The Theory of Moral Sentiments;: Or, an Essay towards and Analysis of the Principles by which Men naturally judge concerning the Conduct and Character, first of their Neighbours, and afterwards of themselves. To which is added, a Dissertation on the Origin of Languages... The seventh edi

London: A. Strahan and T. Cadell, and W. Creech and J. Bell & Co. at Edinburgh,, 1792. His core philosophical work Seventh edition of Smith's first book, first published in 1759, here following the text of the extensively revised sixth edition with some minor corrections. The Theory of Moral Sentiments "would be enough to assure the author a respected place among Scottish moral philosophers, and Smith himself ranked it above the Wealth of Nations. Its central idea is the concept, closely related to conscience, of the impartial spectator who helps man to distinguish right from wrong" (Niehans, 62). The work laid the intellectual foundations of the Wealth of Nations, and the two works together can be seen as offering a coherent and unified system of economic and moral philosophy. The copy comes from the library of two English politicians: firstly, Bernard Coleridge (1851-1927), with his bookplate to the front free endpapers and his signature dated 1900 to the half-title of volume I and initial blank of volume II. Coleridge sat for Sheffield Attercliffe in the Commons from 1885 to 1894 as a Liberal, afterwards inheriting his peerage; secondly, with the bookplate to the front pastedowns of the leading Conservative politician Samuel Hoare (1880-1959). Hoare, MP for Chelsea from 1910 to 1944, held a series of major Cabinet positions throughout the 1920s and 1930s and into the Second World War: Secretary of State for Air (1924-29), India (1931-35), and Foreign Affairs (1935), as well as Home Secretary (1937-1939), Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (1939-40), and Secretary of State for Air (1940). Two volumes, octavo (214 x 130 mm). Near contemporary polished green calf, gilt rule border to sides, spines ruled and direct lettered gilt, marbled endpapers, yellow edges, silk bookmarkers. Joints and extremities neatly restored, spines a little sunned and rubbed, some foxing to contents. A very good, attractive copy. Tribe 44; Vanderblue, p. 38. Jürg Niehans, A History of Economic Theory: Classic Contributions, 1720-1980, 1994.