"THE VERY REMEDIES APPLY'D TO CURE DISSENTION INCREASE IT… THE MORE VIGOROUSLY AN UNIFORMITY IS COERCIVELY PROSECUTED, THE WIDER BREACHES GROW": RARE SECOND EDITION OF WILLIAM PENN'S 1675 PLEA FOR RELIGIOUS TOLERATION, ENGLAND'S PRESENT INTEREST DISCOVER'D
PENN, William. England's Present Interest Discover'd With Honour to the Prince, and Safety to the People… [London: Andrew Sowle], 1675. Octavo, disbound; pp (iv), 1-62. $15,000.
Second edition of this rare work by William Penn arguing for religious toleration, the first edition with Penn's name on the title page, published in the same year as the first edition.
Written at a time of increasing persecution of Quakers in England, England's Present Interest Discover'd lays out arguments for religious toleration years before Penn founded the colony of Pennsylvania and put those ideals into practice by codifying freedom of conscience in the colony's 1682 Frame of Government. England's Present Interest Discover'd is "a careful, balanced essay advocating religious toleration," in which Penn "excused himself for addressing the government on this question by promising to propose a pattern of society that would bring internal peace, respect for government, and economic prosperity. Penn began by reaffirming the fundamental rights of Englishmen… The first of these was the right of property and of personal liberty; the second, the right of citizenship, and to share in the government through elected representatives sitting in legislative session; and finally, just laws and trial by jury. He added that religion was really not a part of government, and he rejected the proposition that a person could be denied liberty and property, or his legislative and judicial rights, for religious reasons…
"The second major point made by Penn was that governments were more successful when they maintained a balance in their treatment of religious differences than when a single denomination was supported, and others persecuted. He pled for a balance in practice in this regard as a natural method to follow, using nature and temperature as one example, and the success of Hannibal in keeping disparate peoples and armies together in his great force… Penn's third major point was the advantage of what he called 'General & Practical Religion.' By this he meant the creation of a society based upon the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, and the general advocacy of Christian concepts, without creed or preferred denomination… He believed that society would be happier and more prosperous in men did not waste so much time and energy on religious arguments. This proposition marks a sharp departure from much of what he had been writing in the doctrinal works he had published, but it is clearly reflected in the preface to the First Frame of Government in Pennsylvania which appeared in 1682" (Bonner & Fraser 39). Second edition, with Penn's name on title page, line 16 on page iii ending "Vi-" and errata corrected. Bronner & Fraser 39B. Sabin 59693n. Wing 1280.
A few stray ink marks, wear to untrimmed fore-edges. Exceptionally rare, with the first and second editions appearing at auction only once each in the past 50 years.