"Pierre Bayle was one of the most important sceptical thinkers of the seventeenth century. His work was a major influence on the development of the ideas of Voltaire, Hume, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Sally L. Jenkinson's new edition presents the reader with a coherent path through Bayle's monumental work. This is the first volume in English to select political writings from Bayle's work and to present its author as a specifically political thinker. Sally L. Jenkinson's translation will be welcomed by scholars and students of the history of ideas, political theory, cultural history and French studies."--Jacket.