Quarto. vii, [1], 98pp, [2]. With terminal blank (O2). Contemporary plain speckled calf, later morocco lettering-piece, gilt. A little rubbed, some cracking to joints at foot, some marking/surface loss to boards, but nevertheless a firmly bound volume, generously margined on good quality paper. With recent book-label to FEP, early inked price (‘5-5’) to head of FFEP, scattered spotting.

'The name of Socrates will in some measure sanctify the doctrine he delivers; his catastrophe will be a signal and illustrious instance, both of the depravity and excellence of human nature. It is with the view to introduce the knowledge of this wonderful man, and his system, to those, whose want of leisure, and different pursuits, have prevented them from studying the dead languages, that he comes abroad in this dress...'

Irish poet and sometime Tory MP Amyas Bushe (d.1773) so introduces his English dramatic verse rendering of two Socratic dialogues (the Crito and Phaedo). Recent criticism, notably that of Kevin Berland, suggests that Bushe's versification was a radical reinterpretation of the philosopher's thought upon Newtonian lines - suggestive of a single God - explaining away Socrates' apparent polytheism as an attempt to 'ingratiate himself with the people, in order to propagate his own doctrines, and wean them from their superstitious idoltary' in footnotes such as that seen on p.38.