Anti-Climacus

QUOTE: I found this amusing in its own right, and also because I read it and went, hey, this mentions someone I know (Prof. Curley, who's writing a letter of recommendation for me), and assumes him to be multiple people. Thus:

"CHRIS BERTRAM POINTS OUT THE HUMOR IN HOBBES AND MARX. He sticks to intentional humor, but if you want a really good laugh, read Hobbes' autobiography in heroic couplets. It begins thus:

In Fifteen Hundred Eighty Eight, Old Style,
When that armada did invade our isle,
Called the invincible, whose freight was then,
Nothing but murd'ring steel, and murd'ring men,
Most of which navy was disperst, or lost,
And had the fate to perish on our coast,
April the fifth (though now with age outworn)
I'th'early spring, I, a poor worm, was born.

And it only goes downhill from there. The editors of the Hackett edition of Leviathan have done the world the immense good service of including the whole thing -- all 411 lines -- on pages liv-lxiv. Check out especially his response to religious critics of Leviathan (lines 265-274):

The clergy at Leviathan repines,
And both of them opposed were by divines. ["both" = Leviathan and De Corpore]
For whilst I did inveigh 'gainst papal pride,
These, though prohibited, were not denied
T'appear in print: gainst my Leviathan
They rail, which made it read by many a man,
And did confirm't the more; tis hoped by me,
That it will last to all eternity.
Twill be the rule of justice and severe
Reproof of those men that ambitious are.Apparently criticism increasing sales isn't a recent phenomenon ... "