‎HEMSTERHUIS, F.‎
‎Oeuvres Philosophiques de F. Hemsterhuis. Nouvelle édition, revue et augmentee. Tome Premier [-Tome Second].‎

‎Paris, L. Haussmann, 1809. Very nice title-vignettes, 3 plates (2 folding), 13 tail-pieces, and 11 vignettes. Two volumes. xvi, 348, (2) pp.; (4), 359, (1) pp. 8vo. Near-contemporary half hard-grained morocco, spines gilt with raised bands and gilt lettering, marbled boards. Fresco, Geeraedts & Hammacher, Frans Hemsterhuis (1721-1790), Sources, Philosophy and Reception, p. 645; Brummel, p. 2; Petry, p. 164. Second and augmented edition, done by Hendrik Jansen, librarian of Talleyrand and future 'censeur impérial'. The book is dedicated to Talleyrand and has been augmented with the Lettre sur une pierre antique. Contains: Lettre sur la Sculpture; Lettre sur les Désirs; De l'Amour et de l'Égoisme; Lettre sur l'Homme et ses rapports; Description Philosophique du caractère de F.M. Fagel; Sophyle ou de la Philosophie; Aristée ou de la Divinité; Alexis ou l'Age d'Or; Simon ou des faculté de l'Ame; Lettre de Dicolès à Diotime sur l'Athéisme; Lettre de M. Jacobi à M. Hemsterhuis. This last letter by Jacobi adressed to Hemsterhuis deals with Spinoza, volume one includes Herder's essay on love and egoism (v. 1, p. [91]-130).Frans Hemsterhuis (1721-1790), Dutch philosopher. His life and philosophy may be divided into two periods. In the first period the Lettres sur l'Homme et ses rapports was his principal work, preceded by two small, closely connected treatises, Lettres sur la Sculpture and Lettre sur les Désirs in which works Hemsterhuis argued that the essence of the aesthetic experience is longing to unite oneself with the art object. This concept became part of his theory of ethics which is set out in the Lettre sur les Désirs. The theory is further developed in Alexis ou l'Age d'Or, on which the Platonic dialogues of his second period are based. In this second period he wrote four Platonic dialogues the most important of which are Aristée ou de la Divinitée, and Alexis ou de l'âge d'or. In Alexis Hemsterhuis, perhaps influenced by contemporary German philosophy, presented for the first time his concept of the golden age and the harmonious development of the individual. He also introduced the notion of the value of poetical truth (truth discovered by the poet in moments of enthusiasm). With these ideas Hemsterhuis had moved far from his earlier rationalism, and his thought was received with admiration and approval by representatives of the Sturm und Drang and romatic movements in philosophy. In this period he was very popular with and influenced the two Schlegels and Novalis.Provenance: the English philosopher Henry Longueville Mansel, with his engraved ex-libris, with stamps of Mansfield College Library, Oxford, and stamp of the bookdealer Danielle Cousin (Rennes) in both volumes, a bit browned and spotted. ‎

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