The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-08 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Curiosities of Occult Literature, By C. Cooke.
One Vol. pp. 275. Hall, Smart, and Allen.
The writer of this " strange eventful history" of
his own inquiries into the pribtematie truth or
falsehood of the pseudo-science of Astrclogy, has
chosen for his title-page, as it appears to us, the
most discouraging motto, surely, that was ever pre-
sented to the eyes of an intending reader at the
opening of any volume, whether large or small,
good, bad, or indifferent. Quoting from Lord
Eldon, he says to his reader, upon this unlucky
titlepage—" The mind sickens when it contemplates
the voluminous appendages of this suit." The book—
as the reader will at once say to himself, musingly,
(whatever the suit hinted at may prove to be) the
book itself, being the last and the most voluminous
of those same appendages, or a resume, or a re-
chaufee, or a most painstaking enumeration or
record of them all ! Having ourselves, in spite of
of the repellant motto referred to, run our glance
through these pages of undoubted " Curiosities," we
may state at once that it answers in its contents to
the latest of the above definitions. It is, in plain
terms, a narrative by the writer of several years
devoted by him to the examination of a study
once popular amongst philosophers, and, what is
more, amongst the world's greatest philosophers—
men like Bacon and Milton, like Socrates and Aris-
totle—but nevertheless a study that has long since
dropped away from the ken of the professional fre-
quenters both of thelaboratory and the observatory,
what we have here already spoken of, as the pseudo-
science of Astrology. Bitten with a belief, or, let
us say, a notion, that there might be yet something
after all worthy of examination, even of cre-
dence, in this old, abandoned, obsolete, exploded
science of Astrology, Mr. C. Cooke, a little more
than fifteen years ago, then a young solicitor just
beginning practice, a man (as every word in this
book shows quite distinctly) of the strictest honour,
of perfect good faith, and of considerable ability—
in 1847 began his investigations into this recondite
matter, began to collect some of the " Curiosities"
lie has here, in rather melancholy mood, brought
together, and poured out in some twenty
chapters and ten sections of an eccentric
appendix before the public ! The appendix
we have called eccentric advisedly; for it certainly
appears to us to be the greatest mistake in the
volume, consisting as it does in parts, to all appear-
ance, of the mere sweepings of the author's study
scraps of hurriedly pencilled notes, many of them,
we doubt not, by the writer, supposed long since to
have been dropped into the waste paper basket, and
carted away from the area-bin by the parish
dustman. Not such, however, having been their
fate—here, with horrible exactitude, they inake
their apparation in carefully corrected typography !
In spite of its motto, the book, we can confidently
premise to any one who may meditate looking into
it, is replete with entertainment. It consists of
more than a collection of the " Curiosities of Occult
Literature." It is itself a great curiosity as a
whole—a psychological curiosity ! It is, so far as
we can in any way understand it, a perfeetly honest
series of revelations, or, as we may call them in old-
fashioned phrase, unbosomings, by an avowed Dis-
ciple of Zsdkiel! It lets the reader into all sorts of
secrets, in regard to Mr. Cook's personal experi-
ences. The author frankly takes the whole world, or
at least all those in it who may care a :isten
to him, into his personal confidence. In these
astonishingly candid pages, he recounts in rapid
succession, among other singular things, his intro-
duction to Lieut, Morrison, R.N., author of Zad-
kiel's Almanac, and other astrological works ; his
early Experiences ; and his own nativity calculated
by Zadkiel in 1849. Besides this, the work relates
the Cases of Bell and of Cepestick, at Bath, Impri-
soned for Astrological Practice. It quotes at full
length a Leading Article written by us eleven years
ago in this newspaper. It reproduces the Author's
Anonymous Letter thereupon,also in this newspaper.
It describes the attempts made to establish the
Wellington Telescope Company, Capital £lO,OO0—
Promoted by Lieut. Morrison, and " Approved" by
Lord Brougham. It relates the whole history of the
Cardiff and Glamorgan Coal Company, Capital
£50,000; the Early History of the Emperor Life
Assurance Society ; and the Publication of
the Author's first W ork, the " Plea for Urania."
Not the least interesting part of the volume, how-
ever, has reference to a subject quite apart from its
immediate purpose—being descriptive, this inci-
dental chapter (a very readable one, by the way)—
carefully and (as ever with Mr. Cook) very honestly
dcscriptive of a trip made by him across the Atlantic
and through the then still nominally United States
of America jest before the date of their actual dis.
['option. " Astrology in a Nutshell," a minor pro-
duction of the writer's, was published after his return
from America. To this little brochure he also here
makes reference; as likewise to the foundation of
the Astro-Meteorological Society, of which, during
its existence, he acted, as his much-avowing title-
page tells us, as its solicitor. The Book under
notice we certainly regard as having its moral.
And the moral it teaches, appears to be in every
way so impressive that we commend it to the
thoughtful scrutiny of all who may have a hanker-
ing after these same researches into occult litera-
ture. Whatever money Mr. Cooke may have ex-
pended while making his researches in that direc-
tion, he has certainty for one thing greatly enlarged
his experience of men and things, and, while doing
so, we must add, has lost nothing whatever of what
appears to us his chief and most attractive charac-
teristic, a great natural ingenuousness of
character !