THE MORAL NATURE and The Great Sympathetic. A Continuation of "The Functions of the Great Sumpathetic." by Bucke, R.M - 1878

Innes & Sons, 1905. Olive cloth boards, titles on paper label on spine. Cloth split along rear gutter. Damp staining to extremities, but binding remains intact. Previous owner's name in large cursive, in black ink and date 28 October 1915 on FFEP. Pictorial frontispiece with facsimile signature. Damp stain evident around edges of pages throughout book. Does overlap with text block on lower fore-corner of every page, but text remains legible throughout. Pages wavy from damp, but all present and accounted for. Bucke's foundational volume on mysticism and free thought, in the revised, 1905 edition following the 1901 first edition. Uncommon in such an early edition. Due to the condition flaws, a chance to own an early copy at a more modest price. . Hardcover. Fair. 4to.

The Conservator, Philadelphia, first edition, 1894. Printed self-wrappers, stapled, 25 cm,. 18 pp. The scarce first separate printing of Bucke's seminal paper on 'Cosmic Consciousness' (also published in the Proceedings of the American Medico-Psychological Association) and which he later expanded into a book of the same title, published in 1901. Wrappers somewhat creased and some staining to last leaf, otherwise Good.

Trübner & Co,, London, first edition, 1879. Cloth, blindstamped borders on covers, small 8vo, 21 cm,. xiii, 200 pp, 2 tissue-guarded plates. From the introduction - "The object of this essay is to discuss the moral nature - to point out, in the first place, its general relation to the other groups of functions belonging to, or rather making up, the individual man, and also its relations to man’s environment. Secondly, to show its radical separation from these other groups of functions ; then to attempt to decide of what organ it is a function - to consider whether it is a fixed quantity, or whether, like the active nature and the intellectual nature, it is in course of development. And if the moral nature is progressive, to try to find out what the essential nature of this progress is - upon what basis the progress itself rests - the direction of the progress in the past and in the future - its causes - its history - and the law of it - and to point out the conclusions which can… Read More