“
which may most probably exercise that faculty [i.e. the thinking faculty of man]
. . .”
On January 16, 1825, in writing to thank Lafayette for sending him Flourens’s book [
Recherches sur le systeme nerveux
], Jefferson compared Flourens with Cabanis: “
. . . Cabanis had gone far towards proving from the anatomical structure and action of the human machine that certain parts
of it were probably the organs of thought, and consequently that matter might exercise that faculty. Flourens proves that
it does exercise it . . .
”
Pierre Jean Georges Cabanis, 1757-1808. This is the first separate edition of this work which had previously appeared in 1798 and 1799 in the section
of sciences politiques et morales in the Institut.
Marie Jean Pierre Flourens, 1794-1867, French physiologist. His Recherches experimentiales sur les propriétés et les fonctions du Système nerveux. . .was first published in 1824. It had been previously read as a paper at the Athenée in Paris in 1821.
J. 10
Progrés de l’esprit humain par Condorcet.
8
vo.
1815 Catalogue, page 58. no. 87, as above.
CONDORCET,
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, marquis de.
Esquisse d’un Tableau Historique des Progrès de l’Esprit Humain. Ouvrage posthume de Condorcet. A
Paris: chez
Agasse, l’An
III. de la République, une et indivisible. [De l’Imprimerie de
Boiste, 1795.]
B1993 .E7
First Edition. 8vo. 199 leaves: [ ]
4, A-Z, Aa
8, Bb
3, printer’s imprint at the end.
Rebound in red buckram by the Library of Congress in 1931. Initialled by Jefferson at sigs. I and T.
Manuscript notes by Jefferson on pages 207 and 230 are as follows:
On page 207 occurs the paragraph:
Ainsi l’on vit naître en Europe une sorte de liberté de penser, non pour les hommes, mais pour les chrétiens: et, si nous
exceptons la France, c’est pour les seuls chrétiens que par-tout ailleurs elle existe encore aujourd’hui.
Jefferson has placed an asterisk at the word
que, and written in ink the marginal foot-note:
*Virginia was an exception long before France. the Virginia act for feedom of religion was printed in a handbill, & in the
hands of the members of the French convention in 1789. when they went on this subject themselves.
On page 230, as a footnote to Condorcet’s account of Descartes, Jefferson has written:
*this account of Descartes is much too partial. his ingenious imagination led mankind astray and retarded science for an age
or two. his fancies have yielded very slowly to the demonstrations of the experimental philosophers. to him was owing particularly
that the French nation were so long & still are in the rear of others in physical sciences.
Marie Jean Antoine Nicolas Caritat, Marquis de Condorcet, 1743-1794, French philosopher and revolutionist. A number of books and pamphlets by him appear in this catalogue.
[1247]
J. 11
Price’s Review of the principal questions in Morals.
8
vo.
.
1815 Catalogue, page 58. no. 91, as above.
PRICE,
Richard.
A Review of the principal questions in Morals . . . the
Third Edition corrected, and enlarged by An Appendix . . . By Richard Price, D.D. F.R.S. . . .
London: Printed for
T. Cadell.
m dcc lxxxvii
. [1787.]
BJ1241 .P8
