Justin Croft Antiquarian Books - Rare and Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts

First edition of Playfair’s resounding endorsement of the benefits of an hereditary nobility, an unapologetically elitist thesis aimed squarely at fashionable republicanism. Playfair is a fascinating figure who grew up among the intelligentsia of the industrial revolution (Watt, Boulton, Priestley and other members of the Lunar Society were early associates). He also invented the graph, the bar-chart and the pie-chart and was one of the promoters of the Scioto land company which aimed to settle French emigrants on the Ohio river. He also edited the first critical edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, which is alluded to on the title-page of this work.