An Enquiry into the Nature, Order, and Government of Bees, Those Instructive and Useful Insects. With a New, Easy and Effectual Method to preserve them, not only in Colonies, but common Hives

Thorley, John

Published by London: J. Johnson, 1774

About this Item

Thorley, John. An Enquiry into the Nature, Order, and Government of Bees, Those Instructive and Useful Insects. With a New, Easy and Effectual Method to preserve them, not only in Colonies, but common Hives. A Secret unknown to past Ages, and now published for the Benefit of Mankind. Written upon Observation and Experience by the Reverent John Thorley of Oxon. The fourth edition. London: J. Johnson, 1774. Original [?] calf binding bumped and rubbed at edges; the board exposed in one small section on the front. Spine has six panels and five raised bands; no text. Frontispiece possibly missing, as there is a direction on the final page to the printer to "place the plate of a glass hive in front of the title". A second plate, instructed to go before p. 139 is also missing. 158pp., the text mostly clean and bright. Thorley was Baptist minister at Chipping Norton until his death at the age of 88. The book is sermonic in style, and he never lets the reader forget that he is a Minister of Religion. The technical importance of the work is due to his revolutionary method of taking the honey without destroying the bees."Naturalists often viewed these finely tuned operations and expressed a sentiment similar to that of Reverend John Thorley of Oxfordshire, who wrote in the middle of the eighteenth century, alluding to honeybees that Not only the greater, more glorious and majestic Parts of Nature, Sun, Moon and Stars, but even the very Meanest, evince the Necessity of an eternal Being. Nature existed free of human deceit, making it the purest expression of divine will. Consequently these men found divinity in a terrestrial creature, an object of study that did not require sophisticated specialization in the cosmos or rigorous mathematics. Critical observation was their primary tool of inquiry, and interpretation of those observations often followed a slant that catered to multiple agendas" (Adam Ebert). RightWayUp Books aims to provide accurate and detailed descriptions. All images are of the actual book for sale - no stock images are ever used. Thank you for looking at this listing. Seller Inventory # ABE-1632602053794

Bibliographic Details

Title: An Enquiry into the Nature, Order, and ...

Publisher: London: J. Johnson

Publication Date: 1774

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Edition: 4th Edition