DESCARTES TO BERKELEY his last years in Paris he wrote the work that was to give him immortality, Leviathan, or the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil Starting from the premiss that in a state of nature, outside any commonwealth, there would be nothing but a mere war of all against all, Hobbes argues that principles of rational self-interest would urge men to give up some of their unfettered liberty in return for equal concessions by others Such principles would lead them to transfer their rights, save that of self-defence, to a central power able to enforce laws by punishment A covenant of every man with every man sets up a supreme sovereign, himself not a party to the covenant and therefore incapable of breaching it Such a sovereign is the source of law and property rights, and it is his function to enforce, not just the original covenant that constitutes the state, but individual covenants that his subjects make with each other.2 Leviathan was published in London in 1651 Despite its eloquent presentation of the case for absolute sovereignty, the work was not well received by Charles II’s entourage when copies were brought across the Channel Banished from court and deprived by death of his best Catholic friends, Hobbes decided to return to England, now, since the execution of Charles I, a commonwealth under a Protector During the Protectorate Hobbes lived quietly in London and wrote no political philosophy He published his physical philosophy under the title De Corpore (On Body) in Latin in 1655 and in English in 1656 He engaged in controversy with Bishop Bramhall of Derry on the topics that Milton tells us engaged the devils of Paradise Lost, ‘Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate, / Fixed Fate free will, foreknowledge absolute’ The disputation was inconclusive, like that of the devils ‘who found no end, in wand’ring mazes lost’ In 1658 he published a Latin work, De Homine, which, like the earlier De Cive, presented for an international readership some of the ideas of The Elements of Law Hobbes was reinstated in the favour of Charles II on his restoration to the throne in 1660 He was awarded a pension and made welcome at court, though much teased by the courtiers ‘Here comes the bear to be baited,’ the King is reported to have said on seeing him; but he was able, we are told, to give as good as he got in wit and drollery Leviathan, however, remained an object of suspicion ‘There was a report,’ Aubrey tells us, ‘that in Parliament, Hobbes’ political philosophy is considered in detail in Ch below 45