[HARRIS, James (1709-1780)]

Three Treatises. The First Concerning Art. The Second Concerning Music, Painting and Poetry. The Third Concerning Happiness

London: Printed by H. Woodfall, Jr., 1744. 8vo. (7 7/8 x 4 5/8 inches). [4], 357pp.

Bound to style in contemporary calf and marbled paper covered boards, spine with raised bands in six compartments, red morocco lettering piece in the second, the others with a repeat decoration in gilt

First edition of a classic work of mid-18th century English philosophy.

James Harris was a famed philosophical grammarian. Interested in the Greek and Latin classics, Harris sought out manuscripts and printed editions that influenced his writings as evident in the present work. The first treatise is derived from Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics in which Harris avoids commonplace mimetic theories and introduces into English critical discussion of the important aesthetic distinction between energy (energeia) and work (kinesis). The second treatise, 'A Discourse on Music, Painting, and Poetry,' is notable for the supreme position allotted to poetry and for its praise of the musical-verbal symbiosis achieved in the Handelian oratorio. In it, Harris also distinguishes between arts relating to necessity (medicine, agriculture) and that which relates to elegance (music, painting, and poetry), arguing that if "well-being" is preferable to "mere-being," the elegant arts are superior. In the last and longest treatise, 'Concerning Happiness, A Dialogue,' Harris urges the primacy of imagination as a mode of intellection, echoing the work of Tomas Nettleton (1683-1742) whose observations on virtue and happiness published in 1742 proved to be a resonant guide to living among his contemporaries. Diarist and biographer James Boswell (1740-1795), commented on Harris' work, praising the last treatise as "very sensible and accurate" and that he finished it "happier and more disposed to follow virtue."

ESTC T70375.

Item #29237

Price: $600.00