The Conduct of the Understanding: To Which Is Added, an Abstract of Mr. Locke's Essay on Human Understanding

Cambridge, England: J. Nicholson et al., 1781. Leather Bound. pp. [8], 292, 4. 8vo. Nice original full leather binding with professionally re-backed spine, and repairs to corners. Our copy contains the List of Subscribers, the two pages of advertising at the end, and is printed on water-marked paper with the chain lines clearly showing. The signature of 'Caroline Fox 1789' appears across the top edge of the title page and there is a nice little bookplate on the front pastedown, with the words 'Holland House' printed thereon (and over which some miscreant has scribbled a few letters in red pencil). It is possible that the signature is that of a descendent of the famous Georgianna Caroline Fox, first Baroness of Holland House, (although she died in 1774), and that the bookplate indicates this book is from the library of the famous castle, built in 1605, in Kensington, London. In the Abstract, a few passages have been lightly marked in the margins, or by underlining, in what appears to be an early pen. Yolton 304. Contents clean and tight. A straight-up copy in good condition. Locke (1632-1704) first published 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding' in 1690, as a folio in four books, with a second edition, containing large additions and an index, in 1694, and a third edition in 1695 (see Lowndes, part V). It has been translated into many languages, and reprinted many times. 'The Conduct of the Understanding' has never achieved quite the same popularity, and exists in fewer editions. The first edition, according to WorldCat and the British Museum catalogue, was in 1762, followed by Glasgow editions a year or two later. It is often combined with other works of Locke, although it appears that this is the only edition to be published with an abstract of 'Essay on [sic] Human Understanding'.