SIDNEY, Algernon.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Discourses concerning Government. First edition of this key text of republican theory, a major influence on the Founding Fathers, and the only 17th-century work to defend explicitly the act of armed rebellion. The Discourses rejects the divine right of kings and argues that the people have the right to ignore bad laws and depose tyrants, with arms if necessary.The Discourses places Algernon Sidney (1623-1683) "alongside Milton as the master of republican eloquence. It is the power of its prose, as much as any aspect of its content, which helps to account for the work's exceptional subsequent impact in Britain, continental Europe, and America... For subsequent influence in Enlightenment Britain, America, the United Provinces, Germany, and France, he had no seventeenth-century rival except John Locke" (ODNB).Thomas Jefferson was one of many influenced by Sidney's ideas. In 1804, he wrote of the Discourses: "They are in truth a rich treasure of republican principles, supported by copious & cogent arguments, and adorned with the finest flowers of science. It is probably the best elementary book of the principles of government... which has ever been published in any language" (Sowerby III: J6).Sidney fought on the parliamentary side in the civil wars. During the Restoration, he spent 17 years in European exile, returning to England in 1677. In 1683 he was embroiled in the Rye House Plot to overthrow Charles II, which led to his trial and execution for treason. The Discourses was w

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.