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MORE, Henry (1614-1687). Collection of Several Philosophical Writings of Dr. Henry More Fellow of Christ’s College in Cambridge. As Namely His Antidote against Atheism. Appendix to Said Antidote. Enthusiasmus Triumphatus. Letters to Des-Cartes, &c. Immortality of the Soul. Conjectura Cabbalistica… London: Printed for James Flesher for William Morden, 1662. 4to. xxvii, [1, blank], [6], 190, [12, Contents]; [2], 133, [1]; [6], 234, [12, Contents]; [6], 184, [18, index] pages, complete. There are 8 title pages, all dated 1662. Approximately 12 x 8”. Bound in modern full brown levant morocco, boards ruled in gilt, spine tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments, five raised bands, modern endleaves (minor rubbing to binding, general title-page worn, soiled, with marginal restoration to upper and lower margins and ownership signature near upper margin, text mildly toned, with occasional soiling and foxing). Very good. “THE SECOND EDITION MORE CORRECT AND MUCH ENLARGED”, CONSIDERED TO BE THE BEST EDITION OF THIS WORK, INCLUDING THE CONJECTURA CABBALISTICA. More’s four main works, published throughout the 1650s, can be seen as a summation of his philosophical system. Shortly after the appearance of the last of them, The Immortality of the Soul (1659), he re-issued them all together in this Collection of Philosophical Writings in 1662. They comprise An Antidote Against Atheism, and appendix which borrow heavily from Descartes’s The Enthusiasmus Triumphatus, concerned with the different kinds of religious fanaticism; a collection of Letters to Descartes (written in Latin); the Immortality of the Soul, which marks his return to Natural Philosophy and was heavily influenced by Hobbes’ Leviathan, (which had appeared in 1651); and the Conjectura Cabbalistica, notionally based on the Jewish Cabbala, which postulates that the first three chapters of Genesis contain a summation of all wisdom but hidden under a veil. In the light of his own spiritual philosophy, he explores the perceived secret interpretations it reveals, as well as digressions on the extinction of the sun, conflagration of the world, genies, animal spirits, and Thomas Hobbes. Henry More was one of the most respected of the Cambridge Platonists, and throughout his lifetime developed a close, and animated correspondence with the philosopher Rene Descartes. He was one of the first proponents of Cartesianism, attacked Thomas Hobbes and Baruch Spinoza, and was an enthusiast for the new science of Galileo and the Royal Society. His own philosophy owes much to Plato and Plotinus and is largely dedicated to the defense of religious belief against the twin forces of skepticism and atheism. (Hutton). Isaac Newton studied under him, and the young scientist was greatly influenced by More’s concept of space and time as “the sense organs of God”, echoes of which can later be seen in Newton’s own theory of absolute space and time. In 1664, More was elected fellow of the Royal Society. Shortly afterwards, he published two works aimed at a more popular audience: his manual of ethics, Enchiridion Ethicum (1667), and Divine Dialogues (1668).