Les Beautes de l'Histoire tirees des Auteurs Anciens & Modernes de Toutes les Nations, ou, Essai sur l'education morale de la jeunesse, dans lequel on tache de la porter, par des Exemples Amusans, l'amour et a la pratique de toutes les Vertus

Londres: Chez D. Bremner, successeur de M. Elmsly. Very Good. 1792. Nouvelle Edition. Full Leather. Nouvelle edition considerablement augmentee; viii, 332 pages; Contents clean and unmarked in contemporary brown sheepskin, only part of red leather title label present, leather rubbed ato extremeties and chipped at spine ends; some tiny marginal worming affecting about 20 pages; faint marginal tide mark affecting last few leaves; may be missing a half-title. OCLC 1051556943 (fewer than 6 locations identified). Apparently no other copies currently on offer in the trade. This charming volume in French for the instruction of young women is a hearty survivor. The author's ambition to improve the conduct and knowledge of his youthful audience is guided by diverse short texts and essays drawn from a wide range of sources. One assumes the aim of this volume was additionally to improve the French language skills of his readers. From the dedication: The work which I have the honor to offer you is an abridged table of all the Virtues; from the Socrates, the Aristides, the Catos of all the ages and all the countries, who give, by their conduct, lessons of wisdom. From the Preface: In the education of young girls, says a famous writer, the main aim of good teachers is to form manners. They have little esteem for the sciences if they do not lead to virtue. Subject headings include: Amitie, Amour Conjugal, Amour Paternal, Amour Filial, Amour de Patrie, Amour des Science et des Lettres, Bienfaissance, Courage, Discretion, Fidelite, Honneur, Humanite, Justice, Magnanimite, Modestie, Patience, Politesse, Reconnaisance, Religion, Work, Veracite, Virtu. The publisher/bookseller of this volume was David Bremner who had but recently taken over the shop from his mentor/partner Peter Emsly. Peter Elmsly (1736–1802) was a British bookseller, who succeeded Paul Vaillant, whose family's foreign bookselling business in the Strand, London had begun in 1686. Elmsley, with Thomas Cadell, Robert Dodsley, and others, formed a literary club of booksellers who produced many important works, including Samuel Johnson's Lives of the Poets. His career was honourable and prosperous, and he was friends with many leading book collectors and literary men of the day. Elmsley took on another Scot David Bremner as his partner and shortly before his death he gave up his business to Bremner, who ran the shop from 1796, but soon died himself. By 1801 the shop was in the hands of James Payne & J. Mackinlay, another of Elmsly's shopmen. Works with this D. Bremner imprint are few. .