ONE:BARTHOLOMEW FAIR, LONDON, IN 1721. (From a Painting on a Fan.)The experience of Hobbes differs both in origin and application from either of these. With him, sensible impressions are not a court of appeal against traditional judgments, nor yet are they the ultimate elements into which all ideas may be analysed; they are the channels through which pulsating movements are conveyed into the mind; and these movements, again, represent the action of mechanical forces or the will of a paramount authority. And he holds this doctrine, partly as a logical consequence of his materialism, partly as a safeguard against the theological pretensions which, in his opinion, are a constant threat to social order. The authority of the political sovereign is menaced on the one hand by Papal infallibility, and on the other by rebellious subjects putting forward a claim to supernatural inspiration. To the Pope, Hobbes says: You are violating the law of Nature by professing to derive from God what is really given only by the consent of men, and can only be given by them to their temporal head,the right to impose a particular religion. To the Puritan, he says: Your inward illumination is a superstitious dream, and you have no right to use it as a pretext for breaking the kings peace. Religion has really nothing to do with the supernatural; it is only a particular way of inculcating obedience to the natural conditions of social union.
