This revised edition is more of a history than an encyclopedic study, although it is a thorough review of the literature of the occult and the paranormal, mystical, and religious roots of what can broadly be termed "consciousness." The study is filled with useful information, although it tends to accept the information without evaluating how it fits into the fabric of science, when often the data directly conflict with the rest of science. One wonders, for example, why the magician James Randi's exposure and duplication of psychic surgery is not mentioned (although his work on faith healing is). Most of the healings described have little or no scientific evidence to back them up. They may be useful in suggesting future research, but by themselves the data, and this book, must be used with caution.

Introduction to the Study of American Literature
by William Cranston Lawton
(Rare Book Collection)

In this volume the attempt has been made to distinguish the salient epochs in American literature, brief though the story is. The relation of the artist and his work to the general life of his time and of his people has been frequently recalled. This relation is especially illustrated in the chronological tables, which may be supplemented from the regular textbooks in American history.
Nevertheless, the treatment in the text itself is in the main biographical. That is, the effort has almost always been to make the single life appear an articulated and rational whole. This method craves far more space than was here available; but, any such volume as this must serve merely as an introduction to far wider reading.