Matter and Motion.

1876. London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1876. Small8vo. Original blind stamped brown cloth. End papers renewed and first two leaves reinforced in margin. Repair to lower part of title-page affecting year of printing and small label ( "S.L.M.") to p. 128. Extremities slightly rubbed, internnaly fine and clean. Pp. viii, (9)-128, (4). Rare first edition of Maxwell's "masterpiece of natural philosophy, notable especially for introducing into physics the term relativity in a passage that combines strenuous scientific insight with a mystical awareness (...)" (Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, p. 209). "Maxwell's Matter and Motion first appeared in 1876 and was reprinted before the year was out. The first American edition was printed in 1878. Following several reprints on both sides of the Atlantic, Sir Joseph Larmor added notes and appendices to produce a new edition in 1920. This edition was reprinted in 1925 and at least half-a-dozen times since 1952" (Flood, McCartney & Whitaker, James Clerk Maxwell: Perspectives on his Life and Work (2014), p. 27). "More light is thrown on Maxwell’s own opinions about the problem of relative and absolute motion and the connection between dynamics and other branches of physics by the delightful monograph Matter and Motion, published in 1876." (DSB)