The Digital Library of Liberty & Power
Recent Additions in L'An IV (2023)

[See additions made in L'An I (2020), L'An II (2021), L'An III (2022), and the Archive of Material added 2011-2019]
[Additions by topic: Classical Liberalism | Anglo-American | French | German | Levellers |
Class Analysis | Images of Power | Papers | Strategy | War & Peace ]

[Updated: March 21, 2023 ]

ADDITIONS IN 2023 / L'AN IV

March 2023

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [to come]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (now 51 titles in 68 volumes, and counting):

  • The expanded 1769 edition of Voltaire's Dictionnaire philosophique, now called La Raison par alphabet (Reasoning by means of the alphabet), along with one of his most important political "dialogues" between "A", "B" and "C" - in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF [vol1 and vol2], and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • the 1763 edition of Voltaire's Traite sur la Tolérance - in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.

Additions to the Library:

  • Voltaire kept expanding his "Philosophical Dictionary" in every new edition (and there were many) before his death in 1778. The most complete collection published in his lifetime was called Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs (Questions about the Encyclopedia (posed) by some amateurs) which was published anonymously in Geneva in 1774. Later editors of his works continued this practice of constant expansion and revision and it has become difficult to track what Voltaire wrote and when. The recently completed 8 volume edition of the Questions sur l’Encyclopédie (2008-2018) by the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford might shed some light on this problem. Note that 2024 will be the 250th anniversary of the publication of this book. I have been collecting and putting online my own edition of this nelgected although very important work:
    1. as the "Philosophic Dictionary" grew in size it was no longer "portatif" (portable). It went from 73 articles in 244 pages in 1764, [facs. PDF only]
    2. to the newly named and expanded work “La Raison par Alphabet” of 1769 with 116 articles in 577 pages - "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF [vol1 and vol2], and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    3. to a much, much larger work now called "Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs" first published in 9 volumes in 1770-71, and then in four volumes as part of an anonymous "Collection complette des oeuvres de Mr. de * * *" in 1774. This version of his "Dictionary" had a total of 441 articles in 2,120 pages. I am currently working on an enhanced HMTL edition of the 4 volume 1774 edition.
      1. the 1770-71 edition of Questions sur l’Encyclopédie, par des amateurs only in facs. PDF: vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4 - vol5 - vol6 - vol7 - vol8 - vol9
      2. the 4 volume 1774 edition in "enhanced HTML" of vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4 ; and facs. PDF of vol1 - vol2 - vol3 - vol4 - with eBook versions to come
      3. to help find your way around this large work, see the combined Tables of Contents of the 4 volumes with links to the relevant sections
    4. Editor's Note: I have been using a very poorly coded and presented HTML version of "Questions sur l’Encyclopédie" put online by the Voltaire Foundation in Oxford and the ARTFL Project at the University of Chicago as part of their "TOUT VOLTAIRE" ("All of Voltaire") project. They claim that the edition they have online is the 4 volume 1774 edition from the Collection complette but additional material has been inserted (probably from other editions) without acknowledgement, the very numerous sub-headings have been left out, the order of the articles has been changed from the 1774 edition, the spelling has been modernised (which is partly useful and partly not), italicised words have not been italicised, the margin notes and footnotes have not been problerly coded and positioned, and they have not bothered to include the original page numbers of the book (which makes scholarly citation very difficult). I have done my best to rectify these serious problems.
  • Voltaire's revised and expanded version of the Dictionnaire philosophique (1st ed. 1764) with a new name and one of his more imporatant political "dialogues": Voltaire, La Raison par alphabet. Sixième édition revuë, corrigée & augmentée par l’Auteur. (n.d., n.p., 1769). Première Partie A-I; Seconde Partie L-V; “L’A,B,C, Dix-sept Dialogues traduit de l’anglais.” - "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF [vol1 and vol2], and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Voltaire's "curious dialogue" between "A", "B", and "C" was first published in London in 1762 under the guise of a "translation" (in order to avoid the censors): Voltaire, L’A, B, C, Dialogue curieux. Traduit de l’Anglais de Monsieur Huet (London: Robert Freeman, 1762). in facs. PDF only. See also the version in the Oeuvres complètes of 1879 - only in facs. PDF.
  • A three volume collection of Voltaire's Dialogues et entretiens philosophiques (Dialogues and Philosophical Conversations) (1899): vol1 facs. PDF - vol2 facs. PDF - vol3 facs. PDF.

François-Marie Arouet (“Voltaire”) (1694-1778)

       

New this month to the eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

February 2023

 

 

 

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [none at the moment]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection" (now 49 titles in 65 volumes, and counting):

  • A favourite of mine is one of Richard Overton's many "verbal arrows" directed at "all tyrants and tyranny" in general while he was being held in prison. It is one of the great statements of "self-ownership" and the right to individual liberty which stems from it: Richard Overton, An Arrow Against all Tyrants and Tyrany, shot from the Prison of New-gate into the Prerogative Bowels of the Arbitrary House of Lords and all other Usurpers and Tyrants Whatsoever (12 Oct. 1646). It is part of my Leveller Tracts Collection and is now in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Milton's poem about rebellion and obedience: Paradise Lost. A Poem in Twelve Books. The Second Edition. Revised and Augmented (1674) - in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • On a similar theme see John Milton, The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates: Proving, That it is Lawfull, and hath been held so through all Ages, for any who have the Power, to call to account a Tyrant, or wicked KING, and after due conviction, to depose and put him to death; if the ordinary MAGISTRATE have neglected or deny’d to doe it. And that they, who of late, so much blame Deposing, are the Men that did it themselves. (1650) - "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • In his book An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852) Spooner states in the opening lines (p. 5) the role he thought juries had and should play in protecting Anglo-American liberty:

    "For more than six hundred years—that is, since Magna Carta, in 1215—there has been no clearer principle of English or American constitutional law, than that, in criminal cases, it is not only the right and duty of juries to judge what are the facts, what is the law, and what was the moral intent of the accused; but that it is also their right, and their primary and paramount duty, to judge of the justice of the law, and to hold all laws invalid, that are, in their opinion, unjust or oppressive, and all persons guiltless in violating, or resisting the execution of, such laws.

    Unless such be the right and duty of jurors, it is plain that, instead of juries being a “palladium of liberty”—a barrier against the tyranny and oppression of the government—they are really mere tools in its hands, for carrying into execution any injustice and oppression it may desire to have executed."

  • See Spooner, An Essay on the Trial by Jury (1852) - "enhanced HTML"', facs. PDF, and eBook HTML, PFDF, and ePub.
  • Spooner followed these provocative pamphlets with a pair of forthright letters to sitting politicians - Senator Thomas Bayard from Delaware and President Grover Cleveland - telling them very "frankly" that they had no legitimate right to hold office and exercise power over others and therefore that they were “usurpers and criminals”. See Letters to Senator Thomas Bayard (1882) and President Grover Cleveland (1886): Bayard facs. PDF and Cleveland PDF; "enhanced HTML"; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • A bracing corrective to the views of Hamilton, Jay, and Madison on the American Constitution is provided by the American radical individualist Lysander Spooner (1808-1887) who argued in a series of pamphlets written between 1867 and 1870 that is was "no treason" to withold or withdraw one's consent to be governed by a particular government or constititution. He argued that in most cases people living today had never been asked for, or given their consent to be subject to this constitution; or if they had done so, they were within their rights to withdraw that consent and leave at any time, just like they had the right to join or not join, or leave a church or a sporting club. The three pamphlets on No Treason are in "enhanced HTML" and facs. PDFs for each individual pamplet : No. 1 - No. II - No. VI; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • I have written an introduction to the Guillaumin Collection describing how the texts are coded and formatted (and why), the various electronic versions the texts are in, and their source.
  • Thomas Paine's Rights of Man. Part the Second. Combining Principle and Practice (1792) in "enhanced HTML", facs. PDF; and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
  • Little known in his lifetime, Wilhelm von Humboldt’s Ideen zu einem Versuch, die Gränzen der Wirksamkeit des Staats zu bestimmen (Some Ideas in an Attempt to determine the Limits of the Functions of the State) only came to light in the 1850s. He wrote it as a series of essays in 1792 during the French Revolution, a couple of which were published at the time. He did not publish the complete book in his lifetime, perhaps fearing how radical it was now that he had become a senior public servant in the Prussian education system. It was eventually published in 1851 in German and was quickly translated into English in 1854, just in time to have an impact on John Stuart Mill who acknowledged Humboldt's influence on his thinking in On Liberty which was published in 1859.
  • One of the great debates about the perennial problem of "the proper sphere of government" (as Herbert Spencer put it) was in 1787-88 between "The Federalists" (who were really "The Centralists") and "The Anti-Federalists" (who were really the "True Federalists") about the new American Constitution. The corrective to the mainstream pro "Federalist" approach is Lysander Spooner's series of pamphlets on "The Constitution of No Authority" (1867-70) amd his letters to Senator Bayard (1882) and President Cleveland (1886).
  • To put only one side of this debate online, I have added my "enhanced HTML" version of the first edition of The Federalist (1788) even though my sympathies lie with the "True Federalists" and not Hamilton et al. I have used the copies held by the Library of Congress (owned by Thomas Jefferson) and the Boston Public Library. I was surpised to find that the LoC copy (vol. 2) is missing 12 pages and this is not stated on their website. So I had to also use the Boston PL version as well. I presume the people in Congress have read one of the founding documents of their government and noticed this fact - but perhaps not ...
  • I also note how hard it was to find a corrected HTML version of the text with the original page numbers. The University of Michigan hosts the Evans Early American Imprint Collection which has a copy which includes this vital information, but it has several serious flaws which make it hard for the user. Again I found this surprising given the text's status as a "holy text" of the American founding. For example, the "footnotes" are not included in or alongside the text (they are "pop ups") and there were 389 uncorrected "gaps" in the text which were easily corrected by comparing the HTML against the facs. PDFs. The proof-readers seemed to be uncertain that the word "leg(?)slature" might be "legislature". Multiply this stupidity by nearly 400 and you get the picture.
  • the mature Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was wrapping up his long and productive life with the publication of his two magna opera:
  • an early work by Herbert Spencer, The Proper Sphere of Government (1843) where he shows his radical or "true liberal" colours - in facs. PDF, the "enhanced HTML", and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub.
  • Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792) - "enhanced HTML" and eBook HTML, PDF, ePub. The HTML is of the London editon of 1792, but I couldn't find a facs. PDF of this edition but I do have that of the Boston edition of 1792. (with different page numbering)
  • Frédéric Bastiat's Sophismes économiques:
    • the first edition of Sophismes économiques (1846) in facs. PDF [B&W 4.2 MB] and [colour 39.4 MB]; “enhanced” HTML, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • the first edition of the sequel Sophismes économiques. Deuxième Série. (1848) in facs. PDF [colour 45.5 MB and B&W 5.1 MB]; “enhanced” HTML, and eBook HTML, PDF, and ePub
    • and a “2 volumes in 1” version in “enhanced” HTML only
    • My edition of the two series of “Sophismes Économiques” is in memory of Michel Leter who edited a volume for “La Bibliothèque classique de la Liberté” for Les Belles Lettres publisher in Paris in 2005 (reissued in 2009). The volume also includes an insightful Preface, “Frédéric Bastiat et les fondements littéraires de l’analyse économique,” pp. 7-38. I should also mention his pioneering essay on “L’École de Paris” of which Bastiat was an important member: Michel Leter, “Éléments pour une étude de l’École de Paris (1803-1852)," in Histoire du libéralisme en Europe, eds. Philippe Nemo and Jean Petitot (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2006), pp. 429-509. [See my own essay on the Paris School and my collection of their key texts.]
  • Another addition to the "Guillaumin Collection" of enhanced HTML texts: William Godwin, An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness (1793)  - in enhanced HTML and eBooks in HTML, PDF, ePub and the zipped collection.
  • I have also created an "enhanced HTML" version of a modern edition of the plays of Shakespeare based on the Oxford edition of 1916. Because of its size and complexity I have split the plays into three parts, based upon the categories used in the First Folio edition:
  • This year is a good year for celebrating some anniversaries of important authors by adding some of their works to the Guiillaumin Collection of enhanced HTML and eBook formats. For example 2023 is:

Additions to the Library:

   

William Shakespeare
(1564-1616)

William Godwin (1756-1836)

[Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)

Lysander Spooner (1808-1887)

John Milton (1608-1674)

New this month to the eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]

January 2023

 

Blog posts:

  1. [to come]

Talks and Papers:

  • [none at the moment]

Additions to the "Guillaumin Collection":

Additions to the Main Library:

  • I have added a new feature to my collection which I have been working on for some time, namely to be able to easily link to a key passage in a text you want to cite in an essay or article. It uses Java script called "Wombat" which is a Java-based "standalone client-side URL rewriting system", and which is most appropriate for someone living and working in Australia. [See the Wikipedia article on wombats and their very determined digging and burrowing behaviour.] It takes the unique paragraph IDs I have inserted into the text and packages them in a full URL which links directly to that paragraph, which you can copy and paste into your essay. I have tested it on a work by the Australian radical liberal politician and political theorist Bruce Smith (1851-1937) as it seemed important to continue the Australian theme. You can see the results here. A description of what it does follows:
    • I have added unique paragraph IDs into the texts which allows the user to identify and select a paragraph for citation purposes. First click on the selected paragraph, then choose to the left of the paragraph the "anchor" icon (for the URL which provides a direct link to that paragraph), or the "star" icon (for the full bibliographical citation based upon the style selected at the top of the page, along with the URL for that paragraph). See the illustrated "How to use the Citation Tool" for details.
    • I have also inserted and highlighted the page numbers of the original edition, if you wish to cite in the old fashioned way. You can also download and read the facsimile PDF of the original edition of the text.
  • to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Adam Smith (1723-1790) I have put online the following:
  • the French political theorist and economist Benjamin Constant (1767-1830) wrote two versions of his defence of limited constitutional government, Principes de politique, applicables à tous les gouvernements représentatifs (Principles of Politics which are Applicable to all Representative Governments), a long one between 1806-10 which he couldn't publish in his lifetime given the problem of censorship (the manuscript was eventually published in 1980, a copy of which can be found here), and a shorter one in 1815 as Napoleon's dictatorship was crumbling and the newly restored Monarchy was getting established. We now have the 1815 edition in standard HTML, facs. PDF and eBooks in HTML - PDF - ePub [and zipped as a collection].

 

"Fatso the Fat-Arsed Wombat" (2000)
Fatso was a key figure in Roy and H.G.'s mockery of the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

   

Benjamin Constant
(1767-1830)

Adam Smith (1723-1790)

Bruce Smith (1851-1937)

New this month to the eBook Collection on Liberty and Power - [ToC]