ABSTRACT
To find Hobbes placed under Quasi-Theism may surprise the general reader who has been accustomed to hear of Hobbes as a leader of Atheism. The difficulty is easily settled. Hobbism was at once taken as leading to Atheism, and as such it was the grindstone on which the wits of Apologists were sharpened. But Hobbes himself did not take that path, nor is it reasonable to accuse him of mental reservation or dishonesty in avoiding it. In Natural Theology his procedure was strictly on a par with his procedure in Political Philosophy. In Politics he vindicated Tyranny as a reasonable form of Government, odious as it might seem to most minds: in Theology he vindicated a Deity, although of a character which to others seemed worse than worthless, and impossible as an object of worship. In both cases what Hobbes wanted was an Object entitled to Obedience: the recommendation to acceptance rested upon the misery or pain which disobedience entailed, not upon any joy which issued either from king or from Deity.
