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xxii, 302 pp. (12mo), 17x10 cm. (6¾x4"), full calf, gilt backstrip with red morocco label. Later Edition.

Later edition of the English translation of Les voyages de Cyrus, first published in Paris in 1727. Andrew Ramsay (1686-1743), born in Scotland, was a Jacobite and Catholic convert who spent most of his life on the continent as a tutor and student of mystical theology. His imaginary voyage was translated into English by Nathaniel Hooke and was much reprinted. Only three other copies of this edition located: British Library, Nat. Library of Scotland and Penn Libraries. ESTC T208282.

“In both its French and English editions Ramsay's Cyrus was a sensation... it told the story of Cyrus's adventures among the magi and the Greeks, drawing heavily on the tradition of a pristine ancient wisdom akin to Christianity, and arguing for the existence of three states of humanity: the innocent, the fallen, and the restored. It attacked the ideas of Spinoza and upheld the existence of a subtle fluid, through whose actions God produces physical effects. It also hinted at a doctrine of metempsychosis. In its pages Ramsay attempted to reconcile the philosophy of Descartes with that of Newton in a mystical Christian context.” (DNB)