SELDEN, John. Table Talk: being The Discourses of John Seldon Esq; or His Sence Of Various Matters of Weight and High Consequence Relating Especially to Religion and State. (FIRST EDITION - 1689)

AUTHOR: SELDEN, John 

TITLE: Table Talk: being The Discourses of John Seldon Esq; or His Sence Of Various Matters of Weight and High Consequence Relating Especially to Religion and State.

PUBLISHER: London: for E. Smith, 1689.

DESCRIPTION: FIRST EDITION. 1 vol., (ii)60pp., complete, additional engraved frontis portrait plate (not called for) of Selden supplied from his 1672 edition of "Titles of Honor", bound in 19th. century full paneled calf, gilt lettered red morocco spine label.

CONDITION: Internally clean and bright, rubbing to head and foot of spine with some loss, hinges rubbed, a VERY GOOD copy.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Selden's best known work.  J. H. B. Masterman writes concerning it: "It is full of quaint humor and pleasant satire, combined with much admirable common sense.  Many of the remarks in the volume indicate Selden's strong resentment against religious bigotry and intolerance, but there is no malice in the whimsical anecdotes, and allusions in which the book abounds.  Altogether, the 'Table-Talk' shows Selden as a genial, shrewd, and sensible observer of men and things, whose mind had neither been soured by theological controversies, nor warped by legal studies."

Coleridge writes: "There is more weighty bullion sense in this book than I ever found in the same number of pages of any uninspired writer... O! to have been with Selden over his glass of wine, making every accident and outlet and a vehicle of wisdom."