A RATIONAL CATECHISM
First edition of this rationalist dialogue between father and son – also addressed in the dedication to the author's daughters.
Very good plus.
Price: $3,000.00
A RATIONAL CATECHISM
A wine merchant by profession but educated, some scholars believe, by his uncle Andrew Marvell, William Popple was a Christian rationalist who simultaneously promoted many Enlightenment values — seeking common ground between what were often viewed as opposing sides in 17th-century England. A friend of William Penn's and of John Locke's, he later published a popular letter of advice to the former and translated the latter's LETTER CONCERNING TOLERATION into English from the Latin.
In A RATIONAL CATECHISM, Popple imparts rationalist values to his children. Though ostensibly addressed to his son, Popple goes out of his way in the dedication to ensure his daughters know that his "rational" education is for them as well: "In the doing of it I have made use of your Brother's Name, and have thereby given him a peculiar Title to the thing. But as I am desirous that it may be a common Memorial of me unto al of you [...] I therfore make it yours also by this Dedication" (A4r). He makes no difference in advice between genders: "my Design in handling it is to give al of you som real Help to conduct your selvs in the tru Way to Happiness: Which I take to be the onely warrantable End of any long continued Study" (A4r). In emphasizing the underlying philosophy behind his guidance, rather than prescriptive rules for ideal behavior, Popple renders the more common gendered advice unnecessary: the principles of the right life apply to all. An interesting entry in the theory of young women's education during the Enlightenment.
Read more: Robbins, "Absolute Liberty: The Life and Thought of William Popple, 1638-1708," in William and Mary Quarterly Vol. 24, No. 2.
The Object
London: Printed, and sold, by Andrew Sowle [...], 1687. Octavo, 5.5'' x 3.5''. Full contemporary sheep ruled in blind, sympathetically rebacked with original spine laid down, raised bands. [16], 143, [1] pages. Corners bumped with a bit of exposure of boards, some offsetting to endpapers from turn-ins. Text overall quite clean.
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