LETTERS FROM THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LATE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, to Robert Molesworth, esq; now the Lord Viscount of that Name. With two letters written by the late Sir John Cropley. To which is prefix'd a large introduction by the editor.

8vo in fours, pp. xxiv, 48; half title a little spotted, else a good copy; disbound. Second edition: identified as such on the half title, although presumably issued very shortly after the first, as some parts appear to be a reprint from standing type, and the same ornaments are used on pp. xxiv, 1, 44 and 48 as in the first edition. This publication of the philosopher's letters to Robert Molesworth were edited by John Toland, the Irish philosopher, who by this time was something of a scandalous figure on account of his Deist tracts such as Christianity Not Mysterious. Molesworth (1656-1725), also Irish, had gained considerable importance among the whigs for his Account of Denmark (1694), which cast a critical eye over absolute monarchy, and he was greatly admired by Shaftesbury for his political philosophy. Toland was part of Molesworth's circle (and for a while also friendly with Shaftesbury), and his editing of these letters was doubtless done with the acquiescence of the recipient, because the half title to this edition states that the original letters 'are left for Three Months in the Hands of Mr. Peele' who, be it noted, traded at the sign of John Locke, Shaftesbury's tutor. …