A New Philosophy of Matter Showing the Identity of All the Imponderables and the Influence Which Electricity Exerts over Matter in Producing All Chemical Changes and All Motion.
Adrian, [Mi.]: Printed for the Author by A.W. Maddocks, 1843. 216pp. Original cloth, stamped in blind. Spine sunned, light wear at corners and spine ends, small areas of discoloration to boards. Light scattered foxing. About very good. Item #54
A scarce frontier Michigan imprint presenting a rather unique scientific philosophy. Brewster argues that there are three "creative" powers in the universe -- "Ponderable Matter," "Imponderable Matter," and "Mind." The first, consisting of substances that have no power to change themselves, is under control of the second, which consists forces such as electricity, magnetism, light, gravitation, and capillary attraction. All are controlled by the final creative power, "Mind." This dense and curious work was reprinted twice, in Joliet fifteen years later, and in Philadelphia over thirty years later, suggesting that Brewster's philosophical system enjoyed some enduring popularity. "A most unusual frontier imprint" - Eberstadt.
AII Michigan 492. American Imprints 43-757. Eberstadt 135, 512.
Price: $500.00