"The mewing babe in swaddling-clothes, who is treated like a superior being, may perchance become a gentleman; but nature must have given him uncommon faculties if, when pleasure hangs on every bough, he has sufficient fortitude either to exercise his mind or body in order to acquire personal merit."
A Vindication of the Rights of Men in a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
First edition appears in December of 1790. Second edition, with MW's name on the cover, published December 14. 2 entries in ESTC (1790).<br>
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Reading <u>The Vindications</u>. eds. D. L. Macdonald and Kathleen Scherf. (Toronto: Broadview Press, 2001). [Based on the 2nd ed.] See also edition at the Online Library of Liberty &lt;<a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/991 on 2009-12-02">Link to OLL</a>&gt;.