Four Dissertations. - 1757

London: printed for A. Millar,, 1757. Hume's final major work First edition, the first appearance of all four essays, complete with the dedicatory leaves to John Home. Originally the collection was to include the first three essays plus "Of Suicide" and "Of the Immortality of the Soul", but Hume omitted them fearing controversy, replacing them with "Of the Standard of Taste". It was his final major work to be published, and Hume never allowed the collection to be reprinted. The book displays considerable variation between copies. Here, the first word on p. 9 is "ative" - the first sheets were printed correctly "lative", but the "l" was then dropped, and again reinserted. The first word on p. 131 is uncorrected as "Iancing", afterwards corrected to "lancing". Cancels C12 and D1 and the omission of K5-K8 agree with the description of Todd, p. 200. The dedicatory leaves to John Home were removed by Hume and afterwards reinserted. Some copies were issued in the interim and so the leaves are sometimes lacking, here present. Duodecimo (163 x 99 mm). Contemporary calf, gilt rules to spine, new label to style. Contemporary ownership signature of one James MacIvor to front free endpaper and title page; a few pencilled annotations to contents. Joints and extremities restored. Front free endpaper excised at head, another initial binder's blank neatly excised, slight creasing to leaves in first gathering. A very good copy. Chuo I, 45; ESTC T4011; Jessop, pp. 33-5; Rothschild 1176; Todd, pp. 200-1. E. C. Mossner, "Hume's Four Dissertations: an essay in biography and bibliography", Modern Philology, 48:1, 1950, pp. 37-57.