BENTHAM, Jeremy.

A Sammelband of three works, from the library of John Childs, the printer, whom Bentham was happy to call 'a good friend of liberty'.

London, 1793–1819. The works are bound together in roan-backed cloth boards, lightly rubbed, spine lettered gilt. The volume comprises:i) A Table of the Springs of Action: shewing the several Species of Pleasures and Pains, of which Man’s Nature is susceptible: together with the several Species of Interests, Desires, and Motives, respectively corresponding to them: and the several Sets of Appellatives, Neutral, Eulogistic and Dyslogistic, by which each Species of Motive is wont to be designated … London, R. Hunter, 1817.8vo, pp. [iv], 32; with 1 folding table; small tear to table repaired; some light spotting and offsetting, else a good copy, uncut.First published edition, originally printed in 1815, with the cancel title-page (see Muirhead). This analysis of the various pains and pleasures that constitute motives to action amplifies the principle of psychological hedonism which plays a central role in Bentham’s thought. The ‘method of detail’ that Mill associated with Bentham is seen to its full extent in this taxonomy.Chuo T1-2; Everett, p. 528; Goldsmiths’ 21692; Muirhead, p. 19; not in Kress.ii) Bentham’s Radical Reform Bill, with extracts from the reasons. London, E. Wilson, 1819.8vo, pp. [ii], 17, [1] blank, 85, [1] blank; with Childs’ inscription to the half-title; occasional spotting and mild offsetting throughout, but still a good copy, uncut.First edition. Chuo B2-1; Everett, p. 537f; Goldsmiths’ 22638; Muirhead, p. 22; not in Kress.iii) [drop-head title:] Jeremy Bentham to the National Convention of France. [1793.]8vo, pp. 48; with Bentham’s MS annotation to the first page (see below); some foxing throughout, heavier in places but mainly to the edges; still a good copy, uncut.Original, unpublished edition. Muirhead writes: ‘In 1793 Bentham wrote a pamphlet of forty-eight pages with a caption title only, Jeremy Bentham to the National Convention of France, advising the National Convention of France to emancipate its colonies. My own copy, like many others given away by Bentham at the time, has a manuscript note at the foot of the first page: “Written just before the departure of Mr Tallyrand on the occasion of the rupture. Copy given to Tallyrand’s secretary Gallois, who talked of translating it.” Bentham pointed out that although, through the American Revolution, England had lost the finest part of her colonial Empire, she had actually gained commercially: moreover it was unjust to have a colonial Empire from the point of view of the Rights of Man. The pamphlet was not published until 1830 when it was given the title Emancipate your Colonies’.Chuo E2-1 (but not in the collection); Everett, p. 541; Muirhead, p. 16f; not in Goldsmiths’ or Kress.Provenance: The Manchester journalist, Archibald Prentice (1792–1857), self-styled ‘labourer in the interest of parliamentary reform’ (DNB XVI, 302) and subsequent founder-member of the Anti-Corn-Law League, recalls that ‘a friend who held Bentham in great veneration was with me in London, and when I left him in the evening had earnestly and solemnly conspired me, by the remembrance of twenty years’ friendship, that I should procure him something from Bentham, were it even his smallest pamphlet, with his handwriting in it. I had teased my friend a little, saying that I could not presume to take such a liberty with a man so much beyond my intellectual rank; and, half angry at my affected fastidiousness, muttered something about Scotch coldness and caution. I laughingly told Bentham of this, and taking down one of his volumes, he carefully selected the best of his pens and said, “I know him as a good friend of liberty, and as usefully engaged in making good books cheap”; and I delighted my friend next morning, after maliciously keeping him some time in suspense by showing him the book and the carefully and neatly written inscription – “John Childs, Esq., from Jeremy Bentham”’ (Historical Sketches and Personal Recollections of Manchester [1851], p. 385).As his father and grandfather before him, John Childs (1783–1853) was a printer in Bungay, Suffolk. ‘In association with Joseph Ogle Robinson, he projected the series known as the “Imperial octavo editions of standard authors,” which sold extensively for many years, and supplied in a cheap but handsome form books of literary value … Childs deserves to be remembered as one of the pioneers of the movement for cheap and good literature for the million’ (DNB IV, 251).

• GBP 3,750.00 > otras divisas
• nº de pedido: HX181.27

• librero: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)