Three and a half centuries ago England was convulsed by civil wars (1641-1651). The man frequently credited as the first modern political philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, described the course of these wars in a book titled Behemoth or, the Long Parliament. He wrote that if men could view the England of his day from “the Devil’s Mountain” they would see “all kinds of injustice, and all kinds of folly.” It was a case, he explained, of “double iniquity” on one side, and “double folly” on the other. It was a war between democracy and monarchy that claimed about 190,000 lives at a time when the population of the country was a fraction of what it is today. Hobbes, of course, was a critic of democracy. He believed that order was fundamental, and monarchical authority was the key. Hobbes blamed the civil disorders of his time on many factors. He said that ongoing debates over the Bible led to a growing interest in ancient languages. Educated men thereby “became acquainted with the democratical principles of Aristotle and Cicero, and from the love of their eloquence fell in love with their politics … till it grew into the rebellion we now talk of….”

>>excerpt from new Nyquist essay, The Executive Branch and the Roots of Order