I'm looking for a text, or book...

January 31, 2006 6:58 AM

Does anybody know of, or how to get hold of a work by: Arbuthnot, John: Proposals for printing a very curious discourse, in two volumes in quarto, intitled, Pseudologia politike; or, A treatise of the art of political lying?
posted by acrobat to Society & Culture (5 answers total)

It's been microfilmed (or -fiched, rather)--Library of English Literature (LEL) 40064. You shouldn't have a problem getting it through interlibrary loan. Incidentally, you don't mention your geographical location, but there are several research libraries in the US that own the original pamphlet, including the Newberry Library in Chicago.
posted by thomas j wise at 7:24 AM on January 31, 2006

It looks like its included in this edition of the Miscellanies in Prose and Verse By Pope, Swift and Gay (and evidently of Arbuthnot too). But that's a bit pricey. A search on abebooks.com with 'political lyingä as keywords turned up an inexpensive 19th century edition of the Prose Writings of Swift, which claimed to include this piece.
posted by misteraitch at 7:24 AM on January 31, 2006

I know of it - although haven't read it. I came across Arbuthnot in the context of his History of John Bull, which was more popular. Project Gutenberg has that, but not the Art of Political Lying. I can't find it on the web anywhere but well-established university libraries may have a copy. Your user page doesn't say where you are, but Cambridge (for example) has a copy in their rare books collection. I'd recommend picking the nearest big university to where you are and trying there.

Alternatively, there seems to be a modern monograph on it that includes the original text as an appendix.
posted by greycap at 7:26 AM on January 31, 2006

Best answer: I can get an electronic copy through my University. Email is in profile.
posted by sanko at 11:01 AM on January 31, 2006

Response by poster: That's just great! Thanx!
posted by acrobat at 2:04 AM on February 1, 2006