SAY, Jean-Baptiste.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Cours complet d'économie politique pratique; First edition of the first three volumes, with an autograph presentation letter from the author bound into the first volume, addressed to the dramatist and linguist François Just Marie Raynouard (1761-1836), in the hope of securing membership of the French Academy, of which Raynouard was a member. The work was completed in seven volumes in 1833."I have the honour to present to you, as a particular tribute, my Complete Course of Practical Political Economy, which I have already submitted to the French Academy... I will not conceal from you, Sir, that one of the principal motives of my labours has been the hope of obtaining from the natural patrons of letters a crown no less honourable for those who bestow it than for the one who receives it. Perhaps they will judge that a book in which, on every page, one advocates the love of humanity, the necessity of order and the respect for property - a book in which the author shows that the properly understood interest of peoples is in accordance with their duties, is not alien to public morality, and may exert an influence which precepts, however laudable they may be, do not always achieve. The work is important both for its subject and for its scope and, at least in that respect, worthy of the attention of the Body called upon to judge it. After the honour of being admitted among the ranks of so many illustrious academicians, nothing can flatter an author's ambition so much as the brillianc

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