W.H. Sels - Zedelyke uitspanningen - 1771-1774

W.H. Sels - Moral endeavors, consisting of four stories with art plates - Amsterdam, F. de Kruyff, 1771-1774. First edition - 3 volumes. 341, 480, 464 pages. - With 3 title vignettes, 12 engraved plates, and 3 pages of sheet music. - Sacred teaching with gilded lettering.


Condition: good (rusty here and there and moisture stains inevitable, damages to the tire, partially repaired)

Rare!
Witsen Geysenbeek on the playful author: 'It may be that he was a good, obedient, pious man, who, by luck, did not need to work for a living, but was rich enough to indulge in apocalyptic musings at Dennenbroek and to write them down in rhyme or to interpolate them in prose with dashes and exclamation marks; yet perhaps the man knew that most of his writings were a useless mental torment for him, just as his strict abstinence from flesh during a twenty-year fast and his sacrifice of sleep were a useless bodily torment, just as his Hieronymite seclusion from society was a waste of oil and effort, to canonize him as a Protestant saint or to secure immortal fame as a poet and writer among his descendants. Surely, he would have taken up the practice of trade or become a useful and active member of civil society in some other way.'