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2 volumes, 8vo, original drab paper-covered boards, cream paper shelfback (with shadow of waste printing through the paper), manuscript titling on spine; uncut and largely unopened; the binding is fragile, but wholly intact, with just a few cracks and starts; old location stickers on spines; very good. "In Elements of Criticism (first published in 1762) Kames sought to propound the fundamental principles of criticism drawn from human nature" (ODNB). It is among the most notable and influential books of the Scottish aesthetic movement. Lord Kames (1696-1782) was a Scottish judge and "a country gentleman of small fortune … He was an ingenious writer, with a considerable knowledge of law and a great taste for metaphysics … Dr. Johnson formed a poor opinion of him. When Boswell, boasting of the advancement of literature in Scotland, exclaimed, 'But, sir, we have Lord Kames,' Johnson replied, 'You have Lord Kames. Keep him, ha, ha, ha! We don't envy you him.' … Dugald Stewart considered that Kames' Elements of Criticism possessed, 'in spite of its numerous defects both in point of taste and of philosophy, infinite merits.' Johnson styled it 'a pretty essay … though much of it chimerical,' and Goldsmith flippantly said that 'it was easier to write that book than to read it'." There were many, many editions of the work (OCLC lists nearly 100), and it enjoyed widespread appeal, especially in the U.S. where it was reprinted as recently as 1955. There were only two continental editions, however, both published in Basil, the first in 1763 in a German translation by J. N. Neinhard, and in English in 1795. Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of this third edition. See Sowerby 4699. Seller Inventory # 66809
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