The Drunkard's Looking Glass. Reflecting a Faithful Likeness of the Drunkard, in Sundry very interesting Attitudes..

[Philadephia]: For the author, 1818. Octavo-sized pamphlet ( x cm.), 63 pages. FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION, overall the Sixth, Improved Edition. With an engraved frontispiece, possibly by William Charles, depicting a drunken rider felled by a low hanging branch. Thirteen woodcuts in the text by William Mason. The rare wrapper, here with the front panel present only, contains yet another woodcut, likely also by Mason. A temperance tract, by the famous Parson Weems, inventor of the George Washington cherry tree incident. A series of well written cautionary tales, often quite humorous. "As the wan countenance of the lust-worn harlot, becomes still more dark and dismal at the sight of a young female, fresh and blushing in all the charms of virgin innocence, so does the soul of a filthy drunkard experience a quickened hell, at the site of a gentleman well drest and breathing the cheerful air of cleanliness and sobriety." The pamphlet is worn, with a small one-eighth inch hole in the engraved frontispiece, and one page torn through the text due to a careless page separation. The illustrated wrapper panel is worn but the text and illustrations are unscathed. In all, a decent survival. [Shaw & Shoemaker 46749 (MWA, PPL); Hamilton 1019; Sabin 102467; American Imprints 46751].