AN ESTIMATE OF THE MANNERS AND PRINCIPLES OF THE TIMES. THE SEVENTH EDITION.
Boston: Green and Russell, 1758. [5], 10-110, [2 blanks] pp. Stitched in contemporary marbled wrappers [spine wrapper shorn and loosening]. Contemporary signature of 'Francis Green' on verso of front wrapper. Light wear, lower corners turned, else Very Good.
Though styled the Seventh Edition, this is the "first American edition of this enormously popular satire on luxury" [Jenkins]. It was first published in London in the previous year. Brown examines the effects of trade and exorbitant wealth on the social order, and issues a severe critique of British society, fearing that England's "Spirit of Liberty" is in danger of extinction, not from external sources, but "because the Enemy is within."
The "unbounded License" of English society, and the "ruling manners of our times," threaten its ruin, and the downfall as well of "the Spirit of Humanity" and "the civil Administration of justice." Americans, increasingly attracted to the ideology of self-government and political and civil liberty, doubtless paid close attention to Brown's message.
FIRST AMERICAN EDITION. Evans 8094. III Jenkins EARLY AMERICAN IMPRINTS 142. ESTC W32073. Item #24996
Price: $500.00