Samuel Smiles — Self-Help; with Illustrations of Character, Conduct, and Perseverance

London, John Murray, 1866. Cloth. A smart new edition of Smiles' best-selling work on the virtues of self-reliance. New edition. The best-selling Victorian commentary on the virtues of self-help, industry, and perseverance which has been called "the bible of mid-Victorian liberalism". Smiles built his argument using three concepts from the eighteenth-century Enlightenment: environmental determinism, the idea that a person's intellectual faculty matured last, and the assumption that there existed a beneficent natural order. Written by Samuel Smiles, a British author and government reformer who campaigned on a Chartist platform, but promoted the idea that more progress would come from new attitudes than from new laws. With publisher's advertisements to the rear. Bound by Edmonds & Remnants, London. In the original full cloth binding. Externally, smart with rubbing and light bumping to the extremities. Small splits in the cloth to the head and tail of the spine. Front hinge starting but firm, rear hinge tender. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with the odd small spot and minor age toning to the extremities. Light spotting to the first and last few pages with a contemporary ink inscription to the title page. Bound by Edmonds & Remnants, London. Good . Ill.: None. Good .