
FREE-THINKING
“Ignorance
is the Foundation
of Atheism,
& Freethinking
the Cure”
Collins, Anthony. A discourse of free-thinking, occasion'd by the rise and growth of a sect call'd Free-thinkers. London: 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.8"). 178, iii–vi pp.
$950.00
First edition, early issue of a controversial work that spawned an extensive debate. The author, a close friend of John Locke and of freethinkers John Toland and Matthew Tindal, was a Cambridge-educated philosopher who, despite the furor over his writings, was acknowledged by his contemporaries as “an amiable and upright man . . . [who] made all readers welcome to the use of a free library” (DNB). His Discourse, an argument in favor of individual logical assessment of Christian doctrine and other beliefs, brought forth vigorous rebuttals by Richard Bentley, George Berkeley, Jonathan Swift, and others, but remains
a landmark work of
rationalistic religion. Opinions continue to vary, even in modern criticism, regarding whether Collins's work promoted deism or atheism; he himself claimed that increased independent critical thinking was responsible for the decline in belief in witchcraft.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
This copy has the two preliminary leaves bound in at the back (mispaginated as vi as seen in most copies) , but it is lacking the final advertisement leaf. The catchword on p. 7 is “allow'd.”
ESTC T31966; Allibone 411–12. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand and with very elegant institutional pressure-stamp; title-page verso with shadows of pencilled numerals, first text page with inked numeral in lower margin. Final advertisement leaf lacking. Light offsetting and faint spotting (mostly confined to margins), pages otherwise clean. (20740)
[Collins,
Anthony]. A philosophical
inquiry concerning human liberty. The second edition corrected. London: R. Robinson,
1717. 8vo (18.8 cm, 7.375"). [1] f., vi pp., [1] f., 118 pp.
$800.00
Anthony Collins (1676–1729) was a deist, determinist, and
follower of Locke, who for all the fire of his anti-Christian polemic, was noted
to be “an amiable and upright man, and to have made all readers welcome
to the use of a free library” (DNB). His Philosophy Inquiry
Concerning Human Liberty, first published in 1717, is an ably argued case
for faith in reason and the exercise of it. This is the second edition, of the
same year—“corrected” and simply printed with a woodcut vignette
and tailpiece.
ESTC T134533. On Anthony Collins, see: The Dictionary of
National Biography, XI, 363–64. In recent blue-green wrappers; ex-library
with stamps, including a very, very faint one on title-page. Uncut;
traces of soiling in top margins, and occasional light ink-stains elsewhere.



Defending the Immortality of the Soul
&
also the Necessity of a Revealed Religion
Anonymous. Free thoughts upon the discourse of free-thinking. London: John Pemberton, 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.8"). [4], 68 pp.
$400.00
First edition of this anonymously published, unattributed response to Anthony Collins's Discourse of Free-thinking. That controversial treatise, the groundbreaking work of the 17th- and 18th-century English Freethought movement, inspired numerous rebuttals, with the present item being one of the less commonly seen replies.
ESTC T96164. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages slightly age-toned, else clean. (20770)
“Remarks” — A Reply
Bentley, Richard. Remarks upon a late discourse of free-thinking: In a letter to F.H. D.D. by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. London: John Morphew, 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). [2], [3]–85, [1(blank)] pp. (57/58 omitted in pagination).
$750.00


First edition of one of the best-known responses to Anthony Collins's landmark Discourse of Free-Thinking. Bentley's Remarks was considered a crushing rebuttal of Collins's treatise, and of deism as interpreted in the Discourse; the DNB says “Bentley destroyed any pretensions of Collins to thorough scholarship, exposed many gross blunders, and claimed Collins's principle of free inquiry as his own and that of all the orthodox believers.”
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
ESTC T53380. On Bentley's response to Collins, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand, dedication with dedicatee's name (Francis Hare) inked in the same hand. Title-page with two spots of light staining; pages otherwise clean, with a very few early inked marginalia. (20745)

This Classicist
Crushes
Collins?
Bentley, Richard. Remarks upon a late discourse of free-thinking: In a letter to F.H. D.D. by Phileleutherus Lipsiensis. Part the second. London: John Morphew & E. Curl, 1713. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). [4], 82, [2] pp.
$750.00


First edition of the second portion of one of the best-known responses to Anthony Collins's landmark Discourse of Free-Thinking. Bentley here takes up where he left off in the first part of the Remarks (considered a crushing rebuttal of Collins's treatise, and of deism as interpreted in the Discourse), moving on to assess many of the citations and classical references from p. 90
onwards of Collins's work. Writers whose words Bentley feels Collins misrepresented include Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Plutarch, Cato, and Cicero.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
ESTC T53381. On Bentley's response to Collins, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Faint crease lines occasionally visible, pages otherwise clean. (20751)

Written While Living in Rhode Island & Drawing Its Landscape
Berkeley, George. Alciphron: Or, the minute philosopher. In seven dialogues. Containing an apology for the Christian religion, against whose who are called free-thinkers. London: J. Tonson, 1732. 8vo. 2 vols. I: [6] ff., 350 pp. II: [4] ff., 358 pp.
$875.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First edition; a second was published the same year. Includes “An essay towards a new theory of vision. First published in the year MDCCIX,” with a separate title-page, in vol. II, on pp. [211]–358.
Presented here is Berkeley's defense of revealed religion: It ranks as a major example of English literature and of American literature too, for he wrote it while living in America waiting for money for his projected university in Bermuda. “Alciphron, a set of dialogues located notionally in England, but drawing much of the landscape description from Rhode Island,” sold well and aroused controversy after his return to Britain. The New Theory of Vision is “a work of lasting importance in the psychology of perception[; it] was transitional between Berkeley's already informed interests in mathematics and natural philosophy and a growing independence of mind in
metaphysics and epistemology” (both quotations from DNB on-line).
Each volume's main title-page bears an emblematic engraved vignette with a Biblical and a classical motto beneath; the text is embellished with a few nicely engraved initials, headers, and tailpieces; and of course “Vision” offers its several diagrams.
Provenance: “A. Thorpe – York” inscribed on title-pages.
ESTC T86056; NCBEL, II, 1852. Not in European Americana. Contemporary sheep, spines with raised bands and gilt-stamped red leather labels; covers framed and paneled in blind-stamped triple fillets with blind-stamped corner fleurons; all edges red. Leather rubbed with some loss to corners, edges, turn-ins; vol. I with pulls at both spine extremities, small gouge to front cover, front joint
opening with cover almost off. Old institutional bookplates and rubber-stamp to pastedowns, title-pages, and lower edges of closed volumes; ink ownership signature to title-pages as above and a few additional ink and pencil marks; some very scattered spots or staining with pages generally clean. (21366)
Prophecy
& Fulfillment
Set forth to Confute
Deism
Bible.
English. Selections. 1810. Selection of Old
Testament prophecies, concerning the Messiah, coupled with their fulfillment
in the New; exhibiting the solid foundation of the believer's hope, and the
best arguments for opposing the blasphemies of Deism. Boston: Pr. by Lincoln
& Edmands, 1810. 12mo. 12 pp.
$100.00
Click
the image for an enlargement.
A compilation of quotes from the Old Testament coupled with verses illustrating their
New Testament antitypes, and ending with a hymn.
Shaw & Shoemaker 19538.
Good. Removed from a nonce volume. Lightly browned with worming to title-page,
touching, but not obscuring, letters. (1170)
Credulity Superstition “Charming”
Blakeman, Rufus. A philosophical essay on credulity and superstition; and also on animal fascination, or charming. New York: D. Appleton & Co.; New Haven: S. Babcock, 1849. 12mo. 206, [6 (blank)], [36 (adv.)] pp.
[SOLD]
First edition: Rational debunking of various unscientific beliefs (including faith in patent medicines), written by a physician and president of Fairfield County Medical Association, Greenfield, Connecticut.
Click the images for enlargements.
Publisher's embossed cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; spine extremities chipped, corners slightly rubbed. Ex-library: Spine with faint trace of inked call number, front pastedown with bookplate, title-page rubber-stamped, preface with inked numeral. Front pastedown with early inked presentation inscription. Pages
slightly age-toned. (20069)
Charron, Pierre. De la sagesse. Paris: Jean-François Bastien, 1783. 8vo (20 cm, 7.9"). Frontis., xviii, 768 pp.; 1 plt. (damaged/censored).
$250.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Later printing of Charron’s final work, a philosophical treatise
which was first published in 1601 and which was strongly connected to Montaigne’s
essays. Although the author was a Catholic priest widely acclaimed for skillful
preaching, he and La Sagesse came under bitter attack by the clergy when
the work first appeared, on the grounds of its promoting skepticism and free
thinking.
This
particular copy seems to have incurred someone’s personal wrath, as the
plate illustrating the allegory of Wisdom has had its central (nude) female
figure excised. The much more staid frontispiece
portrait of the author, done by Pruneau, is undamaged.
Contemporary mottled calf framed in triple gilt fillets, spine
gilt extra, all page edges marbled; binding with expectable acid-pitting and
minor cracking of the leather over the spine and joints. One (and only one)
signature foxed, leaves otherwise clean. A handsome book, defaced in a way
that is depressing but also interesting.
Darrell, William. The gentleman instructed, in the conduct of a virtuous and happy life ... the fifth edition. London: Pr. by J. Heptinstall for E. Smith, 1713. 8vo (19.5 cm, 7.7"). [22], 94, cxxvi, [2], 97–456 pp.
$300.00
Fifth edition, following the first of 1704, “To which is
added, A Word to the ladies,
by way of Supplement to the First Part.” Darrell (1651–1721) was
a Jesuit professor who taught moral philosophy at the college at St. Omer and
at Liège; his advice for gentlemen and gentlewomen on leading suitably
pious lives is written in energetic and contemporary, but distinctly conservative
style, and
includes
“a full Confutation of atheism and Latitudinarianism.”
Each portion has a separate title-page; the signature marks would seem to
indicate a main half-title not present here, but ESTC’s collation does
not call for one. The work is sometimes attributed to George Hickes, whose
name appears after the dedication.
ESTC T108841; DeBacker-Sommervogel, II, 1828 (for first ed.).
Contemporary mottled sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; rubbed
and abraded with back joint starting to crack from top, spine with stamped
call number. One front and one rear fly-leaf excised. Library bookplates,
stamped numerals, pressure-stamps, and rubber-stamp to bottom edge; front
pastedown with inked presentation note, front free endpaper with inked inscription
dated 1805 (lined through), and private owner’s small rubber-stamp.
Moderate foxing; some leaves with splashed inkstains extending inwards from
outer edges; light waterstaining to lower inner margins of center portion
of volume.
Duhecquet, H.M. [pseud. of Robinson, H.D.], ed. The comet. Vol. I. New York: H.M. Duhecquet, 1832–33. 8vo (22.5 cm, 8.8"). 416 pp.
$500.00
First book-form edition: Vol. I, no. 1 (19 April 1832) through Vol. I, no. 26 (27 January 1833) of a periodical edited and published by “H.M. Duhecquet,” who has been identified both as H.D. Robinson and as William Watts, although in this case the former seems more likely given the contributions by “H.D.R.” The magazine features a number of sermons from “The Devil’s Pulpit”: contributions by the controversial Rev. Robert Taylor, an anti-Protestant deistical writer who was prosecuted for blasphemy. Much of the writing herein is highly unorthodox, and some is anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish — with an occasional jab at
“Free Masonry” as well.
Some material relates to current or recent events; e.g., no. 23 is devoted to the notorious trial, for infidelity, of Columbia (S.C.)
College president Dr. Thomas Cooper —by his own the board of governors.
This is the first volume only, out of two; the serial only survived for another six months (through 28 July 1833) after the last issue present here.
19th-century half calf over marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped decorations in compartments; boards a bit scuffed, leather chipped and cracking over spine and joints, with a good portion of leather lost over spine. Foxing throughout, some pages browned; a very few pencilled annotations.
Durand, David. La vie et les sentimens de Lucilio Vanini. Rotterdam: Aux depens de Gaspar Fritsch, 1717. 12mo (17 cm, 6.6"). xxxii, 260 pp., [3] ff.
$650.00

Sole edition of this life of Lucilio Vanini, an Italian philosopher who was burned at the stake for atheism — he had suggested that human beings evolved from apes and argued against the concept of immortal souls. In addition to his biography, this work includes a list of published works by Vanini, who referred to himself as Giulio Cesare (Julius Caesar). Contemporary speckled calf, spine gilt extra and with gilt-stamped label; spine with a few small chips, joints open. Pages slightly age-toned, with pencilled emphasis marks.
Cambridge,
Contradicting Collins
. . .
Gentleman
of Cambridge. An answer to the discourse on free-thinking:
Wherein the absurdity and infidelity of the sect of free-thinkers is undeniably
demonstrated. London: John Morphew & A. Dodd, 1713. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75").
[8], 28 pp.
$300.00
First edition of this response to Anthony Collins's Discourse on Free-thinking, one of many published replies to Collins's landmark treatise on the role of independent critical thought in religion and philosophy. The present rebuttal is often assigned to Richard Bentley, although ESTC considers that an erroneous attribution.
ESTC T22052. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pages clean. (20790)

“Philo-Criticus”
Thanks
Phileleutherus
Hare, Francis. The clergyman’s thanks to Phileleutherus, for
his remarks on the late Discourse of free-thinking. In a letter to Dr. Bentley. London: Pr. for A.
Baldwin, 1713. 8vo. 48 pp.
[SOLD]
Hare (1671–1740), bishop of Chicester, writes to Bentley
(1663–18742) for his rebuttal (Remarks upon a late Discourse of free-thinking)
of Anthony Collins' Discourse of free-thinking. And in writing, Hare
has much of his own observations to impart on the subject of free-thinking.
ESTC T60507. Removed from a nonce volume. Dusty. Author's
name provided in ink on title-page. Library stamp nicely laid on at bottom of last page. A good copy.
(20540)

BANGOR
Bangs
Collins .
. .
Hoadly, Benjamin. Queries recommended to the authors of the late discourse of free thinking ... the second edition. London: James Knapton, 1713. 8vo (19.7 cm, 7.75"). 31, [1] pp.
$300.00


Second edition of this response to Anthony Collins's much-debated Discourse of Free-thinking. Hoadly was an Anglican clergyman who served as bishop of Bangor; four years after his entry into the Freethinking controversy with the present rebuttal of what he considered atheist arguments made by Collins, he initiated the Bangorian Controversy with a sermon regarding the worldly authority of the church versus that of the state.
ESTC T18251. Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Title-page with author's name inked in an early hand; pages slightly age-toned, otherwise clean. (20775)
Rebutting a
“Noted Infidel”
Lamber, Louis Aloisius. Rev. L. A. Lambert, LL.D. versus Col. R. G. Ingersoll. The Christmas sermon of the noted infidel dissected by the eminent doctor. Cleveland, Ohio: The Universe Publishing Company, n.d. [ca. 1900]. 16mo. Frontis. port., xxviii, 216 pp.
$15.00
With an introduction by J. L. Spalding.
Publisher's green cloth. Front pastedown with authorial bookplate. Spot of soil on frontispiece. Very good. (15749)

“A
Short
& Easy
Method
with the
Deists”
Leslie, Charles. A short and easy method with the deists:
wherein the certainty of the Christian religion is demonstrated, by infallible proof from four rules,
which are incompatible to any imposture that ever yet has been, or that can possibly be. In a letter to
a friend. Windsor, VT: Pr. by T.M. Pomroy, 1812. 12mo. 168 pp.
$150.00


The “friend” is Charles Leslie himself. This work also includes the author's Defense of
Episcopacy, and parts of his trial in Boston, where he was found guilty of libel for his defense of
episcopacy against presbyterianism and congregationalism.
Click the title page image for an enlargement.
Provenance: Property,
in 1836, of Henry G. Hubbard of Detroit.
Shaw &
Shoemaker 25848. Contemporary sheep. Spine with compartments divided by gilt
rules. Leather much rubbed with a little chipping. Browning from turn-ins onto endpapers and title-page. Top margins closely trimmed with loss of page numbers in some places. Inked ownership
inscriptions on recto of front free endpaper and title-page. (5442)

“By
a Gentleman of Pittsburgh”
McSherry, Michael. A glance at religion and infidelity: With
strictures on an infidel review. By a gentleman of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh: Wilson & Marks, 1834.
12mo. 39, [1] pp.
$45.00
Very uncommon. Removed from a nonce volume.
Title-page ink- and pressure-stamped by a private collector; pages mildly age-toned. (15424)

“The
Deist Unmasked”
Ogden, Uzal, & Charles Leslie. Antidote to deism. The deist
unmasked; or An ample refutation of all the objections of Thomas Paine, against the Christian
religion; as contained in a pamphlet, intitled, The age of reason; addressed to the citizens of these
states. Newark, N. J.: Pr. by John Woods, 1795. 12mo. 2 vols. I: xxiv, [13]–327 pp. II: xxii,
[13]–342 pp.
$275.00


First edition of this two-volume treatise by the rector of Trinity Church, Newark, N. J.,
refuting Thomas Paine's “Age of Reason.” Dedicated to George Washington. Also includes
“Advertisement,” “Remarks on Boulanger’s Christianity unveiled,” and “A short method with the
deists” by the Reverend Charles Leslie.
Click the interior image for an enlargement.
Provenance: M. La Rue
Perrine, on title-page.
Evans 29237; Felcone, New Jersey
Books, 206. Original sheep, volume number in gilt on spines, title gilt-stamped on
a red leather spine labels. Bindings abraded and leather of spines cracking; spines with white-lettered
call number and remnants of paper shelf label; covers rubbed and scraped, with leather at base of front
cover of vol. I torn with loss; black stain and faint ink notation on front cover of vol. I; gilt on spines
darkened. Ex-library, with bookplates on front pastedowns, pressure-stamp on title-page of vol. II, and
penciled call numbers on verso of title-pages. Signature of a contemporary owner at top margin of
title-pages. Front fly-leaves with ink notation in an early hand. Pages age-toned. Front free endpapers
torn at gutter. Front endpapers of vol. II heavily stained. Browning at edges of front and back blank
pages only. Small chip within text of pp. 21/22 of vol. II, with loss of several words but no loss of
overall sense. A couple of leaves chipped in fore-margin. (20002)
Owen,
Robert, & Alexander Campbell. Debate on the evidences of Christianity; containing an examination of the “social system,” ... reported by Charles H. Sims, Stenographer. Bethany, Va.: Pr. & pub. by Alexander Campbell, 1829. 8vo. 2 vols. in 1. 251, [1 (blank)] pp.; 301, [1 (blank)] pp.
$700.00

First edition of this account of the famous and important debate between the social reformer, atheist, and idealist Robert Owen (founder of New Llanark, etc.) and preacher, Christian, and educator Alexander Campbell (founder of Bethany College), that occurred in in Cincinnati in April, 1839. Includes an “appendix, written by the parties.”
Click the image at right for an enlargement.
Shoemaker 39945; Goldsmiths', Robert Owen, 1771-1858: Catalogue of an exhibition of printed books held in the Library of the University of London, 79a. Uncut copy, in original quarter cloth, with paper spine label. Binding worn, covers detached (such bindings are notoriously delicate), and with the usual amount of foxing to pages. Housed in a cloth clamshell box. A good copy.

Early U.S. Printings — Both Parts
Paine,
Thomas. The age of reason. Being an investigation of true and
of fabulous theology. Boston: Thomas Hall, 1794. 12mo. 199, [5] pp. [bound
with] The age of reason; being an investigation of true and of fabulous
theology. Part II. New-York: Re-printed by Mott & Lyon, for Fellows &
Adam and J. Reid, 1706. 12mo. 199, [5] pp.
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Early U.S. printings of both parts of Paine's great Rationalist examination of the Bible and revealed religion in general. Paine wrote Part One during his first two months in prison in France, awaiting the guillotine for protesting the execution of Louis XVI; this was first published in a French translation. Paine wrote the second part at the urging of James Monroe. It caused Paine to fall out of favor with the American public for the rest of his life, but the treatise remains to this day influential among Skeptics, Rationalists, and Freethinkers.
Part I: Evans 27458; ESTC W31697. Part II: Evans 30941; ESTC W31705. Recent full calf, period style. Old library stamp on first title-page. A very nice set of both parts. (20627)
Philips, Ambrose. Pastorals, epistles, odes, and other original poems, with translations from Pindar, Anacreon, and Sappho. London: J. & R. Tonson and S. Draper, 1748. 12mo (15.2 cm, 6"). [8], 147, [1 (blank)] pp.
[SOLD]


First edition of these collected verses by Philips, a playwright,
poet, and
founder
of the Freethinker as well as a rival of Pope’s.
Critical opinion of his work was divided at the time, but this is an attractive
printing.
Philips is in any case immortal in that the phrase “namby-pamby”
was coined in his honor—by Henry Carey, in response to three Philips
poems addressed to infant girls.
ESTC T43760; Foxon P202(a); NCBEL, II, 562. On Philips,
see: The Dictionary of National Biography, XLV, 172–73. Disbound
sometime, without damage; sound, crisp text block now in marbled paper wrappers.
Title-page and a few others stamped by a now-defunct institution. Some browning
and a few instances of mild foxing; a clean copy.
TWO
Responses to
Anthony
Collins
Pycroft,
Samuel. A brief enquiry into free-thinking in matters of religion;
and some pretended obstructions to it ... Cambridge: Pr. at the University Press
for Edmund Jeffery & Jonah Bowyer, 1713. 8vo (19.8 cm, 7.75"). [2], 150,
[2 (errata)] pp. (lacking half-title). [bound with] Addenbrooke,
John. A short essay upon free-thinking. London: Jonah
Bowyer, 1714. 8vo. [8], 16 pp.
$500.00
Click the interior images for enlargements.
First editions of these two responses to Anthony Collins's landmark treatise on freethought (and on either deism or atheism, depending on one's interpretation), the Discourse of Free-Thinking. Numerous attacks on the Discourse were published, including rebuttals by Richard Bentley, George Berkeley, and Jonathan Swift; the present two pieces are more obscure (the second was written by a
physician far better remembered today for his founding of a hospital for the poor than for his writings), but offer interesting perspectives on contemporary thought.
Provenance: The first work's title-page has “Ex dono Autoris” inscribed in the upper margin in an early hand.
Pycroft: ESTC T144698; Allibone 1712. Addenbrooke: ESTC T88427.
Recent marbled paper–covered boards, front cover with gilt-stamped leather title-label. Pycroft half-title lacking; title-page with annotation as above. Pages slightly age-toned, with light spotting to final leaves of Enquiry and throughout Essay. (20760)
Saint-Pierre, Jacques Henri Bernardin de. A vindication of divine Providence; derived from a philosophic and moral survey, of nature and of man... first American edition. Worcester: J. Nancrede (pr. by Thomas, Son & Thomas), 1797. 8vo in 4s (20.2 cm, 7.9"). Frontis., 331, [1 (blank)] pp., lacking the folding map.
$250.00

First American edition of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre’s Études de la nature, here in an English translation done by Henry Hunter; this defense of God’s existence makes use of natural history to affirm divine
authorship of the universe. Printed by Thomas, Son & Thomas (the famed Massachusetts printer Isaiah Thomas, in conjunction with his son Isaiah Thomas, Jr.), the present volume has an engraved frontispiece done by Samuel Hill, depicting Philocles in Samos.
This is the separate issue of vol. I, which was issued without the map and has “The End” at the bottom of p. 331—the two-volume issue has “End of first volume” instead.
This copy includes a pencilled marginal comment, commanding, “Read this if thou canst be an atheist — or
a fool.”
ESTC W36508; Bristol B10094; not in Evans. Contemporary treed sheep, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and double gilt rules; binding with small scrapes and rubbed patches, upper board edge darkened, and leather starting to crack over the spine and joints. Without the folding map. First and last few leaves foxed.

Fiction for
Female Freethinkers
Slenker, Elmina Drake. The Darwins. A domestic radical romance. New York: D.M. Bennett, Liberal Publisher, [1879]. 8vo. 257, [7 (adv.)] pp.
[SOLD]
Click the interior images for enlargements.
Seldom-seen sole edition of this unusual didactic Freethinker's novel featuring a group of independent-minded women. The plot takes a backseat to digressions in favor of Thomas Paine, female education, and freethinking; against alcohol, tobacco, and corporal punishment; and above all else promoting atheism as a sane, healthy way of life.
Slenker, daughter of a Shaker preacher, was a well-known liberal author and editor; at one point in her career she spent six months in jail for sending private correspondences on sex and contraception. D.M. Bennett (printer of this novel) was the founder and editor of The Truth Seeker and one of the most controversial publishers of the Gilded Age—a stalwart “infidel” who defended Darwinism,
Liberalism, and free love, and whose trial on charges of obscenity was a landmark test of American thought on that issue.
Uncommon: OCLC shows only six U.S. holdings.
Wright, III, 4961. Publisher's pebbled black cloth, spine with gilt-stamped title; edges and extremities rubbed, cloth with small spots of discoloration. Front free endpaper with institutional rubber-stamp from Exeter, RI. A very few scattered spots, pages otherwise clean. (23462)

NOT
by a “Free-Thinker”
Whitehead, William Adee. The alleged atheism of the
Constitution. From the Northern Monthly for November, 1867. Newark: 1867. 8vo. 15, [1 (blank)]
pp.
$95.00
With a brief survey of early STATE-constitutional relationships to (Christian) religion.
NSTC 2W17788. Original wrappers, front wrapper chipped at
edges, back wrapper chipped at inner edge and with paper remnants affixed at top. Leaves loose
(wrappers included). Long tear in fore-margin of title-leaf and small chips in inner margins of title-
and final leaves. Some short marginal tears. Small chips to lower outer margins. Lengthwise fold
mark. (8931)
Woolley, Milton. The career of Jesus Christ: Being a supplement to the author’s Science of the Bible. Streator, IL: Free Press Publishing House, 1877. 8vo (20.7 cm, 8.2"). Frontis. (incl. in pagination), 52, [2] pp.; [60 (20 blank)] ff.
$600.00
Uncommon sole edition of this Freethinker interpretation of the New Testament, focusing on an astrological/astronomical analysis in which Jesus personifies “the annual Sun” and the events of the Gospels overall serve as a representation of the phenomena of the seasons. Wooley uses these “discoveries” to claim that Christianity as a religion is “a fraud of the blackest dye” (p. 51), adding that the working classes (former slaves explicitly included) are duped and oppressed by the capitalists (Northern and Southern) who encourage them to besot themselves with religion, whiskey, and tobacco rather than work towards real, liberating knowledge.
Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.
The printed Career is followed in this little volume by an extended manuscript section containing neatly written excerpts from Wooley’s Science of the Bible or an Analysis of the Hebrew Mythology.
Contemporary half calf over textured cloth, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-ruled raised bands; front cover detached, leather scuffed. All page edges marbled. Upper portion of front free endpaper torn away; two front fly-leaves partially excised. Back free endpaper with pencilled owner’s name. Printed portion very slightly age-toned, with faint creasing to first section.
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The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company