VELTHUYSEN, Lambert van
An excellent sammelband of related works. Velthuysen's work on idolatry and superstition, together with his subsequent defences of the work in reaction to the protests of the Protestant Consistory to Utrecht magistrates. Velthuysen (1622-1685) was a Dutch theologian, philosopher, physician and administrator, who was a correspondent and friend of Spinoza. The pair defended Descartes against the Calvinist theologian Voetius. 'During the 1650s and 60s, Lambert van Velthuysen (1622 85) was regarded by his contemporaries as a radical author, ready to embrace the two major new philosophies, namely those of Descartes and Hobbes, and in the view of Voetians What made him a particularly dangerous representative of the novatores was his willingness to present these novelties not only in Latin, but also in Dutch. The fact is, however, that by the end of the 1660s Van Velthuysen, instead of representing the most radical wing of Dutch Cartesianism, decided to attack both Lodewijk Meyer and Spinoza, since he felt these authors were indeed subversive in the way in which they turned Cartesianism into an essentially atheist and materialist philosophy that threatened to undermine the very basis of Christian society. But after having accused Spinoza, in a brief but exciting exchange of letters that took place in 1671, of teaching sheer atheism , the two seem to have become quite friendly' (Dictionary of Seventeenth and Eighteenth-Century Dutch Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 2003). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 4to, [ii], 140, 42, 32, 32, 32 pp., contemporary blind-stamped vellum with minor stains, first title-page with the cancelled stamp of the American Antiquarian Society, the first and last texts uniformly browned, generally good or very good copies, all rare, some extremely so.
BARTOLE, DESLANDES, FORMEY, MARTINELLI, et al.
Sources of the pieces translated here include Le Mercure de France, Le Journal Economique, Le Journal Romaine and l'Academie des Belles Lettres. Not in Goldsmiths or Kress; ESTC lists only 2 UK copies (British Library & Bodleian), WorldCat records 9 copies in N. America. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, iv, [iii], 421, [1] pp., contemporary calf, scuffed, label missing, upper joint cracked at ends, marbled endpapers with traces of armorial bookplate, internally fresh and unbrowned, no stamps or inscriptions, just the occasional spot, a very good copy of an extremely uncommon book.
(Bernard MANDEVILLE) LAW, William
Second edition of William Law's criticism of Mandeville, first published the previous year. This is a close reprint but not a reissue of the same sheets. Kaye calls Law's work 'the ablest of all the replies to Mandeville, and in some ways to be ranked, as literature, with the Fable. It is a masterpiece of controversial writing'. Bound with it is a copy of the third edition of Law's criticism of Bishop Hoadly's views on the Eucharist - this is not part of the original Bangorian controversy but was written in the 1730s. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Two works in one volume, 8vo, [ii], 106, [4], [iv], 308, contemporary gilt-panelled calf, rubbed and scraped, rebacked, without the half title to the first work, otherwise complete, some browning at edges, especially in the first work, generally very good copies.
HERBERT, Edward, 1st Lord Herbert of Cherbury
First published in Paris in 1624 (PMM 123). 'The book contains an elaborate theory of knowledge linked with some penetration psychology, to which is added a scheme of natural religion; it is in many ways an English precursor of the natural theology and rationalist philosophy expressed by Descartes. It is clear that Herbert's purpose was to do for natural religion what his friend Grotius had done for natural law, and in doing so he produced the first modern work of metaphysics by an English writer' (PMM 123). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 12mo, [viii], 321, [1], 152, 34, [10], [14] pp., recent calf-backed boards, edges red, first title-page torn with loss and library stamp (please see image), a few ink spots early on, uniform light age-toning, a little finger soiling in places, generally good copies.
BIGLAND, John
First edition. John Bigland (1750-1832) began his career as a village schoolmaster. In 1803, he published his first work occasioned, on his own account, by his religious scepticism. His work was a success, and he became a professional author, publishing in rapid succession a series of popular books, mainly connected with geography and history (DNB). 2 volumes , 8vo, xiii, [ii], 257; 259 pp., library stamp on first title verso, pages generally fresh with occasional light foxing, a disbound copy with wide margins, untrimmed.
HASLAM, John
First edition. Wellcome III.221. John Haslam (1764-1844) was an English apothecary, physician and medical writer, known for his work on mental illness. Haslam's case study of James Tilly Matthews is the earliest detailed description of paranoid schizophrenia. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, xiii, [ii], 192 pp., contemporary half calf over marbled boards, a little rubbed, smooth spine ruled gilt with red label, endpapers foxed, otherwise very good and clean.
GRISENTHWAITE, William
AUTHOR'S PRESENTATION COPY. First and only edition of an essay read to a Literary and Philosophical Society in Nottingham, mentioning Descartes, Locke and Isaac Watts. The author also published a refutation of Thomas Paine's Age of Reason. Rare: WorldCat only 6 copies: BL, Oxford, Cambridge, Chicago, Huntington, State Library Victoria. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Large 8vo, 86, 2, 2 pp., old blue boards, rebacked, modern spine lettering in black, a presentation copy from the author inscribed at head of title-page, with 'Prospectus of a New Calculus' and advertisement leaf at end, wide margins, uncut.
LAYCOCK, Thomas
8vo, 23 pp., bound in modern cloth-backed boards, a very good copy. First separate edition, reprinted from the Journal of Mental Science'. 'Thomas Laycock (1812-76) is a much more important figure in the history of thought than his relative obscurity might lead one to believe. In cerebral physiology he helped forge an important link between Unzer, Prochaska, and Hall, on the one hand, and scientists such as Jackson and Ferrier on the other. In mental philosophy and mental physiology, he ranks in importance, if not in influence, with Carpenter; and like Carpenter he helped bridge the gap between the craniology of Franz Joseph Gall and the new scientific psychology of Alexander Bain, William James and others' (Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 2002).
FORSTER, Thomas
Extracted from The Pamphleteer. 'Thomas Ignatius Maria Forster FRS FLS (9 November 1789 2 February 1860) was an English astronomer, physician, naturalist and philosopher. An early animal rights activist, he promoted vegetarianism and founded the Animals' Friend Society with Lewis Gompertz. He published pamphlets on a wide variety of subjects, including morality, Pythagorean philosophy, bird migration, Sati, and "phrenology", a term that he coined in 1815. In 1830 he collected and published the letters of John Locke, Shaftesbury, and Algernon Sydney which he inherited from Benjamin Furly' (Wikipedia). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, pp. 108-144, a very good copy bound in modern cloth boards, spine lettered in gilt.
First edition. 'Mill's liberal feminism may be rather tame by contemporary standards, but it still has many adherents and it was very radical in the Victorian context. At the time Mill was writing women had little realistic choice in life except to marry, and once married they had little opportunity to be anything more than homemakers; legally, they were virtually property owned by their husbands. In addition, women were entirely excluded from the political sphere (except, of course, for the Queen). Mill sought to end the subjection of women by changing the laws and, indirectly, the attitudes, that govern relations between the sexes. He called for the recognition of women's rights in his writings, particularly The Subjection of Women, and also became more directly involved in the campaign for them; in 1867 he proposed an amendment to the Second Reform Bill that would have given women the vote on the same terms as men. In 'The Subjection' Mill argued that the power which the men of his day enjoyed over women was not only a direct source of unhappiness to the latter but that in addition it had a perverting effect on the characters of both' (Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 2002). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, with the half-title, [iv], 188 pp., contemporary half calf, spine decorated gilt with red morocco label, marbled edges and endpapers, modern bookplate, extremities a little rubbed, no stamps or inscriptions, final leaf and endpaper lightly spotted, a fine copy.
First edition. 'The statement that Mill was Britain s most important philosopher in the nineteenth century looks like a bold assertion, but in fact it should not be even mildly controversial. The Victorians themselves might have thought that someone else, such as Herbert Spencer, better merited this title, but from our perspective Mill has no serious rivals. Indeed, only Charles Darwin could possibly rival Mill s claim to having been nineteenth-century Britain s most important intellectual figure' (Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 2002). PROVENANCE: morocco bookplate of the bookseller William Foyle, from his celebrated library at Beeleigh Abbey, near Maldon in Essex. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Large 8vo, xvi, 567 pp., modern crushed navy morocco with triple gilt fillet, spine ruled gilt in compartments, all edges gilt, frontispiece portrait with tissue guard, nine other full-page photographic illustrations, a very handsome copy.
Volumes 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17, 18 & 19, 20, 22, 23, 24. This journal of book notices and reviews was published in French in Amsterdam in two dozen volumes from 1686 to 1693. It was written and edited by Jean Le Clerc and Jean Cornand de Lacroze and, later, Jacques Bernard. This interrupted run comprises 19 volumes, 12mo, woodcut devices to titles, woodcut headpieces and initials, engraved plates throughout (some torn with loss), lightly dust-soiled, contemporary sprinkled calf gilt, worn, occasional loss of labels & spine compartments (please see photo), contents not collated.
First London edition (there was a first Sydney 'impression' the same year). 'Herbert Stanley Jevons, aka HS Jevons (1875-1955), was the son of economist and mathematician William Stanley Jevons. He was professor of economics and political science at University of South Wales. He was also the first Head of Department of Economics at University of Allahabad. Jevons was the first Secretary of the Abyssinian Association and the first treasurer of the Anglo-Ethiopian Society. He started the Indian Journal of Economics. He was also the first president of Indian Economic Association' (Wikipedia). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, xi, 5, 280 pp., publisher's dark blue cloth, slightly rubbed at spine ends, 36 figures in the text, endpapers a little foxed, otherwise internally very good and clean.
First edition. Provenance: Sir Robert John Wilmot-Horton, 3rd Baronet, GCH, PC, FRS (1784-1841), born Robert John Wilmot, politician, sociopolitical theorist, and colonial administrator. He was Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies between 1821 and 1828, and Governor of Ceylon between 1831 and 1837. He is most widely known for his writings on assisted emigration to the colonies of the British Empire. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, half title, vi, [ii], 520 pp., contemporary half green morocco, spine and corners worn, armorial bookplate of Robert John Wilmot, outer leaves foxed, two leaves (L7 & L8) with a marginal tear, otherwise internally very good.
First edition. Alexander Gerard (1728-95) was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and became the first professor of moral philosophy and logic there in 1753. 'The success of An Essay on Taste may have been instrumental in leading Gerard to explore another of the eighteenth century's seminal abstract nouns, genius . In 1774, he published An Essay on Genius, a work that is in many ways more important and philosophically innovative than the book on taste by which he is best known. For Gerard, genius is "the leading faculty of the mind, the grand instrument of all investigation"; it is the mind's capacity for invention that makes genius the mind's pre-eminent quality. (Homer is, not surprisingly, cited as the perfect model of genius.) Genius derives from imagination, but the two are not identical: "Genius implies regularity, as well as comprehensiveness of imagination. Regularity arises in a great measure from such a turn of imagination as enables the associating principles, not only to introduce proper ideas, but also to connect the design of the whole with every idea that is introduced". Gerard's introduction of the idea of regularity into his argument may seem to impose restrictions upon genius, but the discipline of organization and arrangement is necessary to bring to fruition the buds of genius' (Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century British Philosophers, Thoemmes Press, 1999). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 8vo, vii, [i], 434, [2] pp., contemporary tree calf, spine gilt with red morocco label, slightly scuffed, a fine copy.
First edition of the collected works of Franz von Baader (1765-1841) including material never published before, organised by topic: Vol. I epistemology, Vol. II metaphysics, Vol. III natural philosophy, Vol. IV anthropology, Vols V & VI social philosophy, Vols VII to X philosophy of religion, Vol. XI Baader's diaries, Vol. XII commentaries on St-Martin, Vol. XIII commentaries on Böhme, Vol. XIV time, and Vol. XV biography and correspondence. Vol. XVI contains an index as well as a sketch of his system by Lutterbeck. Baader influenced numerous contemporaries and later thinkers such as Schelling, Görres, G.H. Schubert, Fr. Schlegel and Kierkegaard. Ziegenfuß Vol. I, 62. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 16 volumes, large 8vo, contemporary half calf, rubbed, occasional marginalia and underlinings, one front free endpaper with a piece cut out, some foxing and browning, a good set, rarely found complete.
First edition in English, [4], 75, [1] pp., with the half-title. See Micheli, 'The Early Reception of Kant's Thought in England', in Kant and his Influence, Thoemmes Press, 1990. Bound with: (2) ERSKINE (Thomas), A View of the causes and consequences of the present War with France, 16th edition, London: J. Debrett, 1797, [4], 138, [2] pp., half-title and advert leaf present. (3). PITT (William, Earl of Chatham), Authentic Memoirs of . the late Earl of Chatham, London: J. Wenman, 1778, [2], 102 pp. (4). FORSTER (John), Speech of the Right Honorable John Foster, Speaker of the House of Commons of Ireland; delivered in Committee of the whole House on Thursday the 11th of April, 1799, London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1799, [6], 111, [1] pp., half-title (with closed tear), errata leaf. (5). TUCKER (Josiah), Cui bono?, or, An inquiry : what benefits can arise either to the English or the Americans, the French, Spaniards, or Dutch, from the greatest victories, or successes, in the present war ; being a series of letters addressed to Monsieur Necker, Glocester: Printed by R. Raikes, for T. Cadell, 1782, 141, [3] pp., publisher's advert leaf at rear. (6.) PITT (William), A Speech of the Right Honourable William Pitt, in the House of Commons, on Friday, February 21, 1783, London: J. Debrett, 1783, 39, [1] pp., half-title, advertisement to verso of final leaf. (7). WATSON (Richard), An Address to the People of Great Britain, 11th edition, London: R. Faulder, 1798, [4], 42, [2] pp., half-title with signature W. Horton to upper margin, publisher's advert leaf at rear. (8). TICKELL (Richard), Anticipation: containing the substance of His M---------y's most gracious speech to both H------s of P----l-----t, on the opening of the approaching session, together with a full and authentic account of the debate which will take place . With notes, 7th edition, London: T. Becket, 1778, [8], 74, [2] pp., half-title, publisher's advert leaf at rear. (9). BROSSAYA DU PERRAY (Joseph Marie), Historical remarks and anecdotes on the Castle of the Bastille, translated from the French published in 1774, London: T. Cadell, 1780, [6], 29, [11] pp., folding engraved plan repaired to verso and close-trimmed at foot. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 9 works in one volume, 8vo, contemporary half sheep, spine worn and flaky, boards rubbed and worn at corners, occasional toning, spotting and few marks throughout volume, armorial bookplate of Eus[ebiu]s. Horton (of Catton Hall, Derbyshire) to upper pastedown, internally very good.
First editions of these two volumes. A third volume of Mill's Dissertations and Discussions was published in 1867. The longest discussion here is of De Tocqueville's Democracy in America (Vol. II pp. 1-84). Other topics treated include votes for women, the French Revolution, and the writings of George Grote, William Whewell, Jeremy Bentham and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. PROVENANCE: presentation inscription from Francis Warre-Cornish (1839-1916), author and master at Eton College, and subsequently Vice-Provost there. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 2 volumes, large 8vo, vi, [i], 474; [ii], 563, [1] pp., early 20th-century panelled calf with some light scrapes, spines ruled gilt in compartments with red and green morocco labels, marbled edges and endpapers, gift inscription dated 1864 on first front free endpaper, outer leaves a little foxed, otherwise internally bright and clean, a very good set.
'A considerable number of additions have been made in the present fourth edition. The most important of these relate to the doctrine of Causation, and to the incessantly renewed attempt to make human conceptions, and supposed incapacities of conception, the test of objective truth' (Preface, viii). PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 2 volumes, large 8vo, xvi, 528; xii, 531, [1] pp., contemporary panelled calf, spines richly gilt with contrasting morocco labels, marbled edges and endpapers, a few light spots on the outer leaves, an attractive set in fine condition.