BOYLE, Robert.

A Free Enquiry into the Vulgarly Receiv'd Notion of Nature; made in an Essay, address'd to a Friend.

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Title within ruled border. 12 p.l., 412 pp., 2 leaves (“Advertisement” leaf bound at end). 8vo, cont. panelled calf (upper joint a little cracked, joints a little abraded, corners very carefully renewed), spine gilt, red morocco lettering piece on spine. London: H. Clark, for J. Taylor, 1685-86. [bound with]:—. A Disquisition about the Final Causes of Natural Things: Wherein it is Inquir’d, Whether, And (if at all) With what Cautions, a Naturalist should admit Them?...To which are Subjoyn’d, by way of Appendix, some Uncommon Observations about Vitiated Sight. Title within ruled border. 8 p.l., 274, [6] pp. 8vo. London: H.C. for J. Taylor, 1688. An attractive sammelband in a contemporary binding of two of Boyle’s most important later works. I. First edition and rather scarce. “After thirty years of experimentation and observation of natural phenomena Boyle appears in this thoughtful treatise to have reached his maturity as a philosopher; had he lived some fifteen years earlier he might, with Lucretius, have entitled his message ‘On the Nature of Things’; but equally well he could with his contemporary, Isaac Newton, have called it his ‘Principia’. The book deals with the laws of motion, less precisely, to be sure, than did the forty-four-year-old Newton the following year. He tells us that the current views of Nature were incompatible both with religion and philosophy, arguing that one must distinguish between ‘universal nature’ and ‘particular nature’, the former being the result of general cosmic principles such as the laws of motion (Newton’s Principia was published in the following year) and the latter the result of the general laws applied to a specific natural object. The growth of Boyle’s theory of the universe as represented in ‘Formes and Qualities’, ‘Cosmicall Qualities’, and the present work forms an important phase in the history of natural philosophy that is little known.”–Fulton, Bibliography of Boyle, pp. 112-13. II. First edition of one of Boyle’s most interesting books; this is the issue (no priority) with Boyle’s name in full on the title. It contains the famous passage (pp. 157-58) in which Boyle relates his conversation with William Harvey on how he discovered the circulation of the blood. “In the ‘Final Causes of Natural Things’ Boyle takes us into his confidence and gives us briefly his confessio fidei as a biologist. The work was written in his mature years, when his intellectual powers were at their height. He tells us in the preface that the Disquisition had been pressed upon him by Henry Oldenburg, Secretary of the Royal Society...Boyle deals briefly with Gassendi, Descartes, and others who looked upon it as presumptuous to seek after final causes... “The treatise which follows these plain-spoken prefatory remarks is essentially a plea for a teleological interpretation of natural phenomena...The volume is replete with allusions indicating his powers of observation as a naturalist, and there are many references to physiology; perhaps the most interesting is the record of a conversation with William Harvey on how he discovered the circulation of the blood... “Appended to the Disquisition is a brief tract on disturbances of vision; Boyle describes cataract, and was aware of the location of the opacity. A variety of case histories are recorded, drawn from his own experience, and the tract appears to be one of the first in which this method of teaching was employed in an ophthalmological treatise.”–Fulton, Bibliography of Boyle, pp. 125-26. The great English dealer Richard Gurney told me thirty years ago when I was just a beginner that the only way to have Boyle — with the exception of the impossibly rare Sceptical Chymist — was in contemporary bindings. Mr. Gurney said “it makes collecting Boyle so much harder and much more satisfying.” These copies would satisfy him. I. Fulton 170. II. Fulton 186A.

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• libraire: Jonathan A. Hill, Bookseller, Inc. (USA)