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42 CUMBERLAND, Richard. A Treatise on the Laws of Nature. Made English from the Latin by John Maxwell. London: printed by R. Phillips; and sold by J. Knapton, J. Senex, F. Fayram, J. Osborne, and T. Longman and T. Osborne, 1727 The first full-length philosophical reply to Hobbes First complete edition in English, originally published in Latin as De legibus naturae disquisitio philosophica in 1672, followed by an abridged translation by James Tyrrell in 1692. Cumberland’s was the first full-length philosophical reply to Thomas Hobbes, and a developed philosophical system in its own right. “All moral concepts, Cumberland tries to show, are definable in terms of the single natural law that men secure their own welfare by pursuing the common good . . . Most of what were to be the leading eighteenth-century moral theories can be found somewhere suggested, if nowhere fully worked out, in De Legibus Naturae ” ( Encyclopedia of Philosophy ). Cumberland’s work was effectively a Christian system of ethics independent of revelation and based on the evidence of sense and experience, thus, the foundation of moral laws is not the will of the sovereign, as Hobbes was seen to have argued. The book had a major impact on future moral philosophers, especially the Earl of Shaftesbury. Quarto (249 × 193 mm). Contemporary panelled calf, joints and extremities restored, new red morocco label to style, red speckled edges. With 2 folding plates, depicting the nervous system, and the solar system. Contemporary bookplate of Domville Poole to front pastedown, 20th-century bookplates and ownership signature of
Christopher Hughes to front pastedown and free endpaper. Page of notes loosely inserted. Some abrasion to calf, a few instances of light peripheral staining to contents but generally clean and crisp, short closed tear to plates. A very good copy. ¶ ESTC T97625. Encyclopedia of Philosophy II, 278. £1,500 [149578] 43 DEFOE, Daniel (attrib.) Taxes no Charge: in a Letter from a Gentleman, to a Person of Quality. London: printed for R. Chiswell, 1690 Defending taxation First edition of this defense of the economic benefits of taxation, generally attributed to Daniel Defoe. The method of raising taxes in antiquity and modernity across Europe is surveyed, and the benefits and disadvantages of certain taxes analyzed. Taxation is in both the public and the private interest, improving trade, employing the poor, and circulating and redistributing wealth. Small quarto (197 × 141 mm). Disbound. Armorial bookplate of Algernon Capell, 2nd Earl of Essex, 1701, to title verso (possibly transposed when pamphlet disbound), bookplate slightly creasing title leaf; very light browning, short closed tears in inner margin of terminal leaf, at times closely cropped at head shaving headlines. A very good copy. ¶ ESTC R18037; Goldsmiths’ 2843; Kress 1729; Wing D848A. Not in Moore. £1,000 [143570]
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