A treatise on self-knowledge: shewing the nature and benefit of that important science and the way to attain it : intermixed with reflections and observations on human nature / by Mason, John - 1824

Lexington, KY: Printed, published and sold by Thomas T. Skillman, 1824. Second Kentucky edition (also published by Skillman in Lexington the previous year, following many 18th and early 19th century editions from London and the eastern United States cities). 12mo. 250 pp. The author was a Presbyterian minister at Dorking and Cheshunt in the first half of the 18th century and was responsible for publishing his grandfather's "Select Remains of Rev. John Mason"; his own works covered elocution, number theory, and musical harmony, but this proved his most successful book, going through more than twenty editions from the London first edition of 1745 to well into the 19th century. The first American edition of "A Treatise on Self-Knowledge" was published by Isaiah Thomas in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1789; this is the second edition printed in Kentucky or the "West." American Imprints 17040 (ICU only). OCLC locates one copy (Kentucky Historical Society); both American Imprints and OCLC show a half dozen or more copies for Skillman's 1823 printing. Text block foxed, contemporary owner's name, later pencil note on endpaper, recent bookplate on pastedown; still a good solid copy. Contemporary calf (rubbed), gilt rules and leather label on spine (spine ends showing wear). (58700). (#6358).