The Elements of Politics.

First edition. 8vo. xxxii, 632, 56 [publisher's advertisements dated 'May, 1891'] pp., errata slip tipped-in at p. 1. Original brick-red diced cloth, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, ruling continued to boards in blind, edges untrimmed, black coated endpapers (some trivial, very light wear to extremities, notwithstanding a near fine, notably bright copy). London, Macmillan and Co.

One of the main works by the Victoria utilitarian philosopher Henry Sidgwick, The Elements of Politics "addressed itself to institutional and procedural matters as well as to more purely theoretical issues, attempting to show how analytical reasoning based on 'certain propositions as to human motives and tendencies which are derived primarily from the ordinary experience of civilized life' issued in broadly utilitarian conclusions" (ODNB).

The book enjoyed considerable popularity and was 'for a long time the main and possibly only English textbook for student of politics" (Harris, p. 110).

From the library of Ernest Thorp, Professor of Modern and Political Thought at the London School of Economics, with his neat ownership inscription dated '1959' to the front free endpaper.

Stock Code: 247293