Quarto. xv, [1], 5-219pp, [13]. With an engraved portrait frontispiece. Contemporary gilt-ruled calf, calf lettering-piece. Rubbed, marked, and scored. Near contemporary inked ownership inscription to recto of FFEP, scattered spotting.

William Wollaston (1659-1724), English philosophical writer. In retirement, he published The Religion of Nature Delineated (1722), a work of constructive rather than critical deism. As John Orr notes: 'The fact that a seventh edition was issued in the year 1746 indicates something of the popularity and influence of the book'. The work was designed to be an answer to two questions: Is there such a thing as natural religion? and, If there is, what is it? Wollaston starts with the assumption that religion and morality are identical, and labours to show that religion is 'the pursuit of happiness by the practice of truth and reason'. He claims originality for his theory that the moral evil is the practical denial of a true proposition and moral good the affirmation of it.