Benedict de Spinoza: His Life, Correspondence, and Ethics
Robert Willis
London, 1870
 
First edition in English of Spinoza’s famed Ethics(the iconic novelist, George Eliot, first translated it in the mid-1850s but financial disagreements prevented publication until quite recently).
 
Publisher’s blue cloth binding a bit shaken, edges worn, joints fraying, general wear, rubbing, and small faded stains. Endpapers and half-title foxed. Damp stain on top third of front pastedown, first endpaper, and along a segment of text block top edge. It’s been well-handled through the years, but it remains a sturdy, sound tome with clean pages. A Fair copy of a rare book. None in the sales records since the roaring 20s, and also rarely seen in the contemporary book trade.
 
In this masterpiece, Spinoza elucidates his views on God, human nature, and the pathway for virtue and blessedness. Ethics was published shortly after his death, but too threatening to the small-minded authorities of his day, it and his other works would be banned for many years. 
 
Ref: 
 
Spinoza in English: A Bibliography from the Seventeenth Century to the Present, Wayne Boucher