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The Bible of materialism. The book that provoked even Voltaire to reply in defence of religion

MIRABAUD (= HOLBACH, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d').
Système de la nature. Ou des loix du monde physique & du monde moral.

London (= Amsterdam), (no publ.), 1770 2 parts in one. 8vo. Contemporary mottled calf with gilt borders along the edges of the boards, gilt spine with green morocco title label lettered in gold, gilt binding edges, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, g.e. (12), 366; (4), 408 pp.

Original edition of this famous textbook of 'Atheistical philosophy', considered to be 'The Bible of Materialism', the first, and only example in the Enlightenment of a comprehensive, unmitigated defense of atheistic materialism. Its publication caused a great sensation and much consternation in France not only among spokesmen for the official faith but among deistic philosophies as well.

Baron d'Holbach was a French philosopher, one of the Encyclopedists. Although a native of the Palatinate, he lived in Paris from childhood. He became a member of a group of notable thinkers and literary men including Diderot, Helvétius, Condorcet, and Rousseau. A supporter of naturalistic and materialistic views, he was a vigorous opponent of Christianity and all positive forms of religion. In 1770 Baron d'Holbach published his masterpiece: this Système de la Nature, which for a long time passed as the posthumous work of Jean Baptiste de Mirabaud.
D'Holbach had one of the more notable salons in Paris, which became known as 'the café of Europe'. It was one of the most important meeting places for contributors to the Encyclopedie. Meetings were held regularly twice a week from approximately 1750-1780. The tone of discussion among the visitors was highly civilized and it covered more diverse topics than that of other salons. This, along with other features including excellent food, expensive wine, and a library of over 3000 volumes, attracted many notable visitors. Among the regulars in attendance at the salon were Diderot, Voltaire, Grimm, Jean-François Marmontel, D'Alembert, Helvetius and André Morellet. The salon was also well-frequented by British intellectuals, such as Adam Smith, Sterne, David Hume, Horace Walpole and Edward Gibbon.
Holbach was strongly critical of abuses of power in France and abroad. Contrary to the revolutionary spirit of the time however, he called for the educated classes to reform the corrupt system of government and warned against revolution, democracy, and "mob rule". It is thought that the virtuous atheist Wolmar in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Nouvelle Héloise is based on d'Holbach. For the Encyclopédie he wrote and translated a large number of articles on topics such as politics, religion, chemistry and mineralogy. He was better known, however, for his philosophical writings. These writings expressed a materialistic and atheistic position. His work is today categorised into the philosophical movement called 'French materialism'.

In the Système Holbach rejected the Cartesian mind-body dualism and attempted to explain all phenomena, physical and mental, in terms of matter and motion. He derived the moral and intellectual faculties from an's sensibility to impressions made by the external world and saw human actions as entirely determined by pleasure and pain. He continued his direct attack on religion by attempting to show that it derived entirely from habit and custom. On the other hand Holbach outlined a whole ethical and political philosophy, aiming to derive a morality and an ethic from a completely materialistic and atheistic basis.
His important ideas can be found already in predecessors such as Hobbes, Locke and La Mettrie, all of whom influenced him greatly, but by combining various elements he reached the most extreme position in 18th-century freethought. The book was far too dogmatically atheistic for most of the 'philosophes', who were 'sceptical' and vacillated between atheism and deism. They criticized the established church, whereas Holbach dared even to attack the very idea of God. The book presented a core of radical ideas which many contemporaries found disturbing, thus prompting a strong reaction. The Catholic Church of France threatened the crown with a withdrawal of financial support unless it effectively suppressed the circulation of the book. The list of people writing refutations of the work was long. Voltaire hastily seized his pen to refute the philosophy of the Système in the article "Dieu" in his Dictionnaire philosophique, while Frederick the Great also drew up an answer to it. 'But the confident dogmatism and the comprehensiveness of the Système have ensured its survival as the Bible of materialism' (Printing in the mind of man, the canon of most influential books of Western civilization, in which book the Système is included).

Further editions were published in 1771, 1774 and 1781. The last edition (1821) is enlarged with notes and corrections by Diderot. A German translation by Schreitler appeared in Frankfurt in 1783 and a translation into English by Hodgson in London in 1797.

Very good copy of this most important book, with engraved ex-libris of J.S.L. Gilmour.- (Spine restored).

Printing and the mind of man, 215 ('The Bible of Materialism' ); Graesse IV, 535; Brunet III, col. 1739; J. Vercruysse, Bibl. descr. du écrits d'Holbach (1971); see also the biography of Holbach by W.H. Wickwar (1968).

Related Subjects: 18th Century Diderot Enlightenment France Philosophy

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