Chapter 16

Towards Democracy

A masterpiece, the work of a seer. Gifted as poet and philosopher, the author has given us one of the great, if not the greatest, work of the nineteenth century. It is full of vivid pictures of the soul’s enlightenment. Its perusal gives the reader a realization of the divine in man—“the divine life which incloses and redeems all souls.” Through this life every soul finds itself akin to every other soul; brotherhood is more than a myth and democracy ceases to be a dead letter.

A. B. Stockham, M. D.: I have read and reread Towards Democracy with transports of delight, and with a great hope for humanity. As achelato agurumy soul bows to thine. People of the nineteenth century may be deaf to the poetic strains pealing throughout in clarion notes; they may be blind to the universal truths flashed in scintillating lights, but illumined souls of the coming centuries will honor the author as one of the chosen, and will understand the message of deliverance he has given to imprisoned souls.

Chas. A. Hamilton: Towards Democracy is a revelation! Walt Whitman, Emerson, Tennyson, Ruskin and Carlisle rolled into one! I reveled in it like a bather in the cool waves of the ocean. I splashed through its pages as a strong swimmer through the white surges; I drank it in as a parched traveler drinks cool spring water gushing out from under a rock; I was united with it even as hydrogen and oxygen become one in the millionth part of a second. Later—I am still reading Towards Democracy. It thrills and thrills me and I shed hot tears of which I am not ashamed.

W. L. Sinton: Towards Democracy stands side by side with the Bible, and to him who has the eye to see and the ear to hear, it contains a key to all the problems of life.

Cecelia Evans: I have Towards Democracy beside my bed, and read something in it every night and some mornings. I can never, never tell by word or pen the good that book has done me. I never pick it up that my courage is not renewed. His “Joy, Joy” would kill any case of blues. I always felt that these little daily tasks were so hard, and thought if one could only get out in the world and do something one might be saved; but his “Sweet are the Uses of Life,” with his promise that the Lover will come when we are about our little homely tasks, has been a revelation. I never did care much for housework, but even washing the dishes has its blessing now. I let the present hour bring its gift and am not fretting about the future.

Over 300 pages, bound in cloth. Prepaid, $1.50

“Who is the poet whom love has made strong, strong,STRONG,with all strength.”

A Visit to a Gnani

With an Introduction by Alice B. Stockham, M. D.

A vivid pen picture of oriental thought and teaching, containing in a few pages what one often fails to find by searching many volumes. A Gnani is one who knows, a Knower; in other words, one who has a consciousness of the greater or universal life which Carpenter calls the Kosmic Consciousness, which is the higher self of Theosophists, the Infinite I of Fichte, the Noumena of Kant, the Divine Mind of Christian Religion.

In a concise and comprehensive manner, the author presents the practical esotericism of the East, giving points of likeness to western philosophy. Man loses his life to gain it, loses his consciousness of and dependence upon physical and material life to gain a consciousness of the universal life—a Kosmic consciousness.

Health Culture: The book contains many interesting facts and anecdotes concerning Gurus, Adepts, Yogis, etc., besides it is a study of the duality of mind. To gain the power of blotting out the personal consciousness, so that the Kosmic consciousness shall dominate—one becomes a Gnani or one who knows.

Sidney Flower: In the domain of occultism this is clearly the book of the year. It is interesting to note that the East and the West touch hands in the matter of self-development. We simply make our will the master of the mind, and by thus subjugating the noise of the machinery, we make it possible to hear and attend to the Voice in the Silence.

Psychic Review: As one reads this vivid pen picture, his interest is held throughout, and he realizes that there is a life more wonderful and perhaps more real than the material life.

Chicago Chronicle: A Gnani is one who has consciousness of the Universal Life—it is the absolute Ego of Fichte, the self-affirming Activity of Schilling, the Geist of Hegel, the Unknowable of Spencer, the Kingdom of Heaven of Christ. The use of the higher faculties is acquired only after a long training and according to laws peculiarly their own. This must not result in oblivion, but in a divine consciousness without the limitations of thought.

Illustrated, bound in Vellum de Luxe. Prepaid, $1.00

I will have none that will not open his door to all—treating others as I have treated him.

Love’s Coming of Age

A comprehensive and philosophical treatise on Sexual Science and Marriage. In this book Edward Carpenter has done his work well and all will peruse it with interest and profit. It evinces a breadth of thought and research seldom found in treating these delicate subjects.

Prepaid, $1.25

Other works by Edward Carpenter are England’s Ideals: Civilization, its Cause and Cure; Eros and Psyche; Angel Wings; Unknown People, etc., all of which can be ordered through our house.

Carpenter may be considered a leader in the philosophy of life—at least every student of economics or social ethics must give his works more than a passing perusal.

Stockham Publishing Co.56Fifth AvenueAuthorized Agents CHICAGO

Stockham Publishing Co.

56Fifth Avenue

Authorized Agents CHICAGO

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTESSilently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.Archaic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as printed.Footnotes were re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of the last chapter.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES

Back to Index Next