Echoes of the Universe: from the World of Matter and the World of Spirit; Science and History.
London: Richard Bentley, 1850. First Edition. Hardcover, Octavo. xviii + 376 pages. Contemporary pebbled leather, heavily decorated in gilt with patterned borders and devices to both boards, raised bands to spine, gilt decorations to edges of boards. All edges gilt. Lilac silk-finish endpapers. An extremely uncommon first edition by Henry Christmas (1811 – 1868), an English clergyman and man of letters whose somewhat quirky interests also caused him to explore aspects of the occult and mythology, and lead him to translate August Calmet's broad-ranging study of the occult "The Phantom World; or, the Philosophy of Spirits, Apparitions, &c." in the same year as the present work was published. His "Echoes of the Universe" was based on a series of lectures that he gave from the pulpit, designed to inform about both the wonders of science, and the supernatural, in relation to a Christian perspective.
The book is divided into two parts: Echoes of the Universe: Part I is entitled Echoes from the World of Matter and comprises six chapters: Cosmogony and Astronomy; Astronomy (Continued); Light; Geology; Natural History of the Ancient World; and Science Christianized and Consecrated. Part II is entitled Echoes from the World of Spirit and also comprises six chapters: Introductory; God's Dispensations (etc.); Angels, Their Nature and Numbers, Their Ranks and Orders, (etc.); Evil Angels, not spared, importance of the subject (etc.); Demoniacal Possession (etc.); Immortality of the Soul; Appendix. For further details of contents see accompanying photos of "contents" pages. Bound without half-title page. Boards rubbed at edges and corners rounded, split in leather at front hinge, old internal cloth reinforcement to front endpaper hinge, penciled name on front free endpaper, small tear at top edge of title-page, pages evenly toned. Due to the crack in the leather hinge it will have to be handled with some care, although the board is still tightly affixed. What was a splendid and doubltless very expensive binding shows some wear, but internally tight and clean. A solid about VG copy of a rare volume. Item #69622
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