[FORBES (Robert)]:

An Essay on the Nature of the Human Body, and the Singular Respect and Veneration shewn to it, After Death, among all People and Nations Whatsoever. In Consequence of which, on the Growing Evil Of profaning and defiling Kirks, and Kirkyards, And other Burying-Grounds. Occasionally interspersed with several Thoughts, little regarded now-a-days, though important and interesting. The whole Intended, for assisting the Judgment, and awakening the Attention, of all true Scotsmen, to guard the Sepulchres of their Forefathers, with Vigilance and Care, against all impious Attempts of Abuse and Pollution, particularly Alienation. By a ruling Elder of the Church of Scotland.

Edinburgh: Printed by David Paterson, For John Wilson..., 1767. FIRST EDITION. 8vo (in 4s), pp. 56, contemporary boards (rubbed and faded), recently re-spined, morocco label on front cover; text browned, name scribbled on title-page almost obliterating upper portion of text. Forbes (1708 - 1775) was Bishop of Ross and Caithness. His curious little pamphlet, full of quotations from the Bible as well as classical authors to prove the necessity of maintaining in so far as possible the integrity of the corpse. The author also cannot resist complimenting himself on the daring principles he has enunciated: "Awed not by the great, nor dazzled by the rich, I desired to live unnoticed, to enjoy my beloved retirement, and lie snug in obscurity." This social solipsism is somewhat undermined a few sentences later: "For aught I know, at present, I walk single and alone in this untrodden path; but I hope, upon this representation to the public to have numbers to join issue with me in so laudable and opposition to this growing evil." ESTC T56736 locates several copies in UK libraries, and the Huntington, University of Miami, Coral Gables; University of Minnesota; University of Pennsylvania Libraries; and Brigham Young University Lee Library in United States libraries.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3090

Catalogue: Anthropology

Keywords: anthropology religion prose Scottish Enlightenment

KAMES (Henry Home), Lord:

Sketches of the History of Man. Considerably Enlarged by the last Additions and Corrections of the Author. A New Edition...to which is now added A General Index.

Edinburgh: Printed for William Creech...and T. Cadell & W. Davies, London, 1807. 3 volumes. 8vo, pp. [iv], 525 [526 blank]; iv, 482; vii [viii blank], 514 [515 - 516 adverts], contemporary half roan, marbled boards (slightly rubbed), rebacked, gilt rules across spines, red and black morocco labels. Kames's Sketches was first published in 1774, partly in response to the first volume of Lord Monboddo's Of the Origin and Progress of Language. It proved to be a popular work and was republished several time sin the 18th century and again in the 19th century.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 3023

Catalogue: Anthropology

Keywords: anthropology philosophy Scottish Enlightenment prose

SMITH (Samuel Stanhope):

An Essay on the Causes of the Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species. To which are added, Strictures On Lord Kames's Discourse on the Original Diversity of Mankind. A New Edition. With Some Additional Notes, By a Gentleman of the University of Edinburgh.

Philadelphia Printed, And Edinburgh Reprinted, For C. Elliot, Edinburgh; and C. Elliot and T. Kay..., London, 1788. 8vo, 213 x 124, pp. 217 [218 blank, 219 - 220 adverts],contemporary tree calf, gilt rules across spine, red morocco label. A very good to fine copy.. Samuel Stanhope Smith (1750 - 1819) was Professor of Moral Philosophy and later (1795 - 1819) President of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton). In this book, he takes issue with Kames's view that the Eskimoes and American Indians were inferior races and the result of a second order creation. Smith instead argued that the variations among mankind are due to environmental factors. The entry in Wikiepedia records, "Smith was the first systematic expositor of Scottish Common Sense Realism in America. An empiricist in his anthropology and a Lamarckian before Lamarck, he sought to mediate between science and religious orthodoxy. In his work, Stanhope Smith expressed progressive views on marriage and egalitarian ideas about race and slavery. The second edition of his Essay on the Causes of Variety of Complexion and Figure in the Human Species (1810) became important as a powerful argument against the increasing racism of 19th-century ethnology.[7] He opposed the racial classifications of naturalists such as Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, and Carl Linnaeus.[8] In this text, his attempt to explain the variety of physical appearances among humans involved a strongly environmental outlook. An example he provides involves "the blacks in the southern states." Smith noted that field slaves had darker skin pigmentation and other "African" features than did domestic slaves, and claimed that exposure to white, European culture through their 'civilized' masters had changed their anatomy as well." The 1811 edition of the work was reviewed at great length (and negatively) in The American Review of History and Politics. Sabin 84104.

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 10135

Catalogue: Anthropology

Keywords: anthropology prose Scottish Enlightenment

STRETCH (Liscombe Maltbee):

The Beauties of History; Or, Pictures of Virtue and Vice, Drawn from Real Life; Designed For the Instruction and Entertainment of Youth. The Third Edition.

London: Printed for Edward and Charles Dilly, in the Poultry. 1777 2 volumes. 12mo, 165 x 93 mms., xxiv, 354 [355 - 360 adverts]; xi [xii blank], 312, including half-title in volume 1 engraved frontispiece in volume one, later half calf, marbled boards, spine richly gilt with titles in gilt; some slight soiling and intermittenit staining of text, but a very good set. First published in 1770, Stretch revised the work for its 7th edition, with a new dedication to Richard Farmer, the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University. ESTC T211733 locates copies in BL, Bodleian; National Library of Wales; Princeton, Society of the Cincinnati; University of South Australia (2).

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 10112

Catalogue: Anthropology

Keywords: anthropology

WENDEBORN (Gebhard Friedrich August):

A view of England toward the Close of the Eighteenth Century by Fred. Aug. Wendeborn LL. D. Translated from the Original German, by the Author himself.

Dublin: Printed by William Sleater, For P. Wogan..., et al, 1790 FIRST IRISH EDITION. 2 volumes. 12mo, 173 x 97 mms., pp. xii, 316; vi [vii - viii blank], 374 [348 blank], contemporary calf, red and olive morocco labels; very slight wear to binding, but generally a very good to fine set. Wendeborn (1742 - 1811) published Der Zustand des Staats, der Religion, der Gelehrsamkeit und der Kunst in Grossbritannien gegen das Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts in 1788. He came to live in Britain at the age of 25 and remained here for another 25 years. The Analytical Review was very pleased with the work: "The author of this valuable work has taken a patient, tranquil view of this island, which is as just as it is instructive.... In every page we meet the sober enlightened philosopher, the rational Christian, in a word the humane, intelligent man...." The European Magazine was just as enthusiastic: "In this performance we announce to the public a very valuable and curious work. It is the production of an ingenious and [a] learned foreigner...who has made a variety of just and acute remarks on the character, manners, and customs of its inhabitants, and on the general state of the kingdom."

John Price Antiquarian BooksProfessional seller

Book number: 8044

Catalogue: Anthropology

Keywords: anthropology sociology prose