BABBAGE, THE NINTH BRIDGEWATER TREATISE, LONDON, 1837, ORIGINAL CLOTH

FIRST EDITION, 8vo (225 x 140mm.), half-title, a few illustrations, advertisements at end, "Works by the same author" (1 page) and "Mr Murray's announcements of new books" (8pp. dated May 1837), original cloth with printed label on spine, spine slightly worn and label slightly chipped

Ferguson of Raith, FRS (1769-1840), bookplate; bought from Jonathan Hill, New York, 1977

Tomash & Williams B37; Norman 94; Origins of Cyberspace 55; Randell 1979 p.107; Van Sinderen 51

Eight Bridgewater Treatises were officially commissioned under the terms of the will of the eighth Earl of Bridgewater (Rev. Francis Egerton), on "The power, wisdom and goodness of God, as manifested in the creation". This ninth treatise is not part of that series but Babbage's response to Whewell's treatise (the third), entitled Astronomy and general physics. "In it he argued against William Whewell's assertion that scientific and religious modes of thought were incompatible and that mathematicians and mechanists were therefore disqualified from theological debate. This was anathema to Babbage, who set out to reconcile rational science with deism" (ODNB). The appendix contains a short section "On the calculating engine".