first edition Recently rebound in period style tree calf by Philip Dusel with red morocco spine label lettered in gilt
1788 · London:
by Young, Robert
London: Printed for the Author, by Fry and Couchman, 1788 First edition, inscribed on the title page by Young: "Saml. Mather's 1788 / from the author. Recently rebound in period style tree calf by Philip Dusel with red morocco spine label lettered in gilt. Octavo. Two engraved plates. Slight foxing, plates more extensively foxed. Endpapers and edges of last few leaves slightly toned. Contemporary ink inscription on title-page. A very good, clean copy. Little is known about Robert Young, including his dates, except that he was a social reformer and founder of the Philanthropic Society in 1788. The present work is one of two treatises that Young wrote on Newtonian philosophy, including An Examination of the Third and Fourth Definitions of the First Book of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia and of the Three Axioms or Laws of Motion (1787). In his preface, he writes, "…the following essay is intended to support, extend, and improve the Newtonian system. On the contrary, improvements imply imperfection, and imperfection error. The physical parts of the Newtonian system are allowed, by its most learned and judicious friends, to want those traces of the great matter that distinguish the mathematical principles…
(Inventory #: 16408)