Moral Essays

£450 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

'Honesty is the best Policy' The first edition of this collection of 134 traditional proverbs compiled by the churchman Samuel Palmer (d.1724), each with a short explanatory essay. Many expressions will be familiar to readers today: 'Never look a Gift Horse in the Mouth', 'Possession is Eleven Points of the Law', 'Evil be to him that evil thinks', whilst others have fallen out of use: 'Every Man must Eat a Peck of Ashes before He Dies' (meaning 'An affected Niceness at Table Is extreamly Ridiculous'). First edition; 8vo (20 x 13 cm); ownership inscription in pen to title and front endpapers, occasional toning' contemporary panelled calf tooled in blind, edges sprinkled red, joints and spine ends repaired, very good; xxxi, [1], 384, [16]pp.

• Binding: Hardcover

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