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647C Malebranche, Nicolas. (1638-1715) Father
Malebranche his Treatise Concerning the Search After Truth. The Whole
Work Complete. To which
is added the author’s Treatise of Nature and Grace: being a consequence
of the principles contained in the search. Together with his answer
to the animadversions upon the first volume: his defence against the
accusations of Monsieur De la Ville, &c. relating to the same subject.
All translated by T. Taylor, M.A. Late of Magdalen College in Oxford.
The second edition, corrected with great exactness. With the addition,
of A Short Discourse Upon Light and Colours, by the same author. Communicated
in manuscript to a person of quality in England: and never before printed
in any language.
London: Printed by W. Bowyer, for Thomas Bennet
at the Half-Moon, and T. Leigh and W. Midwinter at the Rose and Crown,
in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1700
$2,500 Folio, 13.6 x 9 in. Second edition of the
Taylor translation. a4, ¶2,
B-Z2, Aa-Uu2, (a)-(b)2, A-Z2, Aa-Xx2, Yy3, Aa2, A-K2. The text contains
printed diagrams. This copy is bound in handsome, blind tooled seventeenth
century English boards which have been recently rebacked and recornered.
The contents are lightly dampstained at the fore edge, with scattered
spotting.
“Malebranche, a French metaphysical philosopher of great eminence, was
a zealous Cartesian in philosophy, which was his favorite study. In 1674 he produced
the first volume of his admirable and original Search for Truth, (Recherche de
la Verité,) which was quickly and highly appreciated. New and enlarged
editions of it rapidly followed. The general design of this work is to demonstrate
the harmony of the Cartesian philosophy with revealed religion. His style is
eminently pure, perspicuous, and elegant, having, says Fontenelle, ‘all
the dignity which the subject requires, and all the grace or ornament which it
could properly receive.’
“He was a warm and almost enthusiastic admirer of Descartes, but his mind
was independent, searching, and fond of its own inventions; he acknowledged no
master, and in some points dissents from the Cartesian school. […] The
fame of Malebranche, and still more, the popularity in modern times of his Search
for Truth have been affected by that peculiar hypothesis, so mystically expressed,
the seeing all things in God, which has been more remembered than any other part
of that treatise.
“He bears a striking resemblance to his contemporary Pascal. Both of ardent
minds, endowed with strong imagination and lively wit, a sarcastic, severe, fearless,
disdainful of popular opinion and accredited reputations. […] But in Malebranche
there is a less overpowering sense of religion; his eye roams unblenched in the
light before which that of Pascal had been veiled in awe. He has less energy,
but more copiousness and variety.” (Hallam)
“This ingenious philosopher and beautiful writer,” writes Mackintosh, “is
the only celebrated Cartesian who has professedly handled the Theory of Morals.
[…] The manner in which he applied his principles to the particulars of
human duty is excellent. He is perhaps the first philosopher who has precisely
laid down, and rigidly adhered to, the great principle that virtue consists in
pure intentions and dispositions of mind, without which actions, however conformable
to rules, are not truly moral.” (Thomas)
Wing M-318; ESTCR 3403.
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