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111 MESLIER, Jean. Le Testament de Jean Meslier, Curé d’Étrepigny et de But en Champagne, décédé en 1733. Amsterdam: R. C. Meijer, 1864 The vanity and falsity of all religions – one of the first explicitly atheistic writings in a Christian context First complete edition of Meslier’s Testament , “the most singular phenomenon ever seen among all the meteors fatal to the Christian religion” (Voltaire). Jean Meslier (1664–1729), a Catholic country priest from the Champagne-Ardenne region of France, lived a relatively uneventful life. After his death, three copies of a 633-page manuscript in his handwriting were found in his house. Entitled Mémoire des Pensées et Sentiments de J[ean] M[eslier] Cu[ré] d’Estrep[igny] et de Bal[aives], text refutes everything he had spent a lifetime preaching and is one of the first explicitly atheistic writings in a Christian context. The three copies were sent to French officials, most notably to Germain Louis Chauvelin, the Keeper of the Seals, and before long there were more than 100 manuscript copies in Paris, selling for 10 Louis apiece, of which a dozen examples survive. Voltaire published extracts of the Mémoire in 1762 under the title Extrait des Sentiments de Jean Meslier , later re-titled Testament du Curé Meslier . The Mémoire was first published in its entirety in 1864, again in 1970, and finally in English translation in 2009.In his text Meslier lists eight “proofs of the vanity and falsity of all Religions”. It is addressed to his parishioners, whom he saw as ruthlessly exploited by the established orders of the church, monarchy and nobility. The humble priest, whom Anacharsis Cloots described at the time of the French Revolution as the first abjuring churchman, also explains that he did not have the temperament to face the “indignation of priests and the
cruelty of tyrants” had he spoken his mind during his lifetime. Had he done so his fate may well have been similar to his contemporary Thomas Woolston (1668–1733), an Anglican theologian who expressed similar views and died in captivity. As Diderot wrote, almost fifty years after Meslier’s death, in his Essay on Seneca : “One only thinks, one only speaks with force from one’s grave. It is there that one must be, it is from there that one must address men.” 3 volumes, octavo (222 × 136 mm). Contemporary half cloth and marbled boards, spines lettered gilt. Contemporary ownership inscription to each half-title. Spine ends and extremities very lightly rubbed, endpapers tanned, affecting first and last text leaves of each volume, and one opening tanned from inserted paper (no longer present); a very good copy. £2,250 [148810] 112 MILL, John Stuart. On Liberty. London: John W. Parker and Son, 1859 The manifesto of liberty, in the original cloth First edition of the greatest manifesto of liberty and individualism, a defining text of both classical and modern liberalism, advocating the complete freedom of the individual save where necessarily restricted to prevent harm, and establishing the personal rights of the individual which neither government nor a democratic majority can overrule. The work is increasingly scarce unrestored in the original cloth. The work “has been viewed by posterity as the kernel of [Mill’s] social philosophy” ( ODNB ). “Many of Mill’s ideas are now the commonplaces of democracy. His arguments for freedom of every kind of thought and speech have never been improved on. He was the first to recognize the
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