127 - [PHILOSOPHY & ANTI-ROUSSEAUISM] - [CAZALÈS, Jacques-Antoine-Marie de, or CAILHAVA DE L'ESTANDOUX, Jean-François (attributed to)]

[PHILOSOPHY & ANTI-ROUSSEAUISM] - [CAZALÈS, Jacques-Antoine-Marie de, or CAILHAVA DE L'ESTANDOUX, Jean-François (attributed to)] An Examination of the Systems of J. J. Rousseau of Geneva and of Mr. Court de Gebelin, Author of *Le Monde Primitif* Geneva, Published by Chirol; Paris, Published by Duchesne, 1786 In-8°. In a contemporary blue-gray temporary cover; copy entirely untrimmed, as it came off the press. Slight creases from handling along the edges of the temporary cover; spine worn with paper loss, foxing, and water stains. First edition of this scathing and two-part critical pamphlet, published on the eve of the French Revolution, bearing witness to the ideological war waged by conservative circles against the leading figures in 18th-century philosophy and the humanities. Alongside its scathing critique of Rousseauist theories, the title of the work highlights a second, often overlooked exegetical aspect: the joint attack on Antoine Court de Gébelin (1725–1784), a renowned scholar, pastor, and occultist, whose encyclopedic work *The Primitive World Analyzed and Compared with the Modern World* claimed to rediscover humanity’s original language, mythology, and symbols. The anonymous author sets out to debunk what he calls Court de Gébelin’s linguistic and theosophical “chimerical notions,” just as he opposes the political system outlined in Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s *The Social Contract*. References: Barbier, *Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes*, II, 368; Quérard, *La France littéraire*, VIII, 194; MMSH Open Edition, Court de Gébelin and *L'Anti-Lumière*.