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 1762 Annual Register

"To know what the received notions are upon any subject, is to know with certainty what those of Rousseau are not. In his treatise on the inequality amongst mankind, he has shown his man in a natural state; in his Emilius he undertakes to educate him...In this system of education there are some very considerable parts that are impracticable, others that are chimerical; and not a few highly blameable, and dangerous both to piety and morals."

The highlight of this volume is Edmund Burke's review of Jean Jacques Rousseau's famous "New System of Education, " which is discussed in greater detail below and includes some of the text of Burke's review.

There is extensive coverage of the world war called the Seven Years War (or French and Indian War in North America) which has a new participant with Spain joining the fray, which leads to the British invasion of Cuba and capture of Havana. We also have in this volume news of a revolution in Russia with the Czar executed a precursor of another more famous Russian Revolution and murder of a royal family in the 20th century.

The character studies and natural history sections include reports on the death of Oliver Cromwell; Giants in South America; a Battle between a serpent and a buffalo; and the art of painting on glass in windows; an account of Jeffery Hudson the dwarf, Giants in South America, Virgin birth, and how to restore life to drowned persons. Henry Fielding, the author most famous for Tom Jones gets a flattering biography in the Character section

The British invasion of Cuba and capture of Havana (spelled Havannah in these accounts) as a result of Spain entering the Seven Years War on the side of France is a little known piece of American history. The peace treaty that followed 10 months later gave Cuba back to the Spanish but in return the British took over East Florida. It was in turn ceded back to the Spanish in 1783 at the end of the Revolutionary War, but by that time there were few Spaniards in Florida and its eventual takeover by the United States was inevitable, which happened by treaty in 1820.  Below is a picture of the start of the report on the "expedition against the Havannah."

Below is an except from the character study of Henry Fielding mentioning his most famous work, Tom Jones.

The first book reviewed in "An Account of Books for 1762" is "Emilius and Sophia: or, A new System of Education. Translated from the French of  J. J. Rousseau, Citizen of Geneva." Here we see again the differences in philosophy between Rousseau, the father of liberalism, the French Revolution and Communism, and Edmund Burke who believes the wisdom of the ages and gradualism in reform are better designed for human happiness. Below is a picture of the start of the review from the volume and the text of some of Burke's review.

"The fault most generally observed in discourses upon education, is a tendency to commonplace. Nothing, in fact, can be more trite, than the greatest part of the observations, which have been retailed upon that subject from Quinitilian down to Monsieur Rollin. This is however the fault, into which the ingenious author of Emilius, is, of all others, in the least danger of filling. To know what the received notions are upon any subject, is to know with certainty what those of Rousseau are not. In his treatise on the inequality amongst mankind, he has shown his man in a natural state; in his Emilius he undertakes to educate him. In the prosecution of this design he begins early, and carefully attends his pupil from his cradle to his marriage bed. He forms him to morals, to science, to knowledge of men, and to natural labour, and at length gives him a wife, whom he has previously educated for him according to ideas a little different from that model which he has formed in his Eloise.

In this system of education there are some very considerable parts that are impracticable, others that are chimerical; and not a few highly blameable, and dangerous both to piety and morals. It is easy to discern how it has happened, that this book should be censured as well at Geneva as in Paris. However, with those faults in the design, with the whimsies into which his paradoxical genius continually hurries him, there are a thousand noble hints relative to his subject, grounded on a profound knowledge of the human mind, and the order of its operations. There are many others, which, though they have little relation to the subject, are admirable on their own account; and even, in his wildest sallies, we now and then discover strokes of the most solid sense, and instructions of the most useful nature. Indeed he very seldom thinks himself bound to adhere to any settled order or design, but is borne away by every object started by his vivid imagination, and hurries continually from system to system, in the career of an animated, glowing, exuberant style, which paints everything with great minuteness, yet with infinite spirit.

There is, it must be acknowledged, one considerable defect in his judgment, which infects both his matter and his style. He never knows where to stop. He seldom can discover that precise point in which excellence consists, where to exceed is almost as bad as to fall short, and which every step you go beyond, you grow worse and worse. He is therefore frequently tiresome and disgusting by pushing his notions to excess; and by repeating the same thing in a thousand different ways. Poverty can hardly be more vicious than such an abundance . . ."

Modern education has largely followed Rousseau rather than Burke in their focus on self-esteem and in other matters and we can see some of the results are what Burke predicted. In literature, education and politics the duel between the views of Burke and Rousseau continues to this day to be among the principal schools of thought.

This bookplate is attached inside the front cover of the first edition volume.

The two single volumes offered here are in nice condition, internally and externally, as shown by the pictures above for the first edition volume published in 1763 and for the fifth edition volume published in 1787 which is shown below. The 1st edition volume has a full leather cover and the 5th edition has a half leather cover with marbled boards.

The 1761 volume is also available in a first edition as a part of the 1758 through 1791 set and in a later edition in the 1758 through 1773 set.

1st Edition Price: $145

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