Rev Charles Maurice Davies (4 results)

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. . 1969, 2 vols in one, reprint of 1874, bright clean copy, no dustjacket, no markings, binding tight, Professional booksellers since 1981.

Paperback. Condition: Very Good.

Hardcover. Condition: Ex-Library. Presumed first American ediiton. No date (c. 1875). Hardcover in decorated royal blue cloth. vi+ 331 pp. plus 4 pp. publicher's ads. A vintage ex-library copy with the usual flaws, spine strip stained, rubbed and chipped. Collection of Rev. Davies' observations and researches into urban spiritualism in mid-Victorian London. In the introduction he states, ".I use the term Mystic, as applied to the larger portion of this volume, in its technical sense to signify my own initiation into some of the more occult phases of metropolitan existence.". It includes descriptions of London mesmerists, mediums, seances, disscussion of Darwinism on the Devil, secularism, etc. Among the forty-six short chapters---"A Lady Mesmerist", "A Phrenological Evening", "A Seance for Skeptics, " An Evening With Higher Spirits", "A Ghostly Conference", etc. Though he had discovered it in Paris in the mid 1850s, Davies became a devoted spiritualist after the death of his son in1865. He saw spiritualism as alternate religion and argued here that it did not pose a threat to traditional Christianity and that the two could peacefully co-exist.

Leather. Condition: Very Good. None (illustrator). First edition. A scarce first edition set of this exploration of different movements and figures associated with "free thought" in Victorian London. Complete in two volumes. First edition. A scarce edition of this work. A comprehensive study of the different movements and important figures associated with "free thought", the idea that beliefs and opinions should be formed based on reason, logic, and empirical observation, rather than dogma, authority or tradition. With discussions of secularism and atheism in Victorian London, this work intends to present the arguments of these individuals and groups to a broader public through chapters entitled: the nemesis of faith, sociable heretics, and ritualistic Unitarianism. Including commentaries on the most high profile supporters of this movement, as well as those who reject their ideas. Written by Charles Maurice Davies, an Anglican clergyman, writer and spiritualist. Bound in half calf with marbled boards. Externally, smart with light rubbing and minor fading to the extremities. The odd small mark to the boards with minor loss to the spine labels. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are very bright with the odd small spot. Minor age toning to the endpapers. Very Good. book.