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324 ON THE RISE, PROGEESS, ETC.at the conclusion that the most absolute despotism isfairlyassertingthat both thefounded, and as such he defended it,persons and goods of the subjects are nothing more than theproperty of the prince, with which he may do as he pleases ;that on this account every oppositionof the subjects is openrebellion, and that in no possible case can a king be deposed from his authority.The absurdity of these propositions, which became inevitable as soon as the attempt was made to deduce the kinglypower historically from God, would probably have decidedthe fate of the theories to which they belonged, even withoutany attack from without. But amongst the supporters ofabsolute power, another writer appeared, who may claim hisrank witb the first thinkers of all ages, and who defendedhis opinion with very different weapons from those ofFilmer that writer was Thomas Hobbes. Of his philosophical works those which are here referred to are histreatise " De Give" and his " Leviathan." 1External causes may, to a certain degree,have inducedHobbes to come forward as the champion of absolute power.He not only belonged to the royal party, but was tutor toCharles II. when an exile in France. Nevertheless, thisinfluence most assuredly did not extend further than to givehis mind a turn of thought natural to the events of the time,and to his own peculiar circumstances. We should do himgreat injustice, were we to suspect him of fawning or hypocrisy. His character is much more that of a logical andconsistent reasoner of the highest order, who never advanceda proposition which he for a moment doubted that he couldestablish in its fullest sense.Hobbes is remarkable for having been the first who soughtto ground the theory of government upon natural right, andwhat is termed "the state of nature." This notion of a" state of nature," from which men are supposed to have advanced into civil society, (however differentlyitmay havebeen entertained,) has formed the basis of allsubsequent3The "De Cite" forms the third division of his Elementa Philos. The" Leviathan? SIYC de materia formi et potestate civitatis, is only a further development of it.Hobbes was bora 1588, and died 1679. His Elementa appearedfirst in1650, and the Leviathan 1651, in the time of Cromwell. His works were firstpublished in 1 668 in a perfect form.