Item #49470 The Superstition of Omens and Prodigies; with the proper Reception and profitable Improvement: A Divinity Lecture upon the surprising Phenomenon of Light, March 6, 1715, on the Sunday after. Lights in the Sky, ANONYMOUS, Elisha Smith.
The Superstition of Omens and Prodigies; with the proper Reception and profitable Improvement: A Divinity Lecture upon the surprising Phenomenon of Light, March 6, 1715, on the Sunday after.

The Superstition of Omens and Prodigies; with the proper Reception and profitable Improvement: A Divinity Lecture upon the surprising Phenomenon of Light, March 6, 1715, on the Sunday after.

London: A. Bell, 1716. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Slim Octavo. viii + 32pp. Pamphlet rebound in modern marbled papered boards with paper title-label on front board, half red cloth. An unusual pamphlet, referencing mysterious lights in the sky and the so called "sky-battles" - phantom armies fighting in the sky, or other celestial phenomena - of which there were a number of reports during the reign of George I (although it should be noted that this pamphlet only refers to them obliquely). The author, anonymous in this first edition, but identified in later editions, was Elisha Smith, Rector of Tydd St. Giles. The pamphlet begins with an astoundingly long and obsequious address to Sigismond Trafford (apparently an important local landowner under whose auspices Smith's parish fell), which is followed by a critique of those who found anything supernatural or prophetic in reports of such occurences. There was a political edge to Smith's arguments, in that he tied the belief in providential prophecies to political dissenters who were a threat to the government. Pages discolored with some wear & chipping around edges, a couple of small pen contemporary pen annotations to title-page, else a solid, complete VG copy. Item #49470

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