There are certain people and particular pieces of literature that belong to the fabric of man's truest nature. This book, like "Leaves Of Grass" and "Walden" and Emerson's essays, belongs in that category. This is one of those books that are for those quiet moments when the inner space within needs nourishment. Carpenter is the type of man I long to talk to. He understands the fundamentals of the human experience. He is very different than W.W. yet very similar. W.W.'s poetry is more to my liking but Carpenter's temperament and perspective makes W.W. more poignant and relevant. Very powerful lives and natures entangled in the cosmic dance of life. They compliment one another. This is a book to be sipped and savoured in the quiet moments at either the beginning or end of one's day.

This is quite possibly the most comprehensive book ever written on the human condition, be it the dawn of the 20th century (when the book was written) or the dawn of the 21st century.

This book sadly fell out of print a few years ago, and I am so happy that it is once again available and able to enlighten a whole new generation. Edward Carpenter was a turn-of-the-century poet and philosopher who collected his works into this magnificent volume. He writes about democracy, not in the political sense, but in the social sense. Writing on equality, love, hope and the need to express one's sense of joy in a world that holds so much, Carpenter opens the mind and heart to the true issues that are fundamental to all people.

Carpenter's poetry and prose are inspirational and true to everyone's life, regardless of class, color or creed. He truly celebrates life the way it should be celebrated. A glorious tour-de-force, Towards Democracy is a book I would recommend to anyone and everyone.

I was given this book in 1991 by a friend as a going away (to college) gift. I was going through many changes in my life, and facing massive depression because of them. He gave me the book after turning to a passage that directly related to my situation, and I have read it no less than five times cover-to-cover. I believe that fate sent him to that book, and in turn, brought it into my life.

Any time I feel down-trodden or unable to focus on what is really important in my life, I read a little. It never fails to help. I have shared this book with friends, and they all think it is one of the most brilliant and eloquent books they've read.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a book centered on religion, and many of the essays are descriptions of places Carpenter's seen. However, it is his unique vision of the world, his wonderful prose and immense respect of life that make this a book that belongs in every library.

Listen, I'm not gay nor have I hand those tendencies. But it seems Edward Carpenter and Walt Whitman are fast becoming my two favorite writers. First heard about him after Reading Cosmic Consciousness - Evolution of the human mind. I consider myself Christian, but no Christian teaching has propelled me closer to God than Did Carpernter and Whitman. The Art of creation is a succesful attempt to "lay out" this next level or dimenion of reality that us Christans call the Holy Spirit. He makes my traditional baptist teachings from my youth seem like kids stuff. Albeit that he seems to be a a slightly less developed level than Whitman, that allows him to be more practical in his writing style. (It took me a whole year to even begin to understand Whitman's Leaves of Grass). Art of creation is easy to read and pratical, but requires the Christan to let go of his/her predjudices and shallow perceptions of what spirituality should be. Carpenters sexual preference are not mentioned once in the book and one can't help but get the impression that at a certian level of development, our man-made sense of what is sin is irrelevent. He (and Whitman) whill start to humble the Christan mind, and put you on the right track in starting to perceive that higher level of spirituality that most of us Chrstians are lacking in our walk. He has actually brought me closer to the Bible, and through him one can start to see what Jesus was really trying to say. Its a shame that this wealth of spiritual insight will me missed by modern Chistandom because of his sexual preferences. I am lucky to be able to look beyond that. I'm ordering all his books.

I read the most incredible book today. It was entitled, "civilazation its Cause and Cure". It was able to articulate many of the thoughts I have and suspect in the dawn of a new awakening many other spiritually progressive people are also having. Mr. Edward Carpenter speaks of civilization as a disease. Disease is the opposite of health, and health when traced back to its roots has several meanings, among them: unity, wholeness, togetherness, oneness, and holiness. Civilzation is something that creeped into the spirit of man and made him unwhole, and unhealthy. He turned his back on himself, on his mother earth, on his community, on his spirit, and on his god. Man developed possesions and a jealousy of those possesions. He became so fully consumed with them that he had no time to develop spiritually. He lost himself. He began to suspect his neighbors, with feirce jealousy he gaurded his possesions, for he "knew" that every one was trying to take what was his. Everyone of his neighbors became an enemy, he lost his community. In order to protect his possesions he built a shelter to house them in. Locked up tight from the outside he seperated himself from mother earth and from god. He had lost who he was. He become disunited from himself and his elements, he was civilized, he had become diseased. Is this a mistake? Has man fowled so terribly he will never return to innocence? Mr. Carpenter says "no". It is not a mistake, in fact it is vital to man's evolution, for to truly know himself, he must deny himself. He must turn on himself, he must forget himself. And having done so, having become sick in disorder and disease he must the cast off the veil of ignorance and begin to seek the health he once denied. He must cure the disease. And the cure is found beyond civilaztion. The cure is a return to nature, a return to the self, and a return to god. The cure, developed it the arms of mother earth, away from the pulling and knashing of civilization, in a place where nature is untouched, where the animals play about the trees fearlessly, and the sole of your foot can sink deep into the soft wet soil with which you were once so well accustomed, The cure is to, as the greates nations of the world have stressed but failed, the cure it to know thy self. The cure is the two most important words ever spoken by mankind, "KNOW THY SELF".

The larger part of this book is taken up recounting two trips Edward Carpenter, one of Whitman's British disciples took to visit the aging poet. On this front, it's very useful in filling in some of the details of Whitman's conversations and those of Whitman's friends (Burroughs, Bucke, Anne Gilchrist), who all met the young pilgrim. It's useful for this, but this period of Whitman's life is quite well attested already in the massive Traubel volumes _With Walt Whitman in Camden_. There are jewels here, but only the specialist need dig for them.

The rest of it is Carpenter's opinion of Whitman. (To call it criticism would be inaccurate--it's praise and context.) Carpenter considers Whitman a spiritual figure, and in coming to visit the author of _Leaves of Grass_, Carpenter was engaging in a kind of pilgrimage that is very like his trips later to visit an Indian Gnani or holy man.

Carpenter's a fascinating character in his own right--one of the first 'out' homosexuals in Britain, a socialist with anarchistic leanings, a writer on religion, society, and sex. This book gives a number of valuable insights to his relationship with Whitman's ideas.

Whitman, Ginsberg and Dylan are three of America's greatest offsprings. And while Ginsberg and Dylan are of our times and can be appreciated in the here and now, and nicely preserved thanks to modern technology, Whitman remains in a time that seems more and more distant as America changes, what seems, hour by hour. Whitman, that great poet (Leaves Of Grass) and humanitarian (his efforts to comfort soldiers injured during the Civil War) was a great inspiration to this kindred and sophisticated spirit from England, Edward Carpenter (also a poet). Carpenter offers some of the most insightful and poetic glimpses into this giant of a man. You can almost see Whitman's reflection in the mirror Carpenter holds before you. This little book is a must for anyone interested in Whitman, and what WW was really about.

British author Edward Carpenter was ahead of his time in many ways-- he was a feminist, a socialist reformer, and an outspoken homosexual in a time when none of these things were particularly popular. Unfortunately, his work has gradually disappeared from public view since his death in 1929. His friendship with Whitman is an important piece in studying the American poet.

I am so much interested in the subject of "origins of religions",and i didnt find much choice of this category in ebooks , this might me the only ebook about this subject , and actually it is really a very good one but may be i would have been more happy if the writer made more comparative studies to the simillarities between the origins of therituals of paganism and christianity. well the real problem i faced here with my frist microsoft ebook was technical < i guess so > because almost everytime i try to read open the file the microsoft reader tells me that i have to re-activate my ebook account , and i did it again and again and i really dunno why... listen listen dont make this stop u the book is really so good and so important ... buy it

Carpenter proposes that self-conciousness and fear led to the entire world pantheon of different faiths.

"Naturally as soon as Man began to think about himself--a frail phantom and waif in the midst of tremendous forces of whose nature and mode of operation he was entirely ignorant--he was BESET with terrors...the natural defence against this state of mind was the creation of an enormous number of taboos...hardened down into very stringent Customs and Laws...avoidance not only of acts which might reasonably be considered dangerous, like touching a corpse, but also things much more remote and fanciful in their relation to danger, like merely...passing a lightning-struck tree; ... and acts which offered any special pleasure or temptation--like sex or marriage or the enjoyment of a meal.

"...Fear does not seem a very worthy motive, but in the beginning it curbed the violence of the purely animal passions, and introduced order and restraint among them. ...(F)rom the early beginnings (in the Stone Age) of self-consciousness in Man there has been a gradual development--from crass superstition, senseless and accidental, to rudimentary observation, and so to belief in Magic; thence to Animism and personification of nature-powers in more or less human form, as earth-divinities or sky-gods or embodiments of the tribe; and to placation of these powers by rites like Sacrifice and the Eucharist, which in their turn became the foundation of Morality...; observations of plants or of the weather or the stars, carried on by tribal medicine-men for purposes of witchcraft or prophecy, supplied some of the material of Science; and humanity emerged by faltering and hesitating steps on the borderland of these finer perceptions and reasonings which are supposed to be characteristic of Civilisation."

Carpenter goes on to compare Christian tenets with pagan practices around the world. You can see how fear of neverending winter, starvation, and death spurred belief in magic, ritual, animism, anthromomorphism, and today's conventional religions.

In his British imperialistic furor to spread civilization, Carpenter also predicts the emergence of a "Common Life" beyond self-consciousness, blasting the selfish motives of capitalism and actually hailing the practices of early Christian communities and the movements of the Communists in eastern Europe.

Granted, Carpenter's book was first published in 1920, just after WWI, before we could see Communism fall, and before Ayn Rand could inspire anyone to Constructivism. But Carpenter's view of religious history is useful. It certainly predates Campell's Hero of a Thousand Faces but has similar depth and scope.

I recommend this book along with:

* Joan O'Grady's "Early Christian Heresies" which examines the philosophies and turning points that molded Christian tenets during its birth and growth so that it could promise salvation to the masses. The scope includes Gnosticism, Marcionites, Montanists, Manichaeism, Donatists, Arianism, Nestorians, Pelagius, and more.
* Erik Davis' "Techgnosis: myth, magic + mysticism in the age of information" which proposes that forms of communication shape social and individual consciousness of reality. "It follows that when a culture's technical structure of communication mutates quickly and significantly, both social and individual 'reality' are in for a bit of a ride. ...The social imagination leaps into the breach, unleashing a torrent of speculation, at once cultural, metaphysical, technical, and financial."

I very much enjoyed reading this book, which, for its age, has held up rather well. I had always known that Early Christianity 'borrowed' from pagan religions some holidays and practices, but it was not until I read this book did I know the depth of theft. Almost like a plaigarism of faith intended to convert the masses (which it sadly succeeded in doing). The only part of the book I disliked was the final material, in which the author offers a new religion of sorts which is very metaphysical and a little dull. But the rest of the book is a keeper.

This book has more errors than should ever be allowed in a professional product. There are typo's in both text and examples. The CD does not contain the source code from the book and I vote this the worst source ever of any computer based information I have found to date. It has left me very unsure of the publishers (QUE) standards and I may never purchase another QUE book again. I simply do not trust them. Spend your hard earned money on a different choice

"Special Edition Using Java, Second Edition" is an excellent reference to JDK 1.0.2. However, today (April 15), only a month and a half after being billed as "Computer Programming Expert Editor's Recommended Book, 03/01/97", it is a dated reference and the cover claims of JDK 1.1 coverage fall short--they are preliminary and peripheral to primary Java programming topics. For example, there is no coverage of the major changes in the Java event model of JDK 1.1, which permeate almost every application. I recommend waiting for better JDK 1.1 coverage, hopefully in Joseph Weber's new version, "Special Edition Using Java 1.1" which has not yet been released, but for which Amazon is taking orders today

This book is nothing if not large. This was QUEs attempt to capture the entire spectrum of JAVA and make it easy to understand (a task that they accomplished) but then the standards changed again. This is still a great book for learning Java; but, you will have to move on to other resources for news on the updates

The subject matter himself is not a worthy topic. While passably well written, the work does not seem to be one which should have been made. It seems that it was written by an academic to fulfill a writing requirement to earn tenure.

Why is this book being made available for pre-order if it is not to be published for ten years?