A MYSTERY is, in a popular sense, that which cannot be easily explained; a circumstance that cannot be readily accounted for. Something is, but how or why we cannot tell. The mysteries of modern London are as the sands of the seashore. The mighty city itself is a mystery. The lives of thousands of its inhabitants are mysteries. In the glare and clamour of the noonday, as in the darkness and silence of the night, the mysteries arise, sometimes to startle the world, sometimes to attract so l...

A wide-ranging collection of essays from one of America's leading public intellectuals.In Seeking Truth and Speaking Truth acclaimed political philosopher and legal scholar Robert P. George tackles one of the most vexing issues dividing Americans today. He argues that the "Age of Faith" of the Medieval period and the "Age of Reason" of the European Enlightenments have been followed by a modern "Age of Feeling," in which people derive their beliefs not from...

George Robert Gissing's "The Nether World" masterfully explores the lives of the impoverished in late Victorian England, weaving a narrative that presents both a harrowing critique of social injustice and a poignant reflection on human resilience. The novel employs a realist literary style, characterized by stark imagery and an authentic depiction of the era's bleakness, as Gissing immerses readers in the underbelly of industrial London. Through the experiences of his characters, Gissing c...

"Pistis Sophia", an important, probably second-century, text preserved in a Coptic manuscript, presents complex gnostic teachings in 'gospel' format, as having been addressed by Jesus Christ to his disciples after the resurrection. This translation, based on a Latin version published in 1851, appeared in 1896 and was the first English version of a major gnostic work. The book also includes passages from the "Books of the Saviour" found in the same manuscript. Mead's introduction discusses ...

"The Corpus Hermeticum" are the core documents of the Hermetic tradition.The Hermetic tradition represents a non-Christian lineage of Hellenistic Gnosticism. The tradition and its writings date to at least the first century B.C.E., and the texts we possess were all written prior to the second century C.E. The surviving writings of the tradition, known as the Corpus Hermeticum (the "Hermetic body of writings") were lost to the Latin West after classical times, but survived i...

"Tenderfoot Days" is a memoir written by George Robert Bird that tells the story of his youth in the American West during the late 19th century.Born in Iowa in 1862, Bird moved with his family to Kansas and then to Colorado as a young boy. Growing up in the rugged and untamed wilderness of the West, Bird had many adventures and experiences that shaped his life and worldview."Tenderfoot Days" is a collection of stories and anecdotes from Bird's youth, including his encounters with Native Am...

"The Hymns of Hermes" is a collection of ancient Hermetic hymns attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, a legendary figure associated with the Hermetic tradition. These hymns are part of the larger body of Hermetic writings that encompass a wide range of philosophical, mystical, and spiritual teachings.In this book, G. R. S. Mead provides English translations and commentaries on the Hermetic hymns, offering insights into the esoteric and philosophical themes contained within the texts. The hymn...

THE art of the cartoonist was flourishing in the palaeolithic age, about fifty thousand years ago. In the caves of Dordogne, in Southern France, the early artist scraped and scratched his figures of reindeers and mammoths, and colored them in red, white and black. He was a magic worker, using his remarkable art to impress his less skilled brother. The caricaturist belongs to a much later period; but he, too, was in evidence in Greece during the days of Aristophanes, a century or two before...

It is no use my trying to stop myself. I’m sure I’ve tried hard enough. When I changed my name from Mary Jane Buffham to Mary Jane Beckett by marrying Harry, my sailor sweetheart (God bless him!), I said to myself—Now, Mary Jane, my girl, no more pens and ink. You’ve written a book and had it published, and the newspaper gentlemen have been most kind in what they said about it. You’d better be satisfied with that, and do your duty in that state of life unto which you have been called, that...

This book is neither a History nor a Topography of the Territory of Utah in the early seventies of the last century. The volume is due to the experiences of an outsider who tried to be impartial in his views and sympathies. The personal note, of course, rings in this record of those past days. No onslaught is made on the "wild and woolly" west, nor on the eccentric religion of the majority of the people. Through much peril and privation, the wild wastes of the Territory had been occupied b...

A fascinating read from G. R. S. Mead, this book is one of the best about Gnosticism. Even though this was written before the Nag Hammadi discoveries, it explains a great deal about what we knew about the Gnostics at the turn of the twentieth century. Mead draws on information provided both by the Early Church Fathers hostile to Gnosticism, and the available corpus of actual Gnostic documents at the time. He includes excerpts from previously untranslated manuscripts, and extensive summarie...

George Robert Stowe Mead was an author, editor, translator, and an influential member of the Theosophical Society as well as the founder of the Quest Society.The main materials contained in "Gnostic John the Baptizer" (1924) will certainly be new for the vast majority of readers. Moreover the Mandæan narratives, legends and discourses are not only interesting because of their own distinctive matter and manner, but they are also arresting; for they raise a number of problems, some o...