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RUDI THOEMMES RARE BOOKS ________________________________________________

Catalogue Fifty-Nine

New acquisitions

September 2017

5 Belvedere Road, Bristol BS6 7JG, UK +44 (0)117 974 4373 www.rrbltd.com

Philip de Bary philip@rrbltd.co.uk

Rudi Thoemmes rthoemmes@gmail.com

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1. BEATTIE, James An Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth; in opposition to Sophistry and Scepticism. Edinburgh, A. Kincaid & J. Bell, London, E. & C. Dilly, 1770. £ 950 Large 8vo, viii, 503 pp., contemporary plain boards, stained and with wear at edges, spine label renewed, old annotation on the second of two front free endpapers, otherwise internally clean and unbrowned, a good sound copy with wide margins and edges uncut. First edition. 'In 1770 Beattie first published the work for which he is best known, An Essay on Truth, an abrasive attack on 'modern scepticism' in general, and on David Hume in particular. The Essay was a great success, earning its author an honorary degree from Oxford and an audience with George III. Samuel Johnson declared in 1772 that 'We all love Beattie'. Hume, on the other hand, described the Essay as 'a horrible large lie in octavo', and dismissed its author as that 'bigotted silly Fellow'. Although Beattie was no match for Hume as a philosopher, the success of the Essay suggests that, unlike Hume, Beattie voiced the characteristic assumptions and anxieties of his age' (James Beattie: Selected Philosophical Writings, edited by James Harris, 2004).

2. GELLNER, Ernest (Bertrand Russell, Intro.) Words and Things. A Critical Account of Linguistic Philosophy and a Study in Ideology ... with an introduction by Bertrand Russell. London: Victor Gollancz, 1959. £ 80 8vo, 270 pp., publisher's cloth in slightly foxed dust jacket, spine panel a little browned, pages uniformly age-toned, otherwise clean and without any inscriptions. First edition of Gellner's fierce attack on the work of Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin, Gilbert Ryle and other promoters of the 'ordinary language philosophy' that was prevalent at Oxford around the mid-century. Ernest Gellner (1925-95) was professor of philosophy at LSE for twenty-two years, and of social anthropology at Cambridge for a further eight. Words and Things was his first book, and it brought him fame and notoriety. Gilbert Ryle refused to have it reviewed in Mind, though Bertrand Russell (who had written the foreword), came publicly to its defence, provoking a leader in The Times and a month-long correspondence in its letters pages. The final sentence of Gellner's book mockingly parodies the close of Wittgenstein's Tractatus: "That which one would insinuate, thereof one must speak". 3. GLANVILL, Joseph Philosophia Pia; or, A Discourse of the Religious Temper, and Tendencies of the Experimental Philosophy, which is profest by the Royal Society. To which is annext A Recommendation, and Defence of Reason in the Affairs of Religion. By Jos. Glanvill ... Fellow of the Royal Society. London: printed by J. Macock for James Collins, 1671. £ 925 Small 8vo, [vi], 234, [3] pp., contemporary blind-panelled calf, rubbed at extremities with noticeable loss to foot of spine, front and rear endpapers with contemporary annotations mentioning Robert Boyle, Seth Ward, etc., these endpapers a little dusty and with one small corner piece torn away, the first 3 leaves with a thin waterstain at the outer edges, otherwise internally fresh and bright, overall a very good copy. Rare first edition by the Anglican philosopher and controversialist Joseph Glanvill, F.R.S. (1636-80), appearing three years after his strong defence of the scientific work of Royal Society in Plus Ultra. In response to that book, Henry Stubbe had published polemics including The Plus Ultra reduced to a Non Plus (1670), calling the Society elitist and crypto-Catholic. Here in Philosophia Pia Glanvill counter-replies to Stubbe and other Aristotelians, arguing that the new natural philosophy reveals ever more fully the glory of God in his works of creation, thus reinforcing established religion and confuting atheism. Glanvill pointedly dedicates the work to the Anglican bishop of Salisbury, the mathematician and astronomer Seth Ward, who was also a founder member of the Royal Society.

'My Lord, I expect that this discourse ... should meet with animadverters as soon as it peeps into the world; and if it be not encountered with rude and ruffian-like oppositions, it will fare better than some other papers of mine whose designs were as harmless and inoffensive. But whatever befalls these sheets, my assailants shall find, that I am none of those mean spirits that will so easily be hector'd into a Non-Plus; no, but since my ingaging in such a cause makes them angry, I shall yet provoke them more; for I laugh at their vain boastings, and despise their feeble malice'.

Provenance: there is no indication as to the identity of the early annotator, but a later owner's note on the rear endpaper reads 'Perfect, Bernard Quaritch, F.S. Ferguson, 27.vi.1916'.

4. HEIDEGGER, Martin Sein und Zeit. Erste Hälfte [all published]. Sonderdruck aus: “Jahrbuch für Philosophie und phänomenologische Forschung”, Band VII, herausgegeben von E. Husserl - Freiburg i. B. Halle a.d.S.: Max Niemeyer, 1927. £ 460 Large 8vo, xi, 438, [1] pp., contemporary half cloth over marbled boards, slightly rubbed, light foxing throughout, a little heavier on outer leaves, contemporary pencil annotations and reading marks on most pages and, in the same hand on the rear endpaper, a paginated index listing 56 philosophers referred to by Heidegger in the text, these pencillings all made in the year of publication. First edition offprint of Heidegger's famous treatise Being and Time, said by some to be the most important philosophical work of the twentieth century. This copy was annotated by a very early reader: a note on the half-title reads: "Zuerst gelesen vom [but no date] bis 17. August 1927“ (Started first reading on … until 17th August 1927), giving an interesting insight into the book's reception exactly ninety years ago. 5. HERDER, Johann Gottfried Gott. Einige Gespräche. Gotha: Karl Wilhelm Ettinger, 1787. £ 550 Small 8vo, viii, 252 pp., contemporary half red morocco, lightly rubbed, internally clean with just a few spots and light age-toning, a fine copy. First edition. 'Herder’s God: Some Conversations was instrumental in the revival of Spinozism in Germany in the 1780s and 90s. Herder made Spinoza acceptable by arguing that his thought was not essentially atheistic, since his God was not just the substance of everything but was also endowed with subjectivity; if Spinoza had sometimes denied subjectivity to God it was because his own position not transparent to him. The resulting neo-Spinozism was a crucial influence on the early Schelling and Hegel' (Andrew Chitty, University of Sussex).

Sammelband including the Critique of Practical Reason in first edition

6. KANT, Immanuel Critik der practischen Vernunft. Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartknoch, 1788 [bound with] Ueber eine Entdeckung nach der alle neue Critik der reinen Vernunft durch eine ältere entbehrlich gemacht werden soll. Königsberg: Friedrich Nicolovius, 1790 [and] Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten. Dritte Auflage. Riga: Johann Friedrich Hartcknoch, 1792. £ 2800 Three works in one volume, 8vo, 292, 126, [xvi], 128 pp., contemporary speckled boards with paper spine label, rubbed, no library stamps, individual condition noted below. 1) First edition of the second of Kant's three Critiques. The Critique of Practical Reason is the primary source for the categorical imperative and Kant's other ethical doctrines. Uniform browning, heavier in some sections, occasional spots, old pencil markings on about 25 pages, still a good copy. Adickes 67; Warda 112. 2) First edition of Kant's answer to the attacks of J.A. Eberhard, who had maintained that whatever was contained in Kant's critical philosophy had already been better expressed by Leibniz and Wolff. Foxed throughout, mainly in the margins. Adickes 70; Warda 132. 3) Third edition of Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, first published in 1785. Uniform light browning and foxing, heavier in places, occasional old pencil annotations and reading marks. Adickes 58; Warda 93. [Note: we also have first editions of Kant’s other two Critiques in stock – please ask for details]

‘one of the ablest advocates of Mr. Locke’

7. (LOCKE) BOLD, Samuel A Collection of Tracts, publish'd in Vindication of Mr. Lock's Reasonableness of Christianity, as delivered in the Scriptures; and of his Essay concerning Humane Understanding. London: A. and J. Churchill, 1697-1706.

£ 2250 Six parts in one volume, 8vo, [iv], 55, [ii], [vi], 52, xvi, 52, [v], 124, [iv], 60, [xii], 206, [2] pp., contemporary calf, rebacked, armorial bookplate of John Bold of Grange, early ownership inscription on front free endpaper and early annotations on main title verso showing through, browned in places (heavily in the fourth work), generally good copies, all very rare. First edition. Samuel Bold was one of five people to whom Locke presented copies of the fourth edition of the Essay concerning Humane Understanding (1700). Also, the Preface of Locke's Second Vindication of The Reasonableness of Christianity (1697) consists mostly of Locke's grateful letter of acknowledgement 'To Mr. Bold'. This collection, behind its new main title-page dated 1706, contains first printings of all six works in bold (so to speak) below, each with its own original title-page: 'Bold was installed as rector at Steeple in Dorset in 1682. It was from there, in 1697, that he commenced the work for which he is chiefly remembered, his defence of John Locke. Locke's The Reasonableness of Christianity had appeared in 1695 and was immediately attacked as Socinian by the Calvinist John Edwards in Socinianism Unmasked (1696). Locke's own Vindication (1695) and Second Vindication (1697) of the Reasonableness of Christianity against Edwards were supported by Bold who, in 1697, entered the field with A Short Discourse of the True Knowledge of Christ Jesus in which he contended with Locke that Christ and the apostles considered it sufficient for a Christian to believe that Jesus was the Christ. Bold published two further works in that year, contra Edwards, in defence of Locke and his own Short Discourse, and in 1698 added Observations on the Animadversions … on a late book entituled, the Reasonableness of Christianity, again in defence of Locke. In 1699 Bold turned his attention to the vindication of Locke's other great work, the Essay Concerning Humane Understanding (1690) which by then was already in a second edition but which had attracted unfavourable comment. Bold's Some Considerations on the Principal Objections and Arguments … against Mr. Locke's Essay of Humane Understanding (1699), together with his earlier work in support of The Reasonableness of Christianity drew the comment that Bold was ‘one of the ablest advocates of Mr. Locke’ (Hutchins, 1.612), as well as Locke's own unstinted gratitude. Bold was frequently mentioned in Locke's correspondence with great regard and Locke wrote to him in 1699 ‘everything must be welcome to me that comes from your pen’ (N&Q, 137), although in 1703 when Bold visited Locke at Otes (or Oates) he was dissuaded by Locke from further publication.

In 1706, however, after Locke's death, Bold's earlier publications in defence of Locke were republished, together with some of his more recent works, in A Collection of Tracts publish'd in vindication of Mr. Locke's Reasonableness of Christianity. One of these later works, A Discourse Concerning the Resurrection of the Same Body (1705), seems to have been generated by Bold's assimilation of Locke's views on human existence, resulting in a major shift in Bold's own thinking regarding the nature and destiny of man' (ODNB).

8. MACHIAVELLI, Niccolò Oeuvres de Machiavel. Nouvelle edition, augmentée de l'Anti-Machiavel & autres pièces. The Hague: aux dépens de la compagnie, 1743. £ 1150 6 volumes, 12mo, title-pages printed in red and black, xvi, 591; 429, [1]; xxii, [ii], 374; xxxii, 446; 480; lx, 485 pp., with the seven folding tables and one engraved folding plate in Volume III, contemporary tree calf, rubbed, spines flaky, gilt in compartments with contrasting labels, nicked with loss to some spine ends, bookplates of 'Felicie Ewald et Suurum' and E. Rosenberger, uniform light browning, otherwise a good clean set without stamps or inscriptions. The first edition to include Voltaire's version of Frederick the Great's Anti-Machiavel¸ his chapter-by-chapter rebuttal of Machiavelli’s The Prince. Occupying most of Volume VI, the two texts are printed in parallel so that, as Frederick intended, ‘the antidote sits next to the poison’. ‘The history of the publication of the Anti-Machiavel is, of course, fascinating … the nub of the matter being the coincidence of Frederick's ascending the throne when publication of his work, maintaining that rulers should govern according to the principles of private morality rather than what we would now call realpolitik, was embarrassingly imminent. … As far as content is concerned, Voltaire made some modifications, but not many … He ruthlessly excised every pleonasm, every redundant (according to classical tenets) image, every tendency to lengthy rhetoric, and every expression of general ideological principles (with which Frederick tended to introduce each chapter of his commentary). As a consequence, Frederick's text was reduced by one third, which, coincidentally, represents the proportion of notes to text for the Anti-Machiavel, so that (since the Refutation is not annotated) the two texts are of almost identical length’ (Richard Waller, Modern Language Review, Vol. 94, no 3, 1999, p. 828).

9. MILLAR, John An Historical View of the English Government, from the Settlement of the Saxons in Britain to the Accession of the House of Stewart. London: printed for A. Strahan, T. Cadell and J. Murray, 1787. £ 1800

4to, vii, [vii], 565, [18] pp., contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments with red morocco label, rubbed, spine nicked at head, armorial bookplates on the pastedown and front free endpaper, isolated light foxing in some margins, otherwise clean and free of any inscriptions or other marks, a very good bright copy.

Rare first edition of one of the two major works by John Millar (1735-1801), Scottish philosopher, historian and professor of civil law at Glasgow University from 1761 to 1800. The book was intended as a rebuttal of what Millar took to be the royalist and authoritarian politics of David Hume's History of England. The first and second editions ended with the accession of the Stuarts, but the posthumous third edition of 1803 contained later material edited from Millar's papers by his nephew and biographer John Craig.

'If, to put it simply, The Origin of the Distinction of Ranks (1771) shows us Millar’s deep debt to Adam Smith’s teaching of law, An Historical View constitutes a sustained dialogue with Hume’s History of England and is surely the eighteenth century’s most serious response to that great work... The middle section of the course [Millar's Lectures on Government] offered a survey of ancient and modern societies that anticipated many of the central themes of An Historical View: for example, the thesis that feudalism is a gradual, not a sudden, development; the division of English history into three stages (feudal aristocracy, feudal monarchy, commercial government); and the concern for the mixed effects of commerce on the balance of prerogative and liberty. Because of this correspondence, the set of lectures specifically devoted to English, Scottish, and Irish matters offers something like a brief guide to the contents of An Historical View' (Mark Salber Phillips, Introduction to the Liberty Fund edition, 2006).

Provenance: with the eighteenth-century bookplate of the Dorset landowner Charles Sturt (1764-1812), and the later bookplate of his grandson Henry Sturt, Tory politician, who was created the first Lord Alington in 1876.

10. MOORE, George Edward Principia Ethica. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903. £ 470 8vo, xxvii, 232 pp., publisher's brown cloth with gilt spine-lettering, rubbed, lower cover with some light unobtrusive staining, Francis Carleton Green's bookplate and his neat ownership inscription "'Pemb. Coll. Camb. Jan. '04") on the front free endpaper, uniform light age-toning, outer edges untrimmed, a very good copy. First edition of Moore's famous and influential work in moral philosophy, the title of which was deliberately chosen to evoke Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica of 1687 (as, later, was Russell and Whitehead's Principia Mathematica, 1910-13). Here Moore applies the new techniques of analytic philosophy to ethics, examining how we should properly understand moral terms and concepts, in particular the concept of 'good’, which he regards as basic and irreducible to anything simpler. The mistake (pointed out earlier by Hume) of deriving ethical conclusions from statements of fact is labelled by Moore "the naturalistic fallacy", discussion of which would become one of the key strands in twentieth-century 'meta-ethics', of which this book is really the founding document.

Edward Garnett’s copy 11. NIETZSCHE, Friedrich Wilhelm A Genealogy of Morals: Poems. Translated by William A. Haussmann and John Gray. London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1899. £ 220 Large 8vo, xx, [iv], 286, [2] pp., publisher's embossed cloth, faded, stained and worn-looking, gilt lettering dulled, inscribed 'Edward Garnett, 1900' on the title-page, two marginal annotations, otherwise internally clean and with two preliminary leaves unopened, externally a shabby copy (as often with this edition, which was bound in inferior cloth) but one with an interesting association. First edition in English, the sheets printed by Naumann in Leipzig then bound in the UK. The English Nietzschean critic and literary editor Edward Garnett (1868-1937) was working at this time for Fisher Unwin publishers. He was a close friend of D.H. Lawrence and of Joseph Conrad, whose interest in Nietzsche he helped to spark. Garnett's article published in the same year as this book was a milestone in the English reception of Nietzsche: 'It is because Nietzsche challenges Modernity, because he stands and faces the modern democratic rush ... because he opposes a creative aristocratic ideal to negate the popular will ... that he is of such special significance' ('Nietzsche', Outlook, 8 July 1899, pp. 746-8).

12. [NIEUWENTIJT, Bernard] L'existence de Dieu, démontrée par les merveilles de la nature. En trois parties; où l'on traite de la structure du corps de l'homme, des elemens, des astres, & de leurs divers effets. Paris: Jacques Vincent, 1725.

£ 700 4to, xxvi, [i], 681, [3] pp., 29 folding engraved plates, contemporary panelled calf, spine decorated gilt in compartments, red morocco label, inside dentelles, marbled endpapers, an excellent copy. First French edition of Het regt gebruik der werelt beschouwingen, Nieuwentijt's main work of 1715 directed against Spinoza and his followers. This translation was reprinted in Amsterdam in 1727 and again in 1760. The English translation had appeared in 1718 as The Religious Philosopher, designed for the conviction of Atheists and Infidels.

‘one of the most important documents of the twentieth century’ (Peter Medawar) 13. POPPER, Karl The Logic of Scientific Discovery. London: Hutchinson, 1959. £ 450 Large 8vo, 480 pp., publisher's cloth, in the original unclipped dust jacket which has a mark on the front panel and light foxing on the rear, spine panel somewhat browned, light spotting to outer edge of text block, internally clean and free of any inscriptions, a very good copy. First edition in English of one of the outstanding works of twentieth-century philosophy, originally published as Logik der Forschung in Vienna in 1934. ‘One cannot help feeling that, if it had been originally translated as soon as it had been published, philosophy in this country might have been saved some detours. Professor Popper's thesis has that quality of greatness that, once seen, it appears simple and almost obvious’ (Times Literary Supplement).

Popper’s central insight is the logical asymmetry between verification and falsification: while no number of positive outcomes of experimental tests can prove that a scientific theory is true, it takes only one counterexample to prove it false. Thus falsifiability is the criterion which demarcates true science from pseudoscience: a theory is properly scientific if and only if it makes claims definite enough to be refutable in principle by testing – as for example Einstein’s theory of general relativity does, while astrology, Freudianism, and the Marxist theory of history do not.

14. (QUAKERS) John FRY, et al. Sammelband of six rare Quaker pamphlets, 1731-1750. £ 750 8vo, contemporary panelled calf with red morocco spine label ('Quaker Pamphlets'), joints restored, uniform light browning in some sections, small round stamp of the Selbourne Library on the initial title verso and in one lower margin, occasional browning and spotting, contemporary ownership inscriptions in two places, very good copies. [FRY, John] An Essay on Conduct and Education. Recommended to the People called Quakers, by J.F. The Second Edition, with an addition of a Postscript to People of all other Perswasions. London: T. Sowle Raylton and Luke Hinde, 1741. 40pp. [HUME, Sophia] An Exhortation to the Inhabitants of the Province of South-Carolina, to Bring their Deeds to the Light of Christ. By S.H. Bristol: Samuel Farley, 1750. First English edition, Sabin 33780, 80 pp. [DOVER, William] Useful Miscellanies: or, Serious Reflections, respecting Mens Duty to God, and One towards Another ... London: T. Cooper, 1739. 92 pp. BOWMAN, William. A Sermon Preach’d at the Visitation held at Wakefield in Yorkshire, June 25. 1731. The Fifth Edition. London: Stephen Austen, 1731. 27, [1] pp. BESSE, Joseph. An Examination of a Discourse ... published by Daniel Dobel... On the Subject of Water-Baptism. By one of the people called Quakers. . London: T. Sowle Raylton and Luke Hinde, 1744. 44pp. First edition. [J.H.] A Dissertation upon Tithes. With a Collection of Papers imperfectly published in the Gentleman’s Magazine, in answer to T.B. London: T. Cooper, 1739. 59 pp.

item 14 item 15

15. (QUAKERS) James SPALDING, et al. Sammelband of six rare Quaker pamphlets, 1791-1795. £ 650 Small 8vo, contemporary tree calf, smooth spine ruled gilt with red morocco label ('Collection of Pieces'), bookplate of David Carrick on the pastedown and his ownership signature on the fifth title-page, contents listed in contemporary hand on front free endpaper, some browning but generally very good copies, with the small round stamp of the Selbourne Library on the initial title verso and in one lower margin, rear free endpaper torn away, [BEVAN, Joseph Gurney]. A Summary of the History, Doctrine, and Discipline, of Friends: written at the desire of the Meeting for Sufferings in London. The Fifth Edition. London: James Phillips, 1794. iv, 30 pp. [SPALDING, James]. Some Account of the Convincement, and Religious Progress of John Spalding, late of Reading. London: James Phillips, 1795. v, 36 pp. [SPALDING, James]. A Few Reasons, for leaving the National Established Mode of Worship, addressed principally to those who attend at the place called St. Giles’s Church, Reading. Second Edition. London: James Phillips, 1795. 44 pp. BROOK, Mary. Reasons for the Necessity of Silent Waiting, in order to the Solemn Worship of God. To which are added several quotations from Robert Barclay’s Apology. The Seventh Edition Corrected. London: J. Phillips, 1791. 48 pp. HENSHAW, Frances. A Serious Call, in Tender Compassion to the Sinners in Sion, of what Rank or Degree soever. Macclesfield: Edward Bayley, [1795?]. 14 pp. COLLEY, Thomas. A Tender Salutation in Gospel Love, written principally for the Use of his Relations. The Second Edition. London: James Phillips, 1794. 23, [1] pp. Provenance: David Carrick (1750–1829, draper and banker, of Carlisle, Cumberland (see Biographical Dictionary of British Quakers in Commerce and Industry 1775-1920. York: Sessions Book Trust).

The most important philosophical reaction to Hume's Treatise 16. REID, Thomas An Inquiry into the Human Mind, on the Principles of Common Sense. The Third Edition Corrected. London and Edinburgh: T. Cadell, T. Longman, A. Kincaid and J. Bell, 1769. £ 420 8vo, xvi, 383 pp., contemporary calf, rebacked, title-page soiled and with a small hole from the erasure of an old ownership inscription, light browning and foxing throughout, heavier on the outer leaves and occasionally elsewhere, some waterstaining in a few places, a reasonable copy. Rare third edition of one of the major works of the Scottish Enlightenment. Reid's Inquiry was by far the most important philosophical response to Hume's Treatise of Human Nature, and four editions of it were published during Reid's lifetime. A German translation of this third edition was published in Leipzig in 1782, and a French translation in 1768 (see item 16 below). The Inquiry grew out of papers presented by Reid to the Aberdeen Philosophical Society, also known as The Wise Club, which he had helped to found in 1758. The Wise Club was a fortnightly seminar whose participants during its fifteen-year life included George Campbell, John Gregory, Alexander Gerard and James Beattie, and other members of what would later be known as 'the Scottish School'. The chief topic of discussion in the seminar was the work of Hume. Reid many times expressed large and unfeigned admiration for Hume – 'the acutest metaphysician of this or any age'. Reid regarded it as Hume's particular merit to have brought out the sceptical conclusions which had lain hidden in the doctrine of intermediary 'ideas' accepted by everyone from Descartes onwards, through Locke and Berkeley to Hume himself. If the mind is only ever in immediate contact with its own 'ideas', then it logically follows that we can be certain of nothing outside our own thoughts. Reid could not accept these conclusions - it is almost not too much to say he was revolted by them, for the 'death and destruction' he saw them as dealing to all morality, science and common sense.

'A traveller of good judgment may mistake his way and be unawares led into a wrong track; and while the road is fair before him, he may go on without suspicion and be followed by others; but when it ends in a coal-pit, it requires no great judgement to know that he hath gone wrong' (Inquiry 3rd edition, pp. 23-4).

Hume thus defined Reid's philosophical project for him – Reid now saw he must stop the war between philosophy and common sense by exploding 'the ideal theory' and devising instead a philosophy of common sense which lacked its sceptical consequences. Although he would elaborate this philosophy in the later Essays on the Intellectual Powers (1785) and Essays on the Active Powers (1788), it is here in the Inquiry that Reid first sets out his methodological principles and applies them in the refutation of epistemological scepticism through a systematic analysis of the senses of smell, taste, hearing, touch and sight. 17. REID, Thomas Recherches sur l'entendement humain, d'après les Principes du sens commun. Ouvrage traduit de l'anglois. Amsterdam: Jean Meyer, 1768. £ 850 2 volumes, 12mo, xii, 314; [ii], 320 pp., (in the second volume E6 and E8 bound out of sequence), contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards with vellum corner pieces, rubbed, spines decorated gilt with contrasting labels, a little very light browning in the second volume, otherwise internally clean and bright, without stamps or inscriptions, a most attractive copy. First French translation of Reid's Inquiry (see the previous item). 'The Bibliothèque des sciences et des beaux arts reviewed Reid's Inquiry in 1767, one year before the appearance of the French translation of this work. And the published a most favourable review of the translation in 1768. So by 1768 the most important work by the Scottish common-sense philosophers was available in French, and thus easily accessible to German philosophers. And given its favourable reviews in major French journals, many of those Germans most interested in developing philosophy along more empiricist lines would very likely have made an effort to obtain the work' (Manfred Kuehn, Scottish Common-Sense in Germany, 1768-1800, McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987, p. 53). 18. RUSSELL, Bertrand A Critical Exposition of the Philosophy of Leibniz with an Appendix of Leading Passages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1900. £ 240 8vo, xvi, [ii], 311, [1] pp., publisher's blind-ruled cloth, recased with the original backstrip laid down, gilt spine lettering dulled, edges untrimmed, library stamp on title-page and lower margin of p. 49, unobtrusive marginalia on 6 pages in the appendix, uniform light age-toning, a good copy. First edition of Russell's earliest strictly philosophical work, which remains one of the most important studies of Leibniz ever published. Here Russell established the treatment of the great philosophers of the past as our live intellectual contemporaries, rather than as objects of mere historical or historiographical interest. (More recently, of course, the pendulum has tended to swing back the other way). 'By sheer intellectual analysis in his study, he offered a completely original interpretation of Leibniz's philosophy; and soon afterwards had the happy experience of having his views confirmed by the discovery of some of Leibniz's manuscripts which had never been published' (Werner Martin, Bertrand Russell: A Bibliography of His Writings, pp. 7-8)

19. SYDENHAM, Thomas Opera omnia medica. Editio novissima omni alia auctior. Geneva: De Tournes, 1696. £ 600 8vo, portrait frontispiece, lxx, 733, [50] pp., contemporary vellum, underlining in neat old ink on about ten pages, uniform light age-toning, isolated spots, a very good copy. Rare early collected edition of the works of the great English physician Thomas Sydenham (1624-89). The first half of the volume comprises Sydenham's chief work, the Observationes medicae (1676), written originally in English and translated into Latin by Sydenham's friend Dr John Mapletoft. Sydenham's dedication to Mapletoft includes a tribute to another close friend and collaborator, John Locke, who in turn wrote a poem in praise of Sydenham (Yolton 256), also printed here. It has recently been shown that Locke had a significant hand in writing the Preface: see G.G. Meynell, 'John Locke and the Preface to Thomas Sydenham's Observationes Medicae', Medical History, 50 (1), 2006, pp. 93–110). Sydenhams's other works, all included here, are the two Epistolae responsoriae (1680), one on epidemics, addressed to Robert Brady, the other on venereal disease to Henry Paman; Dissertatio epistolaris (1682) on smallpox and hysteria, to William Cole; Tractatus de podagra et hydrope (1683); Schedula monitoria de novae febris ingressu (1686); and his last completed work Processus integri (1692). 20. (THEOLOGY) NEWTON, Isaac, et al. Sammelband of seven rare theological works, all first editions, 1731-1756. £ 1350 8vo, contemporary quarter calf over marbled boards, small loss to head of spine, front joint cracked but binding firm, contents listed in a contemporary hand on the front free endpaper, small round stamp of the Selbourne Library on the initial title verso and in one lower margin, very good copies in an unrestored contemporary binding.

[MIDDLETON, Conyers]. A Letter to Dr. Waterland; containing some Remarks on his Vindication of Scripture: in answer to a Book, intituled, Christianity as Old as the Creation ... London: J. Peele, 1731. 67 pp.

[MIDDLETON, Conyers]. Some Remarks on a Reply to the Defence of the Letter to Dr. Waterland ... London: J. Peele, 1732. 80pp. [LYTTLETON, George]. Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul. In a Letter to Gilbert West, Esq. London: R Dodsley, 1748. 110 pp. [HUGHES, David?]. The Expediency and Necessity of Revising and Improving the Publick Liturgy, Humbly Represented ... London: R. Griffiths, 1749. 136 pp. FOTHERGILL, Anthony. A Modest Enquiry, how far the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England ... London: J. Payne, 1755. [ii], 50, [2] pp. NEWTON, Isaac. Two Letters of Sir Isaac Newton to Mr. Le Clerc ... London: J. Payne, 1754. [ii], 123 pp. [GRAHAM, William]. Diana Great at Ephesus: or the Protestant turn’d Papist. London: R. Griffiths, 1756. Half-title, [vi], 37 pp. 21. (UNITARIANISM) HUTTON, Joseph, TAYLER, John James, et al. Sammelband of ten 19th-century Unitarian pamphlets, some of them extremely rare, 1819-1828. £ 300 8vo, recent quarter calf, contemporary ownership inscriptions on three of the title-pages, occasional foxing, generally very good copies. HUTTON, Joseph. Omniscience the Attribute of the Father Only. A Sermon, preached at the Chapel, Bowlally-Lane, Hull, on ... Sept. 30, 1819. Second Edition. Leeds: printed by Edward Baines, 1820. 91, [1] pp. HAWKES, W. Acquaintance with God the only Source of Genuine and Lasting Peace. Manchester: printed by Joseph Pratt, 1820. 27 pp. HUTTON, Joseph. Piety and Virtue the Only Terms of Final Acceptance with God. A Sermon, preached on ... May 12th, 1819 at the Unitarian Chapel, Bradford ... . Leeds: printed by Edward Baines [1819]. 42 pp. TAYLER, John James. The Retributory Providence of God, illustrated in the case of Individuals and of Nations. A Sermon, preached on ... August 8th, 1830; after receiving intelligence of the Revolution in Paris. London: R. Hunter, 1830. 19 pp. TAYLER, John James. The Perpetuity of the Christian Dispensation, viewed in its connection with the Progress of Society. A Sermon, preached ... June 2, 1830. London: printed and sold by the Unitarian Association, 1830. 39 pp. HALL, Robert. A Sermon, occasioned by the death of her late Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales, preached at Harvey-Lane, Leicester, November 16th, 1817. London: T. Hamilton, 1823. 60 pp. HUTTON, Joseph. The False Accusers of the Brethren Reproved ... A Sermon, preached before the Supporters of the British and Foreign Unitarian Association at their Annual Meeting, May 28th, 1828. London: printed and sold by the Unitarian Association, 1828. 48 pp. TAYLOR, John James. On Communion with Unbelievers: a Discourse delivered in the Unitarian Chapel, Mosely-Street, Manchester, on ... March 30, 1828. Manchester: Robert Robinson, [1828]. vi, 20 pp. SCORESBY, William. Narrative of the Loss of the Esk and Lively Greenland Whalers, by which sixty-five persons perished; with a Sermon preached on the melancholy occasion in ... Whitby. Whitby ... For the benefit of the said destitute persons, 1826. 83, [1] pp. SHEPHERD, William. A Sermon on occasion of the death of the Rev. John Yates ... Liverpool: Edward Willmer et al, 1826. 28 pp.

22. [TINDAL, Matthew] Christianity as old as the Creation: or the Gospel, a republication of the Religon of Nature. Volume I [all published]. London, 1730. £ 950 4to, viii, 432 pp., contemporary double gilt-ruled calf, spine in compartments with morocco label, rubbed with some small loss to spine ends, old Amsterdam bookplate on the pastedown, joints cracked but holding, the first and last few leaves lightly browned, otherwise fresh, generally a very sound copy. First edition of what became known as ‘The Deist’s Bible’. Tindal’s book is the classic statement of the deist understanding of Christianity and was highly influential in England and on the Continent. Through Voltaire it profoundly affected the French freethinkers, and following its translation into German it laid the foundations for Biblical hermeneutics. In a nutshell, Tindal’s argument is that because (i) ‘no Religion can come from a Being of infinite Widsom and Perfection, but what is absolutely perfect’, and (ii) revelation cannot add anything to a perfect religion, and (iii) God wants us to be able to know all truths, then (iv) natural religion must have been available to humankind from the beginning – therefore (assuming that Christianity is the perfect religion) Christianity must be as old as the creation. The work as published is said to be ‘Volume I’, but no second volume ever came out and no manuscript for it survives.

23. VAIHINGER, Hans Two letters to the philosopher and psychologist Karl Groos (1861-1946), one handwritten and dated 14 January 1911, the other typewritten and dated 29 February 1916, with the second half of a third typewritten letter to Groos from around the same date, all three letters signed. £ 240 The autograph letter on Vaihinger's headed paper folded to make 4 sides, the other letters each on one page 4to, typed both sides, together 8 pages, approx. 1850 words in total, condition very good. Hans Vaihinger (1852-1933), celebrated neo-Kantian philosopher and founder-editor of the journal Kant-Studien. These three letters are all about academic matters, and they all include discussion of Vaihinger’s masterpiece, Die Philosophie des Als Ob (The Philosophy of ‘As If’), which was first published in 1911, the year of the first letter. The book had largely been written 30 years earlier as Vahinger’s Habilitationsschrift under the supervision of Ernst Laas, entitled ‘Logische Untersuchungen. I. Teil: Die Lehre von der wissenschaftlichen Fiktion’. When failing eyesight forced Vaihinger to relinquish his professorship at Halle in 1906, he turned to the manuscript again.

In the 4-page autograph letter of 1911 Vaihinger congratulates Karl Groos on his recent appointment to a chair at Tübingen, and thanks him for sending an article and comments about his newly-published Die Philosophie des Als Ob. He then discusses Kant's early use of a kind of ‘Als Ob-Betrachtung’ in his Opus Postumum, referring Groos to pages in the new book and inviting his further comments. In the letter dated 1916 (presumably dictated because by now he was nearly blind) Vaihinger sets out in tabular form a hierarchy of five conceptual levels first distinguished by him in an article from 1878, ‘Das Entwicklungsgesetz der Vorstellungen über das Reale’. He then maps these levels on to those found in Die Philosophie des Als Ob, explains them more fully, and asks for Groos's opinion. In the third letter he discusses the connections between the Theory of Play famously developed by Groos and his own Philosophy of 'As If'. A strong collegial tone runs through these letters, as though Vaihinger feels he has quite as much to learn from Groos as the other way round. As he writes in the second letter: "Es gibt in meinen Augen überhaupt keine Philosophie ohne Psychologie". 24. WITTGENSTEIN, Ludwig 'A Lecture on Ethics', pp. 3-12 in The Philosophical Review, Volume LXXIV, No. 1, January 1965. £ 120 Large volume containing all four issues for the year 1965, black library buckram, spine lettered in gilt and with shelf sticker, original printed wrappers bound in, very good. First edition of Wittgenstein's only sustained discussion of ethics. At the head of the article an editorial note states: 'The following lecture, hitherto unpublished, was prepared by Wittgenstein for delivery in Cambridge sometime between September 1929 and December 1930. It was probably read to the society known as "The Heretics," to which Wittgenstein gave an address at that time. The manuscript bears no title. So far as is known, this was the only popular lecture ever composed or delivered by Wittgenstein' (p. 3). The piece was reprinted in Philosophical Occasions, 1912-1951 (eds Klagge and Nordmann, 1993). 'An important exception to [his] preference for silence ... is a lecture Wittgenstein gave to a Cambridge student group soon after his return to university life in 1929. This "Lecture on Ethics" (as it is usually called) is an enormously important document for understanding the background in religious experience that conditioned much of Wittgenstein's thoughts during the period of his early philosophy, and is indispensable for interpreting some of the more mysterious, mystical, and metaphysical-sounding passages in both his Tractatus and the Notebooks he kept during the First World War from which many Tractatus passages are drawn' (Russell Nieli, NDPR).

The other three quarterly issues in this volume also contain articles on Wittgenstein: April 1965: ‘A New Interpretation of the Tractatus Examined’, David Keyt. July 1965: ‘Wittgenstein on Privacy’, John W. Cook. October 1965: ‘Wittgenstein and Logical Necessity’, Barry Stroud.

Presentation offprint in logical probability

25. ZAWIRSKI, Zygmunt Über das Verhältnis der Mehrwertigen Logik zur Wahrscheinlichkeitsrechnung. Seorsum Impressum ex Vol. 1 [pp. 407-442] Commentariorum societatis Philosophicae Polonorum. Leopoli [Lvov]: Studia Philosophica, 1935. £ 350 Offprint, original printed wrappers, clean, a little frayed at edges, long closed tear to upper hinge, untrimmed and mostly unopened, author's presentation inscription to Stanislaw Zaremba dated 1937 on title-page. First published in Polish in 1934 under the title 'Stosunek logiki wielowartościowej do rachunku prawdopodobieństwa', this is an attempt to combine the many-valued logics of Lukasiewicz and Post in order to form a satisfactory logical theory of probability. Zawirski (1882-1948) had studied under Twardowski; he went on to teach at the universities of Poznań and Kraków, and to become an eminent member of the Lvov-Warsaw School. This copy's presentee, Stanislaw Zaremba (1863-1942), was elected first president of the Mathematical Society of Krakow on its inception in 1919. The society became the Polish Mathematical Society in 1920.

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