Browning’s Paracelsus and Other Essays

Browning’s Paracelsus and Other Essays collects the theosophical and literary writings of Jirah Dewey Buck (1838-1916), the Cincinnati physician and senior figure of the early American Theosophical Society. Buck was a friend of William Quan Judge and one of the founding members of the Society’s American Section, and he wrote extensively on the mystical content he saw in Western literature. The title essay reads Robert Browning’s long poem Paracelsus as a Theosophical text on the soul’s progress through incarnations and on the recovery of esoteric wisdom. The other essays cover Shakespeare, Emerson, and the symbolism of Masonic ritual. The collection gives a clear picture of how Victorian-era American Theosophists read English literature as encoded spiritual teaching. Free PDF download available on BDeBooks.