HARRIS (James): - Three Treatises. The First Concerning Art. The Second Concerning Music, Painting, and Poetry. The Third Concerning Happiness.

London: Printed by H. Woodfall, Jun. For J. Nourse...and P. Viallant..., 1744. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 197 x 115 mms., pp. [iv,], 357 [358 blank], contemporary lightly speckled calf, gilt border on cover, raised bands between gilt rules on spine; front joint cracked, corners slightly worn, but a good copy, with the bookplate of Ian Richard Monins on the front pste-down end-paper. Harris (1709 - 1780) inherited a sum when his father died in 1731 that allowed him to pursue his aesthetic and philosophical interests, and this was his first major publication. The first two treatises are perhaps more interesting, or at least useful, for historians of aesthetics in the 18th century. However, the longest of the three treatises is the one on happiness, and it is perhaps no coincidence that there are echoes of Tomas Nettleton's Treatise on Virtue and Happiness published in 1742. Boswell records Johnson as having described Harris as a "prig, and a bad prig," but Boswell himself read the present work, particularly the section on happiness, describing it as "very sensible and accurate," and that he finished it "happier, and more disposed to follow virtue."

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