BY MANNERS,I mean not here decency of behaviour;as how one man should salute another,or how a man should wash his mouth,or pick his teeth before company,and such other points of the small morals;but those qualities of mankind that concern their living together in peace and unity.To which end we are to consider that the felicity of this life consisteth not in the repose of a mind satisfied.For there is no such finis ultimus (utmost aim)nor summum bonum (greatest good)as is spoken of in the books of the old moral philosophers.Nor can a man any more live whose desires are at an end than he whose senses and imaginations are at a stand.Felicity is a continual progress of the desire from one object to another,the attaining of the former being still but the way to the latter.The cause whereof is that the object of man's desire is not to enjoy once only,and for one instant of time,but to assure forever the way of his future desire.
And therefore the voluntary actions and inclinations of all men tend not only to the procuring,but also to the assuring of a contented life,and differ only in the way,which ariseth partly from the diversity of passions in diverse men,and partly from the difference of the knowledge or opinion each one has of the causes which produce the effect desired.
So that in the first place,I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of power after power,that ceaseth only in death.And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to,or that he cannot be content with a moderate power,but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well,which he hath present,without the acquisition of more.And from hence it is that kings,whose power is greatest,turn their endeavours to the assuring it at home by laws,or abroad by wars:and when that is done,there succeedeth a new desire;in some,of fame from new conquest;in others,of ease and sensual pleasure;in others,of admiration,or being flattered for excellence in some art or other ability of the mind.
Competition of riches,honour,command,or other power inclineth to contention,enmity,and war,because the way of one competitor to the attaining of his desire is to kill,subdue,supplant,or repel the other.Particularly,competition of praise inclineth to a reverence of antiquity.For men contend with the living,not with the dead;to these ascribing more than due,that they may obscure the glory of the other.
Desire of ease,and sensual delight,disposeth men to obey a common power:because by such desires a man doth abandon the protection that might be hoped for from his own industry and labour.
Fear of death and wounds disposeth to the same,and for the same reason.On the contrary,needy men and hardy,not contented with their present condition,as also all men that are ambitious of military command,are inclined to continue the causes of war and to stir up trouble and sedition:for there is no honour military but by war;nor any such hope to mend an ill game as by causing a new shuffle.
Desire of knowledge,and arts of peace,inclineth men to obey a common power:for such desire containeth a desire of leisure,and consequently protection from some other power than their own.
Desire of praise disposeth to laudable actions,such as please them whose judgement they value;for of those men whom we contemn,we contemn also the praises.Desire of fame after death does the same.
And though after death there be no sense of the praise given us on earth,as being joys that are either swallowed up in the unspeakable joys of heaven or extinguished in the extreme torments of hell:yet is not such fame vain;because men have a present delight therein,from the foresight of it,and of the benefit that may redound thereby to their posterity:which though they now see not,yet they imagine;and anything that is pleasure in the sense,the same also is pleasure in the imagination.
To have received from one,to whom we think ourselves equal,greater benefits than there is hope to requite,disposeth to counterfeit love,but really secret hatred,and puts a man into the estate of a desperate debtor that,in declining the sight of his creditor,tacitly wishes him there where he might never see him more.For benefits oblige;and obligation is thraldom;and unrequitable obligation,perpetual thraldom;which is to one's equal,hateful.But to have received benefits from one whom we acknowledge for superior inclines to love;because the obligation is no new depression:and cheerful acceptation (which men call gratitude)is such an honour done to the obliger as is taken generally for retribution.Also to receive benefits,though from an equal,or inferior,as long as there is hope of requital,disposeth to love:for in the intention of the receiver,the obligation is of aid and service mutual;from whence proceedeth an emulation of who shall exceed in benefiting;the most noble and profitable contention possible,wherein the victor is pleased with his victory,and the other revenged by confessing it.
To have done more hurt to a man than he can or is willing to expiate inclineth the doer to hate the sufferer.For he must expect revenge or forgiveness;both which are hateful.
Fear of oppression disposeth a man to anticipate or to seek aid by society:for there is no other way by which a man can secure his life and liberty.
Men that distrust their own subtlety are in tumult and sedition better disposed for victory than they that suppose themselves wise or crafty.For these love to consult;the other,fearing to be circumvented to strike first.And in sedition,men being always in the precincts of battle,to hold together and use all advantages of force is a better stratagem than any that can proceed from subtlety of wit.