Collins, Anthony

Paradoxes Métaphysiques sur le Principe des Actions Humaines

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A Eleutheropolis 1756 Ou Traduction Libre de la Dissertation Philosophique de M. Collins, sur la Liberté de l'Homme. Nouvelle Edition, Augmentée d'une Lettre Apologétique du Traducteur, à l'Auteur des Memoires de Trevoux, sur un Article (110) de ce Journal, mois d'Octobre 1755. II. Vol. pag. 2623 & suiv. 12mo. [168 x 92 x 21 mm]. [5], 3-16, ix, 233, [1]blank, 24 pp. Contemporary French binding of green goatskin, the covers tooled in gilt with a triple fillet, inlaid red goatskin cornerpieces and a lozenge shaped centrepiece, tooled with various scrolls, fleurons, circles etc. and outlined with gouges. The spine divided into six panels with gilt compartments, lettered in the second panel, the others tooled with a flower and sprigs, the edges of the boards tooled with a gilt fillet and the turn-ins with a gilt roll, marbled endleaves, gilt edges. This translation of Collins's "A Philosphical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty", by Pierre Lefèvre de Beauvray was previously published in "Eleutheropolis" in 1754. This edition is the first to include the "Lettre Apologetique" which appears at the end, with a separate title-page and collation. OCLC locates only one copy of this edition, at the University of Michigan, and it is not in the British Library. The imprint is, of course, fictitious, though Eleutheropolis was an ancient city of Palestine. The name appears in other works which were actually published in Oxford (1688), Leipzig or Hamburg (1769), Aix (1773, 1790 and 1791), Paris (1789), Copenhagen (1790) and Edinburgh (1791). This work was probably printed in Paris, though Aix is a possibility. This copy is in an attractive and rather unusual French mosaic binding. It may be provincial as it lacks the refinement of the top Parisian products of the period. The leather is slightly lifting around the corners and centres where it has been cut to accomodate the red inlays and the tooling is a little uncertain. Anthony Collins (1676-1729) the English deist, freethinker, theologian, philosopher and friend of John Locke made his reputation through a series of publications, all of which appeared anonymously though most sophisticated readers were aware of the author's identity. His "Philosophical Inquiry" (1715) and "Dissertation on Liberty and Necessity" (1729) constitute a powerful statement of the doctrine of "Necessitarianism" (the theory that results follow by invariable sequence from cause).

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