A Treatise of the Laws of Nature. Richard Cumberland

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      The current edition reproduces Maxwell’s complete text, together with additional material taken from Cumberland’s copy of De Legibus, Barbeyrac’s Traité Philosophique, and Towers’s Philosophical Enquiry. The only substantial changes to Maxwell’s text are to the footnotes. Maxwell’s footnotes use a variety of conventions, but they are unnumbered and in the introductory essays and appendixes consist usually of very general abbreviated references that provide hardly any guidance for a nonspecialist modern reader.

      For ease of reference, Maxwell’s footnote callouts (normally asterisks) in the text have been silently deleted and replaced by arabic-numbered footnotes for each essay or chapter. In some instances multiple references occurring close together have been rationalized into one note. In Maxwell’s supplementary essays, the notes have been expanded to include the full title of the work referred to and, where it can be identified, the edition used. Book, chapter, page, and section numbers have been left in the form of the original note. In his supplementary essays, Maxwell often both loosely paraphrases his source and quotes it verbatim in the original Greek or Latin; in those cases, the quotation is left out and only the reference is retained.

      In the translation of Cumberland’s text, Maxwell supplemented Cumberland’s brief textual references (mostly to Hobbes’s works) with notes of his own. Maxwell’s comments are identified in the notes to this edition, as is material taken from Barbeyrac’s notes and Cumberland’s manuscript. Additional information is the work of the current editor. In order to facilitate comparison, references to appropriate modern editions of Hobbes’s major works have been used.

      A TREATISE OF THE LAWS OF NATURE

A TREATISE OF THE LAWS of NATURE.

      By the Right Reverend Father in God,

       RICHARD CUMBERLAND, Lord Bishop of Peterborough.

      Made English from the Latin by JOHN MAXWELL, M.A. Prebendary of Connor, and Chaplain to his Excellency the Lord CARTERET, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

      To which is prefix’d,

      An Introduction concerning the mistaken Notions which the Heathens had of the DEITY, and the Defects in their MORALITY, whence the Usefulness of REVELATION may appear.

      At the End is subjoin’d,

      An Appendix, containing two Discourses, 1. Concerning the Immateriality of THINKING SUBSTANCE. 2. Concerning the OBLIGATION, PROMULGATION, and OBSERVANCE, of the LAW of NATURE, by the Translator.¹

       LONDON:

      Printed by R. Phillips; and Sold by J. Knapton, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, J. SENEX, over against St. Dunstan’s Church, in Fleet-Street, F. FAYRAM, at the South-Entrance of the Royal-Exchange, J. OSBORNE, and T. Longman, in Pater-Noster-Row, and T. OSBORNE, by Gray’s-Inn-Walks. 1727.

TO His EXCELLENCY, JOHN, Lord CARTERET, Lord Lieutenant of IRELAND. ¹

       May it please your Excellency,

      When I was to publish the following Sheets, I knew not under the Authority of what great Name so properly to introduce them to the Publick as your Excellency’s, and that for several Reasons.

      The Design of the Work, is, to enforce the Obligation of the Dictates of Reason, and the Necessity of Revelation, the Practice of Virtue and Religion, to Mankind; which could, with no Propriety, be address’d to a Person of an exceptionable Character.

      How I have succeeded in my Performance, no one is a better Judge than your Excellency, who have made the Authors of Antiquity, which I have made use of in the following Work, the Diversion and Improvement of your retir’d Hours.

      The Relation also, which you bear to my native Country, which is happy under your Excellency’s Administration, was another Inducement to my taking the Liberty of this Address, to which I was the more embolden’d, by having had the Honour of being receiv’d into your Excellency’s Service.

      That your Country may long enjoy the Advantage of your Example and your Counsels; that you and your Family may be long Happy in one another; and that, after a long and prosperous Life here, you may receive an eternal Reward of all your Labours hereafter, is the sincere Prayer of him, who is, with the profoundest respect,

      May it please your Excellency, your most devoted, and most faithful humble Servant and Chaplain,

THE TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE