8vo. [2], xxxvi, 299pp, [3]. Contemporary gilt-tooled straight-grain green morocco, A.E.G. Lightly rubbed, corners bumped. Contemporary inked gift inscription to front blank flyleaf: 'Grace M. Carey from (?), Christmas 1863'.

The first American collected edition of the poetry of Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861), English poet, educationalist, and dedicated assistant to his wife's cousin, Florence Nightingale. A college friend of Matthew Arnold, much of Clough's poetry was published posthumously, with this edition being no exception. Despite his rather sparse output, his poetry received critical and popular acclaim, with several verses becoming frequent epigraphs. This volume contains the poem 'The Latest Decalogue', which carries the famous couplet 'Thou shalt not kill; but needst not strive officiously to keep alive' - lines which heavily influenced Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, particularly the First Law's clause on inaction.