Hobbes, Lord Bolingbroke, a strenuous advocate for his
political and moral opinions, enraged at what he calls his
"High Church notions." Trenchard and Gordon, in their
_Independent Whig_, No. 44, that libel on the clergy, accuse
them of _Atheism_ and _Hobbism_; while some divines as
earnestly reject Hobbes as an Atheist! Our temperate sage,
though angried at that spirit of contradiction which he had
raised, must, however, have sometimes smiled both on his
advocates and his adversaries!

[356] The odious term of _Atheist_ has been too often applied to many
great men of our nation by the hardy malignity of party. Were
I to present a catalogue, the very names would refute the
charge. Let us examine the religious sentiments of Hobbes. The
materials for its investigation are not common, but it will
prove a dissertation of facts. I warn some of my readers to
escape from the tediousness, if they cannot value the
curiosity.

Hobbes has himself thrown out an observation in his "Life of
Thucydides" respecting Anaxagoras, that "his opinions, being
of a strain above the apprehension of the vulgar, procured him
the estimation of an _Atheist_, which name they bestowed upon
all men that thought not as they did of their ridiculous
religion, and in the end cost him his life." This was a
parallel case with Hobbes himself, except its close, which,
however, seems always to have been in the mind of our
philosopher.

Bayle, who is for throwing all things into doubt, acknowledging
that the life of Hobbes was blameless, adds, One might,
however, have been tempted to ask him this question:

Heus age responde; minimum est quod scire laboro;
_De Jove quid sentis?_--PERSIUS, Sat. ii. v. 17.

Hark, now! resolve this one short question, friend!
_What are thy thoughts of Jove?_

But Bayle, who compared himself to the Jupiter of Homer,
powerful in gathering and then dispersing the clouds,
dissipates the one he had just raised, by showing how "Hobbes
might have answered the question with sincerity and belief,
_according to the writers of his life_."--But had Bayle known
that Hobbes was the author of all the lives of himself, so