Francis Bacon; James Spedding [ed.] — A Conference of Pleasure

London, Whittingham and Wilkins, 1870 . First edition. Cloth. The very scarce privately printed first edition of James Spedding's edition of Francis Bacon's fascinating essay on the role of pleasure in human life. The vanishingly scarce privately published first edition of this work. A trade edition, published by Longmans, was produced in the same year.Illustrated with a colour facsimile plate.Edited by James Spedding from the original manuscript, this is a short philosophical dialogue examining the nature and role of pleasure in human life, from Francis Bacon. Written circa 1592, Bacon weighs physical and mental pleasures against one another.With the bookplate of the Weston Library to the front pastedown. In the publisher's original cloth binding. Small losses of cloth to back strip head and tail and rear joint, otherwise externally excellent. Bookplate to front pastedown. Internally, firmly bound. Pages clean and bright. Spotting to plate perimeters. Very Good . Ill.: Not Stated. Very Good .