[Rarebooks] fa: DUKE OF PORTLAND'S COPY of RUTHERFORTH'S ESSAY ON VIRTUE - 1744

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, along with other 17th- & 18th-century titles, auctions  
ending Sunday, May 29. More details and images can be found at the URL  
below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://shop.ebay.com/arch_in_la/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

Thanks again,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Thomas Rutherforth: An Essay on the Nature and Obligations of Virtue.  
By T. Rutherforth, B. D. Fellow of St. John’s College in Cambridge,  
and of the Royal Society. Cambridge: Printed J. Bentham, Printer to  
the University, for William Thurlbourn, Bookseller in Cambridge; and  
sold by W. Innys, C. Bathurst, and J. Beecroft, in London, 1744. FIRST  
EDITION. Bound in full period polished calf with gilt-stamped spine  
and spine labels; 4to (26.5 cm); [12] + 384 + [12] pp.; engraved  
vignette; half-title, errata leaf. ESTC T84948.
Binding's corners bumped and worn, hinges cracked but rear board  
secure, front board held by the cords; some dust-soiling and  
occasional light foxing to the edges of the leaves, a few small spots,  
otherwise clean, bright and fresh. A handsome copy. With the large  
armorial bookplate of the 6th Duke of Portland.

Rutherforth's important and controversial treatise in which he  
propounds a "Christian-utilitarian" view of virtue, whereby people  
perform good acts with an eye on the material and spiritual rewards  
such acts will bring in this world and the next. He also critiques  
many of the other moral philosophers of his time, including  
Mandeville, Clarke, Shaftesbury, and Hutcheson. Not what you'd call an  
"easy read", one has a hard time imagining the 6th duke, sportsman and  
breeder of Derby winners, ever cracking its calf-bound covers. Still,  
it certainly must have looked good on the shelf.