BROUGHAM, Lord Henry. A Discourse of Natural Theology, Showing the Nature of the Evidence and the Advantages of the Study. London: Charles Knight. 1835.
8vo. Later 19th-century calf, boards tooled in blind with a double-filet border, spine tooled in blind with black morocco lettering piece, edges sprinkled red; pp. vii, [1 (blank)], 296, 7, [1 (blank)], with printed errata slip to p. [v]; spine and extremities slightly rubbed, lettering piece chipped, internally very good; printed label “EX DONO BENJ. W. BEATSON, COLL. SOCII, 1874” and armorial book plate of Pembroke College, Cambridge, dated 1879 stamped “Cancelled”, and Pembroke’s ink stamp to title and p. 33; contemporary pencil annotation to p. 51.
First edition of Brougham’s endeavour to demonstrate religious beliefs through the lens of popular science.
Henry Peter Brougham (1778-1868), 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, was a prominent British statesman, who served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain and played a pivotal role in the passage of the Reform Act 1832 and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.
In 1826, Brougham was instrumental in founding the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, established to produce affordable and accessible works on scientific and artistic subjects. He authored the society’s introductory treatise and contributed extensively over the following two decades, maintaining a hands-on role in supervising and occasionally editing its publications. Among his works for the Society’s was A Discourse of Natural Theology, published in 1835. “This work displayed both Brougham’s highly unorthodox theology and his enthusiasm for popular science, for in it he attempted to show that the truths of religion could be proved by scientific induction” (ODNB). The book achieved remarkable success, going through four editions in 1835 alone.
The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge eventually went bankrupt in 1846, in part due to Brougham’s decision to embark on the costly production of a Biographical Dictionary.
Provenance: From the library Benjamin Wrigglesworth Beatson (1803-1874), a classical scholar and Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
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