HOBBES, THOMAS, was born at Malmesbury, in Wiltshire, on the 5th of April 1588, and was the son of a clergyman of that town. At the age of fifteen he was sent to Magdalen Hall, Oxford ; and after he had gone through the usual university course, he became in 1608 private tutor in the family of Lord Hardwick; soon afterwards created Earl of Devonshire. In 1610 ho went abroad with his pupil, Lord Cavendish, and made the tour of France and Italy. After his return he came to mix much, chiefly through the assistance of his patron the Earl of Devonshire, with the men most distinguished at that time for learning, as well as with others conspicuous by their high station. He enjoyed the familiar friendship of Bacon, who is said to have been assisted by Hobbes in the translation of some of his works into Latin, and was an intimate associate also of Lord Herbert of Cherbury, and of Ben Jenson. Ben Jonson revised for Hobbes his first work, the translation of Thucydides.
This translation, which had been begun, as Hobbes himself tells us, "with an honest view of preventing, if possible, those disturbances iu which he was apprehensive his country would be involved, by showing, in the history of the Peloponnesian war, the fatal consequences of intestine troubles," was published in 1628. Ilia patron, the Earl of Devonshire, had died two years before; and the son, Hobbes's pupil, died in the year in which this translation was published. He was ao much affected by this loss that be gladly seized an opportunity of going abroad with the son of Sir Gervaso Clifton, with whom he remained some time in France. He returned in 1631, at the instance of the Dowager-Countess of Devonshire, to undertake the education of the young earl, who was then only thirteen. In 1634 he went with his new pupil first to Paris, where be enjoyed the friendship and frequent society of Father Mersenne, and applied himself much to tho study of natural philosophy, and afterwards to Italy, where ha became known to Galileo. He returned to England in 1637. Shortly afterwards ho applied himself to the composition of his Elements). Philosophica
de Cive,' a few copies of which were printed at Paris in 1642. A second edition of the work was printed in Holland is 1647, under the super intendence of M. Sorbiore, to which were prefixed two laudatory letters addressed to the editor, the one by Gasaeodi and the other by Merseune.
Shortly after the meeting of the Long Parliament, which took place in the end of the year 1640, Hobbes had withdrawn himself to Paris. He became acquainted there with Descartes, with whom be afterwards held a correspondence on mathematical subjects ; and he also acquired the friendship of Gasaendi.
In 1647 Hobbes was appointed mathematical tutor to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles IL ; and he so won the esteem and affection of the prince, that though, after the publication of the ' Leviathan,' Charles, yielding to the opinions of divines, forbade him his presence, he yet always spoke of him iu terms of the greatest kindness, kept his picture, taken expressly for the purpose, in his study, and when he had been restored to the throne, unasked presented him with a pension.
Hobbes's two small treatises, entitled ' Human Nature' and 'Da Corpore Politico,' were published in London in 1650, and in the following year the Leviathan.' Ho caused a copy of this last work to be fairly written out on vellum, and presented to Charles II.; but the king, having been informed by some divines that it contained principles subversive both of religion and civil government, thought it right to withdraw his favour from Hobbes, and, as has been already said, forbade him his presence.
After the publication of the 'Leviathan,' Hobbes returned to England. In 1054 he published his Letter upon Liberty and Necessity,' which led to a long controversy with Bishop Bramhall [Bassinattj ; and it was about this time too that ho began a controversy with Dr. Wallis praLtis, Jens), the mathematical professor at Oxford, which lasted until Hobbea's death. By this last controversy he got no honour.