Emilius and Sophia: or, A New System of Education.: Translated from the French ... by the Translator of Eloisa [William Kenrick]

FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH - A KEY WORK IN WESTERN EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT
first edition in English, in part second issue 4 vols. 12mo. [2 (half-title)], xx, [2], 310; [4 (half-title & title)], 266; [4 (half-title & title)], 268; [4 (half-title & title)], 292, [48 (index)]pp., 6 engraved plates (including a portrait, four by Cochin, and one other), contemporary calf, spines with raised bands and tan labels gilt, 2 leaves in vol.IV (N9 and O2, both cancels) loose, minor silverfish damage at the foot of the joints of vol.1, label of vol.4 little rubbed. A nice fresh copy in its original state.

ESTC n6260 The first two volumes were also issued dated 1762 under the imprint of R. Griffiths, T. Becket and P. A. de Hondt (usually found with vols. 3 and 4 of this 1763 printing). Two different English translations were also published in 1763.
One of the most important works in the history of Western education. Translations into several European languages quickly followed the first printing in French in 1762."Few books have had had greater immediate effect on English educational thought than Rousseau's Émile. Coming at a time when new stirrings disturbed the calm waters of the eighteenth century English education, its ideas fused with those of radical and scientific thinkers to create new insights into children, into methods of teaching, and the scope of the educational process, and these gave new directions to English educational thought. Modern educational methods in England have their origin in the emergence in the late eighteenth century of a new school of theorists who took Émile as their guide" [Stewart and McCann The Educational Innovators, p.23]
Kenrick (1725?-1779), miscellaneous writer, "had a strong love of notoriety, a jealous and perverse temper, and was often drunk and violent. He became the enemy of every decent and successful person and so notorious as a libeller that few condescended to answer him" [D.N.B.]. For his translation of Rousseau's Eloisa (1761) he was awarded the degree of LLD by the University of Aberdeen. A preface by him was included with this translation.