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RUDI THOEMMES RARE BOOKS ________________________________________________

Catalogue Sixty-Three

New acquisitions

December 2018

5 Belvedere Road, Bristol BS6 7JG, UK

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Philip de Bary philip@rrbltd.co.uk Rudi Thoemmes rthoemmes@gmail.com

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Hume's opponent and provoker

1. [BAXTER, Andrew] An Enquiry into the Nature of the Human Soul; wherein the Immateriality of the Soul is evinced from the Principles of Reason and Philosophy. London: James Bettenham, for the Author, [1733]. £ 700 4to, [xii], 376 pp., (150-1 misnumbered 152-3, 219 misnumbered 193) contemporary calf, rubbed and with wear at corners, upper joint cracked but holding firm, considerable loss to tail of spine, lacking the label, browning and spotting mainly light and confined to the margins, the listed errata which 'the Reader is intreated to correct with his pen' so corrected in contemporary ink, a sound copy all told, decidedly scarce. First edition of the chief work by the Scottish metaphysician Andrew Baxter (1686/7–1750), who was educated at King's College, Aberdeen. The subscribers to the first edition include George Cheyne and Colin Maclaurin. Second and third editions followed in 1737 and 1745. In this work of Christian rationalism influenced by Samuel Clarke, Baxter is heavily critical of Berkeley's views on matter. He also holds that denial of the causal principle leads straight to denial of God – or "downright Atheism", as he puts it. Paul Russell has argued persuasively that Andrew Baxter (and not William Wishart, as suggested by Mossner) was the true author of the anonymous 'Specimen of the principles concerning religion and morality' that provoked David Hume to write his Letter from a Gentleman to his friend in Edinburgh (1745). See P. Russell, 'Wishart, Baxter and Hume's Letter from a Gentleman', Hume Studies, Vol. XXIII, No 2, 1997, pp. 245-76 and P. Russell, The Riddle of Hume's Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion, OUP, 2010, pp. 125 ff.

2. BEDDOES, Thomas A Letter to Erasmus Darwin, M.D. on a new method of treating pulmonary consumption, and some other diseases hitherto found incurable. Bristol: printed by Bulgin and Rosser; sold by J. Murray; and J. Johnson, London; also by Bulgin and Sheppard, J. Norton, J. Cottle, W. Browne, and T. Mills, booksellers, Bristol [1793].

£ 600

8vo, 72 pp., some light spotting, rebound in recent plain boards. First edition, second issue, with p. 67 partly reset and the text extended from the original 67 pages by a postscript dated 5th July, 1793. Quite late in his career, Erasmus Darwin became an advocate of the new ‘pneumatic medicine’ developed by Thomas Beddoes and James Watt, which involved the mechanical administration of gases.

Davy's first scientific papers

3. (DAVY, Humphry) BEDDOES, Thomas (ed.) Contributions to Physical and Medical Knowledge, principally from the West of England, collected by Thomas Beddoes, M.D. Bristol: printed by Biggs and Cottle, 1799. £ 5600 8vo, 25, (1), 428, 429[dagger]-434[dagger], 429-539, [5] pp., folding table (shaved at the top), tear across corner of one leaf repaired (no loss), faint old stamp on title, attractively rebound in calf-backed boards. First edition. An important collection of papers, notable for including THE FIRST TWO PUBLISHED WORKS BY HUMPHRY DAVY, "Essays on heat, light, and the combinations of light, with a new theory of respiration, on the generation of oxygen gas, and the causes of the colors of organic beings," and "An essay on the generation of phosoxygen, or oxygen gas." The nineteen-year old Cornishman, Humphry Davy, became known to Beddoes through Davy's friendship with Gregory Watt, son of the great Scottish engineer. Beddoes extended a tentative invitation to Davy to join him as an assistant at his new Pneumatic Institution in Clifton, Bristol. They began a lively correspondence; in October 1798, Davy was released from his indentures in Penzance and joined Beddoes as superintendent of the Pneumatic Medical Institution. It was a momentous move, both in terms of location and his career. "That winter Beddoes published Davy's earliest speculative essays on the chemistry of heat and starlight, which followed Lavoisier's ideas on 'oxygen' but also challenged his concept of what Davy called briskly 'the imaginary fluid caloric.' They appeared in Beddoes's annual anthology, published by Joseph Cottle, Contributions to physical and medical knowledge, principally from the West of England. Cottle had also just brought out that autumn an anonymous little book of poems entitled Lyrical Ballads."—Holmes, The Age of Wonder, chapter 6, "Davy on the gas." These two papers were by far the most ambitious contribution to the anthology, and announced Davy's intellectual arrival in Bristol. Cole, Chemical Literature 1700-1860, 70.

4. FICHTE, Johann Gottlieb Ueber den Begriff der Wissenschaftslehre oder der sogenannten Philosophie, als Einladungsschrift zu seinen Vorlesungen über diese Wissenschaft. Weimar: Industrie-Comptoir, 1794. £ 550 8vo, 68 pp., title-page a little dusty, verso and final leaf with library and deaccession stamps, pages unusually fresh and unfoxed, a very good copy though in a plain and undistinguished modern binding. First edition of Fichte's earliest statement of his Wissenschaftslehre, published as a means of introducing himself to his new students and colleagues at Jena. PMM 244. 'Inspired by his reading of Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762–1814) developed during the final decade of the eighteenth century a radically revised and rigorously systematic version of transcendental idealism, which he called Wissenschaftslehre or “Doctrine of Scientific Knowledge.” Perhaps the most characteristic, as well as most controversial, feature of the Wissenschaftslehre (at least in its earlier and most influential version) is Fichte’s effort to ground his entire system upon the bare concept of subjectivity, or, as Fichte expressed it, the “pure I.” During his career at the University of Jena (1794–1799) Fichte erected upon this foundation an elaborate transcendental system that embraced the philosophy of science, ethics, philosophy of law or “right.” and philosophy of religion' (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). 5. (FICHTE) SCHAD, Johann Baptist

Gemeinfaßliche Darstellung des Fichteschen Systems und der daraus hervorgehenden Religionstheorie. Erfurt: Hennings, 1800-02. £ 450 3 volumes, 8vo, x, 342; [ii], 356, [2]; [iv], iv, 499 pp., contemporary marbled boards with later paper labels, rubbed and worn at edges, early ownership inscription on title-pages, contemporary annotations on 5 pages, uniform light browning and isolated marks, a good copy. First edition. 'Johannes Baptist Schad (1758–1834) primarily taught on Fichte and Kant. He refused appointments as court chaplain in Stuttgart and as professor in France. Though he displayed ardent faith at first, he distanced himself from life in the monastery. Having criticized the monastery publically, Schad had to flee the abbey on 12 November 1798 and converted to Protestantism. He moved to Jena, where he received his doctoral degree and habilitated in 1799. Schad introduced himself to Fichte, after whose dismissal he took over the teaching of philosophy according to Fichte’s system. He analysed the moral philosophy of Kant, then moved on to the doctrine of science of Fichte, becoming Fichte’s most important interpreter. He understood his teaching as his own deduction of Fichte’s principles – especially in his theory of religion' (Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers).

6. GLANVILL, Joseph Philosophia Pia; or, A Discourse of the Religious Temper, and Tendencies of the Experimental Philosophy, which is profest by the Royal Society. To which is annext A Recommendation, and Defence of Reason in the Affairs of Religion. By Jos. Glanvill ... Fellow of the Royal Society. London: printed by J. Macock for James Collins, 1671. £ 580 Small 8vo, [vi], 234, [3] pp., contemporary blind-panelled calf, rubbed at extremities with noticeable loss to foot of spine, front and rear endpapers with contemporary annotations mentioning Robert Boyle, Seth Ward, etc., these endpapers a little dusty and with one small corner piece torn away, the first 3 leaves with a thin waterstain at the outer edges, otherwise internally fresh and bright, an interesting copy. Rare first edition by the Anglican philosopher and controversialist Joseph Glanvill, F.R.S. (1636-80), appearing three years after his strong defence of the scientific work of Royal Society in Plus Ultra. In response to that book, Henry Stubbe had published polemics including The Plus Ultra reduced to a Non Plus (1670), calling the Society elitist and crypto-Catholic. Here in Philosophia Pia Glanvill counter-replies to Stubbe and other Aristotelians, arguing that the new natural philosophy reveals ever more fully the glory of God in his works of creation, thus reinforcing established religion and confuting atheism. Glanvill pointedly dedicates the work to the Anglican bishop of Salisbury, the mathematician and astronomer Seth Ward, who was also a founder member of the Royal Society.

'My Lord, I expect that this discourse ... should meet with animadverters as soon as it peeps into the world; and if it be not encountered with rude and ruffian-like oppositions, it will fare better than some other papers of mine whose designs were as harmless and inoffensive. But whatever befalls these sheets, my assailants shall find, that I am none of those mean spirits that will so easily be hector'd into a Non-Plus; no, but since my ingaging in such a cause makes them angry, I shall yet provoke them more; for I laugh at their vain boastings, and despise their feeble malice'.

Provenance: there is no indication as to the identity of the early annotator, but a later owner's note on the rear endpaper reads 'Perfect, Bernard Quaritch, F.S. Ferguson, 27.vi.1916'.

7. HEIDEGGER, Martin Sein und Zeit. Erste Hälfte [all published]. Sonderdruck aus: “Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung”, Band VII, herausgegeben von E. Husserl - Freiburg i. B. Halle a.d.S.: Max Niemeyer, 1927. £ 680 Large 8vo, xi, 438, [1] pp., original cloth with a few marks, binding shaken at front hinge as often, a good ex-library copy with shelf sticker at foot of spine, stamps on the title-page and in the margin of p. 21, a few slight traces of erased pencil underlining, otherwise very clean. First edition of Heidegger's famous Being and Time, said by some to be the most important philosophical work of the twentieth century. 8. HEUSINGER, Johann Heinrich Gottlieb Meine Antwort auf Herrn Fichte's Erwiederung meiner Einwürfe gegen seine Religionstheorie. Eine Streitschrift philosophischen Inhalts. Gotha: Justus Perthes, 1800. £ 400 8vo, 64 pp., contemporary marbled paper wrappers with handwritten label, wear at edges and a small closed tear, early ownership inscription inside front wrapper, title-page with library stamp, a little foxing, heavier on the outer leaves, unobtrusive old pencil annotations on pages 8 and 46, a very good copy with wide margins, uncut. Rare contribution to the 'atheism dispute' (Atheismus-Streit) that rocked learned Germany from 1798 onwards, following Fichte's publication of Ueber den Grund unsers Glaubens an eine göttliche Weltregierung. J.H.G. Heusinger (1766-1837) was a teacher and follower of Kant, whose doctrines he attempted to popularise. His writings accusing Fichte of atheism were judged by Fichte himself to be among the philosophically more substantial attacks on him. Adickes 2290.

item 8 item 9 9. (HUTCHESON, Francis) BURNET, Gilbert, the younger (1690–1726) Letters between the late Mr. Gilbert Burnet, and Mr. Hutchinson [sic], concerning the true Foundation of Virtue or Moral Goodness. Formerly published in the London Journal. To which is added, a Preface and a Postscript, wrote by Mr. Burnet some time before his Death. London: W. Wilkins, 1735. £ 600 8vo, viii, 85, [2] pp., 19th-century half calf, rebacked, armorial bookplate 'Dent', title-page foxed and dusty, elsewhere clean, a good copy, from the library of John Stephens, with his ownership ticket. First edition, rare. 'Burnet’s philosophical importance lies in a correspondence with Francis Hutcheson, which took place in 1725 and was subsequently published. Burnet had read the Inquiry and concluded that ‘the beautiful structure that [Hutcheson] had raised, wanted a sufficient Foundation’, in spite of his agreement with the conclusions. He published a letter to this effect in the London Journal, to which Hutcheson replied. Burnet’s starting point was an acceptance of an a priori theory of morality as expressed particularly in the writings of Samuel Clarke and William Wollaston. Morality must thus be a species of Truth. Hutcheson, on the other hand, argued that "Speculative Truth or Reason, is not properly a Rule of Conduct, however Rules may be founded upon it". For him all the language of a priori morality – fitness, truth and so on – reduces to a Moral Sense. Moral sense and affection determine our ends but Reason must find out the means' (John Stephens, this copy's former owner, writing in the Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 1999).

The first English discussion of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason 10. (KANT) BEDDOES, Thomas Observations on the Nature of Demonstrative Evidence, with an explanation of certain Difficulties occurring in the Elements of Geometry: and Reflections on Language. London: printed for J. Johnson, 1793. £ 2200 8vo, xii, 171 pp., a little marginal spotting, rebound in quarter calf preserving the original corners and the armorial bookplate of Lord Belper, a very good copy, exceedingly rare in the market. First edition. Thomas Beddoes (1760-1808) studied chemistry at Oxford before moving to Bristol to practise medicine; there he became part of a group of active opponents of government policy that included the publisher Joseph Cottle, and the poets Robert Southey and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

‘In the field of philosophy, Beddoes’s most important contribution is represented by the work Observations on the Nature of Demonstrative Evidence (1793). This work, published after he gave up teaching at Oxford, had in fact been ready in September 1792. It is notable because it is the first text in English in which a passage from Kant’s first Critique is discussed directly. He quotes section 2 of the Introduction to the second edition, on necessity and strict universality as the distinctive signs of a priori knowledge, and discusses Kant’s text at length. Necessity and cause are merely linguistic abbreviations. To observation and to induction alone, whatever Mr. Kant may imagine, it is easy to see that we owe our knowledge of the absolute necessity or strict universality of geometrical truths. Every one of us, by calling to mind the train of his own thoughts, may assure himself that, in studying Euclid, however rapid, and however easy the process of induction, we have at least, in imagination, varied the forms of the diagrams, and finding the reasoning equally applicable to all imaginable varieties, have assented to the truth of the propositions; and hence the strict universality of mathematical truths. (Observations, pp. 101–103) Furthermore, in a long note Beddoes sets out, for the first time, a comparison between Kant and the Scottish school: ‘modern writers, in our own language, express an opinion, similar to that of Mr. Kant, and inevitably fatal to their philosophy of mind’; for Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart, the need to refer every change to a cause ‘is not the result of reasoning, but necessarily accompanies the perception, so as to render it impossible for us to see the change, without feeling a conviction of the operation of some cause, by which it was produced’. But for Beddoes, Thomas Reid, like Kant, ‘always mistakes our habits of observation for original laws of thought’ (pp. 95–6). Beddoes is worthy of note for the remarkable openness he displayed towards philosophical and scientific learning from the Continent, especially Germany' (Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 1999).

Contemporary biographies of Kant

11. (KANT) BOROWSKI, Ludwig Ernst Darstellung des Lebens und Characters Immanuel Kant's. Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1804. £ 300 Small 8vo, [iv], 276 pp.,somewhat later boards with newer spine label, bookplate of the Swiss librarian and writer Paul Scherrer-Bylund, some marginal browning early on, one leaf with a tiny hole in it, isolated spots, a very good copy. This and the following two items form a trilogy (sometimes found uniformly bound as a set) written by three of Kant's closest associates and published in the year of his death. Borowski's work is 'especially valuable for the reason that the greater part of it [pp 11-104 dealing particularly with Kant's early life], which Borowski had written out for lecture purposes, was read through and corrected by Kant himself' (Adickes 2798). First edition. 12. (KANT) JACHMANN, Reinhold Bernhard Immanuel Kant geschildert in seinen Briefen an einen Freund. Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1804. £ 280 Small 8vo, [xii,] 220 pp., 20th-century half cloth over marbled boards, hand-lettered spine label, contemporary annotations on 4 pages, occasional light foxing, a very good copy. First edition. 'A most attractive picture of Kant's personality, suffused with all the warmth of affectionate respect, is given by Jachmann, who was intimately connected with the philosopher during the years 1784 to 1794' (Adickes 2798). 13. (KANT) WASIANSKI, Ehregott Andreas Immanuel Kant in seinen letzten Lebensjahren. Ein Beytrag zur Kenntniß seines Charakters und häuslichen Lebens aus dem täglichen Umgange mit ihm. Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1804. £ 330 Small 8vo, 224 pp., contemporary pale boards, spine ruled gilt with red label, long annotation dated 1835 on front free endpaper, uniform light browning to two gatherings, otherwise fresh, a very good copy. First edition. Wasianski was Kant's caretaker and daily companion in the last years of his life, and gives a simple and accurate account of these years' (Adickes 2798).

14. LOCKE, John Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: Viz. I. Of the Conduct of the Understanding. II. An Examination of P. Malebranche's Opinion of Seeing all things in God. III. A Discourse of Miracles. IV. Part of a Fourth Letter for Toleration. V. Memoirs relating to the Life of Anthony first Earl of Shaftsbury. To which is added, VI. His New Method of a Common-Place Book, written originally in French, and now translated into English. London. A. and J. Churchill, 1706. £ 1200 8vo, [iv], 336 pp., contemporary panelled calf, spine in compartments with red morocco label, rubbed, joints and a small scar restored some time ago (a little flaking visible beside the label), top margin with some light soiling in a few places, otherwise fresh and unbrowned, with no stamps or inscriptions, a very good copy. First edition of the posthumous works of John Locke, containing first printings of six pieces unpublished in his lifetime, but which Locke himself felt deserved publication. The collection was brought out two years after Locke's death by his literary executors Anthony Collins and Sir Peter King. The longest and most important of them is 'Of the Conduct of the Understanding' (pp. 1-137), originally intended by Locke to be 'the largest chapter in my Essay'. It rapidly became popular, and was separately printed at least nine times before 1800 besides being translated into Dutch, German, French and Italian. These 'posthumous' materials are included in all Works editions. Attig 724; Yolton 299.

Rare first German translation of Locke's Essay 15. LOCKE, John Versuch vom Menschlichen Verstande. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt und mit Anmerkungen versehen von Heinrich Engelhard Poleyen. Altenburg: Richter, 1757. £ 1550 4to, engraved portrait frontispiece, [lviii], 768, [24] pp., contemporary half calf over speckled boards, rubbed and worn, uniform light browning throughout with scattered spots, final 100 pp. with a small light waterstain at the lower outer corner, no stamps or inscriptions, a reasonably sound copy of a rare and important book. First German translation of Locke’s Essay concerning Humane Understanding, pre-dating the Tennemann edition by 40 years, and much rarer. Locke had been very keen to have the Essay available to a wider audience than would be reached by the English editions. Poleyen says his German translation is based on the text in the 1727 Works, but his arrangement of Book I follows Coste’s French translation of 1700. The 170 explanatory notes mainly refer to contemporary German authors. Through this translation Wolff, Mendelssohn, and the Neologians around Reimarus and Lessing were just as much influenced by Locke as by Kant, and indeed the German Enlightenment isn’t intelligible without taking it into account. Attig 378, Yolton 108D. 16. MALEBRANCHE, Nicolas Father Malebranche’s Treatise concerning the Search after Truth. The Whole Work Compleat. To which is added the Author’s Treatise of Nature, and Grace. Being a Consequence of the Principles contain’d in the Search: together with his Answer to the Animadversions upon the First Volume: his Defense against the Accusations of Mr. De la Ville, &c. relating to the same subject. All translated by T. Taylor, M.A. of Magd. Coll. in Oxford. Oxford: printed by L. Lichfield, for Thomas Bennet bookseller, at the Half-Moon in St. Pauls Church-yard, London, 1694. £ 440 Folio [34cm x 22cm], [xvi], 88, 85-172, 10, 203, 42 pp., text continuous despite pagination, contemporary panelled calf, scuffed, worn at corners and with an old repair, rebacked a long time ago retaining the original spine label, armorial bookplate of 'C.E. De M.K.' and an Oxford bookseller's ticket on the front pastedown, uniform light browning (sometimes a little heavier), isolated spots, creasing in places and occasional small marginal dampstains, the final five leaves have the lower outer corner torn away with some loss of text, no stamps or inscriptions, an acceptable copy of an important first edition. First edition. There were two English translations of De la recherche de la vérité published in 1694, one by Richard Sault and this one by Thomas Taylor, which is harder to find. The Taylor translation is the one that made Malebranche available to George Berkeley (see Stuart Brown in The Cambridge Companion to Malebranche, pp. 262-87). Nicolas Malebranche is now recognised as a canonical figure in the history of philosophy. The Search after Truth is his first, longest and most important work. 'The Recherche is a rambling work, ostensibly devoted to the causes of human error, although frequently digressing into substantive matters of mathematics, physics, metaphysics, ethics and theology. It deals at length with our various faculties and with the various ways in which they can lead us astray. Once our minds have been properly purged of vulgar errors, Malebranche claims, two great truths will become manifest. In metaphysics, we will see clearly that only God can be a true cause, and that what we commonly call 'natural' or 'second' causes are mere 'occasions' for God to act in accordance with His own self-imposed rules. In epistemology, we will find that human knowledge is only possible by means of the 'Vision in God', i.e. if ideas are

archetypes in the Creator's mind, not merely modifications or 'modes' of our own souls. These twin themes of occasionalism and the Vision in God constitute the heart of Malebranche's philosophy. In his later works he would refine these doctrines, provide further explanations of them, and defend them against objections; he would never abandon them' (Andrew Pyle, Malebranche, pp. 2-3).

Sammelband 17. MEIER, Georg Friedrich Sammelband of seven works, all published in Halle by Carl Hermann Hemmerde, 1752-62. £ 1200 A stout octavo volume bound in contemporary half leather, recased with modern boards and new endpapers, original spine creased and label 'Meiers Kleine Schriften' chipped, expected uniform browning, otherwise internally sound on the whole, individual condition noted below. Georg Friedrich Meier (1718-77) was a follower of Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten. He reformed the philosophy of Christian Wolff by introducing elements of John Locke's empiricist theory of knowledge. Contents in order of binding: I. Philosophische Gedanken von den Würkungen des Teufels auf dem Erdboden. First edition, 1760. 168 pp., title-page soiled and with edge wear, a little waterstaining, underlining on 8 pages. II. Gedancken von der Religion. Second edition, 1752. [xii], 131 pp., some marginal waterstaining. III. Vertheidigung seines Beweises des ewigen Lebens der Seele, und seiner Gedancken von der Religion. First edition, 1752. 83, [4] pp., clean. IV. Beweis daß die menschliche Seele ewig lebt. Second edition, 1754. [xxx], 142 pp., early annotations on 4 pages, underlining on a further 3. V. Abermalige Vertheidigung seines Beweises, daß die menschliche Seele ewig lebe. First edition, 1753. 76 pp., some spots and foxing. VI. Gedanken von dem Zustande der Seele nach dem Tode. Third edition, 1762. [xvi], 224 pp., contemporary annotation on p. 74. VII. Vertheidigung seiner Gedancken vom Zustande der Seele nach dem Tode. Second edition, 1754. 208 pp., a waterstain towards the end, final leaf torn with loss of text.

18. MOORE, George Edward Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903. £ 470 8vo, xxvii, 232 pp., publisher's brown cloth with gilt spine-lettering, rubbed, lower cover with some light unobtrusive staining, Francis Carleton Green's bookplate and his neat ownership inscription "'Pemb. Coll. Camb. Jan. '04") on the front free endpaper, uniform light age-toning, outer edges untrimmed, a very good copy.

First edition of Moore's famous and influential work in moral philosophy, the title of which was deliberately chosen to evoke Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica of 1687 (as, later, was Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica, 1910-13). Here Moore applies the new techniques of analytic philosophy to ethics, examining how we should properly understand moral terms and concepts, in particular the concept of 'good’, which he regards as basic and irreducible to anything simpler. The mistake (pointed out earlier by Hume) of deriving ethical conclusions from statements of fact is labelled by Moore "the naturalistic fallacy", discussion of which would become one of the key strands in twentieth-century 'meta-ethics', of which this book is really the founding document. 19. NICOLAI, Friedrich Leben und Meinungen Sempronius Gundibert's eines deutschen Philosophen. Nebst zwey Urkunden der neuesten deutschen Philosophie. Berlin und Stettin: Nicolai, 1798. £ 450 8vo, engraved frontispiece, 342, [1] pp., contemporary stiff paper covers, rubbed, spine label renewed, internally very fresh with just one ink smear on p. 261, a nice copy with wide margins, uncut. First edition of the publisher Friedrich Nicolai’s keenest philosophical satire, directed mainly against Immanuel Kant. Partly in response to it, Kant wrote two open letters to Nicolai (published as Ueber die Buchmacherey, 1798) deploring the present state of the 'book-making' trade in general and accusing Nicolai in particular of unscrupulously cashing in on the public interest in Kant's works. '[In the present work] the lack of linguistic and conceptual clarity on the part of Fichte, Kant, Schelling, Schiller and the brothers Friedrich and Wilhelm Schlegel is satirized, with original quotations in footnotes as evidence. Nicolai tries to demonstrate that empirical practice thoroughly refutes pure transcendental theory, that abstract philosophical ideas cannot be applied to reality. The title character completes his university education with a dissertation entitled De scientia scientiae, alluding to Fichte’s circular Wissenschaftslehre. Unable to attract any students and subsequently without any success as a private tutor, his philosophical ‘Schnickschnack’ leads him nowhere. It takes him a long time to realize that sometimes empirical principles tend to make more sense than Fichte’s idealistic law ‘Ich = Ich’ (I = I). At that point Gundibert is cured. The conclusion is presented by a sensible character in the novel, quoting Samuel Butler’s satire Hudibras: ‘He knew what’s what, and that’s as high as Metaphysic wit can fly.’' (Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers). Adickes 1690.

'Universally revered in Germany'

20. SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Earl of Philosophische Werke. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt. Erster Band, Zweyter Band. Leipzig: Weygand, 1776-77. £ 450 2 volumes, 8vo, [iv], 468; 550, [2] pp., contemporary half calf, spines with gilt floral motif and contrasting labels, decorative endpapers with bookplates of the Hungarian nobleman Héder Viczay, uniform light browning and occasional spots, generally very good. First German edition. A third and final volume was published in 1779. 'Shaftesbury shaped eighteenth-century German thought to a degree that can now seem quite astonishing. Anyone examining the reaction to Shaftesbury's philosophy in the hundred years or so after its appearance has to be struck with the sharp contrast between its reception in his native land and in Germany. In England the response was initially one of intense polarization and bitter disagreement. This eventually gave way to all but complete indifference … Very different was his reception in Germany. There he was all but universally revered, his impact on the direction of Aufklärung thought profound. … Schleiermacher wrote in his notebook: "Leibniz really goes wild over [him]!"' (Ernest Boyer, 'Schleiermacher, Shaftesbury, and the German Enlightenment', Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 96, No. 2 (2003), pp. 181-204).

Highly important first translation of The Wealth of Nations

21. SMITH, Adam Untersuchung der Natur und Ursachen von Nationalreichthümern. Aus dem Englischen. Leipzig: Weidmanns Erben und Reich, 1776-1778. £ 6000 2 volumes, 8vo, viii, 632; xii, 740 pp., contemporary half vellum, floral boards fairly rubbed, title-pages foxed, elsewhere uniform light browning, short reading marks in neat pencil in quite a few margins, isolated single-word underlinings, old annotations on two pages, no stamps, generally a good sound copy. Very rare first German edition of The Wealth of Nations (1776), and the earliest translation of Adam Smith's classic work into any foreign language. Johann Friedrich Schiller, a cousin of the poet Friedrich Schiller, must have pounced on the English edition and begun his translation immediately, to have the first part ready for publication the same year. "Deutschland hat seine erste Übersetzung von Ad. Smith ... sogar etwas früher bekommen als Frankreich" (Roscher). Vanderblue, p. 26.

item 21

The second appearance of Adam Smith's early contribution to the Edinburgh Review

22. SMITH, Adam Essais philosophiques. Précédés d'un précis de sa vie et de ses écrits; par Dugald Stewart. Traduits de l'anglais par P. Prévost. Paris: H. Agasse, 1797. £ 950 2 volumes (mis)bound in one, with signatures K onwards in each vol. (pp. 145-283 and 145-316) switched, 8vo, [iv], 316, [iv], 283 pp., without the portrait found only in a few copies, contemporary calf-backed boards, worn and made good in 3 places, smooth spine decorated in gilt, a shallow dent in the third panel, vellum-tipped corners, uniform and mainly light browning, isolated spots and some marginal foxing, still a very good copy.

Rare first French edition of Adam Smith's Essays on Philosophical Subjects, reflecting the diversity of his interests in the history of science, the fine arts, language and literature. Pierre Prévost includes extra material not in the original English edition of 1795, notably a translation of Smith's 'Letter to the Authors of the Edinburgh Review' – the author's second work – first published in 1755. Jessop, p. 172; Vanderblue, p. 44. 'The compact text [here pp. 272-98] which has received surprisingly little scholarly attention, offers valuable insight into Smith's work and career, and not merely because it confirms that Smith was an unusually widely-read man of letters long before he was the retrospectively anointed founder of the discipline of economics, though it does that. Indeed, the thirty-two-year-old writer presumes to pass judgment on the writing and learning of Europe as a whole and specifically assesses the only recently published work of Rousseau, the Encyclopédie project still in progress, and the work of Réaumur, Buffon, and Daubenton, Descartes, Newton, and others. Smith delineates a space of learning that is at once Scottish, British, and European, mapping out a set of relations of complex rivalry between France, England, and Scotland in order to articulate and advocate a cosmopolitan patriotism. He suggests that while England occupied a pre-eminent position in learning in the past, France does so in the present, and Scotland is in a position to do so in the near future, if it is properly incited' (Jeffrey Lomonaco, Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 63, No. 4, 2002, p. 659).

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The definitive French translation of The Theory of Moral Sentiments 23. SMITH, Adam Théorie des sentimens moraux ... suivi d'une dissertation sur l'origine des langues. Traduit d'anglais, sur la septième et dernière édition, par S. Grouchy Ve. Condorcet. Elle y a joint huit lettres sur la sympathie. Paris: F. Buisson, 1798. £ 975

2 volumes, 8vo, viii, 466; [iv], 511 pp., contemporary tree calf, spines decorated gilt in compartments with red and green morocco labels, rubbed and with slight loss to spine ends of second volume, decorative endpapers, title-pages with library stamp, some sections with uniform light browning, elsewhere scattered light foxing and isolated spots, one leaf with a closed tear in lower margin (Vol. 1, Ff8), overall a very good copy. First edition. Jessop, p. 171; Vanderblue, p. 41. 'Sophie de Grouchy's translation was not the first attempt to spread Smith's moral philosophy across France. However, the previous two French translations had not met with success. The first, by Marc-Antoine Eidous and entitled Métaphysique de l’âme (1764), was unanimously criticized for its poor quality. Smith himself held it responsible for the poor reception of his work across the Channel. The second translation (1774–45) by Jean-Louis Blavet was also considered mediocre and does not seem to have been widely distributed. In stark contrast, Grouchy's translation was praised for its accuracy from the moment it was published. It was so successful that it has been viewed for two centuries as the definitive French translation of the TMS. Grouchy is even sometimes considered “Smith's best-known contemporary translator”. Its intrinsic qualities apart, the enduring success of Grouchy's translation might be attributed to three others factors. The most obvious of these is the celebrity of Sophie and her husband, Nicolas de Condorcet, as a couple. Their salon, attended by many French philosophers and foreign visitors, was one of the most prominent and progressive in Paris from 1786 until the Reign of Terror. Next, Grouchy's was the first translation into French of the definitive version of Smith's moral philosophy. She translated the posthumous seventh edition of the TMS, which was identical to the sixth edition published in 1790 and the last published during Smith's lifetime and in which he had made substantial revisions and additions. Lastly, and most importantly, Grouchy's work is more than a mere translation since she added a critical commentary on Smith's analysis written in epistolary style and entitled Lettres sur la sympathie. This critical commentary is composed of eight letters addressed to an anonymous “Mon cher C***”, who was presumably her stepbrother, the physiologist and philosopher Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis. Thus, Grouchy deserves attention from academics not only for her translation of the TMS but also for her own scholarly and philosophical contribution' (Laurie Bréban, Jean Dellemotte, From one form of Sympathy to another: Sophie de Grouchy’s translation of and commentary on Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments, History of Political Economy (2017) 49 (4): 667-707). 24. WATTS, Isaac Evangelische Reden über allerhand Materien, Benebst einem Versuch über die Kräfte und dem Kampf des Fleisches und des Geistes. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt Und mit einer Warnungs-Predigt bey Gelegenheit eines betrübten Trauerfalls herausgegeben von Johann Gebhard Pfeil, erwehlten und verordneten Prediger bey der St. Nicolai Kirche in der Neustadt Magdeburg. Gotha: Christian Mevius, 1749. £ 400 8vo, (xxx), 452, 44, (16) pp. including the engraved portrait, title-page printed in red and black, a clean copy in contemporary calf, spine gilt partly rubbed away, label chipped, cracks at ends of joints, but generally sound. First edition in German of Isaac Watts's Evangelical Discourses, originally published in London two years earlier. Many of Watts's works were translated into German, the first of them as early as 1729. Cf. Price and Price, 'The Publication of English Humaniora in Germany in the Eighteenth Century' (he was unaware of this first edition, noting only one published in Gotha in 1761). Three copies located on WorldCat (all of them in Europe).

25. WEISSE, Christian Hermann Die philosophische Geheimlehre von der Unsterblichkeit des menschlichen Individuums. Dresden: R. & W. Kori [1834]. £ 450 8vo, [ii], 92, [1] pp., contemporary embossed green cloth, spine ruled and lettered in gilt, internally clean, a very good copy. Rare first edition. Ziegenfuß II, 852. The Leipzig professor C.H. Weisse (1801-66) began as a Hegelian but later transferred his philosophical allegience to Schelling and Franz von Baader. Weisse was a contributor to I.H. Fichte's Zeitschrift für Philosophie und spekulative Theologie. He was also an important biblical scholar, and the first to propose the "two-source solution" (i.e. the Gospel of Mark and 'Q') to the synoptic problem.

26. WOLLSTONECRAFT, Mary Rettung der Rechte des Weibes mit Bemerkungen über politische und moralische Gegenstände. Aus dem Englischen übersetzt. Mit einigen Anmerkungen von Christian Gotthilf Salzmann. Schnepfenthal: in Verlags der Erziehungsanstalt, 1793-4. £ 2800 2 volumes, 12mo, xx, [iv], 336; vi, 393 pp., contemporary half calf, spines gilt-ruled, sides rubbed, spine labels missing, worming in lower margins of vol. II, mostly limited to a single hole in the extreme inner margin, but extending into the lower part of the text in the last forty leaves, some waterstaining, mainly confined to the margins but affecting text on a few leaves in vol. I. First German edition of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). The translator was G.F.C. Weissenborn, but the work was published and edited by Christian Gotthilf Salzmann (1744–1811), founder of the Schnepfenthal institution, a school dedicated to progressive modes of education derived chiefly from the ideas of Rousseau. His main book was Moralisches Elementarbuch. This 'domestic history' whose episodes were designed for the instruction of both children and parents, first came to the attention of Mary Wollstonecraft in 1789. Finding Salzmann's views very close to those which were then developing in her own mind, she secured a German grammar, and set about producing an English version, which duly appeared in two volumes in 1790 as Elements of Morality. No correspondence survives between Salzmann and Wollstonecraft, but it has long been recognised that Salzmann was pleased by the English text. He subsequently published this translation of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, with a preface and notes; he also produced a German version of Godwin's Memoirs. Exceedingly uncommon. Windle A5v.

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