Note 351 — QUARRELS OF AUTHORS; (continued 4)

Hobbes, in defending Thucydides, whom he has so admirably translated, from the charge of some obscurity in his design, observes that “Marcellinus saith he was obscure, on purpose that the common people might not understand him; and not unlikely, for a wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men), that wise men only should be able to commend him.” Thus early in life Hobbes had determined on a principle which produced all his studied ambiguity, involved him in so much controversy, and, in some respects, preserved him in an inglorious security.