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Details
COLDEN, Cadwallader (1688-1776). An Explication of the First Causes of Action in Matter; and of the Cause of Gravitation. London: J. Brindley, 1746.
8o (225 x 142 mm). Stabbed-and-sewn as issued; cloth portfolio.
FIRST ENGLISH EDITION of this exceedingly scarce pamphlet. Colden was at the time Lieutenant Governor of New York and the present work is the London reprint of the first version of chapters 1 and 2 of his larger work Principle of Action in Matter (published London 1752). Colden argues against Newton's void, his empty space with mysterious actions occurring at a distance. Colden developed the notion of an elastic Aether in his physics. Of the first edition, New York 1745, Sabin notes: " of the greatest rarity. I have seen but one copy, which belongs to Mr. William Menzies." Of this London edition he comments: "Its title hardly belongs to our place, seeing that it does not relate to America; but the work is eagerly sought after by American collectors, and, at the time of its publication, excited much comment" (Sabin 14268). See Evans 5564.
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FIRST ENGLISH EDITION of this exceedingly scarce pamphlet. Colden was at the time Lieutenant Governor of New York and the present work is the London reprint of the first version of chapters 1 and 2 of his larger work Principle of Action in Matter (published London 1752). Colden argues against Newton's void, his empty space with mysterious actions occurring at a distance. Colden developed the notion of an elastic Aether in his physics. Of the first edition, New York 1745, Sabin notes: " of the greatest rarity. I have seen but one copy, which belongs to Mr. William Menzies." Of this London edition he comments: "Its title hardly belongs to our place, seeing that it does not relate to America; but the work is eagerly sought after by American collectors, and, at the time of its publication, excited much comment" (Sabin 14268). See Evans 5564.