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Author: Priestley, Joseph
Title: An Essay on the First Principles of Government; and on the Nature of Political, Civil, and Religious Liberty, Including Remarks on Dr. Brown's Code of Education and on Dr. Balguy's Sermon on Church Authority.
Place Published: London
Publisher:J. Johnson
Date Published: 1771
Description:

xvi, 300, [3] pp. (8vo) 20.5x12.5 cm (8x5"), full period calf, morocco spine label lettered in gilt. Second Edition.

Corrected and enlarged (almost eighty additional pages) edition of Priestley's first substantial political work, a quintessential expression of his humanitarianism. Priestley argues for a system of education compatible with the liberal political philosophy which he advocates not only as a matter of morality but as a prerequisite of social progress. Ex-libris bookplate of Charles Coleman Sellers on front pastedown.

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) was a British natural philosopher, dissenting clergyman, political theorist, theologian, and educator. Today he is best remembered for his isolation of "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen), but his determination to defend phlogiston theory left him isolated within the scientific community. His outspoken support of the French Revolution aroused public and governmental suspicion; he was eventually forced to flee in 1791, first to London and then to the United States after a mob burned down his home and church. He spent the last ten years of his life living in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.

Provenance: Charles Coleman Sellers (1903-1980) was an American historian and librarian. His papers are held at the American Philosophical Society, and the Smithsonian Institution.

Light wear and rubbing to calf, with some flaking, corners bumped, front cover detached; rear hinge cracked, ex-libris stamps on pastedowns, pages age-toned with occasional foxing; very good.