The scientist, historian, and philosopher André François Boureau-Deslandes (1689-1751) was an important forerunner to the more well-known Enlightenment philosophes. He wrote freely and boldly on science, sexuality, death, boredom, international trade, travelogues, and the history of ideas.
Most of these texts have been translated into English for the first time ever (the rest in their first English edition since the early 1700s):
The Apotheosis of the Fairer Sex
Thoughts on the Great Men who Laughed in the Face of Death
(from) The Art of Avoiding Boredom
A Discourse on the Best Way to Conduct Experiments
"Epicurus", from A Critical History of Philosophy
Pygmalion, or the Animated Statue
