ch he could not
make a key; by which means he had rendered the most important
services to the Parliament. Stubbe quaintly describes him as
"the sub-scribe to the tribe of Adoniram" (_i.e._ Adoniram
Byfield, who, with this cant name, was scribe to the fanatical
Assembly of Divines), and "as the glory and pride of the
Presbyterian faction."

[382] Dr. Seth Ward, after the Restoration made Bishop of Salisbury,
said, some years before this event was expected, that "he had
rather be the author of one of Hobbes's books than be king of
England." But afterwards he seemed not a little inclined to
cry out _Crucifige_! He who, to one of these books, the
admirable treatise on "Human Nature," had prefixed one of the
highest panegyrics Hobbes could receive!--_Athen. Oxon._ vol.
ii. p. 647.

[383] It is mortifying to read _such language_ between two
mathematicians, in the calm inquiries of square roots, and the
finding of mean proportionals between two straight lines. I
wish the example may prove a warning. Wallis thus opens on
Hobbes:--"It seems, Mr. Hobbs, that you have a mind to _say
your lesson_, and that the mathematic professors of Oxford
should _hear_ you. You are too old to learn, though you have
as much need as those that be younger, and yet will think much
to be whipped.

"What moved you to say your lessons in English, when the
books against which you do chiefly intend them were
written in Latin? Was it chiefly for the perfecting your
natural rhetoric whenever you thought it convenient to repair
to Billingsgate?--You found that the oyster-women could not
teach you to rail in Latin. Now you can, upon all occasion,
or without occasion, give the titles of _fool_, _beast_,
_ass_, _dog_, &c., which I take to be but barking; and
they are no better than a man might have at Billingsgate for a
box o' the ear.

"You tell us, 'though the beasts that think our railing to be
roaring have for a time admired us; yet now you have showed
them our ears, they will be less affrighted.' Sir, those
persons (the professors themselves) needed not the sight of
_your ears_, but could tell by the _voice_ what kind of
creature _brayed_ in your books: y