There are eleven known manuscripts of Hobbes’s Elements of Law. As they divide on textual grounds into two groups, they are effectively two separate editions, employing two different texts. While two of the manuscripts apparently were Hobbes’s working copies, it also seems clear that he never definitively established the text of the Elements. There are reasons for thinking it unlikely that, as has been suggested, Hobbes intended the work to influence debate in the Short Parliament. More likely, he hoped his patron, Newcastle, would transmit his principles to the monarch and his chief advisors.

中文翻译：

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法律要素：手稿和短期议会

霍布斯的手稿有十一份法律要素. 由于它们根据文本分为两组，因此它们实际上是两个不同的版本，采用了两种不同的文本。虽然其中两份手稿显然是霍布斯的工作副本，但很明显，他从未明确确定手稿的文本元素. 有理由认为霍布斯不太可能像有人建议的那样打算通过这项工作影响短期议会中的辩论。更有可能的是，他希望他的赞助人纽卡斯尔将他的原则传达给君主和他的首席顾问。