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Libra Esoterica

Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature and Development

by Henry George Atkinson & Harriet Martineau

  • First published:
  • 21st century
  • Language: English
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Description

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Henry George Atkinson (c.1812–c.1890), a free thinker and supporter of naturalism, published extensively on phrenology, mesmerism, and spiritualism. He became acquainted with the professional writer, political activist and radical philosopher Harriet Martineau (1802–76) in the 1840s, when she attributed her recovery from a long illness to mesmerism. Their correspondence was published in 1851, and promotes a radical form of atheistic naturalism, more extreme than that found in George Combe's best-selling Constitution of Man (also published in this series). It ranges widely over topics including the brain and the nervous system, matter and causation, superstition, theology and science. The book promotes the purity of natural law as superior to social customs and institutions, and reflects many concerns of the intelligentsia of the time, amongst whom it stirred up much controversy.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Mesmerism, animal magnetism, and hypnosis and Spiritualism, mediumship, and channeling.

  • Spiritualism, mediumship, and channeling

    Retained metadata contains “Spiritualism” in the description and “Spiritualism” in the subject metadata.

    • “Spiritualism”· in description
    • “Spiritualism”· in subject
  • Mesmerism, animal magnetism, and hypnosis

    Controlled discovery queries from openalex matched “mesmerism”. Retained metadata contains “Mesmerism” in the description.

    • “mesmerism”· via OpenAlex
    • “Mesmerism”· in description

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

One edition cataloged here.

OpenAlex scholarly book record

2009-07-20Cambridge University Press; Cambridge University Press eBooksEnglish—Open access (green)

Subjects

20 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

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Cataloged from

Catalog id
openalex:W1484976159
Edition coverage
Openalex source record
Retrieved