Summary and Free Reflections, in which the Great Outline Onmly, and Principal Features of Several Interesting Subjects, are Impartially Traced, and Candidly Examined

[]?Taunton] Pprinted in the Year MDCCXCVII 1798. 8vo, 203 x 122 mms., pp. [iii] iv - xii, [iii] iv - v [vi blank] [7] 8 - 25 [26 blank], ii [3] 46 [47 - 48]; [iii] iv [5] 6 - 76; [iv blank], [3] 4 - 39 [40 blank], 27 [28 blank]; [3] 4 - 20; [3] 4 - 21 [22 - 24 blank]; [iii] iv - v [vi blank], [7] 8 - 18 [19 -20 blank]; 7 [8 blank, [9] - 13 [14 blank]; [5] 6 - 116], bound in recent quarter calf, spine ornately gilt in compartments, red leather label, plain gray boards. A very good copy. The first item has two appendixes, and is followed by the following tracts, essays, and one in verse: "A Physical Enquiry into the Powers and Properties of Spirit," and a "Postscript," "My final Fare-well to this interesting Subject," "A Revision of the Postscript to the Physical Enquiry"; then "Cursory Remarks on Infancy and Education"; "Thoughts on the Rise and Decline of the Polite Arts" "A Translation of the Fifth Canto of Dante's Inferno"; "Observations on the Advantages attending an Elevated and Dry Situation"; "Considerations on the Destructive Application of Gold"; "A Free Enquiry into the Enormous Increase of Attornies..."; "Thoughts on National Independency and General Elections"; and the volume concludes with "Thoughts on the Instability of Empires." Henry Constantine Jennings [later Nowell] (1731 - 1819) is often described as a collector, to which one might add "eccentric"; his life was even more higgledy-piggledy pagination in this volume. He was in prison twice for debt, his collections were sold at auction, and he lived in squalor, surrounded by many curious possessions. This corresponds - more-or-less to ESTC T138909.