• The historical background
• The religious background
• The female face of God
• The Indian tragedy
• Sleeping preachers
• Mormon roots
• The square and compass
• Not the end of the world
• Brief utopias
• Perfection in this life
• The Poughkeepsie seer
• Rapping spirits
• The progressives take notice
• Sex, drugs, and mirrors
• Chautauqua follies
• Open breathing
• Practical spirits
• Theosophy, from Ithaca to Halcyon
• The hollow earth
• Freethought
• Oz and ends
• The fra
• The craftsman
• The Rochester yogi
• The cauldron refired.

• Acknowledgments;
• 1. The Historical Background;
• 2. The Religious Background;
• 3. The Female Face of God; Jemima Wilkinson, the Universal Friend (1752-1819);
• 4. The Indian Tragedy;
• 5. Sleeping Preachers;
• 6. Mormon Roots;
• 7. The Square and Compass;
• 8. Not the End of the World;
• 9. Brief Utopias; The Inspirationists of Buffalo Creek; The Sodus Bay Phalanx; The Skaneateles Community;
• 10. Perfection in This Life;
• 11. The Poughkeepsie Seer;
• 12. Rapping Spirits;
• 13. The Progressives Take Notice;
• 14. Sex, Drugs, and Mirrors;
• 15. Chautauqua Follies;
• 16. Open Breathing;
• 17. Practical Spirits.

• Amanda Theodocia Jones (1835-1914)18. Theosophy, from Ithaca to Halcyon;
• 19. The Hollow Earth;
• 20. Freethought;
• 21. Oz and Ends;
• 22. The Fra; CREDO;
• 23. The Craftsman;
• 24. The Rochester Yogi;
• 25. The Cauldron Refired; Epilogue; Maps; Gazetteer of Sites; Abbreviations of the Counties of New York State; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

• Prologue: Interesting times
• Kircher's life and work : an overview
• Frontispieces
• The illustration of Kircher's works
• Antiquity misread
• Antiquity preserved
• Antiquity imagined
• Naturalia : fire and water
• Naturalia : air and earth
• Music
• Machines of past and present
• Machines : magnetic and optical
• Maps and plans
• Exotica
• Images of the gods
• Didactic images
• Athanasius Kircher's writings.

"A major study of both the written and pictorial work of a neglected genius whose breadth of interest made him the last Renaissance man."--Provided by publisher.

• The harmony of the spheres in the Age of Enlightenment-- Pythagoras in Egypt and China-- Fabre d'Olivet-- Fourier and the Fourierists-- Wronski and the Wronskians-- the Pythagoreans of mid-century-- Edmond Bailly and universal harmony at the Fin-de-Siecle-- Saint-Yves d'Alveydre and his Archeometre-- speculative music encounters modernism.
• (source: Nielsen Book Data)

Occultism and esotericism flourished in 19th-century France as they did nowhere else. Many philosophers sought the key to the universe, and some claimed to have found it. In the unitive vision that resulted, music invariably played an important part. This account begins with the anti-Newtonian "colour harpsichord" of Pere Castel, and closes with the disciples of Rene Guenon and their fierce anti-modernity; in between are the major figures of Fabre d'Oliver, Charles Fourier, Wronski, Lacuria, Saint-Yves d'Alveydre and their disciples. Music was for them a blend of science and art that could bring insight into the cosmic order, and even into the mind of God. Theirs was a "speculative music" in the tradition of Pythagoras, Plato, Ficino, and Kepler, such as is generally thought to have died with the coming of the Enlightenment. On the contrary, as this book shows, it flourished more vigorously than ever. The author presents his subjects straightforwardly, explaining the many difficulties in their works and giving a context for their often surprising beliefs. He shows how speculative music relates to practice, treating specially the cases of Satie and Debussy, as composers familiar with occultism.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

A translation into English of the Renaissance text "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili", a pagan, allegorical, mythological romance relating in Latin the quest of Poliphilo for his beloved Polia. The author was obsessed by architecture, and there are 172 woodcuts of gardens and buildings.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• The modern world and traditional man
• The end of a cycle : ride the tiger
• European nihilism : the dissolution of morals
• From the precursors of nihilism to the "lost youth" and the protest movement
• Disguises of European nihilism : the socioeconomic myth and the protest movement
• Active nihilism : Nietzsche
• Being oneself
• The transcendent dimension : "life" and "more than life"
• Beyond theism and atheism
• Invulnerability : Apollo and Dionysus
• Acting without desire : the causal law
• Being and inauthentic existence
• Sartre : prisoner without walls
• Existence, a "project flung into the world"
• Heidegger : "retreating forwards" and "being-for-death" : collapse of
• Existentialism
• The dual aspect of anonymity
• Destructions and liberations in the new realism
• The "animal ideal" : the sentiment of nature
• The procedures of modern science
• Covering up nature : phenomenology
• The sickness of European culture
• Dissolution in modern art
• Modern music and jazz
• Excursus on drugs
• States and parties : apoliteia
• Society : the crisis of patriotic feeling
• Marriage and the family
• Relations between the sexes
• The "second religiosity"
• Death : the right over life.