Essays and Letters on the Most important and interesting Subjects.

London: Printed for J. Bew..., 1783. FIRST EDITION. 2 volumes. 8vo, 185 x 114 mms., pp. [iv], [i] - iii [2], 6 - 204; [iv], 204, contemporary tree calf, spine ornately gilt to a grapes motif, red morocco labels; top of spine volume 2 very slightly chipped, otherwise a fine and attractive set, with the name "Myrtle Perry" on the top margin of the rear paste-down end-paper in volume 2. This catch-all title seems first to have been used in 1739. Essays and Letters also appeared as part of the title of a work called A Dissertation on False Religion, published in 1757, and re-issued in 1761 and 1763. Bew seems to have published this in two issues (unless, as ESTC suggests there are two different works with the same title): ESTC T68676 lists the work without authorial attribution; while ESTC T108056 is a work with a title-page naming J. Yonge as author. I have not been able to find any differences between the two issues, using a BL copy of the anonymous title and the ECCO copy of the issue with title-page naming Yonge. Essay IX suggests that the author is male, but there is otherwise no real clue to his identity. The author confesses that he has published them firstly for his own benefit and hopes that others will find them useful, adding that they should "contain nothing that can give the slightest offence to the three great articles of our happiness, Reason, Religion, and Virtue." Volume 2 begins with a number of letters to "Euphemia" from "Mentor" and contains observations upon marriage and education, as well as justice, truth, etc. There is a curious example of the dialogue form in a dialogue between "friendship" and "love," and another between [sic] "despair," " hope," "patience" and "reason." ESTC T68676 on-line locates five copies in British libraries (L [2 copies], C, E, O) and five in United States libraries: University of Chicago Regenstein Library, University of Illinois Library, Ohio State University Libraries, Rice University Fondren Library, University of Texas, Austin.