Thursday 3 September 1668
Up, and to the Office, where busy till it was time to go to the Commissioners of Accounts, which I did about noon, and there was received with all possible respect, their business being only to explain the meaning of one of their late demands to us, which we had not answered in our answer to them, and, this being done, I away with great content, my mind being troubled before, and so to the Exchequer and several places, calling on several businesses, and particularly my bookseller’s, among others, for “Hobbs’s Leviathan,” which is now mightily called for; and what was heretofore sold for 8s. I now give 24s. for, at the second hand, and is sold for 30s., it being a book the Bishops will not let be printed again, and so home to dinner, and then to the office all the afternoon, and towards evening by water to the Commissioners of the Treasury, and presently back again, and there met a little with W. Pen and the rest about our Prize accounts, and so W. Pen and Lord Brouncker and I at the lodging of the latter to read over our new draft of the victualler’s contract, and so broke up and home to supper and to bed.
6 Annotations
First Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"to...my bookseller's, among others, for "Hobbs's Leviathan," which is now mightily called for "
L&M note the hostility to Hobbes and Hobbism was now at its height; in this year the publication of *Behemoth* was prevented [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behe… ]. The *Leviathan,* had been first published in 1651, The licensers had prevented its being openly printed in English thereafter, The Pepysian Library has a genuine 1651 edition with the flyleaf annotation 'September 1668 -- 30s, '
***
Terry Foreman • Link
"Hobbes published, in 1658, the final section of his philosophical system, completing the scheme he had planned more than twenty years before. De Homine consisted for the most part of an elaborate theory of vision. The remainder of the treatise dealt cursorily with some of the topics more fully treated in the Human Nature and the Leviathan. In addition to publishing some controversial writings on mathematics and physics, Hobbes also continued to produce philosophical works. From the time of the Restoration he acquired a new prominence; "Hobbism" became a byword for all that respectable society ought to denounce. The young king, Hobbes's former pupil, now Charles II, remembered Hobbes and called him to the court to grant him a pension of £100.
"The king was important in protecting Hobbes when, in 1666, the House of Commons introduced a bill against atheism and profaneness. That same year, on 17 October 1666, it was ordered that the committee to which the bill was referred "should be empowered to receive information touching such books as tend to atheism, blasphemy and profaneness... in particular... the book of Mr. Hobbes called the Leviathan".[ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/… ] Hobbes was terrified at the prospect of being labelled a heretic, and proceeded to burn some of his compromising papers. At the same time, he examined the actual state of the law of heresy. The results of his investigation were first announced in three short Dialogues added as an Appendix to his Latin translation of Leviathan, published at Amsterdam in 1668. In this appendix, Hobbes aimed to show that, since the High Court of Commission had been put down, there remained no court of heresy at all to which he was amenable, and that nothing could be heresy except opposing the Nicene Creed, which, he maintained, Leviathan did not do.
"The only consequence that came of the bill was that Hobbes could never thereafter publish anything in England on subjects relating to human conduct. The 1668 edition of his works was printed in Amsterdam because he could not obtain the censor's licence for its publication in England. Other writings were not made public until after his death, including Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to the year 1662. For some time, Hobbes was not even allowed to respond, whatever his enemies tried. Despite this, his reputation abroad was formidable, and noble or learned foreigners who came to England never forgot to pay their respects to the old philosopher."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom…
Chris Squire • Link
‘break up tr. . . 4. To dissolve, disband, put an end to, . .
5. intr. < 4 . .
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Isa. xxxvii. F, So Sennacherib the kinge of the Assirians brake vp, and dwelt at Niniue.
c1600 Wriothesley's Chron. Eng. (1875) I. 52 The twentith daie of Julie, the Convocation brooke upp at Poules.
. . 1612 M. Drayton Polyolbion i. v. 77 Then vp the Session brake . . ‘ [OED]
Second Reading
Terry Foreman • Link
"W. Pen and Lord Brouncker and I at the lodging of the latter to read over our new draft of the victualler’s contract,"
L&M: At their meeting earlier in the the Treasury Commissioners had ordered Pepys to have the final draft ready be the 7th: CTB, ii. 431.
San Diego Sarah • Link
The problems created by the months of delay on approving a new victualling contract were very real:
Sept. 3, 1668
Sir Wm. Coventry to the Navy Commissioners.
You will perceive by the enclosed what interpretation is put upon the delay of the articles, and the preparations in your hands for the new contract for victualling.
An advertisement very like this has been given by another hand to another Treasury Commissioner.
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 245, No. 164 ]
Encloses,
Dodington to Sir Wm. Coventry.
The Navy Commissioners have not yet delivered any further articles, as ordered and promised; the season wastes, and if some conclusion be not made before next week, it will be impossible for any new contractors to undertake it, and it must remain in the present hands, or be put to commission.
I cannot meddle in it unless some speedy course be taken; I wish there may be no practice between those their lordships employ, and some of the competitors, of which I and my partners are more than jealous .
[S.P. Dom., Car. II. 245, No. 1641.]
https://play.google.com/books/rea…
PAGE 616-617
San Diego Sarah • Link
'Other writings were not made public until after his death, including Behemoth: the History of the Causes of the Civil Wars of England and of the Counsels and Artifices by which they were carried on from the year 1640 to the year 1662.'
In 1668 Hobbes was trying to get BEHEMOTH approved ... one of his thoughts from that book:
“The Universities have been to the nation, as the wooden horse was to the Trojans.” -- Thomas Hobbes (1588 -1679) – from “Behemoth” where he argued that Oxford and Cambridge were the core of the rebellion in the recent civil wars.'
Too much education is a bad thing?
Free thinking leads to arguments?
Educated people want to be King?
This one doesn't fly for me, Mr. Hobbes. How about the King wasn't as educated as his servants, and they got ahead of him (pun intended).