The monstrous court of Charles
II.--the grossest materialists! The secret history of that
court could scarcely find a Suetonius among us. But our author
was frequently in the hands of those who could never have
comprehended what they pretended to admire; this appears by a
publication of the times, intituled, "Twelve Ingenious
Characters, &c." 1686, where, in that of a town-fop, who, "for
genteel breeding, posts to town, by his mother's indulgence,
three or four wild companions, half-a-dozen bottles of
Burgundy, _two leaves of Leviathan_," and some few other
obvious matters, shortly make this young philosopher nearly
lose his moral and physical existence. "He will not confess
himself an Atheist, yet he boasts aloud that he holds his
_gospel_ from _the Apostle of Malmesbury_, though it is more
than probable he never read, at least understood, ten leaves
of _that unlucky author_." If such were his wretched
disciples, Hobbes was indeed "an unlucky author," for their
morals and habits were quite opposite to those of their
master. EACHARD, in the preface to his Second Dialogue, 1673,
exhibits a very Lucianic arrangement of his disciples--Hobbes'
"Pit, Box, and Gallery Friends." The _Pit-friends_ were sturdy
practicants who, when they hear that "Ill-nature, Debauchery,
and Irreligion were Mathematics and Demonstration, clap and
shout, and swear by all that comes from Malmesbury." The
_Gallery_ are "a sort of small, soft, little, pretty, fine
gentlemen, who having some little wit, some little modesty,
some little remain of conscience and country religion, could
not hector it as the former, but quickly learnt to chirp and
giggle when t'other clapt and shouted." But "the Don-admirers,
and _Box-friends_ of Mr. Hobbes are men of gravity and
reputation, who will scarce simper in favour of the
philosopher, but can make shift to nod and nod again." Even
amid this wild satire we find a piece of truth in a dark
corner; for the satirist confesses that "his Gallery-friends,
who were such resolved practicants in _Hobbianism_ (by which
the satirist means all kinds of licentiousness) would most
certainly have been so, had there never been any such man as