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[EUROPEAN HISTORY]. CASTEL DE SAINT-PIERRE, Charles Irénéé (Abbé de Saint-Pierre, 1658-1743). A Project for Settling an Everlasting Peace in Europe. First Proposed by Henry IV. Of France, and approved by Queen Elizabeth, and most of the then Princes of Europe, and now discussed at large, and made practicable. London: Printed for J. W., 1714. Small 8vo. Engraved vignette of Europe and Northern Africa on title-page. [178] pp. Bound in contemporary half brown calf over marbled boards, rebacked in modern brown morocco (boards worn, scuffed, ownership signatures on front and rear endleaves, occasional pencil markings in text, some toning in text, several pages trimmed a bit close at upper and lower margins (no apparent loss of text). Very good. FIRST ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF SAINT-PIERRE'S PROPOSAL OF UNIVERSAL PEACE. This proposal is generally seen as a precursor to the League of Nations, the United Nations, and the European Union. This work was an important influence on Rousseau and Kant. A fundamental text in the study of modern attitudes towards war. The existence of such translations of Saint-Pierre's work is significant: the scheme depended on wide adoption by the sovereigns of Europe, and the present translation suggests that some in England were prepared to take the Abbé's suggestions seriously. Saint-Pierre himself was evidently aware of this translation, as acknowledged in a letter from him appended to the end of the work, dated April 14, 1714. The translator, however, remains unidentified. The Abbé proposed the creation of a central pan-European Union which would eventually be extended first to the Muslim nations, and then to Asia. In addition to presenting 15 distinct advantages of a “European Society," he considers in his treatise over 60 moral, political, and practical objections to his proposal, including the objection that “princes do not read"; The project was widely criticized as utopian. Yet Immanuel Kant revived essentially the same proposal in 1795, in a more sardonic and ambiguous tone, and with considerably less detail, and it is he rather than the Abbé who often receives credit for having envisioned the modern United Nations. The Abbé's proposal was also revived by Rousseau, who issued his own critical abridgment of the Project with commentary in 1761.