Third (or second?) edition of one of the key works of the Radical Enlightenment, published in the same year as the first edition. The author had evoked huge outcry with the publication of De L'esprit (1758), a carefully argued essay on the mind, in which he roundly rejected metaphysics and the idea of Truth, replacing Christian morals by purely utilitarian ethics and stressing the importance of education as the key to moral behaviour. In De l'homme, Helvétius expanded and clarified his views, provoking even Diderot to write a Réfutation. The present edition was most likely printed in France, and, as Smith argues, it was probably this edition that the Paris Parliament condemned on 10 January 1774.
Binding slightly rubbed; top of spine slightly worn. Fine copy. Smith, Bibliography H.3; cf. Cioranescu 33651 (other edition); for Helvétius's philosophy: Blom, A Wicked Company, pp. 126-129.