Last words of Thomas Carlyle - Warburg Institute

;V.\JRNHAGEN VON ENSE IN THE YEARS 1837-57 231or shortly after ; and this little ' Behemoth ' not tillabout 1670, tho' probably written long before. Ihad a coj)y of it, and read it twice some years agobut at this moment it has fallen aside, and I mustspeak from memory.It is properly a historical Essayon the late Civil War, which had driven Hobbes outof England ; it takes a most sceptical atheistic viewof the whole Quarrel ; imputes it all to the fury ofthe Preaching Priests, whom and indeed all Priestsand babbling Eeligionists of every kind Hobbes thinksthe Civil Power ought to have coerced into silence,or ordered to preach in a given style. In thismanner, thinks he, the troubles had all been prevented; similar troubles may again be prevented so.He speaks little about Cromwell; rather seems toadmire him, as a man who did coerce the Priests,tho' in a fashion of his own ;—this leads me tosuspect that your king had never seen the actualbook, but spoke of it from hearsay. It is a mostrugged, distinct, forciblelittle Book, by a man of theCreed and Temper above indicated ; I remember itgave me the idea of a person who had looked withmost penetrating tho' unbelieving eye upon thewhole Affair, and had better pointed out the epochsand real cardinal points of this great quarrel thanany other contemporary whom I had met with. Iknow not whether this will suffice for Herr Preuss'sobject and yours : but if you need more precise instruction,pray speak again ; it is very easy to be had