Maillet, Benoit de; Telliamed; or the World Explain'd: containing Discourse Between an Indian Philosopher and a Missionary, on the Diminution of the Sea- the Formation of the Earth- the Origin of Men and Animals; and other Singular Subjects Relating to Natural History and Philosophy. 1st American edition, Baltimore, 1797. Octavo, pp. 268.

The volume is complete and in a contemporary calf, gold/red spine label, binding rubbed and boards scuffed, early inked notation on first end sheet, very good. Rare.
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The rare Baltimore printing of the first American edition of this curious work of the philosopher and French Consul in Egypt, Benoit of Maillet (16561738). This treatise on the origin of the Earth and life made Benoit a precursor of Lamarck, and Darwin. The title of this treatise is the anagram of the author's name. This work anticipated a number of geological and biological theories, and was also highly praised by Voltaire, Buffon and Cuvier. Publication was delayed until ten years after the death de Maillet because his ideas were considered by theologians as disturbing and dangerous. He proposed that the earth had evolved over billions of years and that continents had expanded as the seas diminished. He suggested that all life forms evolved by changing and adapting to new environments.