The Elements of Politics.

Second Edition, Revised Throughout. 8vo (220 x 146mm). xxxiii, [1], 665, [1], pp. Contemporary prize binding of full tan calf, covers with double gilt filet border and single blind tooled border, front board with the coat of arms of the University of Glasgow and the legend 'via, veritas, vita' stamped in gilt, spine with five single raised bands outlined in gilt, the first panel with a further Glasgow coat of arms stamped in gilt, the second panel lettered in gilt on red morocco label, the rest with gilt floral tooling, marbled edges, marbled endpapers (bottom edges a little rubbed). 

London, MacMillan and Co. 

A fine prize binding from the University of Glasgow, with a presentation bookplate laid in on the front pastedown inscribed by William Galbraith Miller (1848-1904), jurist and Lecturer on Jurisprudence and International Law at Glasgow, to the prize winner William M. R. Pringle (1874-1928), who would go on to serve as a Liberal Party MP from 1910 to 1918 and again from 1922 to 1924. ‘Via, veritas, vita’ is the asyndetic variant of ‘via et veritas et vita’ a Latin phrase meaning ‘the way and the truth and the life’, also the motto of various august institutions, in this case Glasgow University.

One of Sidgwick's two main works on political economy, 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 success in the academy and became a widely referenced text book in undergraduate courses, with four editions printed by 1919, making the choice of the text as a student prize particularly fitting. 

Stock Code: 228842