Rudiments of Reason; or, the Young Experimental Philosopher: being a series of Family Dialogues, in which the Causes and Effects of the various Phenomena of Nature are Rationally and Familiarly Explained

Book Description

London: Printed for J. Harris, Successor to E. Newbery, 1805. xx, 386pp., 12mo. With the half-title, and four engraved plates. A fine copy in contemporary tree calf, spine fully gilt. “A New Edition, Carefully Revised and Enlarged, by the Rev. Thomas Smith.” The dialogues are set in “a noble and spacious museum” in the Devonshire home of Sir Thomas and Lady Howard, whose family the young reader is to imagine himself joining. The book is full of experiments, including such things as invisible ink, penumatics, motion, light, etc. This is the only appearance of John Harris’s revised edition of the work, which Elizabeth Newberry originally published in three volumes in 1793. Moon, John Harris, 422.

Not sure what some of these terms mean? Look it up in our glossary.