THOMAS HOBBES.

Born at Melmesbury, April 5, 1588. Died December, 1679, in his 92d year.

I bought his works December, 1879. For his autobiography in Latin, see Vol. I, Latin Works and "Auctariurn" thereto by R. Blackbourne, and an autobiography in Latin verse. Also see Appleton's Encyclopedia of Biography, Art. Hobbes, by Professor Nichol, 1854, highly appreciative.

Allibone's Dict. of Authors, where is a list of his works, and quotations from a catena of authors respecting Hobbes and his writings. To Allibone, a free-thinker is like a red rag to a bull.

Hobbes was acquainted with Lord Bacon, and assisted him, as Aubrey says Hobbes told him, in taking down his notions, and turning some of his essays into Latin. This must have been about 1620, when Bacon was Chancellor, and Hobbes 32 years old. (Montague's Life of Bacon, Vol. I, p. 257. Note 3 I to life).

Amongst his friends were also Ben Johnson, Edward, Lord Cherbury, Lord Clarendon, Gallileo, Mersenne, Gassendi, Des Cartes, Selden, Harvey Chillingworth, Cowley, Chief Just. Vaughan, Sir W. Davenant, Sam Butler, Auth. A. Wood and Aubrey.

When Bacon's sixtieth birthday was celebrated, 22d January, 1620, at York House, Ben Johnson wrote a poem on the occasion, and, no doubt, Hobbes was present. (Montague's Life of Bacon 259). Bacon must have been surrounded by a galaxy of young men

of genius. He liked to have Hobbes' assistance because he could understand him better than the others could. At 20, Hobbes, after graduating at Oxford, went as tutor and companion to the son of Wm. Cavendish, Lord Barkley, afterwards, Earl of Devonshire, and remained in the family for the greater part of his long life. He travelled in France and Italy in 1610 with his pupil, and again in 1634 with his son.

In 1640, after the action of the Long Parliament indicated the approach of the civil war, he returned to Paris and staid their until 1652, part of the time mathematical tutor to Charles II. He returned to England, however, in 1652, because Charles withdrew from him his protection on the appearance of the Leviathan.

His life in the Devonshire family, when not engaged in the duties of tutor, was spent in study and philosophizing in the summer at their country seat, in winter, at their house in London.

His principal works are:

Translation of Thucydides, published 1628.

De Cive, Paris, 1642.

De Natura Hominis, London, 1650.

De Corpore, politico, London, 1650, English.
Leviathan, London 1651.

De Corpore, 1655.

De Homine, 1657.

Liberty and Necessity, 1654.

Translations of Homer, 1674, 1675.

Behemoth, 1679.

And many pieces on Mathematics and Rational Philosophy. He was undoubtedly the most original thinker of England in his time. His style is perspic

uous and free from ornamentation, exactly suited to philosophical disquisition. His notions are regarded as very heterodox, for he acknowledged no authority but reason.

AGE OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION.

In the years 1851-1854 Mr. Leonard Horner (brother of Francis Horner), under the patronage of the Royal Society of London, made a series of excavations across the valley of the Nile in the latitudes of Memphis and Heliopolis, to discover, if possible, the character and age of the alluvial deposit. He found that the base of the Colossal Statue of Rameses II, which was erected about B. C. 1360, was covered by nine feet four inches of the regular accumulation of alluvium, making for the average from B. C. 1360 to A. D. 1854 (or 3,214 years) 31⁄2 inches for each century. His excavations near the same spot showed that the deposit of mud below the base of the statue was 30 feet, and he found fragments of pottery, and other works of man, to the very bottom. This would indicate the presence of human civilization in the Nile valley for a period of 10,300 years before Rameses II, or 11,600 years before the Christian era; for 30 feet contains 360 inches, and this divided by 31⁄2 inches gives 103 centuries. Horner's Report was published in the Transactions of the Royal Society for the year 1858, pp. 53-92. The results are stated in Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in History," Vol. III. Preface, pp. xxiii, etc.

(See also Baldwin's "Prehistoric Nations," 303).

Bunsen deduces the same result, as to the antiquity of the early inhabitants of Egypt from the form of the Egyptian language as compared with other languages to which it is related.

For a flippant review of Horner's report in connection with Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in History," see Quarterly Review for April, 1859 (Vol. CV, pp. 230– 232, Amer. Ed.), and see Bunsen's reply in Vol. V of "Egypt's Place in History," p. 122. See also "Wilkinson's Egypt," Vol. I, p. 8, note.

They say Macaulay was not a critic; that he had great memory, but little of the reasoning faculty. Is not he the best critic who can analyze without rules? Who sees through a thing, and reports its essence without taking it up by parts and pieces? As Carlyle said of Miribeau, "A man not with logic spectacles, but with an eye"; or as Coleridge said of Wadsworth, "His soul seems to inhabit the universe like a palace, and to discover truth by intuition, rather than by deduction."

The greatest critic of modern times was Lessing, whose logical faculty and power of analysis, as well as healthy, sound judgment, were of the highest order, and whose ideas have laid the foundation of the best modern criticism.

HISTORY.

Macaulay's "History of England" from the accession of James II (1685), which, in its unfinished state, as he left it, extends only to 1700, makes us wish that a complete history of England could have come from his hands. So far as he went, his work is so complete, so picturesque, so entertaining, and so instructive, that it has all the charm of romance with all the accuracy of annals. A tolerably continuous history of England and portions of Europe may be made up from his reviews, written in a style equally animated, and perhaps, somewhat more rhetorical. I have made an arrangement of these so as to present in chronological order the periods discussed, with the exception of one on the papal history, which may be regarded as an appendix to the rest. Some of the articles have relation to literature; but they illustrate the periods to which they relate. Of course, this list does not contain all Macaulay's reviews, but only such as constitute monographs on important epochs or leading events in English History.

Macaulay's historical articles in the Edinburgh