Amsterdam: Aux Depens de la Compagnie, 1767. Early printing, same year as the first. Small octavo (17 cm), untrimmed, in later quarter tan calf and marbled boards spine with raised bands, gilt title. pp viii, (190), [2, blank]. Tanning to the page edges, creases to one leaf near middle; else fine externally and internally. Contains an author preface. Pages 1-149 contain the novel BÉLISIARE, which is based on the life of the Byzantine general Flavius Belisarius; pages 151-89 contain his "Fragmens de philosophie morale"'; the last page contains"Vers sur la condemnation de Bélisaire projettée en Sorbonne". The famous plea for religious tolerance in Chapter XV brought on the condemnation of the Sorbonne and the Archbishop of Paris, all but ensuring the book's success. "Bélisaire is a banned 1767 French novel on the life of the Byzantine general Belisarius by Jean-François Marmontel. It popularised the apochryphal tale of his being reduced to beggary by Justinian I despite his great services to the empire, citing it as an example of the ingratitude of those in power towards their faithful servants and indicting the French king Louis XV by proxy as another such ungrateful monarch." - Wikipedia. Marmontel's contributions to the great Encyclopédie, collected as Eléments de Littérature, is still considered a classic of French literature. "John Ruskin named him as one of the three people in history who were the most influential for him. In his autobiography, John Stuart Mill credits Memoires d'un père with curing him of depression." - Wikipedia. A nice copy of this French classic.

Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus, 1839. 16mo. [4], 194 pp, including half-title leaf. Bound with: [Klopstock, Friedrich Gottlieb, 1724-1803]. Kurzer Briefwechsel zwischen Klopstock und Goethe im Jahre 1776. Leipzig : [s.n.], 1833. 12 pp. Quarter bound in old quarter calf and marbled boards, marbled page edges. Lacking the spine entirely; brown spots to corners of endpapers from binding materials; text has foxing; VG and unworn otherwise, text block tight in the binding. This was American poet JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL'S COPY, with his ink signature ("J.R. Lowell") on front pastedown and his ink note on the free endpaper giving a short title of each of the two collections of Goethe's letters bound together here. Ink inscription at top of half-title leaf of Francis Lowell Burnett, M.D., Elmwood, 1912. There is a small pencil note to the fore margin of page 63 (in J.R. Lowell's hand?) "See next page where the gander gets another kind of sauce." There is a book on Goethe's influence on Lowell (George Wurfl, Lowell's Debt to Goethe: A Study of Literary Influence .State College, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State College Studies, 1954).

No place (Rouen): No publisher, 1759. Rouen edition. 12mo, 16cm, pp (215) (including 3 page Table at rear, last page numbered 315), bound in modern marbled paper with leather spine label, red page edges. Scattered light foxing, but text is VG+, unworn. Page 195 numbered 105, last signature using smaller type. See Begesco 1441. The earliest edition was printed clandestinely (as were all the early editions) in Geneva by Cramer (299 pp, only perhaps a dozen known copies of the true first). CANDIDE was published more or less simultaneously in five countries no later than 15 Jan., 1759. Eighteen 1759 French language editions are known today. PMM 204. This famous satire on religious and philosophical (Leibnitz) optimism is Voltaire's best-known work, one of the most famous of the French Enlightenment, and a widely read classic of world literature even today.

No place (London): No publisher (Printed by John Darby), 1727. Fourth edition (first was in 1711). Three volumes. pp (6), iv, 364, including frontispiece portrait and collective title with engraved vignette by Simon Gribelin; 443; (4), 391, [1], (54, Index). Each volume has a separate title leaf. Engraved Gribelin headpieces. Old brown calf sides, period 20th century rebacking with raised bands, labels, gilt ornament. On each front pastedown is the armorial bookplate of Samuel Allen (motto "Dum vivo, spero") and small circular label of Battle Abbey (ruined abbey on the site of the Battle of Hastings); in the top margin of each front free endpaper is the 1960 ownership inscription of Robert A. Fenn, of London; Volumes 1 & 2 have the bookplate of M.P. Grace. Partial cracks to some inner hinges but all quite firm, endpaper tanning and foxing, in all a VG+ set, text clean, tight, and unworn, externally quite attractive. A nice set of one of the most influential philosophical books of the 18th century in England and elsewhere, the work uses the phrase "moral sense" for the first time and it was a foundational text for the Scottish school of ethical philosophy. 2.5 kg parcel.

London: Chatto & Windus, 1892, 1894. Two volumes. Quarter bound in white parchment and greyish boards. First series : pp (4), 261, [3] + frontispiece portrait and 6 other engraved plates with tissue guards. #125 of the large paper illustrated edition of 250 copies, signed by the author. Spine darkened and a bit rubbed; some wear to outer corners of boards; creased corner bump to front cover; mild soiling to the boards; yellowing to page edges and endpapers; VG otherwise, internally fine. Second series: Quarter bound in white parchment and tan boards. pp [2], (2), xii, 300 + frontispiece and 5 other engravings with tissue guards. #18 of 200 copies of this large paper illustrated edition. Spine darkened and a bit rubbed; some wear to outer corners of boards; mild soiling to the boards; yellowing to page edges and endpapers; VG otherwise, internally fine. Both printed at the Chiswick Press. 2.3 kg parcel

London: John Baker, 1715. Second edition, with a new editor's Preface (first was in 1710). Two volumes in one, each with a title leaf. 12mo, pp (xii), 312; (ii), 209. Bound in old calf. Some spine lettering flaked away; joints and hinges repaired with rice paper; VG copy otherwise, no tight in the binding, no owner names. ESTC T132411. Foxon W208. "He had been brought up as a presbyterian or Calvinist, but his studies in theological controversy induced him to join the Roman catholic church. Subsequently he travelled in France and Italy. At Rome he accepted a commission in the pope's guards, and he remained in the service for five or six years, during which time he served in the maritime war against the Turks. In 1685 he returned to England. He took a leading part in the controversy of 1687-8, as a 'Roman catholick soldier;' but Dr. Tillotson believed he was really a jesuit in disguise, while Henry Wharton assured the public that the soldier was originally a Cambridge scholar, and had exchanged his black coat for a red one." - DNB. The work, left unfinished, was a burlesque modelled on Butler's HUDIBRAS.

London: Printed for the author, at J. Johnson's, 1798 , 1805. Two volumes. Part I, 1798, Part II, 1805. Second edition of Part I, first edition of Part II. pp (6), 534 + frontispiece by W. Sharp + plate at p 454; (8), (532), index. Contemporary tan calf, spines with raised bands, two label, gilt ornament to the compartments. Some uneven sunning and minor scuffing to covers; bit of wear to joints; each volume neatly repaired to the inner hinges with archival cloth tape. Vol. I has the shadow of a label removal inside front cover and slight foxing to the frontispiece and title page. In all, VG externally, internally clean, fresh, fine, now sound in the bindings. ESTC T32791 >>> Tooke was an English clergyman, radical politician, and philologist, was " one of the most effective English agitators for parliamentary reform and freedom of dissent in the late 18th century. He attacked the powerful Whig magnates but stopped short of advocating democracy."- EB. He agitated for parliamentary reform and self-government for the American colonies (which landed him a prison term). An enthusiastic philologist, he was among the first to regard language as a product of historical development rather than as a fixed structure." - EB. The Diversions of Purley "is a treatise on etymology: the author contending that in all languages there are but two sorts of words necessary for the communication of thought, viz., nouns and verbs; that all the other so-called parts of speech are but abbreviations of these, and are 'the wheels of the vehicle language.' He asserts also that there are no indefinable words, but that every word, in all languages, has a meaning of its own. To prove this, he traces many conjunctions, prepositions, adverbs, etc., back to their source as comparisons or contractions; accounting for their present form by the assertion that 'abbreviation and corruption are always busiest with the words most frequently in use; letters, like soldiers, being very apt to desert and drop off in a long march'. Throughout the work, the author constantly refers to his imprisonment and trial, introducing sentences for dissection which express his political opinions, and words to be treated etymologically which describe the moral or physical defects of his enemies." - Bartleby. A third volume was contemplated but never finiished. Today his philology is regarded as eccentric and misguided. 4 kg parcel, extra shipping will be required.

New York: Jonathan Cape & Harrison Smith, 1930. Tall octavo. Original blue cloth spine gilt lettered and decorated boards (Art Deco design) printed in blue, black and gilt, top edges gilt, other edges. pp (xxii), 262 + 6 mounted woodcuts. Edition of 501 numbered copies (490 for sale), signed by the translator, this is #396. As well, the frontispiece is signed by Lynd Ward in pencil below the image. Spine a bit sunned; plates have tan spots at corners from glue used to tip them in, as always; else a fine copy, original glassine wrapper present (small tear at head of spine, creases to fore margin of front panel and front flap), no owner names, hinges not cracked. The original decorated card slipcase (no lettering, same Deco design as covers and endpapers) has repaired splits to edges, small chip to fore edge of top side; wear to bottom side; just good. A most handsome edition of one of the great classics of world literature. 1.5 kg parcel