Letters and Tracts on the Choice of Company and Other Subjects.

London: Printed for J. Whiston and B. White..., 1761. FIRST EDITION. 8vo, 220 x 132 mms., pp. xxxii, 304, contemporary marbled boards (slightly soiled), with later quart calf spine and vellum fore-edges, uncut, with the obituary presentation engraved bookplates of Thomas Llewelyn on the front paste-down end-paper, and an inscription on the title-page attributing the work to "Blackborn." Robert Bolton (1697–1763), was dean of Carlisle. In addition to several letters (86 pages) on the "choice of company," Bolton addresses himself to the following other subjects: "On Intemperance in Eating," "On Intemperance in Drinking," "On Pleasure," "On Public Worship," and concludes with a "Letter to a Young Nobleman" and an Appendix about a continuation of Clarendon's History. The Monthly Review for 1761 appreciated Bolton's argument: "There is a plainness and perspicuity in the Doctor's style, and a force and dignity in his sentiments: the excellent advice he offers to young persons is always founded on the principles of right reason; and in the most material points, he takes care to shew, what support they have from the authority of those excellent Writers, whose wisdom, their own and all succeeding times have concurred to applaud."