“HIS WORKS PREPARED THE GROUND FOR ACTION AS WELL AS THOUGHT” HANDSOME 1740 FOLIO EDITION OF LOCKE’S COLLECTED WORKS

LOCKE, John. The Works of John Locke. London: Edmund Parker, et al., 1740. Three volumes. Folio (8 by 13-1/2 inches), mid-19th-century three-quarter speckled calf gilt over contemporary marbled boards, red and black morocco spine labels.

Fourth edition of John Locke’s collected works, groundbreaking in their advocacy of empirical philosophy and far-reaching in their influence on 18th-century world affairs.

In his famous tribute to Locke, Voltaire declared, “Many a philosopher has written the tale of the soul’s adventures, but now a sage has appeared who has, more modestly, written its history. Locke has developed human reason before men, as an excellent anatomist unfolds the mechanism of the human body. Aided everywhere by the torch of physics, he dares at times to affirm, but he also dares to doubt. Instead of collecting in one sweeping definition what we do not know, he explores by degrees what we desire to know” (Seymour-Smith, 245). First published in 1714, a decade after Locke’s death, this collected edition of the philosopher’s works includes his groundbreaking Essay Concerning Human Understanding, “the first modern attempt” to analyze human knowledge; and the immensely important Two Treatises of Government, “the basis of the principles of democracy” (PMM 193, 194). Seven folio editions of Locke’s collected Works appeared between 1714 and 1768 (with no textual changes until the fifth edition). All early folio editions have become scarce. “Locke is the most worthy… of the indisputably great philosophers. His influence has been enormous” (Seymour-Smith, 242). “In political, religious, educational and philosophical thought he inspired the leading minds of England, France, America and, to some extent, Germany… He laid the groundwork for a new empiricism and advanced the claims for experimentalism. Voltaire, Montesquieu and the French Encyclopedists found in Locke the philosophical, political, educational and moral basis that enabled them to prepare and advance the ideas which eventuated in the French Revolution. In America, his influence on Jonathan Edwards, Hamilton and Jefferson was decisive… His works prepared the ground for action as well as thought” (Edwards IV:502). Without frontispiece portrait and epitaph plate. Yolton 366. Attig 851. Christophersen, 88. Bookplates of Frederick Marcham, “one of the nation’s longest-serving professors in a 68-year teaching career at Cornell University” (New York Times).

Occasional light foxing and minor worming. Early corner and marginal restoration to title page of Volume I; minor restoration to lower margins of first few leaves in Volume II. Bindings with light rubbing to boards and extremities. An excellent and handsome copy.