e power_? for a remedy of less force he could
not discover for that disordered state of society which he witnessed.
Was the sovereign or the people to be invested with that mighty power
which was to keep every other quiescent?--a topic which had been
discussed for ages, and still must be, as the humours of men
incline--was, I believe, a matter perfectly indifferent to our
philosopher, provided that whatever might be the government, absolute
power could somewhere be lodged in it, to force men to act in strict
conformity. He discovers his perplexity in the dedication of his work.
"In a way beset with those that contend on one side for too great
liberty, on the other side for too much authority, 'tis hard to pass
between the points of both unwounded." It happened that our cynical
Hobbes had no respect for his species; terrified at anarchy, he seems
to have lost all fear when he flew to absolute power--a sovereign
remedy unworthy of a great spirit, though convenient for a timid one
like his own. Hobbes considered men merely as animals of prey, living
in a state of perpetual hostility, and his solitary principle of
action was self-preservation at any price.

He conjured up a political phantom, a favourite and fanciful notion,
that haunted him through life. He imagined that the _many_ might be
more easily managed by making them up into an artificial _One_, and
calling this wonderful political unity the _Commonwealth_, or the
_Civil Power_, or the _Sovereign_, or by whatever name was found most
pleasing; he personified it by the image of "Leviathan."[352]

At first sight the ideal monster might pass for an innocent conceit;
and there appears even consummate wisdom in erecting a colossal power
for our common security; but Hobbes assumed that _Authority_ was to be
supported to its extreme pitch. _Force_ with him appeared to
constitute _right_, and _unconditional submission_ then became a
_duty_: these were consequences quite natural to one who at his first
step degraded man by comparing him to a watch, and who would not have
him go but with the same nicety of motion, wound up by a great key.

To be secure, by the system of Hobbes, we must at least lose the glory
of our existence as intellectual beings. He would persuade us into the
dead quietness of a commonwealth of puppets, while he was consigning
into the grasp of his "Leviathan," or sovereign power, the wire that
was to communicate a mockery of vital motion--a principle of