ield have trod in
the track of Hobbes; and in France, Helvetius, Rochefoucault
in his "Maxims," and L'Esprit more openly in his "Fausette des
Vertus Humaines." They only degrade us--they are polished
cynics! But what are we to think of the tremendous cynicism of
Machiavel? That great genius eyed human nature with the
ferocity of an enraged savage. Machiavel is a vindictive
assassin, who delights even to turn his dagger within the
mortal wound he has struck; but our Hobbes, said his friend
Sorbiere, "is a gentle and skilful surgeon, who, with regret,
cuts into the living flesh, to get rid of the corrupted." It
is equally to be regretted that the same system of degrading
man has been adopted by some, under the mask of religion.

Yet Hobbes, perhaps, never suspected the arms he was placing
in the hands of wretched men, when he furnished them with
such fundamental positions as, that "Man is naturally an evil
being; that he does not love his equal; and only seeks the
aid of society for his own particular purposes." He would at
least have disowned some of his diabolical disciples. One of
them, so late as in 1774, vented his furious philosophy in "An
Essay on the Depravity and Corruption of Human Nature,
wherein the Opinions of Hobbes, Mandeville, Helvetius, &c. are
supported against Shaftesbury, Hume, Sterne, &c. by Thomas
O'Brien M'Mahon." This gentleman, once informed that he was
_born wicked_, appears to have considered that wickedness
was his paternal estate, to be turned to as profitable an
account as he could. The titles of his chapters, serving as
a string of the most extraordinary propositions, have been
preserved in the "Monthly Review," vol. lii. 77. The
demonstrations in the work itself must be still more
curious. In these axioms we find that "Man has an _enmity_ to
all beings; that had he _power_, the first victims of his
revenge would be his wife, children, &c.--a sovereign, if
he could reign with the _unbounded authority_ every man _longs
for_, free from apprehension of punishment for misrule,
would slaughter all his subjects; perhaps he would not
leave one of them alive at the end of his reign." It was
perfectly in char