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WOLLASTON, William (1660--1724)
[The religion of nature delineated. Abridgements]
The religion of nature delineated.
London (Place), printed by Samuel Palmer, and sold by B. Lintot, W. and J. Innys, J. Osborn and T. Longman, and J. Batley,, 1726.
219, [13] p. ; 23.7 cm. (4º)

Anonymous. By William Wollaston. Originally published in a 'few copies' only for private distribution in 1722 and subsequently issued in 1724 with corrections, Wollaston's Religion of nature delineated upholds an intellectual theory of morality, of which Samuel Clarke, Newton's disciple and a friend of Leibniz, was the chief contemporary exponent, and ran through at least twenty editions in the eighteenth century. The present edition is an abridgement, signed on page 219 by Wollaston himself and addressed 'To A.F. Esq.', of the first generally-available form of the work which had appeared in 1725. With wood-engraved device on the title-page (a vignette portrait of the printer). ESTC t138654.

Copy Notes Copy 1: Bought at the Lyttelton Sale (q.v.), 1--6 July 1823, 4th day, lot 99 (part with three other items) for £1 6s. Scrap of printed paper used as marker inserted at p. 154, 'Sect. VIII: Truths concerning families and relations'.
Copy 2: 28.5 cm. Bought from Thomas Boone for 3s. 6d., 8 July 1807. (Spiers Box). This is a large paper copy with a mezzotint portrait of Wollaston by J. Faber inserted as a frontispiece. In subsequent editions starting with the 5th edition, 'printed for James and John Knapton, 1731', the frontispiece portrait was from an engraving by George Vertue, whereas this is a variant example of Faber's portrait otherwise known in the form of his engraving from a portrait bust in marble by Michael Rysbrack commissioned for Queen Caroline's Hermitage at Richmond in 1730.

Binding Copy 1: C18th calf, gilt double-ruled and blind-tooled boards and spine, black morocco spine-label, marbled endpapers, sprinkled edges.
Copy 2: C18th mottled sheep, spine gilt-tooled with wreathed dolphins, red morocco spine-label, sprinkled edges.

Reference Number 478

Additional Names Thomas Boone; Lyttelton, William Henry, 3rd baron (1782--1837) - Collections; Faber, John, the younger (c.$1684--1756)


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