Of the Principles and Duties of Natural Religion: Two Books. To which is added, A Sermon Preached at his Funerals, by William Lloyd, D.D. Dean of Bangor, and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty.

Full contemporary calf leather binding with tooled ruled borders and decorative corners to boards, four raised bands to spine, red leather spine label; frontispiece engraved portrait; (14), 410, (4) 56 pp.; separate title page for the Sermon, dated 1673. Ownership inscription (and scribble) of Walter Radcliffe 1750 on title page. Some wear to leather but intact, sturdy, and clean. Wilkins was one of the founders of the Royal Society, as well as of natural theology, which tried to balance theology with scientific method and discoveries. Two hundred years later, Wilkins was the subject of an essay by Jorge Luis Borges, who discussed Wilkins' idea of a universal language. Borges' essay, in turn, was inspiration for Michel Foucault's "The Order of Things.