An Essay on the Future Life of Brute Creatures. (2 Volumes in 1).
London: G. Kearsly, 1768. Second Edition. Hardcover, 2 Vols. in One. Small 8vo, [ii] + xxx + (3)-114, (iv) + xxii (3)-118. 6pp. Skillfully restored by renowned London bookbinder Bernard Middleton: later half leather spine with raised bands and leather spine label with gilt title over contemporary leather boards with gilt rules to boarders. Contemporary marbled endpapers. Separate title page to each volume. The author, Richard Dean (ca. 1726 - 1776), was an essayist and Church of England clergyman. The first edition of this, his best known work, was published by private subscription in Manchester in 1767 under the title "An Essay on the Future Life of Brutes" and was reprinted, with slightly modified title, in London the following year. Dean's work was largely an attack on the philosophical materialism of the Enlightenment, and a reaction to those like Descartes who suggested that animals were empty vessels, devoid of souls. Although he spent much of his book examining the idea of "natural evil" and asserting the importance of free will in morality, his work is now most widely remember for his suggestion that animals had sensibility, and were therefore entitled to better treatment than they often received from human beings, backing this with both Biblical and philosophical argument. As a consequence his work is listed in some bibliographies of vegetarianism, or books dealing with the rights and welfare of animals. With the engraved bookplate of Sylvain Van de Weyer on the front pastedown. Van de Weyer, (1802–1874) served as the eighth Prime Minister of Belgium, and was for a time the Belgian Minister at the Court of St. James's, effectively the ambassador to the United Kingdom. A renowned bibliophile, he was Vice-President of the London Library from 1848 till his death in 1874. More recently from the collection of Dr. M. H. Coleman, with his ex-libris seal blind-stamped on the first blank. Boards rubbed and rounded at corners, the pages have three minute (barely visible) punctures at the inner margin, suggesting that at some stage in their very early history the volumes were stab sewn into wrappers. A couple of early ink corrections - one to title-page. Still an attractive VG + copy of a scarce work. Item #46246
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