Hobbes - Leviathan.pdf

the delivery by encouragement, and in the tune and phrase of counsel
rather than in harsher language of command.
Examples of the difference between command and counsel we may take
from the forms of speech that express them in Holy Scripture. "Have no
other Gods but me"; "Make to thyself no graven image"; "Take not God's
name in vain"; "Sanctify the Sabbath"; "Honour thy parents"; "Kill
not"; "Steal not," etc. are commands, because the reason for which
we are to obey them is drawn from the will of God our King, whom we
are obliged to obey. But these words, "Sell all thou hast; give it
to the poor; and follow me," are counsel, because the reason for which
we are to do so is drawn from our own benefit, which is this; that
we shall have "treasure in Heaven." These words, "Go into the
village over against you, and you shall find an ass tied, and her
colt; loose her, and bring her to me," are a command; for the reason
of their fact is drawn from the will of their master: but these words,
"Repent, and be baptized in the name of Jesus," are counsel; because
the reason why we should so do tendeth not to any benefit of God
Almighty, who shall still be King in what manner soever we rebel,
but of ourselves, who have no other means of avoiding the punishment
hanging over us for our sins.
As the difference of counsel from command hath been now deduced from
the nature of counsel, consisting in a deducing of the benefit or hurt
that may arise to him that is to be to be counselled, by the necessary
or probable consequences of the action he propoundeth; so may also the
differences between apt and inept counsellors be derived from the
same. For experience, being but memory of the consequences of like
actions formerly observed, and counsel but the speech whereby that
experience is made known to another, the virtues and defects of
counsel are the same with the virtues and defects intellectual: and to
the person of a Commonwealth, his counsellors serve him in the place
of memory and mental discourse. But with this resemblance of the
Commonwealth to a natural man, there is one dissimilitude joined, of
great importance; which is that a natural man receiveth his experience
from the natural objects of sense, which work upon him without passion
or interest of their own; whereas they that give counsel to the
representative person of a Commonwealth may have, and have often,
their particular ends and passions that render their counsels always
suspected, and many times unfaithful. And therefore we may set down
for the first condition of a good counsellor: that his ends and
interest be not inconsistent with the ends and interest of him he
counselleth.
Secondly, because the office of a counsellor, when an action comes
into deliberation, is to make manifest the consequences of it in
such manner as he that is counselled may be truly and evidently
informed, he ought to propound his advice in such form of speech as
may make the truth most evidently appear; that is to say, with as firm
ratiocination, as significant and proper language, and as briefly,
as the evidence will permit. And therefore rash and unevident
inferences, such as are fetched only from examples, or authority of
books, and are not arguments of what is good or evil, but witnesses of
fact or of opinion; obscure, confused, and ambiguous expressions; also
all metaphorical speeches tending to the stirring up of passion
(because such reasoning and such expressions are useful only to
deceive or to lead him we counsel towards other ends than his own),
are repugnant to the office of a counsellor.
Thirdly, because the ability of counselling proceedeth from
experience and long study, and no man is presumed to have experience