Author: ROSSEAU (Jean Jacques:
Title: Emilius; or an Essay on Education. By John James Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva. Translated from the French By Mr. Nugent.
Description: London, Printed for J. Nourse and P. Vaillant..., 1763. FIRST EDITION of this translation. 2 volumes. 8vo, 204 x 122 mms., pp. [ii], xix [xv Advertisement, xvi Explanation of the Plates], 406 [407 - 408 adverts]; [ii], 406 [407 - 443 Index 444 blank], engraved frontispiece in volume 1, 3 other engraved plates in volume 1 and two engraved plates in volume 2, contemporary calf; half-title and front end-papers removed form volume 2 front joint volume 1 slightly cracked, extremities worn, spine volume 2 very slightly creased, tops and bases of spines chipped. Writing to Thomas Wharton in August 1763, Thomas Gray commented, "I doubt you have not read Rousseau's Emiel; every body that has children, should read it more than once, for tho' it abounds with his usual glorious absurdity, tho's his general scheme of education be an impracticable chimera: yet there are a thousand lights struck out, a thousand importnat truths better express'd than ever they were before, that may be of service to the wisest Man." The work had been published the previous year in four volumes, and it was reviewed at length in The Critical Review in 1763, and the first of a two part review concludes, "Thus far we have pursued our philosopher, who has hitherto advanced nothing that could merit the severe censure that has been passed on this admirable performance, and the indignity, even cruelty, with which the sage author is treated, in being obliged to flee his native country. He has broached, indeed, many curious paradoxes, and in his system condemned the best established maxims in the education of children; but all the speculations in the first volume must be confessed to be harmless, if not useful."

Keywords: Education fiction literature juvenile


See more books from our catalog: Education