“THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE IS A GOOD, TO WHICH ALL MEN HAVE AN EQUAL RIGHT… THIS NEWTON HAS DONE FOR THEM”: FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH OF VOLTAIRE'S ELEMENTS OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S PHILOSOPHY, PUBLISHED SOON AFTER NEWTON'S DEATH, IN CONTEMPORARY CALF BOARDS

(NEWTON, Isaac) VOLTAIRE. The Elements of Sir Isaac Newton's Philosophy. London: Stephen Austen, 1738. Octavo (measures 5-1/4 by 8 inches), contemporary speckled brown calf rebacked, raised bands, red morocco spine label.

First edition in English, published the same year as the French edition, of Voltaire's groundbreaking work that united two of the greatest minds of the Enlightenment, offering a clear analysis of Newton’s work, "as well as his underlying philosophy of science” and his theory of gravity, the work that established Voltaire as a pioneer in “the modern discipline in the history of science,” with eleven plates on eight folding sheets, in contemporary calf boards.

"Voltaire witnessed the beginnings of the scientific revolution brought about by the impact of Newton's work… [and] played a key role in spreading knowledge of Newton" (Cambridge Companion, 48). This work unites two of the greatest minds of the Enlightenment, Newton and Voltaire, whose "importance for the history of science lies particularly in his having composed… Èléments." To many it established Voltaire as the "earliest exponent of the modern discipline of the history of science… One of the greatest compliments to Voltaire's work was its immediate translation and publication in England" the same year (Aldridge, Voltaire, 109). While exiled in England in the 1720s, Voltaire recognized the immense philosophical and scientific implications of Newton's genius, and saw "that Newton had shifted reason onto a new plane" (Silver, Ascent of Science, 55-6). "For Voltaire, Newton's scientific approach was just as revolutionary as political liberalism. It asserted that scientific truth had to be derived from observation and measurement of the physical world and that theories about the material world should be based on these measurable observations" (Oates, Encyclopedia of World Scientists, 135).

Here Voltaire presents an extensive analysis of "Newton's work, particularly the Opticks (1704), as well as his underlying philosophy of science" and his theory of gravity (Schofield, Leadership or Chaos, ix). Before Voltaire, "France was under the 'spell' of Descartes' system… Newton's system, by contrast, 'provided a trustworthy instrument for predicting the motions of the planets… [and] led to the general decline of the Cartesian system and its total replacement by that of Newton'" (Barber cited in Shank, Newton Wars, 34). By 1750 "France had been converted from backward, erroneous Cartesianism to modern, Enlightened Newtonianism thanks to the heroic intellectual efforts of figures like Voltaire" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Newton's principles had "a profound effect on Voltaire's thought. They encouraged him to beware of theories and hypotheses unsupported by observation and experimentation, and his treatment of Bacon and Newton greatly helped to establish the preeminence of empirical philosophy in 18th-century French thought. Also, Newton's laws of gravitation inspired in Voltaire an abiding awe of the majesty of the heavens… The earliest expression of Voltaire's mystical sense of cosmic awe occurs in the dedicatory poem of the Elements" (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Voltaire is also credited with offering one of the very first accounts in print of the story of Newton's apple in his Essay on Epick Poetry (1727). Complete with all eleven plates on eight folding sheets and numerous in-text illustrations. "The plates labeled for pages 98, 114, 130 and 142 (two figures thus labeled) were printed on a single sheet [see page 356 ]. This may be variously separated in different copies, giving plate counts ranging from eight to eleven" (Huntington Library). Translated from the French first edition, issued earlier that same year; "revised and corrected by John Hanna." Three pages of publisher's advertisements at rear. Babson 121. Wallis 157. Penciled owner signature, faint occasional marginalia, small annotations.

Text and plates very fresh and clean, lightest edge-wear to boards. A highly desirable about-fine copy.