The Rationale of Reward, London, 1825. 1st English edition

1825. The Work that Gave Bentham an International Audience Bentham, Jeremy [1748-1832]. [Dumont, Pierre Etienne Louis (1759-1829), Editor]. The Rationale of Reward. London: Published by Robert Heward, 1825. 352, [2] pp. With an errata leaf not noted by Chuo University Library. Octavo (8-1/2" x 4-3/4"; 21.6 x 12.1 cm). Handsome quarter calf over marbled boards, lettering piece, blind fillets and gilt date to spine, endpapers renewed. Moderate toning to interior, light foxing and soiling in a few places, early owner signature (of Mary Swift) to title page. $650. * First edition in English (and the first separate edition of this title). Originally published in French as part of Theorie des Peines et des Recompenses (1811). Dumont, a Swiss writer and journalist, was introduced to Bentham through Lord Shelburne in 1788. The two struck up both a friendship and an enduring intellectual partnership. Dumont went on to translate and edit many of Bentham's works from the latter's unpublished manuscripts with the goal of clarifying Bentham's often complicated (and at times impenetrable) writing. The partnership was a success. The Rationale of Reward represents a clear articulation of Bentham's utilitarian social and economic theories, previously only available diffusely in various short tracts. Dumont's editions "brought Bentham's ideas for the first time before a wide audience...However much Bentham may have complained that Dumont's versions were not his own, he was grateful to Dumont for what he could not achieve alone, a growing international reputation based on highly readable editions of his works" (ODNB). Based on another book we examined with an identical signature, the Mary Swift who owned this copy may have been the daughter of Eleazer Morton Swift [1790-1859], who served as district attorney for Dutchess County, New York in 1843. We could find little information about her besides her life years [1829-1906] and the year of her marriage [1865, to Sidney S. Boyce (1831-1924)]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (accessed online). Chou University Library, A Bibliographical Catalogue of the Works of Jeremy Bentham R3.1. Sweet & Maxwell, A Legal Bibliography of the British Commonwealth II:27.