Questions for Self-Examination; Designed Primarily for the Use of Young Persons

A catechism for self-reflection promoting non-sectarian moral and ethical imperatives. Written with sensitivity to individuals' disparate circumstances, the text is full of footnotes, parenthetical asides and uses of typography to qualify and clarify instances which may apply differently to those who work, those who go to school, those who are able-bodied, etc. 

Small 32mo; xvii, (ii), 2-20m (6)pp. Pencil signature to rear blank. Good with moderate soil, rubbing to cloth including splitting at the spine ends. Contents toned with occasional pencil ghosts and an inverted signature to rfep. Paper label torn with title nearly unscathed. A scruffy but dear volume, with poetic stretches of enumeration and non-traditional structure.

Stated first edition, but published after an 1843 London edition attributed to Frederick William Faber (1814-1863). Faber was part of the Oxford Movement and well-regarded Tractarian poet whose depictions of same-sex affection has drawn interest from modern scholars. The present title is obscure and generally absent from scholarship about Faber, but its timing and anonymous publication are significant. Published at the tipping point of Faber's break from Anglicanism, he famously converted to Catholicism in 1845, following John Newman. He was ordained in 1847, becoming a prominent Catholic theologian and hymn writer. A new edition of Questions... was published in 1846 (62 pages), offering potential insight through comparison (text is not available online to do so as of this cataloging). No current holdings of this edition in OCLC, 1 of the 1843 London edition.

(See: DNB, vol. 18, 108-110; Blair, K. Breaking Loose: Frederick Faber and the Failure of Reserve, 2006)