An Enquiry concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness

London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson. 1st Edition. Soft cover. Very Good. FIRST EDITION of one of the most important political tracts of the 18th century. "The Enquiry was, and remained, the work by which [Godwin] was best known. It was one of the earliest, the clearest, and most absolute theoretical expositions of socialist and anarchist doctrine. Godwin believed that the motives of all human action were subject to reason, that reason taught benevolence, and that therefore all rational creatures could live in harmony without laws and institutions. Believing in the perfectibility of man, he thought that our virtues and vices may be traced to the incidents which make the history of our lives, and if these incidents could be divested of every improper tendency, vice would be extirpated from the world" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 234). London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1793. Quarto, early three-quarters vellum over marbled boards. Two volumes. Without half-titles. Internally clean, boards with minor wear. A very handsome copy in early vellum.