SMITH, Adam; BLAVET, Jean-Louis, M. l'Abbé (trans.)

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Théorie des Sentimens Moraux; First edition of the second French translation of Scottish moral philosopher and economist Adam Smith's ground-breaking first work, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (London, 1759), in an attractive contemporary binding. This work introduced the concept of the "invisible hand", guiding individuals to advance community interest, laying the philosophical ground work for his Wealth of Nations. Smith, evidently dissatisfied in the quality of the first French translation, Metaphysique de l'ame (Paris, 1764, made by Marc-Antoine Eidous and based on the second English edition), is reported by the translator of this edition as having been "mortified" by the first attempt. Jean-Louis Blavet (1719-1809), translator and librarian of the Prince de Conti, was recommended to Smith by Madame des Boufflers, the Prince's mistress, and duly undertook this entirely new translation from the third English edition of 1767, adding an extensive table of contents. The work was far from a commercial success, which according to Dugald, Stewart Smith blamed on Blavet, leading to the eventual commission of a third French translation by Sophie de Grouchy, the prominent salon hostess during the early French Revolution and under Napoleon, and was the wife of the philosopher the Marquis de Condorcet.

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