Good, John Mason. The Book of Nature (Complete in One Volume); From the Last London Edition. To which is now prefixed, A Sketch of the Author's Life. New-York: Harper & Brothers, 1836. Harper's Stereotype Edition. [10160]
Full sheep binding in very good condition, black leather spine title label, short surface split top front joint, 9 x 6 inches. Marbled end papers and page edges, old stain top third of many leaves, darkest at the title page, faint elsewhere. 467 unmarked pp., tight, some foxing & other light stains. Good. Full leather.
The basis for this work were lectures Good delivered at the Surrey Institution.
It has three main divisions:
I. Nature of the Material World; and the Scale of Unorganized and Organized Tribes that issue from it;
II. Nature of the Animate World; its peculiar Powers, and external Relations; Means of communicating Ideas; Formation of Society;
III. Nature of the Mind: Its general Faculties and Furniture.
John Mason Good (1764-1827), b. Epping, Essex; d. Shepperton, Middlesex. He was named after his great-uncle on his mother's side, John Mason (1645-1694), the author of the influential Treatise on Self Knowledge. Good earned his M.D. at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen, and was a practicing surgeon as well as an author. He wrote on both medical and religious topics, and was adept in classical literature, European languages, as well as Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew. He was a prolific author, stealing time when he could write, even to making notes of his thoughts while walking.
"No man could be more conscientious or industrious than Good. He had a striking power of acquiring knowledge and of arranging it in an orderly fashion...He was always active in works of benevolence, and had strong religious feelings...In his later years he ws an active supporter of the Church Missionary Society, giving the missionaries instructions in useful medical knowledge." - DNB.
