The Works of Soame Jenyns, In Four Volumes. The Second Edition. London: T. Cadell, 1793.
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For the measure of literary repute which he enjoyed during his life Jenyns was indebted as much to his wealth and social standing as to his accomplishments and talents, though both were considerable. His poetical works, the Art of Dancing (1727) and Miscellanies (1770), contain many passages graceful and lively though occasionally verging on licence.
The first of his prose works was his Free Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Evil (1756). This essay was severely criticised on its appearance, especially by Samuel Johnson in the Literary Magazine. Johnson condemned the book as a slight and shallow attempt to solve one of the most difficult of moral problems. Jenyns, a gentle and amiable man in the main, was extremely irritated by his review. He put forth a second edition of his work, prefaced by a vindication, and tried to take vengeance on Johnson after his death by a sarcastic epitaph:
Here lies poor Johnson. Reader, have a care,
Tread lightly, lest you rouse a sleeping bear;
Religious, moral, generous, and humane
He was - but self-sufficient, rude, and vain;
Ill-bred and over-bearing in dispute,
A scholar and a Christian - yet a brute.
In 1776 Jenyns published his View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion. Though at one period of his life he had affected a kind of deistic scepticism, he had now returned to orthodoxy, and there seems no reason to doubt his sincerity, questioned at the time, in defending Christianity on the ground of its total agreement with the principles of human reason. The work was praised for its literary merits.
Jenyns published Disquisitions on Several Subjects in 1782. In "Disquisition II", Jenyns argued, using the great chain of being, that animals should be viewed in the same way that humans would want to be viewed by God. He also asserted that: "We are unable to give life, and therefore ought not wantonly to take it away from the meanest insect, without sufficient reason; they all receive it from the same benevolent hand as ourselves, and have therefore an equal right to enjoy it."
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Size: 124 x 185 mm (approx., each)
Condition:
Contemporary full marbled calf, spines with repeating gilt motifs, uniformly bound, complete with all four volumes as issued. Bindings rubbed, some wear to extremities, all boards securely attached, bindings secure. First volume's title label a little chipped, but all are extant. Bookplate to front pastedowns ('Kinnard'). The portrait frontispiece is present (after Sir Joshua Reynolds), but bound prior to H1 in the first volume. Some scattered foxing, heavier to the first and last few leaves as typical, else generally clean throughout each volume, mildly toned; a very good set.
