The list of books was as follows:

1. Johann Kunckel's _Laboratorium Chymicum_, 8vo.

2. Georg Ernest Stahl's _Commentary on Becher's Metallurgy_, 8vo.

3. _Concordantia Chymica Becheri_, 40vo, published by Stahl.

4. _Cadmologia_, or the _Natural History of Cobalt_, by
J. G. Lehmann, Berlin, 1760, 4 deg..


After 1760 Holbach became interested in another line of intellectual
activity, namely the writing and translation of anti-religious
literature. His first book of this sort really appeared in 1761
although no copies bear this date. From 1767 on however he published
a great many works of this character. It is convenient to deal first
with his translations of English deistical writers. They are in
chronological order.

1. _Esprit du clerge, ou le Christianisme primitif venge des
entreprises et des exces de nos Pretres modernes_. Londres
(Amsterdam), 1767. This book appeared in England in 1720 under
the title of _The Independent Whig_; its author was Thomas Gordon
(known through his Commentaries on Sallust and Tacitus) who wrote
in collaboration with John Trenchard. The book was partially
rewritten by Holbach and then touched up by Naigeon, who, according
to a manuscript note by his brother, "atheised it as much as
possible." It was sold with great secrecy and at a high price--
a reward which the colporters demanded for the risk they ran in