naturally,
but Conjectures upon the Experience of time past; and supernaturall,
divine Revelation; the same authors of the Religion of the Gentiles,
partly upon pretended Experience, partly upon pretended Revelation,
have added innumerable other superstitious wayes of Divination;
and made men believe they should find their fortunes, sometimes in
the ambiguous or senslesse answers of the priests at Delphi, Delos,
Ammon, and other famous Oracles; which answers, were made ambiguous
by designe, to own the event both wayes; or absurd by the intoxicating
vapour of the place, which is very frequent in sulphurous Cavernes:
Sometimes in the leaves of the Sibills; of whose Prophecyes
(like those perhaps of Nostradamus; for the fragments now extant
seem to be the invention of later times) there were some books
in reputation in the time of the Roman Republique: Sometimes in
the insignificant Speeches of Mad-men, supposed to be possessed
with a divine Spirit; which Possession they called Enthusiasme;
and these kinds of foretelling events, were accounted Theomancy,
or Prophecy; Sometimes in the aspect of the Starres at their Nativity;
which was called Horoscopy, and esteemed a part of judiciary Astrology:
Sometimes in their own hopes and feares, called Thumomancy, or Presage:
Sometimes in the Prediction of Witches, that pretended conference
with the dead; which is called Necromancy, Conjuring, and Witchcraft;
and is but juggling and confederate knavery: Sometimes in the
Casuall flight, or feeding of birds; called Augury: Sometimes in
the Entrayles of a sacrificed beast; which was Aruspicina:
Sometimes in Dreams: Sometimes in Croaking of Ravens, or chattering
of Birds: Sometimes in the Lineaments of the face; which was called
Metoposcopy; or by Palmistry in the lines of the hand; in casuall words,
called Omina: Sometimes in Monsters, or unusuall accidents; as Ecclipses,
Comets, rare Meteors, Earthquakes, Inundations, uncouth Births,
and the like, which they called Portenta and Ostenta, because
they thought them to portend, or foreshew some great Calamity to come;
Sometimes, in meer Lottery, as Crosse and Pile; counting holes in a sive;
dipping of Verses in Homer, and Virgil; and innumerable other such
vaine conceipts. So easie are men to be drawn to believe any thing,
from such men as have gotten credit with them; and can with gentlenesse,
and dexterity, take hold of their fear, and ignorance.