An Inquiry into the Original of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue

Note on the Text

xxiii note on the text This volume is the revised edition of Hutcheson’s Inquiry into theOriginal of Beauty and Virtue prepared for the series Natural Law and Enlightenment Classics. The first edition was sold out by mid-2006. Since then, more variants among the four different editions from the author’s lifetime have been discovered, misprints and errata of the first edition havebeencompiled, and theentiretexthasbeenrevisedandeditedanew. In the paragraphs following, an asterisk (*) indicates the additional versions that have now been taken into account. The Editions During Hutcheson’s lifetime, four different editions of the Inquiry into the Original of Beauty and Virtue were published. These editions are chronologically referred to as A, B, C, and D. The texts of B, C, and D not only contain corrections but also introduce alterationsandadditions by the author. A separate booklet titled Alterations and Additions was published in 1726 “by the Author” (i.e., Hutcheson); it is listed below (after A3) by this title. The present edition is based on the secondedition (B) from 1726; it presents the variants of the other editions and of the aforementioned Alterations and Additions in a critical apparatus. The second edition was chosen for its philosophical relevance. Although the later editions display further additions and corrections, these are mostly of philological importance. Several versions of the first edition (A) and fourth edition (D) exist. In the eighteenth century it was common practice to intervene in the process of printing to correct misprints and to introduce changes. In many casessomecopiescontaininguncorrectedsheetsorleavesweresold xxiv note on the text nevertheless. That practice produced at least three versions of the first editionand fourversionsof thefourth.Arabicnumeralsareusedtomark the variants (A1, A2, A3; D1, D2, D3, D4); whenever all four versions of the fourth edition are identical, they are referred to as D (without an Arabic numeral). So far no additional versions of editions B and C have been discovered. A1: The first edition was published in London in 1725: “Printed by J. Darby in Bartholomew Close, for Will. and John Smith on the Blind Key in Dublin; and sold by W. and J. Innys at the West End of St. Paul’s Churchyard, J. Osborn and T. Longman in Pater-Noster-Row, and S. Chandler in the Poultry.” Copies used for editing A1: (a) University of Aberdeen, Queen Mother Library, shelf mark pi 1929 Hut i; (b) British Library, shelf mark 526.k.22 (reprinted in facsimile as volume 1 of Collected Works of Francis Hutcheson, edited by Bernard Fabian, 7 vols., Hildesheim, 1969, 1971; also available as a digital facsimile from Eighteenth Century Collections Online, http://www.gale.com/EighteenthCentury/); (c) University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, shelf mark 80 Z 80 Jur.; (d) Cambridge University Library, Rare Books Department, shelf mark Hh.15.63. Other copies (not seen except for the photocopied title page): (e) Universityof Birmingham, Main Library, Special Collections, shelf mark Wigan B 1501.I7; (f) University of Glasgow, Special Collection, shelf mark Sp. Coll. 986.1 *A2: This version of the first edition waspublishedinLondonin1725. It differs from A1 in three instances and from A3 in two: (a) The title page does not display the paragraph referring to Shaftesbury, Mande1 . Referring to the copy of A1 from the British Library as reprinted in theCollected Works, ed. B. Fabian (Hildesheim: Olms, 1969, 1971), vol. 1, Thomas Mautner (in Francis Hutcheson, On Human Nature, ed. T. Mautner, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993, p. 170) lists three misprints in the quotation from Cicero on the title page (factisve for factisque; conservandum for conservandam; cernerentur for cerneretur). Only the second one of these could be verified. Referring to the copy of A1 from the Bodleian Libary at Oxford he lists a missing word (tanquam) in the same quotation, which allegedly is displayed in the British Library copy; in fact it ismissing in all versions of the first edition. It is introduced with the second edition (B) only. note on the text xxv ville, and the “attempt to introduce a mathematical calculation in subjects of morality” and instead displays the subtitles of the two treatises: “I. Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony, Design.” and “II. Concerning Moral Good and Evil.” (b) In the last paragraph of the title page the first names of the printer and the booksellers are printed in full except for the last one, and one name (T. Longman) is omitted: “Printed by John Darby in Bartholomew Close, for William and John Smith on the...