Abstract

The quotation I take above as motto is from the Author's Epistle to the Reader of De Corpore. Immediately after it, Hobbes elaborates the conceit likening six sciences with the six days of divine creation. These are supplemented with divine commandment and final contemplation of "subjection to command." Thus, with some poetic license, all compartments of Hobbes's reiterated ordering of several bodies of science and "Elements of Philosophy" are indicated: De Corpore, and then De Homine and De Cive. Following Hobbes, as I profess, I sunder them that I may acknowledge both their distinction and order; yet I dispute their sufficient derivation, one from another.