dickson cyrus (1 Ergebnisse)

Hardcover. Zustand: Good. Blank book (6 ½" x 8"). Contemporary quarter leather and marbled paper boards. Contains approximately 140 dense and neatly written manuscript pages on the rectos and versos. Both boards are detached, spine is worn, front free endpaper and one text leaf are detached, else good or better, with the interior manuscript pages clean and bright. A substantial collection of miscellaneous literary and philosophical writings, together with public addresses given by Cyrus Dickson during his tenure at Jefferson College from 1833-37. A member of the Philo Literary Society, Dickson's entries are notably well-written, ranging from allegories and dreams to natural theology, moral philosophy, and related topics. To cite but one example, here is a short excerpt from an allegorical tale set at his birthplace in Pennsylvania on Lake Erie, in which he lives in a state of nature with Native Americans: "We found the shore lined with savage men resolved like the ancient Britons to defend their own native land. But being told in their own language that our designs were not hostile they threw down their arms and bid us welcome to their wild retreat Eliza and myself remain with the Indians. They built us a little cottage under that ancient oak which has long since fallen Here we were happy surrounded by the unpolished children of Nature and Nature herself " After his graduation in 1837, Dickson went on to become an influential Presbyterian minister and author, and later served as Secretary of the Board of Domestic Missions. His death in 1881 elicited numerous tributes, and a memoir of him was published by Samuel J.M. Eaton in 1882. An illuminating journal that provides a window into early 19th century American literary culture. (Laid into the album are five seemingly unrelated holograph letters addressed to one Daniel Wilcock, and John Wilcock, at Frankfort, Philadelphia, dating from 1837-59: with business and personal content, re: a merchant partnership, shipping of goods, etc.).