Gabriel Bonnot de Mably: Observations sur l Histoire de la Grece ou des causes de la prosperite et des malheurs des Grecs. Geneve 1766 First edition,in 8vo,contemporary full leather slightly trimmed, spine richly gilt, text clean and bright, complete 314p., overall in very good condition, Mably (1709-1785), was a prominent French philosopher and historian, an important Philhellene whose work path the way to the vague of French Philhellenism of the late 18th century. Mably did not write the book to record historical dates,the subtitle, Ou des causes de la prospérité et des malheurs des Grecs (Or the causes of the prosperity and misfortunes of the Greeks), reveals his intent: to discover why states rise and why they inevitably fall and what the Greeks must do to return in their former glory. Mably was a Spartan at heart. He argued that Greece's former prosperity was rooted in civic virtue, equality, organization and simplicity. He believed that the pursuit of luxury, the split of the nation and the loss on its natural resources led first to a moral decay and finally to the ruin of Greece. Mably’s observations were deeply influential on the thinkers of the French political circles of the Revolution, as it reflected also in the French situation. He believed that a great Legislator (like Lycurgus or Solon) could shape the character of a people through law. Modern Greeks needed learned and influential people and for this a correct education was vital. Mably is often called even a pre-socialist. His Observations provided the intellectual ammunition for revolutionaries who wanted to move away from the corruption of monarchy toward a republic and fueled the Greek revolutionaries. The work has been published in Geneva to escape French censorship. A very influential work on Greece.