MYSTICISM

1p., 8vo. Laid down on a piece of card. Aged and discoloured, with chipping to extremities and some loss of text. The poem is sixteen lines long, arranged in two eight-line stanzas. The first stanza reads: '"Sometimes" - Althaea sighed - "in hours of sadness, | A sudden pleasure shines upon the soul; | The heart beats quick to half-heard notes of gladness, | And from the dark mind all its clouds unroll: | How comes this, Poet! You, who know things hidden, | Whence sounds that undersong of soft Content? | What brings such peace, unlooked-for & unbidden! | Answer me!

32pp., 12mo. Full-page portrait of Swedenborg, from painting, on p.3. In brown printed wraps. In good condition, on aged paper, with corner of first leaf folded down, and slight spotting to front cover. Scarce: only three copies on COPAC, at the British Library, Oxford and the National Library of Wales; the first dated to 1934, and the other two to 1937.

Letter: 1p., 4to. Good, on blue paper. Addressed to 'Dear Gerry', it reads: 'Please accept the enclosed book. I hope you & your family are well & flourishing. We have to soldier on - with some hope in our hearts - despite the molestations of a dark age. | The best there is | [signed] Hugo'. Book: 34 + [i] pp., 8vo. Very good copy; in fair dustwrapper, with slight spotting at head. Limited to 550 copies. Inscribed on half-title 'To Gerald & Anne Long | wishing them peace & all good things | [signed] Hugo Manning | 1976'.

18pp., in a 16mo notebook. In good condition, in lightly-worn decorative paper boards. The entire volume is in Manning's autograph, with a title-page reading: 'BEYOND THE TERMINUS of STARS | A Sequence | HUGO MANNING | PHOENIX PRESS | LONDON | W.8 | First published in 1949'. Sections I ('What new life stirs in the worst of pain') to VIII ('Many wear masks in this pathological drama:') are copied out complete, and IX ('When the bird of sundown sheds its blood of darkness,') ending with the line 'Graduated in Lisbon at a cabaret for tourists,'. A fair copy, without any apparent revisions.

12mo: 27 pp. Stapled. In original brown printed wraps. Good, on lightly-aged paper with rusted staples. Divided into five sections: 'Our Ancestry', 'Our Father', 'Our Mother', 'Montacute' and 'The Children'. A scarce item, the only copies on COPAC being at the British Library, Cardiff and St Andrews.

Wortmann - whose 'Das Gesetz Des Kosmos' (1965) is considered a cosmological masterpiece - corresponded with Hermann Hesse, and was the only modern author to be described by him as a master of the Glass Bead Game. The Sacred Science Institute in America is presently working with Wortmann's family to bring out an edition of his work. The collection is discoloured with age and some leaves are slightly dog-eared, but the whole is in good condition.

80 pages. 16mo. In grubby decorated boards with white paper printed label on front. Corners bumped. Internally sound and tight, with a few pencil notes on front pastedown.

THE PAMPHLET: 8vo, 21 pages, in original blue printed wraps. Somewhat dusty and bumped in one corner but in good condition overall. Inscribed on title-page 'With the good wishes of the author'. THE LETTER: 1 page, 8vo. Grubby and with jagged closed tear to one edge not affecting text. He thanks him for the note '& the enclosures with their prophetic words. How slow the material world is to react to the vision of its seers!' He hopes his 'little essay' will be of interest. He concludes 'Patrick Duncan was the only Milner man I knew & he, of course, has passed over.