A Discourse Written To A Learned Frier, By M. Des Fourneillis [Sic]; Shewing, That The Systeme Of M. Des Cartes, And Particularly His Opinion Concerning Brutes, Does Contain Nothing Dangerous; And That All He Hath Written Of Both, Seems To Have Been Taken Out Of The First Chapter Of Genesis. To Which Is Annexed The Systeme General Of The Same Cartesian Philosophy. By Francis Bayle, Dr. Of Physick At Tholose. Englished Out Of French. Descartes, René - Cordemoy, GéRaud De; Bayle, FrançOis.

First edition in English of Cordemoy's Copie d'une lettre ecrite à un sçavant Réligieux de la Compagnie de Jésus (1668), which attempts to reconcile Cartesian philosophy with the Christian creation story as outlined in Genesis. The latter part of the edition, with separate title page and continuous pagination, is a translation of "Systema generale philosophica" written by François Bayle and Henri Grangeron, this marking its only publication. "Géraud de Cordemoy (1626-1684) was one of the more important Cartesian philosophers during the decades immediately following the death of Descartes. While he is in some respects a very orthodox Cartesian, Cordemoy was the only Cartesian to embrace atomism, and one of the first to argue for occasionalism" (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). The original of the Systeme General is apparent lost: "Despite a painstaking and exhaustive search, we have been unable to locate either a French or a Latin version, much less a manuscript, prior (or for that matter, posterior) to the English translation" (Patricia Easton and Tom Lennon, The Cartesian Empiricism of Francois Bayle, 1992). The treatise has an interesting section on meteors, which the author takes to be all types of non-terrestrial natural phenomena, and has an advanced understanding of rainbows: "A Rain-bow is nothing else but many drops of rain, which receiving the Rayes of the Sun, break them many different ways, and which, after they have thus broken them, return them to our eyes" (p. 104). Bayle (1622-1709) is best known for his Tractatus de apoplexia (1677); the present essay would seem to be his first extant printed work. ESTC R7465; Wing C6281. Small octavo (135 x 87 mm). Nineteenth-century half sheep, red sheep label, marbled sides and endpapers, top edge gilt. Complete with terminal advertisement leaves. Front free endpaper with split along head of joint and peripheral chips, title page chipped around edges, a few other leaves slightly frayed, general browning; a good copy.