Olympia-2015

71. [LOCKE, John.] An Essay concerning humane understanding. London,Tho. Basset, 1690.Folio, pp. [xii], 362, [22]; a crisp, clean copy in contemporary sprinkled calf, spinewith raised bands, rebacked preserving the original spine panels, new label, withthe armorial bookplate of Haughton Charles Okeover. £30,000First edition, second issue (rarer than the first: Wing locates three copiesonly, to which may be added Pforzheimer and the British Library). ‘Locke wasthe first to take up the challenge of Bacon [The Advancement of Learning 1620] andto attempt to estimate critically the certainty and the adequacy of humanknowledge when confronted with God and the universe. In the past, similarenquiries had been vitiated by the human propensity to extend them beyond therange of human understanding, and to invent causes for what it cannot explain.Therefore, Locke’s first task was to ascertain “the original certainty and extent ofhuman knowledge” and, excluding “the physical consideration of the mind, to showhow far it can comprehend the universe”. His conclusion is that though knowledgemust necessarily fall short of complete comprehension, it can at least be“sufficient”; enough to convince us that we are not at the mercy of pure chance,and can to some extent control our own destiny’ (PMM).