Listings for Reader:
John Playfair
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: The Life and Miscellaneous Works of Gibbon
John Playfair to Mary Berry, 8 May 1796: 'I waited with much impatience for the "Life and Miscellaneous Works of Gibbon," and if I have not been quite so much delighted as I supposed, I have yet been highly gratified by becoming more intimately acquainted with the person and character of a great man whom I had before only admired at an immense distance [goes on to criticise Lord Sheffield's editorship of the work].'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Playfair Print: Book
Condorcet : [unidentified posthumously-published work]
John Playfair to Mary Berry, 8 May 1796: 'I have lately seen a posthumous work of Condorcet's; it is a very curious book, full of false views and unsound principles, mingled with truth and philosophy in a manner extremely ingenious and artful.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: John Playfair Print: Book
: Theatrum Cometicum
John Playfair to Mary Berry, from Cambridge, 28 September 1804: 'In going into a great library, it often occurs to me to take up some remarkable book, open it by chance, and observe what comes up, as the truths that are thus casually suggested to the mind often live long in the memory. To-day, in the University library, I took up a book on the history of astronomy, called "Theatrum Cometicum," that is very scarce and very famous, and opened it to try the above experiment. The chapter that turned up was "De Causis Cometarum," and the first sentence was, "Causa cometarum maxime universalis est Deus." This truism was all I had for my pains, and is the only piece of instruction that I am likely to carry away from Cambridge. Some have perhaps gone away with less.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Playfair Print: Book
Mary Berry : Preface and notes to Letters of Madame du Deffand
John Playfair to Mary Berry, 22 September 1810, in response to her edition of the Letters of Madame du Deffand, received three days previously: 'The preface is excellent, very well written and very judicious. The notes bespeak that great familiarity with the characters and persons who figure in the book, whch cannot be acquired by reading [...] I find a great deal of amusement and interest in the few letters I have yet read'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: John Playfair Print: Book
Madame du Deffand : Letters
John Playfair to Mary Berry, 22 September 1810, in response to her edition of the Letters of Madame du Deffand, received three days previously: 'The preface is excellent, very well written and very judicious. The notes bespeak that great familiarity with the characters and persons who figure in the book, whch cannot be acquired by reading [...] I find a great deal of amusement and interest in the few letters I have yet read'.
