SMITH | Essays on Philosophical Subjects, 1795

From the Library of the Earls of Haddington

SMITH, ADAM

Essays on Philosophical Subjects...to which is Prefixed, An Account of the Life and Writings of the Author; by Dugald Stewart, F.R.S.E. For T. Cadell and W. Davies and (Edinburgh:) W. Creech, 1795

4to (274 x 214mm.), FIRST EDITION, contemporary sprinkled calf, spine in six compartments, red morocco label, scattered foxing, slight edge-wear to binding, corners slightly bumped and rubbed,

This posthumously published work is made up of the volumes of manuscript material the author deliberately kept intact at the time of his death, as opposed to the 16 volumes of manuscripts which he ordered to be destroyed. It includes the remarkable essay "The principles which lead and direct philosophical enquiries, illustrated by the history of astronomy", which the philosopher probably wrote in the late 1740s and which he kept in a cabinet wherever he moved from 1751 until he died in 1790.

LITERATURE:

Goldsmiths' 16218; Kress B.3037; Rothschild 1902

PROVENANCE:

Signature on title page "Haddington" [probably Charles Hamilton, 8th Earl of Haddington, 1753--1828]

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