43 66PENN, William. Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections & Maxims Relating to the Conduct of Life. London, 1693. 12mo, early papermache boards with an image of an angel on-laid over gold cloth, rebacked. $5800 Second edition, published the same year as the first, in striking paper-mache binding. Published in 1693, during the two-year forfeiture of Penn’s governorship of Pennsylvania resulting from treasonable suspicion following the abdication of his great friend, James II, in the Glorious Revolution of 1688. “This slender volume ranks with No Cross, No Crown (1682) and the Essay Towards Peace as one of Penn’s most popular works… the product of Penn’s ‘matured philosophy of life in the form of maxims or aphorisms—droplets of clear wisdom,... distilled from a lifetime of sober thought and dedicated action’” (Bronner & Fraser 96). Title on title page faintly underlined in red. Interior fairly clean, license leaf remargined, some edge-wear to errata leaf. Beautiful paper-mache boards with some edge-wear. Rare. “The Clearest Of All Expositions Of The Basic Principles Of Democracy” (PMM) 65PAINE, Thomas. Rights of Man. Fourth Edition. BOUND WITH: Rights of Man. Part the Second. The Second Edition. London, 1791, 1792. Octavo, 19th-century calf. $12,500 Rare fourth edition of Part I and second edition of Part II of Rights of Man, each published shortly after the first editions by J.S. Jordan. One of Paine’s most influential works, Rights of Man resulted in the prosecution in England of Paine, his publishers, and booksellers, forcing Paine to flee to France. Hoping to “do for England what his Common Sense had done for America,” Paine answered Burke’s attack on the French Revolution with his “celebrated answer, The Rights of Man” (Gimbel-Yale 59). “Paine laid down those principles of fundamental human rights which must stand, no matter what excesses are committed to obtain them... The government tried to suppress it, but it circulated the more briskly... [Rights of Man is] the textbook of radical thought and the clearest of all expositions of the basic principles of democracy” (PMM 241). Text clean and fine, joints and corners lightly rubbed, binding sound. A handsome copy. “We Are Apt To Be Very Pert Censuring Others, Where We Will Not Endure Advice Our Selves”
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