Colton, C. C.  Lacon: or Many Things in Few Words; addressed to those who think. Vols. I. & II. Bound with Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron, and the Tendencies of Don Juan. Bound with The Conflagration of Moscow: A Poem. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822-1823.   [2139]  

Quarter calf with marbled boards, binding a scuffed but with sound joints & hinges, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches, tight, ink library stamp verso of the tp - no other library matter. 265, 186, 56, 30 pp., some foxing. Very good.

The two volumes of Lacon are collected pieces on a wide variety of subjects.  These maxims invite one to think and to ponder for oneself.  An example: "He that abuses his own profession, will not patiently bear with any one else who does so.  And this is one of our most subtle operations of self-love.  For when we abuse our own profession, we tacitly except ourselves; but when another abuses it, we are far from certain that this is the case."

Rev. Charles Caleb Colton (1780-1832), Vicar of Kew and Petersham, was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge.  The latter history of the reverend proves that one may excel in learning, and teach others, while failing to follow and live by those things one teaches.

His Lacon, "is one of the most excellent collection of apothegms in the language," and some of the sayings may be found today in Bartlett's Quotations. The life of a vicar could not contain the enthusiasms and eccentricities of the author, and gambling became his passion, as well as collecting paintings and wine. He fled England and his creditors, for two years touring the United States, and then settling in Paris. It is said that in two years he cleared £25,000 at the tables. "A dread of an impending surgical operation so preyed upon his mind, that he blew his brains out whilst on a visit to Major Sherwell of Fontainebleau." - quotations from Allibone.

The poem The Conflagration of Moscow treats with Napoleon.