Sketches of the History of Man.

Edinburgh: Printed for W. Creech, Edinburgh; and for W. Strahan and T. Cadell, London. 1774. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 4to, 266 x 205 mms., pp. [iii] - xii, 519 [520 blank]; [ii], 507 [508 blank], contemporary calf, red titling label on volume 2 only; end-papers slightly foxed, joints cracked (but firm) and corners worn, but a fair to good set, with the armorial bookplate of Spain Halls, Finchingfield, Essex on the front paste-down end-paper of each volume. The provenance is fascinating. Spains Hall had been owned by only three families since 1066. It was named after Hervey de Ispania, and it passed to another family, when Nicholas Kempe married Margery de Ispania in the 1400s. The Kempe line died out in the 1700s and the tailor Samuel Ruggles bought the property, but it came on the market for the first time in 250 years in 2016. Further details can be found at https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000240. When this work was first published, James Boswell was prompted to observe in a letter to Bennet Langton, that he thought the volumes "very dear [two guineas], from what I have read of them. He has a prodigious quantity of Quotation, and there seems to be little of what he gives as his own that is just, or that has not been better said by others." Boswell's jejune assessment can be contrasted with that of the reviewer in the Edinburgh Magazine and Review: "There is not perhaps in the English Language a book which furnishes so great a variety of materials, and so much ingenious remark and conjecture, as the work before us. The philosopher, the statesman, the man of taste, the naturalist, will here find views and observations of the highest importance to their several departments." A Dublin edition appeared in 1775, and there was one further edition (1779) in Kames's lifetime. There was also a long review in The Monthly Review for 1774, with both praise and censure: "This work...will afford bother entertainment and instruction to the generality of readers. It contains many pertinent and curious observations on a great variety of useful and important subjects, some of which, indeed, are treated in a way somewhat superficial and imperfect, and others with less precision and accuracy than their importance deserves.... The Author's style, though not elegant is, in general, plain, easy, and perspicuous; disfigured indeed, occasionally, with vulgar phrases, and low turns of expression...."