Difference between revisions of "Philosophical Works of the Late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke"

Revision as of 17:33, 16 January 2014

by Henry St. John Bolingbroke

The Philosophical Works of the Late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke
Title page from The Philosophical Works of the Late Right Honorable Henry St. John, Lord Viscount Bolingbroke, George Wythe Collection, Wolf Law Library, College of William & Mary.
Author	Henry St. John Bolingbroke
Editor	{{{editor}}}
Translator	{{{trans}}}
Published	London: Published by David Mallet, Esq.
Date	1754
Edition	{{{edition}}}
Language	English
Volumes	1 volume set
Pages	{{{pages}}}
Desc.	{{{desc}}}
Location	[[Shelf {{{shelf}}}]]
	[[Shelf {{{shelf2}}}]]

Henry St. John, First Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751), was a prominent member of the Tory party in the British Parliament from 1701 until the 1714 shift of power to the Whigs.^[1] After joining the failed 1715 Jacobite Rebellion as secretary of state to James Stuart, he was exiled to France until his pardon in 1723.^[2] During his exile, he encountered the ideas of the French Enlightenment and devoted much time to philosophical study, struggling to develop a system of morality grounded in natural law and reason and tending towards a deist worldview.^[3] His Philosophical Works grew out of this period and his subsequent study, and were first published three years after his death.^[4]

Bolingbroke’s works had some influence in the American colonial period: John Adams claimed to have read through his works five times, and Bolingbroke influenced Pope and Swift, who were widely read in the colonies.^[5] Additionally, Bolingbroke’s Philosophical Works was a favorite of Jefferson, who copied approximately 10,000 words from the work into his Literary Commonplace Book, complied in the 1760s.^[6]

Evidence for Inclusion in Wythe's Library

• 

  Frontispiece, volume one.
• 

  Frontispiece, volume two.
• 

  Frontispiece, volume three.
• 

  Frontispiece, volume four.
• 

  Frontispiece, volume five.

Description of the Wolf Law Library's copy

Bound in full calf. Purchased from Alex Alec-Smith.

View this book in William & Mary's online catalog.

External Links

Google Books

References

1. ↑ H. T. Dickinson,"St John, Henry, styled first Viscount Bolingbroke (1678–1751)", in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004-), accessed September 25, 2013. (Subscription required for access.)
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ Ibid.
4. ↑ Ibid.
5. ↑ Robert M. Weir, "Review: Bolingbroke and His Circle, The Politics of Nostalgia in the Age of Walpole by Isaac Kramnick," South Carolina Historical Magazine 70, no. 4 (1969): 270.
6. ↑ "Religion in Eighteenth-Century America - Religion and the Founding of the American Republic | Exhibitions - Library of Congress" Library of Congress, accessed September 25, 2013 http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel02.html.