About this time, he took a final leave of London to pass the t anainder of his days at he Earl of Devonshire's seat in Derbyshire, where he continued to prosecute his studies. In l676, his dispute with Dr Laney, Bishop of Ely, on li berty Jnd necessity, made its appearance ; and, in 1678, his Decameron Physiologicum, or ten dialogues on natural phdostptly ; also. i Art of Rhetoric, and his History of the Civil Wars, from 1640 to 1660, which he entitled Be He continued even to study mathematics with great perse verance, and he died at the house of his noble patron in 1679.
The accounts given of his temper and private character are various, according to the channels through which they are communicated. Those whose doctrines he disputed, and whose writings and characters he reviled, drew along with them a number of partisans to stigmatise him as rude, acrimonious, and untractable. Of this temper we certain ly perceive some traces in his writings ; but we likewise find in them occasional proofs of a spirit of conciliation and candour, together with a sense of the bias which external circumstances gave to his writings. In the following terms he concludes his preface to his book De Cive : " If, in this treatise, you find any thing of questionable solidity, or any thing expressed with too great acrimony, remember that they are spoken not from party zeal, but a sincere wish for the peace of society ; and by a man whose grief, so justly awaked by the distractions and calamities of his country, entitles him to a share of forgiving tenderness. He there fore craves, that you will, on such occasions, bear with his weakness, and not indulge towards him the extremity of your displeasure." He laid it down as a maxim, that it was unlawful to commence an abusive attack on any writer without provocation, but that, when first attacked in this way, he was entitled to make the severest retorts ; and his practice sheaved, that on such occasions lie knew no bounds. He aspersed with the utmost scurrility the members of the Royal Society as a body, expressing his contempt for their attachment to experimental inquiry, and representing them as abandoning the use of thew rational faculties.
At court he was a common object of banter, which he bore with good temper, and was remarkable for the felicity and fecundity of his repartees. To serious questions, how ever, he never gave a ready reply. If his opinion was ask ed on any point of philosophy or of political science, he gave a winding, computing, and diffident sort of answer, which, in a less noted man, might have been mistaken by the superficial for a mark of indecision of character, but in reality proceeded from his being aware of the multiplicity of circumstances to be taken into account, and the risk which there always is of running into error. All who cul
tivated his society pronounced him a delightful companion. Mr Wood, in his History of the Antiquities of Oxford, in setted this character of Hobbes : He was a man, of whom (amidst the varieties of accounts, good and bad, that have been circulated) this may be most truly pronounced, that he had a most comprehensive and well replenished mind on universal science,—a mind which despised riches and secular honours, and was superior to the envy of the world. To his relations and others he was ever kind and beneficent. Among his companions, his conversation was cheerful, open, and free. By strangers he was held in veneration, as the first ornament of his country." This eulogium. how ever, was struck out of the work by Dr Fell, dean of Christ.
Church, through whose hands all works printed at the uni versity-press were required to pass. The transaction was communicated to Mr Hobbes, who had a pamphlet, contain ing a full exposure of it, ready for appearing in London and Oxford at the same time with the work of Mr Wood. Hobbes was remarkable for vigour or nerve, and steadiness of intellect. He used to say, that in his most complicated arithmetical calculations he never mistook a figure ; and with the same undeviating steadiness he prosecuted all his learned undertakings. The high value which he put on this natural quality, had probably some influence in render ing him impatient of opposition, and gave origin to the harsh features which some parts of his works bear.
According to the account given of 'him by Dr White Kennet, he was considered in the house of the Earl of De vonshire as a humourist, or unaccountable being ; a cha racter very readily acquired by a man who dedicates to study the hours by which those around him have their manners moulded by their general intercourse with others. His amusements, exercises, and social interviews, being sub servient considerations, were dictated by his own thoughts ; and though not resulting from an unaccommodating tem per, appeared capricious, because they were singular. In this nobleman's house he was retained from gratitude and affection, rather than with a view to any sort of services, and he lived in ease and plenty without any official charge. His mornings were spent in violent exercise, such as run ning and climbing steep ascents, in which he exerted him self to fatigue. After breakfast, he went round the family, to wait on the countess, the children, and the visitors. Thus the time passed till twelve o'clock, when he had a little dinner prepared for him, after which he retired to his study, where he smoked, thought, and wrote for several hours.