A PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE ON THE NATURE AND CONSTITUTION OF MAN; Volume I / Volume II. - 2 volumes complete.

°°° FIRST EDITION OF HARRIS' EARLY MAJOR WORK, CLOTHBOUND ORIGINALS; 2 VOLUMES COMPLETE. - Corners slightly rubbed, bottom of spines with old library-labels; front-flyleafs slightly foxy and with old ownership inscriptions, titlepages with old library- and corresponding deletion-stamps; still A BEAUTIFUL COPY OF THE RARE SET. --- Though graduated as christian theologian, in his psychologic-philosophical 'Treatise' Harris scientifically developes his own approach towards a theory of descendance of man by approaching human's relation to animals. He analyses 'the sense perception' of animals and sent proofsheets to Charles Darwin in February 1875. On April 25 Darwin answered: ''Dear Sir / I know of no facts making it probable that animals perceive any qualities which are not perceived by us, tho' they may do so in a higher degree. A sense of directon perhaps forms an exception. I do not believe that any animal knows what herbs are poisonous, except through experience during former generations by which an inherited association or instinct has been acquired against any particular herb. When sheep are turned out into a new country, they often eat poisonous plants, but it is said, at least in parts of Australia they gradually learn to avoid them. . .''. Harris cites the letter in Volume 2 (page 253) where he discusses that animals resort to particular herbs in the event of sickness and could detect and avoid poisons ''probaly owing to the great acuteness and perfection of their sensorical organs''. In Vol. 1 (page 197) he also cites Darwin's 'The Decent of Man'(London, 1871) as support for his view that animals were in their highest state of perfection in the wild because they instinctively avoid poisons, while domestic animals often eat poisonous herbs.(see Burkhardt et al.: 'The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Vol. 23 '1875', Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015). In a biographical note on the occasion of Harris' death in New York City 'The New York Times' from March 2nd 1922, lengthly quotes Harris on his attitude towards foreign christian mission. . .…