rious to observe that an idea occurred to Hobbes,
which some authors have attempted lately to put into practice
against their critics--to prosecute them in a court of law;
but the knowledge of mankind was one of the liveliest
faculties of Hobbes's mind; he knew well to what account
common minds place the injured feelings of authorship; yet
were _a jury of literary men_ to sit in judgment, we might
have a good deal of business in the court for a long time; the
critics and the authors would finally have a very useful body
of reports and pleadings to appeal to; and the public would be
highly entertained and greatly instructed. On this attack of
Bishop Fell, Hobbes says--"I might perhaps have an action on
the case against him, if it were worth my while; but juries
seldom consider the Quarrels of Authors as of much moment."

[364] Bayle has conjured up an amusing theory of apparitions, to show
that Hobbes might fear that a certain combination of atoms
agitating his brain might so disorder his mind that it would
expose him to spectral visions; and being very timorous, and
distrusting his imagination, he was averse to be left alone.
Apparitions happen frequently in dreams, and they may happen,
even to an incredulous man, when awake, for reading and
hearing of them would revive their images--these images, adds
Bayle, might play him some unlucky trick! We are here
astonished at the ingenuity of a disciple of Pyrrho, who in
his inquiries, after having exhausted all human evidence,
seems to have demonstrated what he hesitates to believe!
Perhaps the truth was, that the sceptical Bayle had not
entirely freed himself from the traditions which were then
still floating from the fireside to the philosopher's closet:
he points his pen, as AEneas brandished his sword at the
Gorgons and Chimeras that darkened the entrance of Hell;
wanting the admonitions of the sibyl, he would have rushed
in--

_Et frustra ferro diverberet umbras._

[365] The papers of Aubrey confirm my suggestion. I shall give the
words--"There was a report, and surely true, that in
parliament, not long after the king was settled, some of the
bishops made a motion to have the good old ge