8vo. Half-title; woodcut vignette on title-page. Later cloth-backed boards (final text leaf used as rear paste-down, some rubbing and staining). 

FIRST EDITION, with the vignette on title-page, of Voltaire's defense of Newtonianism and his rebuttal of Cartesianism. Voltaire argued against the "new geology" and "new cosmology" of the day, basing his arguments on the work of Newton, his deism, and his advocacy of science as a common-sense approach. The 38 chapters touch upon mathematics, physics, and the philosophy of science including topics such as the nature of light and the formation of mountains. RARE.