Books

8vo. pp. 2 p.l., xxii, 312. with half-title. A nice copy in modern quarter calf over contemporary marbled bds. (covers rubbed, marginal browning to outer leaves). Second Enlarged Edition. An important early exercise in modern sociological inquiry and comparative anthropology. The work, which shows the influence of Montesquieu and David Hume, contains a study of primitive society, and the first third of the book is devoted to the study of the rank and condition of women through the ages. It is "remarkable for its anticipation of the views of more recent writers. The prescience of his views on gynaecocracy, or that stage of social development wherein, through kinship counting from the mother, the position of woman is most important, is borne witness to by J.F.Maclennan, in his Studies in Ancient History.". (Palgrave) The last chapter deals with slavery, which Millar opposed. Millar was professor of law at the University of Glasgow and a close friendf of Adam Smith, David Hume, and Lord Kames. Goldsmiths' 10953. Higgs 5330n. Kress 6952.