“IT IS UNNATURAL FOR THE PEOPLE TO GOVERN”: FIRST EDITION OF FILMER’S 1680 PATRIARCHA, THE WORK THAT INCITED THE WRITING OF TWO LANDMARK WORKS ON GOVERNMENT, LOCKE’S TWO TREATISES AND SIDNEY’S DISCOURSES

FILMER, Robert. Political Discourses of Sir Robert Filmer, Baronet. CONSISTING OF: Patriarcha: or the Natural Power of Kings. AND: The Free-holders Grand Inquest. London, 1679-80. Small octavo (4-1/2 by 7-1/2 inches), period-style full speckled brown calf, raised bands, red morocco spine label; [16], 1-141, [3], [16], 1-48, 51-88, [12], 1-76, [8], 1-72, [6], 257-312, [6], 313-346, [2].

First edition of Filmer’s 1680 Patriarcha, his most famous work, together with other Filmer works under a new general title page, Political Discourses. Filmer’s posthumously-published Patriarcha supported the divine right of kings to absolute power, and two landmark works were written to refute it: John Locke’s 1690 Two Treatises on Government and Algernon Sidney’s 1698 Discourses Concerning Government.

Sir Robert Filmer was the chief 17th-century proponent of the view that patriarchal authority was derived from God and rulers similarly had "fatherly power over their subjects… kings are accountable to God alone" (Somerville, Patriarcha, 1991:ix). Patriarcha, Filmer's most "celebrated work" (Lowndes, 797), draws extensively on biblical and classical sources and is "the fullest presentation of his political ideas… He explored the implications of patriarchal political theory in greater detail than any previous writer" (Somerville, ix-xv). First authored circa 1630, Patriacha "circulated thereafter in manuscript for nearly 50 years and exercised an immense influence on English royalist thinking" (Paul Rahe). Patriarcha was first published in 1680, nearly 40 years after Filmer's death, and it inspired two landmark works, which were written to refute it: John Locke's 1690 Two Treatises of Government, heralded as "the basis of the principles of democracy" (PMM 163), and Algernon Sidney's Discourses Concerning Government, published posthumously in 1698. "It is difficult to understand Locke unless we understand Filmer, for Locke's Two Treatises were not written as the abstract reflections of a detached philosopher, but were a polemical refutation of Filmer's case… It is hard to grasp the nuances of Locke's reply unless we know something of what Filmer asserted… He is arguably at his most interesting, and challenging, when he attacks democratic theory, and… much of what Filmer had to say against contractualist theories of government remains compelling" (Sommerville, 1991:xxiv). The first edition of Patriarcha was published in 1680 with a title page with a Walter Davis imprint (Wing F922, ESTC R29832) and a frontispiece portrait of Charles II. As in this copy, some copies of the Patriarcha first edition (with its original title page but without the frontispiece) were issued under a new general title page, the 1680 Political Discourses (Wing F925, ESTC R215623), together with a 1679 collection of other Filmer works, The Free-holders Grand Inquest (Wing F913, F914). These works, originally issued anonymously and separately, were published together for the first time under Filmer's name in 1679, and include the title essay, "The Free-holders Grand Inquest" (first published in 1648), "Observations upon Aristotle's Politiques" (1652), "Observations Concerning the Original of Government" (1652), "Anarchy of a Limited or Mixed Monarchy" (1648), and "An Advertisement to the Jury-Men of England, Touching Witches" (1653). Without one "Free-Holders" text leaf (E1). Wing F922, F914, F925. Allibone, 596. General title page with early owner signature of J. Hanson Thomas (penned date unclear). Rear blank with owner inscription of "John Hanson Jun. Charles County." Tiny early annotation to one page (4).

Text fresh with only light scattered foxing, very faint occasional dampstaining rarely affecting text. An extremely good copy of a major work in constitutional theory, handsomely bound.