Herbert Spencer, Social Statics: or, The Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First of Them Developed (London: J. Chapman, 1851), pp. viii, 476, [24]. 8vo. Ex library. Publisher’s original brown cloth binding, embossed with elaborate decorative motif. Visible water damage to the front edge of the back board and rear pages (approx. 2cm, a third of the way down from the top), discoloration and stains on the end papers and foxing and browning to pages, loose hinges, library stamp and sticker ghost inside front endpapers, and another sticker ghost on the inside rear endpaper. The book is, however, complete, including publisher’s advertisements. This is a rare first edition of Spencer’s first book – in which he introduces his application of the term ‘fitness’ to humans in society, over a decade before he coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’.
