JOHN LOCKE
(1632-1704)
36. An | Essay | Concerning | Humane Understanding. | In Four Books. [Quotation, Group of Ornaments] London: | Printed by Eliz. Holt, for Thomas Baſſet, at the | George in Fleet-ſtreet, near St Dunſtan's | Church. MDCXC.
Locke's two previous works had been issued anonymously; but this book, while it has no name on the title-page, has the author's name signed at the foot of the dedication to Thomas, Earl of Pembroke; a dedication of such fulsome compliment that even Pope, who called Locke his philosophic master, is said to have thought he could never forgive it. In the first edition, that appeared early in the year, the dedication is not dated, but "Dorset Court, May 24, 1689," appears in all the following issues.
Basset paid thirty pounds for the copyright of the work, and later agreed to give six bound copies of every subsequent edition, and ten shillings for every sheet of additional matter.
Some copies of the first edition have the imprint: Printed for Tho. Baſſet, and ſold by Edw. Mory | at the Sign of the Three Bibles in St. Paul's Church-Yard. MDCXC. They probably belong to an earlier issue: the two ss in Essay, which were here printed upside down, were set right in the title-pages of the issue facsimiled; and the group of printer's ornaments, here placed irregularly, were straightened in our copy.
In August, 1692, Locke writes: "I am happy to tell you that a new edition of my book is called for, which, in the present turmoil of the protestant world, I consider very satisfactory." The month of September, 1694 brought the book again before the public, and by the year 1800 twenty different editions had been published.
The first edition was full of faults that the second aimed to correct. "Beſides what is already mentioned, this Second Edition has the Summaries of the several § §. not only Printed, as before, in a Table by themſelves, but in the Margent too. And at the end there is now an Index added. Theſe two, with a great number of ſhort additions, amendments, and alterations, are advantages of this Edition, which the bookseller hopes will make it ſell. For as to the larger additions and alterations, I have obliged him, and he has promiſed me to print them by themſelves, ſo that the former Edition may not be wholly loſt to thoſe who have it, but by the inſerting in their proper places the paſſages that will be imprinted alone, to that purpoſe, the former Book may be made as little defective as poſſible."
The amendments and alterations were printed on separate slips of paper, which were given to purchasers of the first edition to be pasted into their copies; certainly an ingenious if not altogether satisfactory way of keeping abreast with the author's mind. It must have been considered useful, however, for the same plan was resorted to with the fourth edition.
"Our friend Dr. Locke, I am told, has made an addition to his excellent 'Essay,' which may be had without purchasing the whole book," said the thrifty Evelyn to the careful Pepys, who replied: "Dr. Locke has set a useful example to future reprinters. I hope it will be followed in books of value." A copy of the book in the Bodleian Library, which has its little slips all carefully pasted in, has a note on the fly-leaf, written by its owner: