Essays on Philosophical Subjects.: To which is prefixed, an Account of the Life and Writings of the Author; by Dugald Stewart.

London: for T. Cadell Jun. and W. Davies, & W. Creech, Edinburgh,, 1795. Smith on astronomy, physics, logic, and the arts First edition, published five years after Smith's death. It is prefaced by Dugald Stewart's "Account of the Life and Writings of Adam Smith", one of the earliest biographical notices of Smith, and "until [Stewart's] Biographical Memoir of 1811... formed the basis upon which everyone drew for the biographies of Smith that began to appear in the early 19th century" (Tribe). Smith's literary executors, the medical scientist Joseph Black and geologist James Hutton, state in the advertisement that Smith's essays were intended as parts of "a connected history of the liberal sciences and elegant arts", but that Smith "long since... found it necessary to abandon that plan as far too extensive". The essays range over philosophy, aesthetics and the history of science. Most were likely written before the appearance of the Theory of Moral Sentiments in 1759, but were withheld from publication as part of Smith's "extensive plan". Stewart's "Account" was originally presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in two sessions during 1793. Kress lists the Dublin printing first and calls the London "another issue", while Tribe calls the Dublin edition a piracy. Neither is correct. Dublin booksellers at the time had a well-established exemption from the copyright laws and could legally reprint any new publication first published in London, without having to pay for copy. The London edition precedes the legal Dublin reprint. Quarto (276 x 213 mm). Contemporary marbled calf, spine ruled and decorated gilt in compartments, black morocco label. Ownership inscription of one J. D. Erskine to head of title, monogrammed book label to front pastedown. Joints and extremities neatly restored, small worm track to lower corner of front pastedown and facing free endpaper, a crisp, clean copy. Einaudi 5326; Goldsmiths' 16218; Jessop, p. 172; Kress B.3038; Rothschild 1902; Tribe 55; Vanderblue, p. 43.