HELVETIUS Claude Adrien De l’Esprit.

Smith, pp. 121-127.

First edition, second issue.

One of the key books of materialist thought, “a furious blow to prejudice” (Diderot). It was seized and condemned to be burnt as soon as it was published. De l’esprit was a huge scandal: dedicated to the royal family, the work was rejected by them, and on 10 August, shortly after publication, the privilege granted on 12 May 1758 was revoked. Helvétius’s book broke down “the last theological barriers in which the sensualism of Locke, and also that of Condillac, was still enclosed. With Helvétius, eighteenth-century French materialism took one of its most systematic and absolute forms and resolutely replaced the idealist myth, which holds that ideas govern the world and mankind, with the materialist principle, which holds that man will be transformed by transforming the environment that formed him” (see : Dict. des œuvres).

Bound with : a – Portrait of Helvétius engraved by Saint-Aubin after Vanloo in 1775. b – Éloge de M. Helvétius [par F.-J. de Chastellux. No place, no name, [1774], 28 pp. (missing title). Both items have been window-mounted at the time of binding. c – Censure de la Faculté de Théologie de Paris, contre un livre qui a pour titre, De l’esprit. Paris, J.-B. Garnier, 1759. 79 pp. d – Arrest de la cour de Parlement, portant condamnation de plusieurs Livres & autres Ouvrages imprimés. Extrait des registres de Parlement. Du 23 Janvier 1759. [Paris, P.G. Simon, 1759], 31 pp. The condamnation of De l’esprit is mentioned on p. 29. e – Arrest du Conseil d’État du Roy, rendu au sujet du Privilège ci-devant accordé pour l’impression de l’Ouvrage intitulé, De l’esprit. Du 10 Août 1758. [Paris, Claude Girard, no date.], 2 pp. f – Lettre au Révérend Père *** Jésuite [by Helvétius]. No place, no date. 4 pp. Apologies by Helvétius au to father Berthier or, according to toher sources, to father Pleix.

Fine, broad margined copy.