The Peak in Darien, With Some Other Inquiries Touching Concerns of the Soul and the Body.
London: Williams & Norgate, 1882. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo. x + 304pp. Original green cloth gilt-lettered on spine & front board, gilt borders on front board. A series of essays by Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), the Irish-born writer, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist, feminist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. Of the eight essays: the longest "Magnanimous Atheism," examines the influence of atheism on morals, the essays "Hygeiolatry" and "Zoophily" are anti-vivisection;" "Pessimism, and One of its Professors" discusses Schopenhauer and his philosophies; "Sacrificial Medicine" discusses the more bizarre medical practices of bygone centuries, including the quintessence of toads; "The Fitness of Women for the Ministry of Religion" is a thoughtful argument for admitting women to the clergy, whilst "The House on the Shore of Eternity" and "The Peak in Darien" deal with the immortality of the soul. Interestingly Cobbe observed that she "utterly disbelieves, and even regard with intense dislike, all so-called "Spiritualist" manifestations and attempts to recall the dead;- and that I have never found any sufficient testimony for stories of ghosts or apparitions of the departed beheld by men and women still in the midst of life." From the collection of Dr. M. H. Coleman, with his ex-libris seal blind-stamped on the front free endpaper. Spine a bit canted and darkened with some bruising and rubbing at ends, light bumps to corners and edges of boards, top-edge darkened, owner's names on front endpaper & half-title, contemporary pen notes on rear free endpaper (only), else a solid, clean VG copy (no dust jacket). Scarce. Item #47450
Price: $125.00