George BERKELEY

First edition of the French translation by André Leroy, of which no deluxe copies were issued.
Spine and covers slightly and marginally sunned, as usual.

First edition. The French edition was expanded with additions and corrections communicated by Berkeley to Bouillier before he began his translation. Title page in red and black.
Contemporary brown speckled sheep binding. Raised-band spine richly decorated, roulette at foot. Red morocco title-label. Headcap torn away. Tailcap worn. Joints cracked at head and foot. 2 wormholes on spine. Small nibbling to last leaf in upper margin on less than one cm. Fairly good copy.
Tar water was a medicine used since the Middle Ages composed of pine or birch tar. Its use spread in 18th-century England. Berkeley describes for the first time its use in a wide variety of cases and wonders whether it might not be the universal panacea. He extrapolates as to its efficacy from a study of mind and soul of which ether would be the divine instrument and the thing that binds beings together. Tar water would be used in various forms until the end of the 19th century. Bergson particularly appreciated the philosophical qualities of the treatise.