Collection of 3 works dealing with the links between politic - Lot 283

Collection of 3 works dealing with the links between politics and religion. 1/ - [Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d']. - Système social ou principes naturels de la morale et de la politique. With an examination of the influence of government on morals. By the author of the Système de la Nature. London [Amsterdam], s.n., 1774. 3 paperback volumes, untrimmed, in period gray paper covers - [2 ff., fx-title, title], 210 pp. ; 176 pp. (all included) ; 167 pp. (all inclusive). The work was blacklisted in 1775 for having defended the principle of a morality and politics independent of any religious system. 2/ - [Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'] and Meslier. - Le bon sens puisé dans la nture, suivi du testament du curé Meslier. Paris, Bouqueton, An I (1792). 2 volumes in-12 , bound in full calf with heavily damaged boards (pierces), smooth spines, title (red) and appendix (green) - [1 f. fx-title], 264 pp. ; [2 ff. fx-title, title], 296 pp. Curé Meslier's will occupies pp. 174-296 of Volume II. Discovered after his death, Meslier's testament is a social and philosophical critique that questions the legitimacy of rulers and the church, and is a veritable playdough in favor of atheism and free thought. 3/ - [Toussaint, François Vincent]. - Les Moeurs. S.l.n., 1755. In-12, bound in full contemporary calf, smooth spine decorated, red title-piece - [16 ff., title, dispatch, warning, table, explanation of frontispiece and vignettes], pp. 1-28 (preliminary discourse on virtue), pp. 29-116 (first part), [1 f. title of second part], pp.117-372 (second part), [1 f., title of 3rd part], pp. 373-528 (3rd part). Illustrated with an allegorical frontispiece of virtue overcoming vice under the gaze of God, 3 repeated fleurons (genius surprising another sleeping genius) and 3 vignettes (piety offering a heart to divinity, wisdom dismissing folly, charity suckling and reaching out to the unfortunate). Key work, published under Panage's pseudonym. Judged by the Court of the Parliament of Paris as "contrary to good morals", because "the aim proposed is to establish Natural Religion on the ruins of all external worship and to free man from divine and human laws, to submit them solely to his own enlightenment".