says Hobbes, is self-preservation from the universal war resulting from our love of liberty for
ourselves and of dominion over others.
Hobbes considers the question why men cannot co-operate like ants and bees. Bees in the same
hive, he says, do not compete; they have no desire for honour; and they do not use reason to
criticize the government. Their agreement is natural, but that of men can only be artificial, by
covenant. The covenant must confer power on one man or one assembly, since otherwise it cannot
be enforced. "Covenants, without the sword, are but words." ( President Wilson unfortunately
forgot this.) The covenant is not, as afterwards in Locke and Rousseau, between the citizens and
the ruling power; it is a covenant made by the citizens with each other to obey such ruling power
as the majority shall choose. When they have chosen, their political power is at an end. The
minority is as much bound as the majority, since the covenant was to obey the government chosen
by the majority. When the government has been chosen, the citizens lose all rights except such as
the government may find it expedient to grant. There is no right of rebellion, because the ruler is
not bound by any contract, whereas the subjects are.
A multitude so united is called a commonwealth. This "Leviathan" is a mortal God.
Hobbes prefers monarchy, but all his abstract arguments are equally applicable to all forms of
government in which there is one supreme authority not limited by the legal rights of other bodies.
He could tolerate Parliament alone, but not a system in which governmental power is shared
between king and Parliament. This is the exact antithesis to the views of Locke and Montesquieu.
The English Civil War occurred, says Hobbes, because power was divided between King, Lords,
and Commons.
The supreme power, whether a man or an assembly, is called the Sovereign. The powers of the
sovereign, in Hobbes's system, are unlimited. He has the right of censorship over all expression of
opinion. It is assumed that his main interest is the preservation of internal peace, and that therefore
he will not use the power of censorship to suppress truth, for a doctrine repugnant to peace cannot
be true. (A singularly pragmatist view!) The laws of property are to be entirely subject to the
sovereign; for in a state of nature there is no property,