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[POVEY, Charles].
The Virgin in Eden: Or, The State of Innocency. Deliver'd by Way of Image and Description.

Presenting A Nobleman, a Student, and Heiress, on their Progress from Sodom to Canaan. Etc. etc. To which are added, Pamela's Letters proved to be immodest Romances, etc. In this Treatise are the Divine Sayings of Queen Mary and Carolina etc. The Decree of God appoints these Records to be kept in every House, in every Kingdom and State, from one Generation to another, till the great Fall of Nature. Written by the author of the Sheets entitled, Torments after Death. That Copy, of which such vast Numbers were printed and sold, Four, Seven, and in some Houses Twenty, to send into the Country and beyond the Seas.

Description:
pp. (ii), vi, (7)-118. Title vignette of Povey's coat-of-arms repeated on page 94. Contemporary sheepskin [despite the advertisement on the title-page], spine and corners worn and joints weak, front free end-papers cut out, the paste-downs with ms. HEALEY family birth records, two small worm holes in the gutter from the title to the final leaf though diminished to a pin-hole, occasional faded brown mark and small marginal tear, obviously well-read though overall a decent copy of a very scarce title.

*ESTC T70804 - no copies of this edition in UK libraries. There were two previous editions in the same year, also very scarce. POVEY (1652?-1743), described as a miscellaneous writer and projector, in DNB. This book contains a long catalogue of books that he had written - 'An Enquiry into the Nature, Situation, Motion, &c. of the Heavenly Bodies.' - The Opinions of ancient Philosophers about the Substance and Nature of the Sun.' - The Character of a Gentlewoman remarkable for her Wit......', and many others. The remark on 'Pamela's Letters' in the title, is a reference to Samuel Richardson's novel of that name to which he devotes a heavily critical section. Clearly a considerable eccentric, Povey experimented with a number of commercial enterprises, including the coal trade [inventing an engine for clearing coal from ships], life and fire insurance [he set up the Sun Fire Office], he published the periodical 'General Remarks on Trade', proposed the half-penny carriage of letters within the Cities of London and Westminster and other schemes either of invention or commerce. His writings were numerous, contentious and vehicles for his quarrelsome and vain personality, though he claimed that he never wrote anything that did not '...tend to promote virtue and unity among men'.

Printed by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane; and sold by such as sell Pamphlets and News-Papers; and in the Author's House, No.3 in Little Ailie-Street, Goodmans's-Fields. London. Price 1s.6d. in Marble-Paper, and 2s. 6d. bound in Calf's Leather.

Date Published: 1741. Third edition.

Stock No. 58846

Price: £200.00

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