Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/44

 on 5 April 1588. His mother, of whom it is only known that she came of a race of yeomen, gave birth to her second son prematurely, owing to her agitation at the reports of the Armada. The father, described by Aubrey as ignorant and choleric, was forced to fly for an assault made at the church door on a neighbouring parson. He died in obscurity ‘beyond London.’ His children, two boys and a girl, were brought up by his brother, Francis, a flourishing glover at Malmesbury. The eldest son, Edmund, a plain, sensible man, entered the glove trade. He lived to old age, and left a son, who was kindly treated by his uncle Thomas, but turned out ill, and died in 1670, leaving five children, remembered in their granduncle's will. Thomas Hobbes was sent to school at Westport Church when four years old, and at the age of six was learning Latin and Greek. At eight he was sent to Malmesbury school, and afterwards to a private school kept by Robert Latimer at Westport. Latimer, a ‘good Grecian,’ afterwards Aubrey's schoolmaster, took an interest in his pupil, who translated the ‘Medea’ of Euripides into Latin iambics before he was fourteen, and already showed a contemplative turn. About January or February 1602–3 his uncle entered him at Magdalen Hall, Oxford. The discipline was at that time much relaxed, and ecclesiastical disputes were caused by the rising energy of the puritans, who were very strong at Magdalen Hall. Hobbes found the teaching, still conducted on the old scholastic methods, uncongenial, amused himself with snaring jackdaws (according to Aubrey), and took to reading books of travel. He graduated B.A. on 5 Feb. 1607–8. The principal of the hall recommended him to William Cavendish (d. 1626) [q. v.], afterwards first earl of Devonshire, who required a tutor for his eldest son, William Cavendish (1591?–1628) [q. v.], afterwards second earl. Hobbes says that the next twenty years, spent with the young earl, were the happiest part of his life (Vita carmine expressa). He became the friend, rather than the teacher, of the youth, who took him out hunting and hawking, and employed him in borrowing money. Amid such occupations his Latin grew rusty. In 1610 they set out on the grand tour, and visited France, Germany, and Italy. Hobbes learnt to speak French and Italian, and found that the philosophy of Oxford had gone out of fashion on the continent. He resolved to become a scholar, and after his return, while living with his pupil as secretary, devoted his leisure to the study of classical literature. He delighted chiefly in poets and historians, and especially in Thucydides, of whom he made a translation, published, after long delay, in 1629. He had already, according to his later statement, the political purpose of showing how much wiser is one man than a crowd. The death of his patron in 1628 left him for a time to his own resources. The widow was engaged in energetically repairing the family affairs, injured by her husband's extravagance, and dispensed with Hobbes's services, although allowing him to remain for some time in the house. In 1629 he became travelling tutor to the son of Sir Gervase Clifton, and spent eighteen months, chiefly, it seems, at Paris, though he also appears to have visited Venice. In 1631 he was recalled from Paris to become tutor of his first pupil's eldest son, William Cavendish (1617–1684) [q. v.], third earl of Devonshire. He instructed the boy in rhetoric, logic, astronomy, the principles of law, and other subjects. In 1634 he took the earl on a third foreign tour, visiting Italy, and spending much time at Paris, where he was now beginning to be known to the philosophic circles of the time. It was probably during his second tour (1629–31) that he had the intellectual experience described most fully by Aubrey. He accidentally opened a copy of Euclid's ‘Elements’ at the forty-seventh proposition of the first book. Reading it, he exclaimed, ‘By God, this is impossible.’ Examining the proofs, he was at last convinced, and fell ‘in love with geometry.’ Another story, told by himself (Latin Works, i. xx), is of uncertain date. He heard some one inquire, in a company of learned men, what sense was. No one being able to answer, he reflected that sensation was only made possible by motion. He was thus led to the mechanical explanation of nature, which became a leading principle of his philosophy, and studied geometry in order to understand the modes of motion. It is doubtful (see, pp. 31–5) whether this should be referred to the second or third tour. A tract (in Harl. MS. 6796) contains an early statement of his theory of sense, which probably shows his first attempts at working it out. In any case, Hobbes was now interested in the philosophical movements of Europe. He had gained the intimacy of Galileo at Florence about 1636, and always retained the profoundest respect for the old philosopher, who was in his last period of retirement. At Paris Hobbes was received in the circles of which Mersenne, the friend of Descartes, was the centre, and in which all the new philosophical and scientific theories were most eagerly discussed. At a later period he became intimate with Gassendi, whose philosophy was congenial to his own, though