Rousseau (Jean Jacques) A Treatise on the Social Compact: or The Principles of Politic Law, first edition in English, 3pp. advertisements at end, contemporary annotation to pp. 2 & 3, otherwise remarkably clean internally, endpapers browned, contemporary calf, a little rubbed, lacking most of morroco spine label, [PMM 270], 8vo, for T. Becket and P. A. de Hondt, 1764.

⁂ Rare philosophical treatise by Genevan philosopher instrumental in the Age of Enlightenment.

"The Contrat Social remains Rousseau's greatest work... Rousseau believed passionately in what he wrote, and when in 1789 a similar emotion was released on a national scale, the Contrat Social came into its own as the bible of the revolutionaries in building their ideal state. Still in print, translated into every language in cheap editions and paperbacks, it remains a crucial document of egalitarian government" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 270, discussing the 1762 first edition).