Seneca - The Morals - London - 1739
A Classic Work
Handsomely Bound in Full Polished Calf of the Period
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. SENECA'S MORALS BY WAY OF ABSTRACT, To Which is added, A Discourse, under the Title of An After-Thought by Sir Roger L'Estrange, Knt. (London: for G. Strahan...H. Lintot, and J. and R. Tonson, 1739) Early classical edition of the important English translation. Engraved portrait frontispiece, and with a series of finely engraved full page plates for each treatise. 8vo, handsomely bound in full polished calf of the time, the spine with raised bands bordered by double gilt stopped lines, red morocco lettering label gilt, central ornamental devices gilt in the compartments. (30), 524, (12, The Contents: “Of Benefits”, “Of a Happy Life”, “Of Anger”, “Epistles”) pp. A very pleasing copy, well preserved and in an excellent state of preservation in the original period full calf binding.
SCARCE, AND A VERY WELL PRESERVED COPY OF THIS IMPORTANT CLASSICAL WORK AND RARE TONSON IMPRINT. Lactantius said that Seneca was the sharpest of all the Stoics.
Seneca was a Roman subject of Spanish origin and a philosopher who influenced many early writers. The subjects he touched upon in his moral writings were happiness, the supreme good, and the afterlife while “the charm and informality of style, have made them the most popular of Seneca’s works.” His moral prose contained autobiographical elements as well as a view of life at that time.
This particular work is translated and abstracted by Roger L’Estrange whose talent is best seen in his translations. A royalist, L’Estrange translated Seneca because “We are fallen into an Age of vain Philosophy...Insomuch, that betwixt the Hypocrite, and the Atheist, the very Foundations of Religion and Good Manners are shaken, and the twoTables of the Decalogue dash’d to pieces, the one against the other: the Laws of Government are Subjected to the Fancies of the Vulgar; Publick Authority to the Private Passions and Opinion of the People; and the Supernatural Motions of Grace confoundd with the Common Dictates of Nature. In this state of Corruption, who so fit as a good honest Christian Pagan, for a Moderator among pagan-Christians?” This enormously popular translation was still in print at the end of the 18th century. |
