Practical Philosophy Genius Mind Action (1 results)

manuscript in ink on various papers mounted on album leaves, sometimes written directly onto the album leaf, sometimes 2 or more slips per page and some of these folded over, possibly in more than one hand, title within red ruled borders, ff. [i], 50, folio, late 19th-century dark purple hard-grained morocco by Zaehnsdorf, French fillets on sides, rebacked, from the library of Frederick William Cosens, with his bookplate, and note by him (see below), good. A curious commonplace book. The possible date of its composition, or part of it anyway, is a reference to Disraeli having 'cashiered his radical curls, and Count d'Orsay. left alone in his glory', and the 1830s are consistent with the hand-writing. However, some passages seem to have been written considerably earlier. Thus we may suppose that the Septuagenarian assembled the volume from his earlier commonplace books. Cosens, wine merchant and a redoubtable book-collector, was sufficiently intrigued by the MS as to write to Notes and Queries about it in February 1879 appealing for information; there is no indication as to whether the appeal was in vain, but it would appear so. The only internal evidence about the Septuagenarian is that he was 'a Paul's boy' in some verses headed 'Youthful days', in which he refers to 'Colet's hall', &c. Cosens characterises him as a 'wide and diligent reader, priding himself on his self-culture, and holding the creed that the proper study of mankind is man.'.…