R I CHA R D M A U R I C E RU CKE

A Sketch

"AME S H . CO"NE , LL .D. ,

With biblio graphy and t w o

unpublished po rtraits .

Revised edition .

Reprinted from the

TR ANSACTIONS OF THE

R O"AL SOC IET"OF CANADA

1 9 06

w

HE NR"S . SAUNDE R S7 Nevi l le Pa rk Bou levardTo ronto , Canada

1 9 2 3

CONTE NTS

Foreword

Introduction

Ancestry and Early Life

Adventures in theWest

A Tramp Over the Mountains

Return to Canada

His Work as Al ienist and Administrator

His Literary Tastes

I l lumination

Wal t Whitman and Dr . Bucke‘

Cosmic Consciousness

Conclusion

B ib l iography

FOR EWOR D

In the preparation o f the fol lowing Sketch , thewriter had access to documentary material in thepossession of the family o f the late Dr . Bucke .

Much of this w as autobiographical . In using itthe plan has been adopted , as far as possible , o fletting the subj ect of the memoir tell the story inhis ow n w ay, with such omissions , chronologicalrearrangement and explanatory connecting linksas the nature of the case seemed to require , re

gard being had to the‘

necessary l imits o f thispaper . Quotation marks are no t always used ,

especial ly where , as in the case o f the fight withthe Shoshones and the adven ture in the SierraNevadas , the narrative is simp ly condensed fromDr . E ncke

’

s de tailed description . Where quotation marks are used the passage is autobiogra

phical, unless otherwise stated .

INTR ODUCTION

Richard Maur ice Bucke w as a man of markedpersonal ity .

His individual ity impressed itsel f on all whocame into contact with him . Of striking presence , great native abil ity, wide and varied experi~

ence of the world and of human nature , he distinguished himse l f in more than one l ine o fthought and action . Fo r many years medicalsuperintendent o f one of the largest asylums fo rthe insane in Ontario , he w as ranked among theforemost al ienists in America . An original in~

vestigato r in the fields of medical science , philosophy and l iterature , he worked out his problems with a single eye to the truth , and , havingsolved them to ‘ his satisfaction , presented the

processes and his conclusions frankly and fearlessly, leaving the results with the future foracceptance o r rejection . His intel lectual productis intimate ly related to his close association fora quarter o f a century with Wal t Whitman , whoseinfluence w as profound and lasting . The namesof Whitman and Bucke are inseparably l inkedtoge ther for all time . The story o f their friendship is o f permanent interest and value .

As a littérateur,scientist and administrator ,

and as the biographer and close friend of Whitman, Dr . Bucke w as an outstanding figure amongthe intel lectuals o f America .

8

But to the publ ic at least it w as no t general lyknown that he had had a youth of extraordinaryadventure , characterized by thril l ing incident , intense suffering , prolonged and arduous struggle .

These experiences were important factors in the

development o f a type o f manhood worthy ofbeing studied .

Some stages and phases of that developmentit wil l be the work of the fol lowing pages toattempt to outl ine .

in

ANCE STR"AND E AR L"L IFEl

At the Church o f St . Olave , Old Jewry, London , on the 4th of May, Thomas GeorgeBucke ,

o f M ildenhal l , Suffolk, married GeorginaWalpole .

Three children were born of this marriage .

Al l received a good education . Horatio Wal

pole , e ldest child and only song w as educated at

Trin ity College , Cambridge , took holy orders ,and w as

'

appo inted curate o f the neighbouringvil lage o f Methwold . He married Clarissa An

drews , whose brother, Biggs Andrews, Q .C w as

a barrister o f some eminence .

To the Reverend Horatio Walpole Bucke and

Clarissa, his wife , were born seven sons and threedaughters.

I t w as at Methwold that their seventh childand fi fth son first opened his eyes to the l ighton the 1 8 th day of March , 1 8 3 7 . Of this son ,

Richard Maurice Bucke, it is proposed to speakin the fol lowing memoir .

Through his mother , Horatio Walpo le Buckew as a great grandson of the famous Prime Minister o f England , S ir Robert Walpole , and a

grand nephew of Horace Walpole , whose Lettershave given him a niche in the pantheon o f E ngl ish l iterature . On the side o f the Buckes alsoliterature had its representative . Charles Bucke ,

a brother of Thomas George w as the author o fBeaut ies o f Nature , and Ruins o f Ancient

1 2

Cities , books which continued to be publisheduntil nearly the end o f the last century . The

tendency to l iterature of the subject of thissketch w as therefore part of his inheritance .

In the spring of i 8 3 8 the curate , with his wifeand seven children , emigrated to Upper Canada.

Fo r a sco re o f years general attention had beend irected to the Talbot se ttlement . Perhaps thefamiliar nomenclature , reproducing the names ofcounties, cities, towns and streams belonging tothe eastern part o f England added to the attraetion . On the river Thames , in Upper Canada as

in England , were the counties of Oxford , M iddlesex, Kent, and Essex . In the township of London Richard Talbot 1 had taken up land twentyyears be fore , and settlement had proceededapace . His son , E . A . Talbot , w as one of a

number of writers by whom the praises of theTalbot Settlement were sounded in books whichwere extensively circulated in the British Islands .

To the township of London Mr . Bucke pro

ceeded with his family to spy out the land , if itw as good .

At the forks of the Thames the town of Lo ndon had already more than twelve hundred inhabitants , ministered to by five churches , seventaverns and three or four schools . Two o r threemiles east, on Dundas Street , w as a farm whichcaught our immigrant

’

s fancy . He purchased it1 Not to be confounded w ith Co lone l the Honou rable

Thomas Ta lbot, founder of the Ta lbo t Sett lement, w hichincluded tw en ty-eight tow nships in w hole o r in par t.

1 3

and settled down to the l ife of a pioneer farmer .A scholar and l inguist, he had brought with hima l ibrary of several tho usand volumes , in whichno fewer than seven languages were represented .

Here in the midst o f the primeval fo rest he in

stal led his family and his books ; here three children were born to him ; and here , in the gradual ly widening clearing he passed the remainingyears o f his l ife . The property, known afterwards as the Creek Farm , adj oins what is now

the site of the village o f Pottersburg, a suburbof the city o f London .

The Reverend Mr . Bucke w as master o f sevenlanguages : Latin , Greek , Hebrew, French , l talian , Spanish and English . The education of hissons w as, however , left largely to chance . Thatis to say, he taught each o f them to read in one

o r'mo re languages , and then , turn ing them loose

in his l ibrary, left them to shift for themselves .But, to use Maurice

'

s ow n words ,"they were

born with the desire to know, and with the mstinct to find out .

"

Each w as thence forward hisow n schoolmaster . Of the sons, three became

physicians and one a lawyer . A fi fth enteredthe civil service of Canada.

Maurice learned Latin from his father . Brows "ing among the thousands of books

,breathing

their atmosphere , he became saturated with l iterature of wide range and varied character . Abetter foundation could hardly have been laidfo r his pro fessional and l iterary li fe -work

,which

w as to demand a comprehensive knowledge o fthe mental and moral nature o f man .

I 4

He never went to school , in the ordinary senseof the word ; but his education w as, no tw ithstand

ing,productive of results that could no t easily

have been surpassed , had he attended in boyhood the regular institutions o f learning .

His early l i fe is described by Dr . Bucke as

fol lows

He w as born of good middle-class Engl ishstock and grew up almost without education on

what w as then a backwoods Canadian farm . Asa child he assisted in such labour as w as withinhis power . Tended cattle , horses , sheep , pigs ;brought in firewood ,

'

worked in the hay field ,

drove oxen and horses , ran errands . His pleasures were as simple as his labours . An occasionalvisit to a smal l town, a game of bal l bathing inthe creek that ran through his father s farm , the

making and sail ing of mimic ships , the search forbird s eggs and flowers in the spring , and fo r

wild fruits in the summer and fal l , afforded him ,

with his skates and handsled in the winter , hishomely, much-loved recreations . While stil l a

young boy he read with keen appreciation Mar

ryat’

s novels , Scott’

s poems and novels, and

other similar books deal ing with outdoor natureand human l ife .

"

The great problems of rel igion presented themselves to him even as a child — God , JesusChrist, immortal ity, eternal suffering .

The boy ( even the child ) dwe l t on these andsimilar topics far more than anyone would sup

I S

pose ; but probably no t more than many otherintrospective smal l fel low mortals . He w as sub

ject at times to a sort o f ecstasy o f curiosity and

hope ; as, on one special occasion, when aboutten years old , he e arnestly longed to d ie , thatthe secrets o f the beyond , if there

‘

w as any be

yond , might be revealed to him ; also to agoniesof anxiety and terror, as, for instance , at aboutthe same age , he read Reynolds

’

Faust, and be ingnear its end one sunny afternoon he laid it downutterly unable to continue its perusal , and wentout into the sunshine to recover from the horror( after more than fi fty years he distinctly recal lsit ) which had seized him .

At the age of fifteen he read the Vestiges ofCreation, a wel l ~known precursor of Darwinism .

His incl ination to philosophy and science ,thus

man i fested at so early an age , w as a determiningfactor in his career .

1 6

ADVE NTURE S IN THE WE ST

Maurice'

s mother having died in 1 844 , hisfather

’f’ married a second wife , and in 1 8 5 3 she

too died . Maurice , then 1 6 years of age , decidedto see the world fo r himsel f , and seek his fo rtunes wherever circumstances seemed propitious .

The next five years were years of varied and

remarkable adventure . Crossing Lake Erie , one

June day, he l ived fo r three years in the Ohioand Mississ ippi val leys , working at any employment that o ffered .

At Columbus he w as a gardener ; near Cincinnati he worked first on a railroad , and then as a

farm hand . In the winter of 1 8 5 4-5 w e find himmaking staves in the cypress swamps of Louisiana. Then for another twelve-month he servedas fireman or deck-hand on steamboats plyingon the M ississippi and Ohio rivers . But hislonging to know the world and men w as by no

means satisfied . He w as now j ust entering on

his twentieth year, in the full vigour of earlymanhood , ready as ever fo r anything that promised novel ty o r adventure . Fortune took him at

his word .

Ascending the M issouri river at Fort Leavenworth , he determined to cross the plains and

mountains to the Pacific . To carry out his purpose he hired with the conductor or manager

R ev . H . W . Bucke died at Corunna , below Sarn ia ,

U .C . (Upper Canada ) , 3 1 March , 1 8 5 6 .

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1 8

Four hundred and fi fty miles farther on w as

S am Black'

s trading post , a sol itary house , withits sheds and outbuildings on the sink of the

Humboldt, and there w as no white settler be

tween . Along the trail , the Indians were hostile and in a position to choose their ow n fightingground .

We formed ourselves , says Bucke ,

"into

parties of from five'

to ten men in each . Eachparty bought a l ight waggon and two horses todraw it . Into this were loaded the necessary provisions , cooking utensils and personal effects o fthe p arty . One of us , turn about sat in the

waggon and drove , the rest walked .

Unwisely, as it turned out, the parties travel ledin sections . The party of which Bucke w as a

member numbered ten . They chose SamuelJamieson as captain . Crossing the Humboldtmountains, and then fol lowing the river o f thesame name westward , they were attacked by the

Shoshones, Columns of smoke here and therealong the river uplands gave the signal to the

swarthy foe . Then I heard , fo r the first time

in my life , from a"hundred savage throats , that

most unpleasant o f sounds , the Indian w ar

whoop . The ranks of E ncke’

s party had beenswe l led and the ir scanty supply of provisions de

pleted by the addition of a party of six , who hadbeen robbed of everything by the Indians , and

fal len back fo r help and food . Fo r a ful l hal fday a running fight ensued with a hundred nakedsavages , ye l l ing the war~whoop at the top ofthe ir voices . The Indians had few guns , and

I 9

depended mainly on their bows and arrows ; thewhites had five rifles , a shot gun and two re

vo lvers. The latter reserved their fire until itw as l ikely to prove effective . One of them w as

wounded With an arrow, another with a rifle

bal l in “the groin . The whites were the betterstrategists , economized the ir fire , were cooler, andshot straighter . Bucke bel ieved he had hit one

or more o f “the enemy . Rushing toward thebushes to capture the gun of one o f these he w as

peremptorily recal led by the captain . At thetime the Indians abandoned the fight w e had our

last bul lets in our guns“

and they were no t all

loaded .

' But the ir troubles were by no means over .They had forgotten to fi l l their water cask mthe morning . The trail had le ft the river .

Thirsty and exhausted they toiled wearisomelyin the hot sun ,

' on the hot sand , with nothingin sight but sand , sage brush and here and thererocky hil ls . I t w as 9 at n ight be fore the trailagain struck the river . The ir suffering had beenintense , and Bucke describes it in a most graphicmanner . The “ craving for water w as such thatenormous quantities o f it were swal lowed beforetheir thirst w as satisfied . Then fol lowed sixmore days o f hunger and privation,

while theymarched about l 5 0 miles , with no thing to eat

but a l ittle flour stirred in boil ing water . Theyarrived at Sam Black

’

s almost exhausted withwant o f food . Natural ly , the

/

first thing we didw as to arrange for supper . Inside o f two hoursafter our arrival we sat down to a table loaded

2 0

with meat, game , vegetables and,

hot biscuits ,and it is needless to say that w e did full justiceto these and the hot co ffee served with them .

Two days later members of the third and

fourth parties came in . They had been less provident in their supplies , and less fortunate in fight

ing than Bucke'

s party . The Indians had robbedthem of everything ; five of their number were

killed o r missing ; the rest had travel led l 7 5

miles , practical ly without food , except some seedpods and a duck they had kil led .

His next occupation w as that o f a gold miner .

After a few days'

rest, he writes , We crossedthe great American desert from the sink of theHumboldt to the Carson river and marched upthe Carson to Gold Canon .

"They sold their

horses and waggon ; some of them , includingBucke , took up claims , bought mining tools ,

“and

settled down to work gold mining .

Gold Canon he describes as a broad and

shal low ravine , dry in summer, but , in winter ,

spring and fal l , sending a diminutive tribute o fmuddy water

,to Carson r iver . Here he re

mained about a year, a member of a smal l commun ity who , by the aid of rockers , toms , and

sluices , e xtracted a precarious l ive l ihood fromthe placer diggings . The miners numberedthree o r four dozens in all ; the whole settlement,including ranchers , about one hundred ,

”scat

tered over a country thirty o r forty miles acrossin each direction . To the east , our nearest neigh

2 ]

hours l ived seven hundred miles distant , on the

shores of the Great Sal t Lake ; across the moun ~

tains to the west, w e reached by a walk o f a l ittl eover a hundred miles the westernmost miningcamps of Cal ifornia ; north and south as far as

our knowledge extended the barren slopes of thefoot—hills were stil l in the undisturbed possessionof Washoe and Piute Indians ; along the highland s towards the head of the canon , where nowstand V irginia City, Silver City and Gold Hil l ,the mountain sheep suckled her young , unmo

lested except by the gray wol f .

The social state of this smal l community,

says Bucke , w as genuinely Arcadian in its sim

plic ity. No civil , military or ecclesiastical organ ization existed among us . Utah Terri tory, in

which we lived , had at that time no laws o r

courts , and Gold Canon possessed no church o fany denomination . In spite o f the absence o fthese signs o f civil ization , 1 have never known a

commun ity the members o f which were be tterdisposed or conducted . There w as no theft, no

V io lence , and hardly ever even an Instance o f

drunkenness o r a quarrel . Each w o rked steadilyall the week , and , after a general wash-up on

Sunday morning , it w as the rule to adj ourn toour general headquarters at Johntown, and spendthe afternoon and evening over a social game ofcards .

The camp w as on the eastern slope of the

Sierra Nevadas , in what w as then Utah, and isnow Nevada .

22

I t w as the best type of the l ife depicted in itsmani fo ld phases and mani festations in the pagesof Bret Harte , Mark Twain and Joaquin M il ler .

I t w as a wonderful experience and a valuableeducation fo r the youth of nineteen . But, adventures strange and perilous were stil l before him .

Among the original forty-niners were twobrothers, Allen and Hosea Grosh , of Pennsylvania . From Cal i forn ia they had made theirw ay over the Sierra to Gold Canon in the earlyfi fties . As early as 1 8 5 4 they had discoverednative silver in the canon , which they revisitedagain and again , but they kept their knowledgeto themselves . They were the first discoverersof silver west o f the Rockies . 1 In the spr ing of1 8 5 7 , after spending the winter in Cal i fornia,

they were back again in the canon , and hereyoung Bucke made their acquaintance , an ac

quaintance that ul timate ly involved him . in the

most terrible vicissitudes , and le ft him a legacyo f l ife-long indescribable suffering . On the

other hand , had the enterprise succeeded , he

would in all probabil ity have been reckonedamong the McKays and Carnegies and Rockefe l lers ; for the Groshes held the key to treasuresbeyond the dreams of Sindbad or Aladdin .

The ostensible object of the Groshes in 1 8 5 7

w as gold mining . Their real purpose w as toexplore for silver and ascertain the value o ftheir previous discoveries . With a third partner,

1 There is a monumen t in the ir honour a t Virgin ia City,to commemo rate the ir achievement .

2 3

one George Brown , they made their ow n assaysand satisfied themselves that they had foundand owned enormously rich silver lodes .

They located the best sites , took up as muchland as the mining laws ‘permitted , and wereabout ready to form a company to develop the irextraordinary discoveries .

The strange part o f the story is that withinthree months from that time all three hf theseyoung and strong men met with violent deaths ,and by an extraordinary combination of circum~

stances the papers relative to their discoveries ,and -which were natural ly le ft in the hands of thelast survivor , were absolute ly lost .

Brown w as murdered by a party o f . immigrantsat his ow n door . Hosea Grosh accidental ly cuthis foot with a pick—axe , and died of the wound ,

blood -poisoning having set in .

“Al len , over

come with grief, w as l eft alone in the possessionof their common secret .

The Grosh boys had been in the;

habit o f

spending each winter in Cal ifornia. Hosea’

sdeath delayed Al len

’

s departure until winter w as

al ready closing in on the mountains .

I t w as now that Bucke came upon the scene .

He had he lped to nurse and bury the brother ;and this led to a close friendship with Al len, w ho

arranged that Bucke should take Hosea’

s placeas his companion in the long j ourney over the

mountains .

A TR AMP OVE R THE MOUNTAINS

I t w as the middle of November, 1 8 5 7 , be fo rethey le ft the cafion . The donkey which carriedthe ir baggage strayed away , and it w as the 20 th

be fore they left Washoe Val ley . They had now

but three days’

provisions with them . In the

val ley the weather had been warm . Ascendingthe mountains they cut through six inches of icethe first night to get water . Next day, theycrossed the eastern summit o f the Sierra, about

feet high . Down feet lower, toLake Tahoe , and then on the fol lowing day,

around the lake to its outlet through Truckseeriver, they

'

i

trudg'

ed on . The trail crossed the

r iver and then Squaw Val ley . Undeterred bytwenty-four hours of rain , they attempted the

western summit . The rain turned to snow, the

trail w as covered , w as lost ; the adventurersturned back to the val ley, and , drying themselvesas best they could in the stil l fal l ing rain , laydown by the ir fire til l morning .

Next day it w as colder and snowing in the valley. They were obl iged to encamp here for a

week , the almost continuous snow hid ing the

trails and even the mountain summits . The donkey w as kil led for food . A tent w as improvisedof blankets . lts site served as a fire-place during the day and as their bed at night. The youngmen made themselves snowshoes , but theseproved a failure and were thrown away .

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26

Then they discerned the truth ; they had wandered in a circle , and the tracks were the ir ow n .

They were off the trail . I t w as snowing hard ,

obscuring objects a hundred yards distant . Theytried to make a fire , but the ir gun failed them .

I t had got damp a nd refused to go o ff . Thenthey found that they were frost-bitten .

The first necessity now w as immediate shel terfrom the cold . Hope died in the ir hearts . The

weal th o f Golconda had no further charms o r

even interest .“Skin fo r skin, yea, all that a man

hath , will he give fo r his l ife . The gun w as

thrown away . Allen'

s papers , containing the

records of his discoveries and titles to claims ,were abandoned . Others might reap where hehad sown . Nothing w as kept but the blanke ts ,a tin cup and its contents , and a butcher

’

s kni fe .

In the tin cup w as a miserable remnant o f theirmeat .

They struck fo r the nearest edge of the ridgeand down the steep slope ful l speed through deepsnow , to an evergreen val ley . Here they spreadtheir blankets on the ground , covered them a

foot deep with snow, crept under the blanketsfee t first , and lay until morning . The warmth ofthe ir bodies thawed the snow, and they did no t

get dry again fo r several days .

On the 3 rd December they fol lowed down a

ravine , hoping to find a r iver . A muddy currentwould indicate a mining camp up stream . The

walking w as through snow two and a hal f feetdeep over very uneven ground . Sometimes they

2 7

walked into low bushes they could no t see . Fortwo days longer they kept on their toilsome w ay

down the ravine to the M iddle Forks of theAmerican r iver and stil l farther down until itran through a deep rocky canon , where theywere forced to leave it, and walk dver a r idgeto and across another large stream . The travellers were famished and their strength w as almostgone . The snow now did no t average a foot deep .

Grosh w as so weak , that Bucke walked in frontto .make the tracks fo r his fee t .

“Exhausted and

despairing , I sat down, and , weeping, proposedto give up and lie down and die where we were .

But Al len w as determined to push through , and

encouraged the despairing boy, reminding himof their fr iends in the East . When they campedat night, they were too weak to talk much . Theyounger hardly expected to l ive til l morning , andthought that even i f he survived the night , hewould be unable to walk . Let us make up ourbed for the last time , he said to Al len ,

for w e

shal l never leave this p lace . But A l len stil lcheered him as best he could with the hope o f“

reaching she l ter somewhere yet . They slept butl ittle .

Next morning , after horrib le and extravagantdreams we were barely able tocrawl along , and went almost as much on our

hands and knees as on our feet . The snoww as now only a few inches deep . Once A l lensaid he heard a dog bark ; Maurice re fused to bel ieve it. Then they came to a ditch with runningwater , and knew they were near a mining camp .

28

In a few minutes Allan said , There is smoke .

They had walked o r crawled just three-quarterso f a mile that day. The name of the camp w as

Last Chance .

The miners showed thel r proverbial generosity ;but the exhausted youths could no t eat . Nextday they were unable to walk . In a few daysthey became del ir ious . On the twel fth day AllenGrosh died .

No knowledge survived of the work of theGrosh Brothers in Gold Cafi on and its neighbourhood , except the bare fact that they had foundsilver . Two years afterwards in 1 8 5 9 , thisknow ledge , by making the miners watch fo r ind ications o f silver, l ed to the finding o f the Comstock lode , and that discovery to others , untilthe faint and soon almost extinguished spark ofknowledge , struck from the rocks o f Utah bythe inte l l igence and perseverance o f these twoyoung men, resul ted in the enormous silver-mining industry o f western Nevada.

"1

Maurice’

s powerful physique stood him in goodstead under the trying ordeal . He w as obl igedto l ie in bed all winter . The miners sent down

1A le tter srgned Duncan Gordon , pub lished in the

New Yo rk S un , Novembe r 29 , 1 8 9 7 , and en ti t led ,"The Tragedy of the Comstock ,

"w as con tradicted o r

var ied in many of its statemen ts by Dr . Bucke in an

in terview publ ished in the London (Ont ) Adve r t ise ro f December 1 6 , l 8 9 7 . Cordon connected the Gro shes

and Dr . Bucke mo re close ly w ith the discovery of the

Comsto ck than the facts , acco rding to the latte r ,

appea red to just ify .

29

the mountalns fo r a surgeon , who found it necessary to amputate one of my feet , and a portiono f the other . For months , says one whoknew him well , Dr . T . J . W . Burgess , superin

tendent o f the Protestant Asylum fo r the Insane ,

Montreal ,“the stricken man lay in that mountain

cabin , tended only by rough ; yet gentle , hands ,and there it w as

-

that he first had time to think .

The miners made a col lection o f gold dust andnuggets to send him on his w ay to S an Francisco .

‘

I w as born again ,

’

he once said , in speaking ofthis period of his l i fe ,

"I t cost me

'

my feet —yet

it w as worth the price .

’ ”1 The stumps did no t

thoroughly heal fo r more than forty years . The

sufferings he endured can be better imagined thandescribed . But never w as suffer ing more heroically

‘

bo rne , and uncomplaining , he suffered in

silence .

1 From a paper read at the Annua l Mee ting of the

Ame r ican Medico -Psychologica l Assoc iat ion , he ld at

Mon trea l, June , l9 02 , and repr in ted in pamph le t fo rmfr om the pub lished p roceedings.

3 0

RE TURN TO CANADA

The youth of 1 6 returned to his Canadianhome a man of 2 l maimed and broken in heal th ,

but with a knowledge of nature and of men , a

store of experience, such as few men of 2 ] haveever had . A sum of money left him by hismother enabled him to carry out a plan he hadformed of going to college .

At once he entered upon a medical course at

McGill University . He graduated in l 8 62 , w in

ning the prize for the best thesis o f his year . Thetremendous force o f will , the dominance of themental and moral powers over the physicalsystem , which such a un iversity career evinces ,showed him to be no common man .

The prize ‘ thesis , entitled The Correlation ofthe Vital and Physical Forces , de fended be forethe Medical Facul ty o f McGill, May 2 , 1 8 62 , w as

printed in the British American Journal , and in

pamphlet form .

Among his fellow students at McGill may be

mentioned Doctor Joseph M . Drake , afterwardspro fessor physiology at the university ; DoctorsWr ight , o f Ottawa, Harkness , o f Iroquois , and

Phil l ips , of Brantford .

His reading w as no t l imited by the curriculumno r the books relating to medical science .

3 I

Outside of his collegiate course he read withavidity many speculative books , such as the“Origin of Species, Tyndall

'

s“Heat,

"and , E s

says , Buckle’

s“History,

" “Essays and —Reviews ,

and,

much poetry , especial ly such as seemed tohim free and fearless . In this species o f l iteraturehe Soon preferred Shel ley, and of his poems ,Adonais

"and

“Prometheus

"were his favour

ites. His l i fe fo r some years w as one passionatenote of f '

interrogation , an unappeasable hungerfo r enl ightenment on the basic problems . Leaving co llege , he continued his search with

( the sameardour . Taught himse l f French , that he mightread Auguste Comte , Hugo

”and Renan , and Ger

man , that he might read Goethe , especial ly“Faust

From McGill he proceeded to Europe fo r post~graduate work . The season o f 1 862-3 w as spentin London . Dr . W . C . Vanbuskirk o f St . Thomasw as his fel low s tudent with him in Paris , and f romhim some particulars relating to Bucke

’

s studentl ife , both there and in London , have beengleaned . He attended lectures in the operativetheatre o f University College , London . Fox ,

Jenner, Ringer , Erichsen , Quain , Harley, Hill ierand Hare were among the lecturers .

~”

Most o fthe residue of l 8 6 3 w as spent in Paris at the

Hote l Dieu and the Hospital o f the College desMédecins , where they attended cl inics given bysuch men as Trousseau , Nelaton and Bo

‘

uvier .

In Paris he w as laid up fo r a time with a mildtype of typhoid fever . He w as able to continuehis reading notwithstanding the il lness , and Dr .

3 2

Vanbuskirk remembers seeing him engaged in

earnest perusal o f Comte'

s works , whilst incapac itated by fever from attending the hospitals .

In London , a warm friendship sprang up between Dr . ( afterwards S ir ) Benjamin Ward Richardson and Bucke , growing out of mutual ad

m iration and kept al ive by intermittent co rrespondence . Bucke regarded Richardson as the ablestman in the profession in England , and that isas much as to say in the world . The resul ts o fthe ir association would seem to be reflected in

some of their publications , especial ly in thosedeal ing with the therapeutic uses of alcohol .

On the return voyage by the St . Lawrenceroute he had an experience , which might havebeen attended with disastrous consequences . Héoccupied the post o f ship surgeon , and in perfo rmance of his o fficial duties w as obl iged toreport at Grosse lsle some cases of contagiousdisease This necessitated the quarantining ofthe steerage passengers , some of whom became

infuriated at the doctor as the cause o f the ir inconvenience and delay . An organized gang at

tempted to throw him into the river . With somedifficulty Dr . Bucke w as hurriedly lowered intoone of the ship

'

s boats and carried to a place ofsafety . He used to speak of this as one of themost exciting episodes in a l i fe that w as by no

means devoid of thril l ing incidents . 1

1 This inc iden t w as commun icated by Dr . Hugh A .

Mcca l lum of London .

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3 4

practice of his chosen profession , he met withsuccess from the start, and soon acquired morethan a local reputation . The Honourable Alexander Mackenzie , afterwards Premier of Canada,

w as his first patient and frequently sounded hisp raises . 1 Sarnia w as the home of the late Hon .

Timothy Blair Pardee , M .P .P . for the county ofLambton from Confederation , and a distinguishedM inister of the Crown fo r the Province of Ontariofrom the year 1 8 72 until his decease in 1 889 .

Mr . Pardee and Dr . Bucke recognized in eachother congen ial sp l rl ts, and became intimatefriends . The ir friendship had doubtless some

what to do with the appointment o f Dr . Bucke ,

in January, | 8 76 , to the Super intendency of theAsylum fo r the Insane at Hamilton, on its firstestabl ishment . In the fol lowing February, on the

death of Dr . Landor of the London Asylum , Dr .

Bucke w as promoted to the leadership of thelarger institution, a position he w as to fil l untilhis death . Had he lived a few days longer, hewould have occupied this important post for a

ful l quarter of a century . Only a few rods distant from the asylumlay the home of his childhood , the old Creek Farm , the scene of hisearl iest recollections .

I t is no t too much to say of him that as Superintendent of the London Asylum he did no t fal lbehind the expectations which his universitycareer and his pro fessional reputation had ledhis friends to form respecting him .

This fact w as men t ioned by Dr . Bucke to Dr . HughA . Mcca l lum .

3 5

To the l iterature of al ienism he devoted hisattention , with the same persistent determinationthat had carried him through the perils and

labours o f ear l ier years . ‘With the '

natural scien~

tific bent o f his mind , the practice and opportunities fo r observations and research afforded byhis official position , and his continuous and closereading of reports and statistics,

\ 1 t w as no t longbefore he w as recogn ized as an authority amongal ienists . His opin ion w as sought from far and

wide . Medical and psychological societies wereglad to give a conspicuous place to his name on

the ir programmes and to his addresses and papersin their pub l ications. His right to rank amongthe foremost o f his prof ession in Amer ica w as

beyond question . In an appendix will be founda l ist o f his printed pamphlets , lectures and ad

dresses , o f which particulars are accessib le .

His annual reports to the provincial governments are , with one exception , no t specified in

the l ist . The reports are all valuable . That fo r1 89 7 contains

"The Story o f the Care for the

Insane in Ontario ,"an interesting and instructive

historical resume of the successive stages o f progress in the treatment o f this unfortunate classof citizens .

3 6

H IS WOR K AS AL IE N IST AND

ADM IN ISTRATOR

In his chosen fie ld he w as no t content to fol lowsubserviently in the footsteps of his predecessors .

Cautious , but courageous , sure of his groundbe fo re taking the forward step , he signal ized hisadministration of the London Asylum ( the largestin the province ) by three remarkable innovations ,unheeding the opposition or the outcries o f thosewhose conservatism did no t approve of the modern spirit and changed methods .

( 1 ) He w as the first al ienist in America toadopt the system of absolute non-restraint in the

treatment o f the insane .

( 2 ) He discarded entirely the use of beer ,

wine or alcohol in any form at the asylum .

( 3 ) He w as the first, systematical ly, to employ

gyna co logical surgery in the treatment o f insanewomen .

The first of these’

r efo rms could no t be effectedall at once . Public opinion had to be considered ,

and the exper iment might involve dangerous con

sequences , no t merely to the patient , but to the

staff and attendants as well . For some yearsthe degree of restraint w as gradual ly d iminished .

“In the middle o f writes Bucke in 1 89 7 ,

w e total ly discontinued the use of restraint andseclusion in every form and have no t used themsince .

3 7

Deal ing’

with this question, Dr . O’

R eilly, In

spector of Asylums and Prisons , ln his annualreport fo r 1 8 8 7 writes as fo llw s : To Dr . R .

M . Bucke , Med 1 cal Superintendent o f the Lon

do n Asylum , belongs the honour of be ing the firstto take up the subj ect practical ly ln the Canadianasylums . He approached it at first, very properly ,with great hesitation and caution , but it only re

quired a few weeks’

practical study o f the subj ectto convince him that all that had been sald bythe advocates o f the system w as well founded,

and restraint in the London Asylum became a

thing of the past . Dr . Bucke did no t burn hisrestraint apparatus with rel igious ceremonies , no rmake any flour ish o f trumpets about it . Whenthe proper time came , he simply announced thatafter eighteen months trial o f absolute non re

straint in an asylum having a population of n inehundred p atients he had found the system to beall that had been claimed fo r it, and that he w as

now unable to conce ive of a case where mechani

cal. restraint, except for surgical reasons , _ wouldhe necessary ; would no t be , in fact , positivelyharmful to the patient. Dr . Bucke

'

s examplew as slowly followed by others , until now in this.province restraint appliances are unknown, and

one after another the doctors give in their testimony to the great value of this reform , which w as

commenced by Connol ly and Pine ] hal f acenturyago .

With the abolition of restraint may be said to

have disappeared the last trace o f the ancientmethod of treatment o f the insane . The Bedlam

3 8

of history is a thing of the past . Except fo r the

protection of patients against themselves , the

straight-waistcoat is no longer in use . Patientsare treated as human beings . The law of lovehas been found e ffective with them as with the

rest o f humanity .

I t is gratifying to be assured that the increasedproportion of cures effected bears its due relationto the improvement in methods of treatment .

I t w as a work of time to persuade the medicalpro fession at large , that alcohol as a medicinew as, as a rule , unnecessary and even positively inj urions . The practice of eminent physicians suchas Sir Ben jamin Richardson and S ir William Gullin discountenancing its use in many cases w as,

no doubt, a strong factor in inducing Dr . Bucketo abandon it al together . In his first or secondyear at London, he experimented by reducing thenumber to whom beer, wine or whiskey w as regularly served , and watching carefully the effect .In 1 8 79 he closed the spirit rations entirely . The

result warranted his action . The heal th of theasylum w as never better . I doubt if it w as everas good . The death rate w as smal ler ; the per

centage of recoveries higher .

5 0 impressed w as he with the importance ofthe results e ffected , that he brought the matterbefore the Dominion Medical Association in a

paper read at London , on the l 0th September,1 8 79 . The essay w as printed in the LondonAdver tiser

,and reprinted twice in England . In

the fol lowing year he enlarged and completed it

39

fo r publication in pamphlet form, under the title“Alcohol in Heal th and Disease . He did no t

hal t hal f w ay in his conclusions . He placedalcohol and blood-letting in the same category as

obsolete in medical practice .

“A time wil l

come, he be l ieves ,

“and that perhaps be fore

many generations have passed away); when it wil lbe as rare fo r a physician or surgeon to prescribealcohol , as it is now for e ither

i

o f_them to presc ribe

blood-letting , and when a heal thy man wil l nomore think o f taking alcohol with a view of preserving his heal th , or to make him fee l better ,

than he thinks now o f going to a surgeon to bebled w ith a view to the same end .

Among the re forms Dr . Bucke initiated at theLondon Asylum should be mentioned his adoption , experimental ly, in 1 888 of the

“Intermittent

Downward Fil tration system of sewage disposal .Co l. Warring , of ‘New "ork , w as the engineerse lected to inaugurate the new method . I t provedefficient, economical , and in every w ay satisfac~

tory . Dr . Bucke published the results far and

w ide through reports , addresses and printedpapers , with a view to its general adoption bycities , towns and villages .

The sew age field , o f about six acres , fertil izedby the trenches into which the sewage w as scattered day by day by ‘

a centri fugal pump, pro

duced abundant crops , the average annual valueof which w as estimated by him in 1 89 7 at $2 5 0an acre .

4 0

No wonder that his reputation no t only as an

al ienist but also as an administrator , grew withthe years . The theorist and the practical man

o f affairs , the scientist and the business manager ,were in him combined in a remarkable degree .

He w as fortunate in having the hearty co -operation of a staff o f able and loyal assistants . Butthe impression of his in itiative , his energy, hismastery o f de tail , his enthusiastic interest in the

institution, w as fe l t in every part of its administratlon .

Wal t Whitman , who visited Bucke in 1 880 ,

described his management o f the insane in thefol lowing terms :

His method is p eace ful , uncoercive , quiet,though always firm— rather persuasive than any

thing else . Bucke is without brag o r bluster . It

is beautiful to watch him at his work— to see howhe can handle difficult people with such an easymanner . Buéke is a man who enj oys being busy

—l ikes to do things— is swift o f execution— lucid ,

sure , decisive . Doctors are no t in the main comfo rtable creatures to have around , but Bucke ishelpful , confident , optimistic— has a w ay of buoying you up .

"1

On the establ ishment o f a Medical Faculty inthe Western University, at London , Ont in 1 882 ,

Dr . Bucke w as appointed Pro fessor o f Mental andNervous Diseases . His teaching w e are assuredw as invariably satisfactory to both faculty and

students .1 "With Wa lt Whitman in Camden , by Ho race

Traube l . Boston , 1 9 06 , page 448 .

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42

H IS L ITE RARY TASTE S

The l ife of a physician in good practice in a

smal l town is exacting in its demands, and leavesl ittle time fo r l iterary cul ture . The more successful he is as a practitioner, the rarer necessarilyare his opportun ities fo r keeping up an adequateacquaintance with the great masters of the worldo f letters o r with the current thought of the time .

To do so presupposes the l iterary instinct andtrain ing . I t cal ls fo r an intel lectual equipmentbeyond the ordinary, careful economy of time ,

and great mental energy and resolution . Dr .

Bucke w as fortunate in possessing the instinct,the character and the training .

Re ference has already been made to booksread by him in his childhood and youth . As already stated , his bent for scientific and philoso

phical study man i fested itsel f at an early age .

Buckle , Darwin and Tyndal l he read whilea medical student . In Paris he had become ac

quainted with Auguste Comte’

s“Cours de Philo

sophie Positive .

”Littré

’

s books upon Comte andthe writings of other positivists deepened the im

pression produced by the books mentioned .

Herbert Spencer’

s works were perused withavidity . On the scientific and philosophical side ,these , and especial ly Comte

’

s works , were theformative influences in his ear l ier mental deve lopment . At a later period he became profoundlyinterested in Francis Bacon , whom he pronounced

4 3

u

incontestably the greatest inte l lect that the race

has produced ,

"adding ,

u

His prose is the best inour languagef

’

But matter-o f-fact scientist as Bucke w as byincl ination and training , he ,

had a lso the 1magina~

tive faculty developed in a high degree . Not onlyin the l ight which prism could analyze , whosewave lengths and velocities could be computed ,

w as he interested , but also in that other"light

that never w as on sea or land ,

"which defies ah

alysis and calculation .

Shelley, the poet’

s poet, w as an early favourite .

f The charm of the Adonais , the Prometheusand the Epipsychidion, he ld him to the last .Tennyson and Browning were read with pleasure .

Shakespeare’

s dramas he regarded as probablythe noblest expression of genius in any language_ while his sonnets , to my mind , reach a spir ituallevel as high as has ever been attained by man

as high as that attained by St . John o r by the

author o f'

the‘

Divine Lay' — the

‘

Bhagavad

Gita’

The passage quoted shows that he hadadded to his stores of reading an acquaintancewith the sacred books of the East, and b een profoundly impressed with their poetic and spiritualcontent .

He possessed a memory for poetry which w as

the admiration and envy of his friends . He wouldrepeat with pro found appreciation and appropri~ate expression the whole o f the Adonais or Saul.Tennyson

'

s Revenge , o r sonnet after sonnet o fShakespeare , without book and without a mistake

44

that the hearer could detect. Leaves o f Grass ,from beginning to end , he seemed to know byheart .

Dr . Bucke learned German to read Faust inthe original , and found the poem worth the

labour . This w as fol lowed by others ofGoethe

’

s works . Goethe w as among the writerswho distinctly , though no t markedly ,

"influenced

his mental evolution .

Dr . Bucke w as no t on ly an ideal ist , but a

mystic , and the combination of these characteristics with l iterary culture and the scientific tem

perament and train ing forms an interesting psy

cho logical study .

[His l iterary product is the

resultant o f these forces , working upon an ardentand energetic nature .

Bucke , l ike his friend Will iam D . O'

Conno r ,

w as a strong Baconlan ln the never-ending Shake~

speare controversy, and wrote letters and articleson the subj ect to newspapers and magazines , in1 896 and subsequently . In the fal l o f 1 89 7 thisinvolved him in a brief controversy with Mr .Goldwin Smith , begun in the Canadian Magazine

and concluded by Dr . ~ Bucke in the columns o fthe Toronto Globe.

4 5

ILLUM INATION

We now come to an event which Dr . Buckeregarded as pivotal in connection with what hedeemed his most important l ife -work

In 1 86 7 , Dr . Sterry Hunt, visiting Dr . Buckeat Sarnia,

mentioned the name and quoted some

v erses of Wal t Whitman . _The eflect on the

hearer w as instantaneous and lasting . Henceforth his l ife w as largely influenced by Whitman

’

spersonal i ty and Leaves o f Grass . To this influence may be attributed practical ly

.the whole

of his l iterary product .

In

,

1 868 ,he procured a copy of W . M . Ros

setti'

s Selections . In ,1 8 70 , visi ting Dr . Hunt in

Montreal , he borrowed the Iatter’

s copy of the1 8 5 5 edition o f the Leaves . In 1 8 72 he obtaineda copy of the new edition of 1 8 7 1 . Al l thesevolumes as well as Whitman

’

s later publ icationsin prose and verse he studied with eagerness .

I t w as during the early spring of 1 8 72 , whilein England , that he passed through an experi

ence known in the nomenclature of mysticism as

il lumination . He and two fr iends had spen t theevening reading Wordsworth , Shel ley , Keats ,Browning , and especial ly Whitman . They partedat midnight, and he had a long drive in a hansom( it w as an E nglish city ) . His mind deeply underthe influence of the ideas , images and emotionscal led up by the reading and talk o f the even ing ,

w as calm and peace ful . He w as in a state o f

46

quiet , almost passive enj oyment . All at once ,

w ithout warning o f any kind , he found himsel fwrapped around as it were by a flame-colouredcloud . For an instant he thought o f fire ,

some

sudden conflagration in the great city, the next

he knew that the l ight w as w ithin himself . Direc tly afterwards came upon him a sense of exultation, of immense j oyousness , accompanied orimmediate ly fol lowed by an inte l lectual il lumination quite impossible to describe . Into his brainstreamed one momentary l ightning-flash of the

Brahmic-Splendour which has ever since l ightened his l ife ; upon his heart fell one drop o fBrahmic Bliss , leaving thenceforward for alwaysan after taste of heaven .

"

The effects were similar in some r espects tothose o f

“conversion .

“Among other things he

did not come to bel ieve , he saw and knew thatthe Cosmos is no t dead matter, but a l iving Presence , that the soul o f man is immortal , that theuniverse is so built and ordered that without anyperadventure all things work together for the

good of each and all, that the foundation pr inciple of the world is what we call love , and thatthe happiness o f every one is in the long run

absolutely certain . He claims that he learnedmore within the few seconds during which the

il lumination lasted than in previous months oreven years of study, and that he learned muchthat no study could ever have taught .

To this psychical experience may be traced ,

on Dr . E ncke'

s ow n authority , . the theory elaborated by him in his book ,

u

lVIan'

s Mo ral Nature

4 7

( 1 8 79 ) as to the relation of the great sympathetic nerve to the moral nature . In it, he says ,“he sought to embody teaching of the il lumination .

The subject appears to have been firstbroached by him in a paperon

u

Thel Func tions ofthe Great Sympathetic Nervous System , read byhim at St . Louis in May, 1 8 7 7 , and again in a

paper on The Moral Nature and the Great Sympathetic , read at Washington in May, 1 8 78 , be

fore the Association o f Med ical Superintendentso f American Institutions for the Insane .

t

In July, 1 8 7 7 , fo r the first time , he met andconversed with Wal t Whitman . He cal led uponthe poet at Camden . Of this meeting he givesa graphic account in the Introduction to Calamus, a col lection of Whitman

'

s letters to PeterDoyle , edited by Dr . Bucke , and pub l ished in

1 89 7 .

I t is too long to transcribe here . But the effectis given in these words

Briefly, it would be nothing more than the

simple truth to state that I w as, by it, l i fted toand set upon a higher plane o f existence uponwhich I have more o r less continuously l ived eversince— that is , for a period o f eighteen years.

And my feel ing toward the man , Wal t Whitman,

from that d ay to the present has been, and is ,that o f the deepest affection and reverence . Allthis, no doubt w as supplemented and reinforcedby other meetings , by co rrespondenée and by “ his

48

readings , but equal ly certainly it derived its initialand essen tial vital ity from that first, almost casualcontact .

In a paper published in 1 894 , re ferring to the

interview, he had wri tten as fol lows : A sor t ofspiritual intoxication set in which did no t reachits culmination fo r some weeks , and which , aftercontinuing some months , very gradual ly , in the

course of the next few years faded outit is certain that the hours spent that day withthe poet w as the turn ing point o f my l ife . The

upshot of it w as the placing of my spiritual ex

istence on a higher plane .

Readers of Lucian w ill remember his description of a somewhat similar e ffect produced uponhim by the philosopher Nigrinus. Other instancesin sacred and pro fane l iterature are by no meansinfrequent in cases o f men and women of exceptional moral and spiritual elevation .

Man'

s Moral Nature ( 1 8 79 ) is dedicatedTo the man who inspired it— to the man whoof all men , past and present, that I have knownhas the most exal ted moral nature— to Walt

Whitman.

In this book he divides the moral nature intotwo classes of functions : positive , is ,

love and

faith ; and negative , t.e. ,hate and fear . He finds

its physical basis in the great sympathetic nervoussystem . The mo ral nature is no t a fixed quantity ,

but has deve loped from an initial stage , with hateand fear predominant, to that in which love and

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5 0

highest and best in man , should meet with gen

eral acceptance . He w as an optimist by instinctby observation , , by reflection , by a var ied ex

perience . Appropriately, he prefixes to the finalchapter these l ines from Whitman :

“The Lord advances and yet advances

Always the shadow in front ; always the

reached hand , bringing up the laggards .

5 1

WALT WH ITMAN AND DR . BUCKE

After the first interview in 1 8 7 7 ,

“

Dr . Buckemade period ical visits to the Good Gray Poet.He took the field as his champ ion and expounder .

Controversy as to the qual ity and tendency o f”Leaves of Grass raged with more or less heat .Bucke rarely assumed the defensive . He w as bestin attack . His skil l as a writer shows itsel f inexposition of his theme , in marshal l ing and massing his facts . Opposing facts are o ften l eft to takecare o f themselves . The result , as far as Whitman is concerned , seems to j ustify the strategy,if such it can be cal led . The last word has byno means been said , but , notwithstanding pas

sages regarded by many as o ffensive to taste orto the critical ear, Whitman

’

s place in the Pantheon is by this time assured . Criticism accepts“Leaves of Grass as a whole, with reservationof judgment as to details .

In September, 1 8 79 , Bucke lectured on Whitman

'

before an Ottawa audience . In May he

wrote the Philadelphia P ress a letter entitled ,

The Good Gray Poet . This w as an appel lation first used by Wil l iam D . O connor , in hisbril l iant defence of Whitman many years before .

The summer of 1 880 w as memorable for Whitman

’

s visit to London as the guest o f Dr . and

Mrs . Bucke . He remained four months . Duringthe summer the two men made a voyage downthe St . Lawrence as far as the Saguenay and up

the latter stream to Chicoutimi and Ha Ha Bay.

5 2

Whitman w as greatly impressed with the Asylum ,

i ts ample and charming gardens and lawns ,"

the re l igious serv ices , the demeanour of"

the

mo tley , ye t perfectly w el l -behaved and orderlycongregation , the Refractory Building , thenunder special charge of Dr . Beemer . Referr ingto the w hole institution , he w rote in his d iary :”

As far as I cou ld see , this is among the mostadvanced , perfected , and kindly and rational lycarried on, of all its kind in America . I t is a

tow n in i tsel f , w ith many buildings , and a thousand inhab itants .

The four months thus spent with Whitman

w ere impo rtant in resul ts . Bucke w as resolvedto w rite a biography of the poet . The latterdemurred , obj ected , w as at length overru led ,

gave consent , and , indeed , actively cc -operated .

Bucke put himsel f in communication with all

whom he thought possessed of in formation t e

quired by him including leading writers in E ur

ope and Am erica . The resul ts were a collectiono f corresp ondence unique and valuable , and

friendly vis its received and returned .

With Whitman he went to Long Island in 1 8 8 1

to famil iar ize himsel f with the former’

s earlyhome and its environment . In working the bookin to shape valuable aid w as rendered by Wil l iamD . O

’

Conno r , Mrs. Anne Gilchrist and others,who contributed facts, il lustrative material and

incidents.

Although the book w as ready in 1 8 8 1 , publication w as delayed owing to difficul ty in secur

5 3

ing a satisfactory publ isher . After various sug

gestions had been made , Osgood of Boston ,

would appear to have been his original choice .

But Osgood w as no t in the humour . He had , j ustbeen forced by threats o f prosecution by the At

torney-General o f Massachusetts to withdrawfrom sal e his edition of

“Leaves of Grass .

Early in May, l 8 82 , Bu cke wrote O'

connor thatOsgood had decl ined

“Wal t Whitman, a Study

O’

connor wrote another scathing le tter to the

press , defending the Leaves . On the 3 rd

June , he wrote Whitman that Bucke had wr ittenhim

“quite jubilant over my letter, and te l l ing

him the fix I have got his book into , which iscomic as a scene from Mol lere . "ou will see the

fun, when you know that he had sent his MS . toOsgood"l

Whitman , as has"

been stated , took an activeinterest in the Life . His extended and variedexperience , as compositor, editor , proof-reader ,

business manager , w as at E ncke'

s disposal , and

w as invaluable . I t w as Whitman who arrangedwith Gutekunst fo r proof s o f portraits o f hisfather and mother , the number o f copies to beprinted and the pr ice . The first twenty-fourpages were written by him .

He suggested names of publ ishers , and final ly,

when Osgood decl ined the book , it w as Whitman

who , on l9 th February, 1 8 8 3 , with his ow n handdrew up the agreemen t between Dr . Bucke and

David McKay of Philadelphia, fo r the publication o f

“Wal t Whitman , a Contemporaneous

5 4

Study . The agreement shows Whitman'

s business abil ity and carefulness in looking after details , and is witnessed by him .

I t w as under the title , Wal t Whitman , thatthe volume at last appeared from the press ofDavid McKay.

In the fol lowing year , the Glasgow editionappeared with an addition entitled , EnglishCritics on Wal t Whitman , edited by EdwardDowden , LL.D Professor o f Engl ish Literaturein Trinity College , Dublin .

The book is valuable , says Ernest Rhys inhis introduction to the volume of Se lections fromWal t Whitman in the Canterbury Poets , no t

only as an authoritative biography— the standardbiography— but for its col lection of contempo r

ary notices and criticisms , European and American , favourable and the reverse , of

‘

Leaves ofGrass .

’ “In the English l ist the names of Rus

kin, Tennyson, Swinburne , Buchanan , Symonds ,and other leading poets and writers bear uniquetestimony to Whitman

'

s influence .

In the Introduction , Dr . Bucke asserts that thebasic meaning and value to us o f the man , Wal tWhitman , and the book Leaves o f Grass

"is

moral elevation. The true introduction, therefore, to this volume is the author

'

s previous work ,‘

Man’

s Moral Nature .

’

In that book he has discussed the moral nature in the abstract, pointedout its physical basis , and shown its historical

5 5

development ; while the sole object o f the presentwork is to depict an individual moral nature ,

perhaps the highest that has yet appeared“Man

'

s Moral Nature , had given Dr. Buckea status no t only as an original investigator and

independent thinker, but ,as a writer o f talent .

I t w as with general acquiescence therefore that,on the establishment o f the Royal Society ofCanada in April , 1 882, be

’

was honoured withselection as one of the original Fel lows .

1

Wal t Whitman brought him into closertouch with men of eminence on both sides o f theAtlantic . As Whitman

’

s intimate friend , authori

tative biographer , and redoubtable champion, hew as now become a personage in the l iteraryworld .

Among notable l iterary men and women whoseacquaintance he made and with most o f whomhe co rresponded more or less , may be here men

tioned the fol lowing : in France , Gabriel Sarrazin ;in Denmark , Rudolph Schmidt ; in the BritishIslands , Pro fessors Edward Dow den o f Dubl in ,

and "ork Powell o f Oxford , j ohn AddingtonSymonds , Wlliam Sharp , Anne Gilchr ist, HerbertH . Gilchrist, H . Buxton Forman, Edw a

‘

rd Carpenter ; in the United States , John B urroughs ,Will iam D . O

’

connor , Oliver Wende l l HolmesHorace L . Traubel , Robert G . Ingersol l , E . C .

e . P . E . Bucke is autho r ity fo r the statement thatDr . Ste r ry Hunt refused the offer of membe rship unt ila ssu red that Dr . E n cke ’ s name w ould also be includedin the l ist .

5 6

Stedman , Thomas B . Harned , M inot J . Savage ,

Sidney Morse the sculptor , Thomas Eakins the

painter , Will iam Sloan Kennedy, Isaac Hull Platt ,Oscar Tr iggs , Daniel G . Brinton , Henry HowardFurness , Talcott Will iams , Francis Howard Williams , Hamlin Garland , Charles G . Garrison ,

Laurens Maynard , Mary A . Livermore , ProfessorWill iam James . Browning and Tennyson he met

in England .

Lord Tennyson and Wal t Whitman carried on

a friendly and even affectionate correspondencefo r twenty years , until it w as terminated by death .

A letter of introduction from the American poetw as a sufficient passport to the hospital ity of Farringford , where Bucke spent a del ightful afternoon and even ing with the Tennysons in the summer of 1 89 1 .

V isitors of note found their w ay to London ,

from time to time , to enj oy the friendly hospital ity of Dr . and Mrs . Bucke . Among these may

be special ly mentioned Edward Carpenter , whospent some weeks with them in the summer o f1 884 .

Dr. Bucke paid many V isits to Whitman at

Camden. During one of these visits , in June ,

1 8 8 8 , Whitman w as seized with a serious il lnesswhich threatened a fatal termination . Dr . Buckebecame his general medical adviser , and at onceplaced Dr . Will iam Osler in charge . Early in

1 892 , when the old poet'

s time for departurew as at hand , Bucke w as again at his bedside , al

though unable to remain until the end . At the

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5 8

o f books , pamphlets , MSS and bibliographicaldata re lating to the sage of Camden is also probably unsurpassed .

ln Horace Traubel’

s volumes , With Wal tWhitman in Camden , are many references toDr . Bucke , j otted down by Traubel , from Whitman

'

s table-talk in 1 8 8 8 . They are interestingas indicating Whitman’

s estimate of Bucke’

s

qual ities and friendship .

Re ferring to Sloane Kennedy, as one of hismost ardent admirers , Whitman added , Indeed ,

ba out-Buckes Bucke .

On another occasion , Bucke’

s name beingmen tioned , he exclaimed : Bucke" 0 , yes,

Bucke"Some one w as here the other day and

complained that the Doctor w as extreme . l suppose he is extreme— the sun

’

s extreme , too ; andas for me , ain

’

t l extreme"Ernest Rhys having seen Dr . Bucke and Nia

gara , Whitman expressed pleasure , saying ,smil ingly,

“I am proud of both .

Speaking of his serious il lness in June , 1 8 8 8 ,

Whitman said Bucke saved his l i fe ,“his skil l ,

decision , brotherl iness , pulled me ashore .

"And

again , Osler, too , has his points , big points . Butafter all

,the real man is Dr . Bucke . He is the

top of the heap . He has such a clear head , sucha fund of common sense— such steady eyessuch a steady hand . As you say, Bucke is a scien

tist , no t a doctor ; he has had severe personalexperiences— is an expert in questions involving

5 9

the mind— is in every sort of w ay a large man

l iberal , devoted , far-see ing . I especial ly ow e himso much , -Oh , so much .

A short note from Bucke , he described as a

whiff o f fresh air from the north . In sendinga return message, he added :

“Doctor 1 8 the king

pin .

"One day there w as no letter’ from Bucke ;

I get to look for Bucke asl look fo r my break~

fast , he said .

60

“COSM IC CONSC IOUSNE SS

In May,1 894 , Dr . Bucke read be fore the

American Medico-Psychological Association in

Philade lphia, a paper entitled ,

”Cosmic Con

sc iousness .

n

The thought had been long in hismind . The ge rminal idea is traceab le in his twoearl ier books , Man

’

s Moral Nature,

"

and“Wal t

Whitman .

In August , 1 89 7 , as president of the Psycho lo

gical Section of the British Medical Associationat Montreal , he further developed the thought inhis presidential address on

“Mental Evolution

in Man .

Four years later the result o f his researches on

the subject w as put be fore the world in a bookentitled

u

Co smic Consciousness ; a Study in the

Evolution of the Human M ind ,

"of which a l im

ited edition of 5 00 copies w as printed from the

type by Innes 8: Co of Philadelphia, in 1 90 1 .

As a specimen of the book-maker’

s art it isworthy of note . I ts dign ified format, quarto , on

a special ly good qual ity of paper , with wide mar

gins and large clear-cut type , is an evidence ofconscientious purpose and execution .

The term cosmic consciousness is derivedfrom the east , signi fying an e levated plane ofconsciousness associated with various psychicphenomena, including that known as

“il lumina

tion .

"The author finds it exemp l ified in four

teen conspicuous instances , including the found

6 1

ers of the three - great re l igions, and in e levenother persons, viz . : Paul, Plotinus , Dante , Las

Casas , John "epes , Francis Bacon , Jacob Beh

men ,Will iam Blake , Honoré de Balzac , Walt

Whitman and Edward Carpenter . He addsthirty-five cases ,

“some of them lesser , imperfect

and doubtful instances . These include Moses ,Gideon,

Isaiah , Socrates , Pascal , Spinoza, Swedenbo rg, Wordsworth, Finney , Pushkin, Emerson ,

Tennyson , Thoreau , Bucke himsel f, and Traubel .Collecting and comparing their recorded experi

ences, he finds sufficient data fo r a general ih

duction . There are , he thinks, perceptible in

the history of human consciousness , three distinct stages of evolution , simple consciousness,

self consciousness and cosm ic consciousness .The pr ime characteristic o f cosmic consciousnessis , as its name implies , a consciousness of the

cosmos that is , o f the l ife and order of the uni~

verse . With it occur, among other phenomena,

an intellectual enl ightenment o r il lumination ,

moral exal tation and a quickening of the mo ral

sense , and withal a sense of immortal ity, a con

sc iousness of eternal l i fe, no t a conviction thathe shal l have this , but the consciousness that hehas it already . This position he supports byquoting in each case the words of the originalrecords .

The theo ry is that this higher fo rmfl

o f con"

sciousness is at present making its appearance .

in the human race , that the comparative ly fewcases cited are forerunners o f a time , when byregular and orderly evolution the whole human

6 2

race will reach the higher plane , along which itwil l proceed on its path of further infinite development .

This conclusion is based upon the fact, whichhe considers established by the records , that thereis a progressive increase throughout human history since the earl iest recorded instances in the

number of persons who have attained to cosmicconsciousness .

Another physician , who w as also a philo so

pher , Dr . Oliver Wendel l Holmes , hints at sucha conclusion , in a remarkable passage in the

Professor at the Breakfast Table .

"

I think of it,"he says , re ferring to a similar

intuition in his ow n experience and that o f others ,as a disclosure of Certain relations of our per

sonal being to time and space , to other intelli

gences, to the procession of events, and to the irFirst Great Cause I am disposedto consider our belie fs about such a possible disclosure rather as a kind of premonition of an en

largement o f our faculties in some future statethan as an expectation to be fulfi l led for most o fus in this l ife . Persons , however, have fal len intotrances— as did the Reverend Will iam Tennant,among many others— and learned some thingswhich they could no t tell in our human words .

Conversion, the"inner l ight, il lumination,

mysticism , are psychological facts pertaining torel igion in its higher mani festations . In

u

CosmicConsciousness they are subj ected by a scientist,who w as at the same time a philosopher and a

6 3

mystic , to scientific collation and comparison, and

to the inductive process of reasoning .

1

As a compilation of recorded cases , aside al together from the theory based upon them , the

book possesses a distinct value and is o f remarkable interest .

The theory itsel f is attractive . Whether it isborne out by the facts cited , the reader must decide for himse l f . I t is at any rate suggestive . Asa contribution to the l iterature of the subject , i toccup ies a unique place . The ul timate conclusions,

i f a consensus should be arrived at , wil l beof inestimable moment to the human race .

Among other results wil l be , perhaps, a final re~

concilement of the long struggle between sc l ence

and re l igion .

In the mountains o f Montana , more than a

year before the book went to press , the author’

seldest son , Maur ice , had been thrown from 11 1 3

vehicle in a runaway accident , dashed againsta rock , and instantly kil led . He w as thirty-oneyears of age , but had already reached emlnence

in his pro fession, that o f a mining engnieer . ABritish Columbia paper described him as a man

o f exceptional attainments , genial, courteous ,pure and thoroughly incorruptible To the deadson, the volume is dedicated . There are few

more pathetic words in all l iterature . Few sonsever had so noble an epitaph . But the bitter

1 P . D . Ouspensky in his Ter t ium Organum ( 1 920 )quo tes

'

copio usly from Bucke and commen ts interest inglyo n his conclus ions .

6 4

pain is no t the last word . The confident assurance of speedy reun ion sustains and consoles .Then the great mystery of death , sorrow and su f

fering, will be solved .

“We shal l clearly see

that all were parts o f an infinite plan ,which w as

wholly w ise and good . Those who w ould knowthe intensity of the re l igious sentiment whichdominated the soul o f Richard Maurice Buckewil l read the tender and beautiful words of thededication with admiration as well as sympathy .

According to Bucke , cosmic consciousness is anascent facul ty, showing itsel f principal ly in

exalted'

human personal ities, with exceptional development of all the ordinary human facul ties ,with exceptional physique , beauty of build and

carriage , exceptionally handsome features , excep

tional heal th , exceptional sweetness of temper ,exceptional magnetism , and exceptional moralnature .

An interesting feature of the book is the man

ner in which the author'

s expert knowledge ofal ienism is brought in to il lustrate the deve lopment and devolution of function . Devolutionbeing most active in the latest forms , insanity and

gen ius develop side by side in increasing ratio ,as the natural concomitant o f the rapid evolutionof mind , which distinguishes the Aryan race . I t1 the price w e pay fo r progress . The possessorso f the newer consciousness are no t insane . Thisis shown by an examination of the distinguishingcharacter istics of insanity . His treatment o f thesub ject is always frank , sincere and reverent .

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66

CONCLUS ION

Death came suddenly to Dr . Bucke on the 1 9 thFebruary, 1 9 02 . He and Mrs . Bucke had dinedand spent the even ing with friends in the city .

1

After dinner , the gentlemen of the party , four innumber , all of them un iversity men , discussedthe question of the cyphers and the Baconianauthorship , with special re ference to the Doctor

’

s appl ication o f Bacon'

s cypher . His bookw as ready fo r publ ication , and w as to appear inJune , when the particulars would be disclosed .

The general question w as debated with friendlyfreedom . The Doctor , in his customary buoyantspirits , w as at his best . Argument, il lustration ,

apt quotation , treasures new and old from the

wonderful stores of his memory, were presentedto listeners , who admired whether they agreedwith his conclusions o r no t .

The party rej oined the ladies fo r a briefmoment be fore the cutter cal led to take Mrs .Bucke and himsel f to the ir home east o f the city .

Addressing one from a neighbouring city , he inquired particularly about her six children , namingeach in turn . He had last seen them at theirhome five years before . Surprise w as expressedat the minuteness o f

,

his recollection , as he askedto be remembered to the young people . But it

1The hosts w e re his Honour Judge Ta lbot Macbeth

and Mrs . Macbeth . The guests w e re Dr . and Mrs .

Bucke ; Mr . F . P . Be tts , K .C . , and Mrs . Betts ; and Mr .

and Mrs . James H . Coyne , o f St . Thomas .

6 7

w as characteristic o f the man to be special ly interested in children , and he did no t easily forgetthem . In a few courteous words he took leaveof host and hostess , and of the other guests

The night w as intense ly cold , the sky clear, themoon nearly at its ful l , the stars shin ing with the

stee ly gl itter o f a Canadian night in February,the snow crisp under foot . Going out into then ight, he stopped to _ extzlaim ( in admiration ofthe beauty of the sky . Dr iving home , he spokeo f the pleasure the evening had given him , and

warmly o f the fr l ends he had met . In a‘ few

minutes he w as at home , but could no t resist thedesire to go out once more to look at the nightand the stars . On the verandah , he slipped ,

struck his head against a pil lar, and dropped l ifeless to the floor . And so , in the prime of vigour ,while the eye w as no t dimmed , no r his naturalforce abated , he fe l l on death , and w as re

united to the son , who had gone before .

His decease cal led f orth many expressions o fappreciation and of sorrow .

The London F ree Press,in referring to his

death , gave an interesting descr ip tion of his ap

pearance , which is worth reproducing

The Asylum Superintendent w as - famil iarfigure down town . He w as known , at least bysight , to nearly everyone . His personal ity w as

so markedly picturesque as to attract attention .

The kindly face, ful l o f strong character, the flowing beard , streaked with gray

'

and white , the very

6 8

build of the we l l-proportioned , wel l-preservedman of sixty odd years , w as certain to bringnotice . Those who knew Dr . Bucke were proudof the fact . To know w as to admire and esteem .

Dr . T . J . W . Burgess , in the paper alreadycited , adds :

u

ln appearance Dr . Bucke w as one

of the most picturesque personal ities in the ranksof the American Medico-Psychological Association . His commanding presence , his massivehead , his keen , searching eyes and prominentnose , his face , every line of which carried the

stamp of intel lectual force , his flowing beard c ov

ering the négligé l inen shirt , his silvery locksshowing below the broad-brimmed , gray, slouchhat, and his grey tweeds , made him a strikinglyconspicuous and original figure . His manner w as

plain but dign ified , his language, clear and in

speaking he attracted the attention of his hearersno less by the matter of his remarks than by hispersonal appearance .

During his asylum career, Dr. Bucke evincedwonderful abil ity in the management o f the in

sane , his constant endeavour being to care fo r theinterests confided by the Province to his chargeintel l igently, fai thful ly and economical ly . As anadministrator he had few superiors , and thosewho knew him we l l wil l ever bear witness to hissingularly clear j udgment in all relating to hospital affairs . He had long been regarded as one o fthe leading authorities on the subj ect o f mentald isease , and his services as an expert were soughtin most important cases where sanity w as in question . In these his wide knowledge of medicine

6 9

and of human nature always showed to advan

tage , his opin ions always commanding the attention and respect al ike o f judge and j ury .

Sadly shal l we miss the sight o f his picturesque ,

Whitmanic garb , and face ful l o f strong character , the sound of his bluff, cheery voice , and the

hearty grasp of his hand— and no t one o f us butwil l fervently echo the wish —

‘

O, for“

the toucho f a vanished hand , and the sound of a voicethat is stil l .

’

By his demise Canada has lost one of herforemost minds , this Association one of its mostvalued members , and , saddest of all, his familya devoted husband and father . Peace to his

ashes .

"He rests from his labours , and his

works do fol low him .

in a paper publ ished in the American Journalo f Insanity, Dr . C . K . Clarke observes :

“I t is

impossible to j udge him by ordinary standards ,so great a part did individual ity play in his makeup Whatever this remarkable man

did , he did with his whole soul , and no one everdreamed of attacking his sincer ity of purpose,no matter how violently they differed from hisconclusions ln daily l ife he w as

simple , direct and honest , and loved nature as

such a man is l ikely to do . The happiest dayso f each year were those spent at his summer t e

treat at Gloucester Pool in Muskokai

.

Traube l mentions a conversation with Whitman , in which the latter described E ncke

'

s op timism ln the fol lowing words

70

Bucke has an immense faith in the peopleat large— immense— in civil ization , in modernmechan ical devices— miracles of power .

"Do

you say, asked Traubel , that Bucke has morefaith in the people than you have"" ”

I thinkhe has, w as the reply, Bucke is an optimistthoroughly so , without qual ification o r compromise —so are you— but I could hardly c al l myse l fthat in the strictest sense of the word

An optimist he w as in the ful lest sense of theword . He radiated hope , courage and energy .

He made many fr iends and kept them . Whetherat home in the beautiful grounds surrounding thegreat institution, which he administered with suchsignal success , or at

”Liberty Hal l , his summer

island-residence in Gloucester Pool , his domestic l ife w as ideal in its simplicity, its sincerity, itsatmosphere of affection , ease and j oyous freedom .

He w as a man , take him for all in all

We shal l no t look upon his l ike again .

7 l

BIBLIOGR APH"

Including Books, Pamphlets, Lec tures, Addresses, andLe tter s, ( as far as at presen t

1 8 62

The Co r re la tion of the V i ta l and Physica l Fo rce s .A Pr ize The s is fo r the Degree of Docto r o fMedicine and Maste r of Chirurge ry , defendedbe fo re the Medica l Facul ty of McGill Un ive rsi ty ,Mon trea l , May 2 , | 8 6 2 . By R . Mau r ice Bucke .

( Pr in ted in pamphle t fo rm f rom the Br it ishAme r ican j ou rnal . )

1 8 7 7

The Functions of the Grea t Sympa thetic NervousSystem . By R . M . Bucke , M .D Medica l Supe rintenden t of the Asylum fo r the Insane , London ,

On ta r io .

Read be fo re the Associa tion of Medica l Supe rintendents o f Ame r ican Inst i tutions fo r the

Insane , he ld at St . Louis , Mo . , May , l 8 7 7 .

1 8 78

3 . The Mo ra l Na tu re and the Gr eat Sympathe tic .

Read befo re the Associat ion of Medica l Supe rintendents of Ame r i can Asy lums fo r the Insaneat Washington , D.C May, 1 8 7 8 .

1 8 79

Man'

s Mo ra l Na tu re . An Essay . By RichardMau r l ce Bucke , M.D Medica l Supe rm tendent o fthe Asylum fo r the Insane , London , Ontar io ,pp . xiii. 200 .

New York , G . P . Pu tnam ' s Sons . To ronto ,Ont . , Wi l l ing Wi ll iamson .

Lectu re o n Wa l t Whitman . De l ivered at Ottaw a ,

On t . , Sept . 1 2 , 1 8 79 , repo r ted in Ottaw a FreePress , Sept . I 3 .

7 2

1 8 8 0

The Good Gray Poe t . Le tte r to the Philade lphiaPre ss , May 7 , 1 8 8 0 .

7 . A l cohol in Hea l th and Disease . London , Wm .

B ryce , 1 8 8 0 . (Read in an incomple te sta tebe fo r e the Domin ion Medica l Association at

London , Sept . 1 0 , 1 8 79 , publ ished n ex t mo rn ingin the Da i ly Adve r tise r , and rep r inted tw ice in

E ngland ) .

Reply . Le t te r to the New Yo rk Times , Nov .

l st . (A reply to E . C . Stedman' s a r ticle o n

Wa l t Whitman ,

"in Sc r ibne r ’ s fo r Novembe r ) .

1 8 8 2

Wa l t Whitman , published in the Family C ircle ,

May .

Leaves of Grass Supp ressed . Lette r to the

S p r ingfie l d Republican , May 2 3 rd .

1 8 8 3

Tw enty-five Yea rs Ago . By R . M . Bucke . Ove rland Mon thly , June , pp . 5 5 3 -5 60 .

(An accoun t o f his expe r ience s in c rossingthe Sie r ra Nevada in Novembe r and December ,

Wa l t Whitman . By Richard Mau r ice Bucke , M .D .

Autho r of Man ' s Mo ra l Natu re .

" pp . 2 3 6 .

Published by David McKay, 2 3 South NinthStreet , Philade lphia.

Republished w i th addition en titled : English Cr i t icso n Wa l t Whitman ,

"edited by Edw ard Dow den ,

LL .D . , Professo r o f E nglish L i te ratu re in Tr in i tyCol lege , Dub lin , pp . 2 5 5 .

Wilson Mcco rmick , Glasgow , 1 88 4 .

1 8 8 8

On the Humboldt . Wr i t ten fo r the Adve r tise r byR . M . Bucke , M .D . [Note .

— Though told in

the fo rm of fiction , the expe r ience de ta i led in

Dr . Bu cke’

s sto ry is l ite ra l ly t rue , be ing an in ciden t in the ear l ier l ife of the autho r .

—Edito r ,Adver tiser ] . London Adve r tise r , "an . 28 , 1 8 88 .

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7 4

Leave s of Gra ss and Mode rn Scien ce , pp . 249

2 5 1 .

Wa i t Whitman and the Cosmic Sense , pp . 3 29

3 4 7 .

A lso trans lations of fo re ign c r i tiques as follow s

Wa l t Whitman , Ka r l Kno r tz : -Translated f rom the

Ge rman by A l fred Forman and Richa rd Mau r i ceBucke , pp . 2 1 5 -2 3 0 .

Wa l t Whitman , the Poe t of Ame r i can Demo c

racy , R udolph Schmidt : Transla ted f rom the

Dan ish by R . M . Bain and Richard Mau r iceBucke , pp . 2 3 1 248 .

Walt Whitman , T . W . Rol leston : Translated f romthe Ge rman by A lf red Fo rman and RichardMau r ice Bucke , pp . 28 5 -29 5 .

1 894

Cosmic Consciousness ; The Conservato r . Philade lphia , May, June , 1 8 94 .

Co sm 1 c Consciousne ss . A paper read befo re the

Ame r i can Medico Psycholo gical Association .

Philade lphia , 1 8 th May, 1 89 1 , by Dr . R . M .

Bucke . L ight , ra re , un te l lable , li ghtin g the

ve ry li ght . Phi lade lphia ,

‘

The Conse rva to r ,

n

1 894 , ( pamphlet ) , pp . 1 8 .

Memo r ies of Walt Whitman .

Wa l t Whitman Fe l low ship Pape rs , 6 , pp . 3 5 -45 ,

Sept . , 1 8 94 .

(Read at the Organ izat ion Mee ting of the Fel

lo w ship at R e isser’

s, Philadelphia , May 3 1 st ,

1 8 9 5

Wasg

w hi tman Mad" The Con se rvato r . Phi lade lphia , June . Jou rna l o f Hygiene ,

" Sept .Was Wa lt Whitman Mad" [Read fo r Dr . Bucke ,

w ho w as n o t present , by Thomas B . Harned .

Afte rnoon Sess ion , Annual Meeting , May 3 l st . ]Walt Whitman Fe llow ship Papers , Second Year9 pp . 22 -3 0 .

7 5

3 3 . The Pro of Wa lt Whitman . The Conservato r ,Phi lade lphia, Octobe r , 1 89 5 .

1 89 6

Mr . Faw ce tt s Objections . The Conservato r ,Philade lphia ,"am , 1 89 6 .

No te s o n the Text of “Leave s of Grass . The

Conse rvato r , Phi lade lphia, May, June , Aug . ,

1 896 .

Le tte r to the London , Ont . , Dai ly New s , Sept . 23 ,

1 89 6 , on the Bacon-Shakespeare Question .

1 89 7

Memo r l es o f Wa lt Whitman ;Wa lt Whitman Fe l low ship Pape rs , May. 1 89 7 .

Third Year , 1 0 , pp . 3 5 -42 .

[Read at the annua l mee ting of the Wa ltWhitman Fe l low ship , Boston , May 3 1 ,

Shakespea re o r Bacon . The p roof ( par t ly f rom a

just discove red anagram ) tha t the real autho rof the ao -

cal led"Shakespeare drama w as Fran

c is Bacon . Canadian Magazine , Sep t . , 1 89 7 .

Mental Evo lution in Man . An address de l ive red at

the Open in g of the Sect ion of Psychology a t the

6 5 th annual mee ting of the Br i t ish Medical Associat io n at Mon trea l, Aug . 3 1 3 t to Sept . 4th, 1 89 7 .

By R . M . Bucke , MUD

(Abstrac t from advance shee ts o f the Br i t ishMedical Journal , pr inted in the Journa l ofthe American Med ica l Assoc ia tion , Chicago ,

Oc t . 2 3 ,

Le tter to the G lobe , Dec . 2 5 , rejo inde rto Mr . Goldw in smith, w ho had rep l ied in theCanadian Magazine fo r De c . , 1 8 9 7 , under the

caption No t Dead "et , to Dr . E ncke ' s pape rin the September numbe r , on the

' ShakespeareBacon controversy.

Ca lamu s . A Ser ies of Lette rs w r i tten dur ing the

years 1 8 6 7- 1 88 0 by Walt Wh itman to a youngfriend ( Peter Doyle ) .

7 6

E dited w i th an In t roduction by Richa rd Mau ric e Bucke , M .D. , o n e of Whitman

' s Li te ra ryE xecuto rs , pp . viii . 1 7 3 .

Publ ished by Lau rens Mayna rd a t 28 7 Co n

g ress St r ee t in Boston , MDCCC"CV I I .The Sto ry of the Ca r e of the Insane in Ontar io( fo rming pa r t of Repo rt o f the Super intenden tof the London Asylum fo r

Di scove ry of the Comstock . The True Pa r ticu

la rs as To ld by Dr . Bucke . A r emarkable Adven tu re in w hich he figu red . A mistaken ve r

s ion in the New Yo rk S un , co r rected . The sad

fa te of Dr . Bu cke’

s compan ions in his M in ingDays .In terview in the London Adve r tise r of 1 6

Dec . , 1 8 9 7 .

1 8 98

Wa l t Whitman , Man and Poe t .‘Na t iona l Magazine , Boston , Apr il, 1 89 8 .

‘

Co sm opo lisf’ June , 1 898 .

A Sho r t Histo ry of Sew age Disposal at the Asy lumfo r the Insane , London , On tar io . A paper readbefo re the On ta r io Asso ciation of E xecutiveHea l th O ffice rs a t the Ottaw a Convention .

The Canadian Enginee r , Oc t . , 1 898 , pp .

1 5 5 - 1 56 .

The Wound Dr esse r . A Se r ies of Le tte r s w r ittenfrom the Hospita ls in Washington du r ing the

Wa r of the Rebe l l ion . By Wa l t Whitman .

Edited by Richard Mau r ice Bucke . M .D. One

of Whitman' s L ite ra ry Executo rs , pp . x . 20 1 .

Boston : Smal l , Maynard Company. 1 89 8 .

Su rge ry amon g the In sane in Canada . By R . M .

Bucke , M .D . , Pre siden t of the Med ico -Psycho logical Association .

P resident ial Address befo re the Ame r icanMedico-Psycho logica l Assoc iat ion at St . Louis,May 1 0 , 1 89 8 .

(Rep r int from Ame r ican Jou rna l of Insan i ty ,Vol . IV No . 1 ,

7 7

1 899

Por tra its of Walt Whitman . By R . M . Bucke ,

( i l lust ra ted by 24 po r tra its ) .

New England Magazine , Mar ch , 1 89 9 .

Note s and F ragmen ts : Le f t by Wa lt Whitman and

no w edited by Dr . Richa rd Mau r i ce Bucke , one

of his L itera ry Executo rs , pp . 2 1 1 :

Pr in ted fo r Pr ivate Dist r ibut ion On ly . ( 22 5copies ) , 1 8 99 .

Le tte r to tthe Globe , To ron to , Nov . 7 , 1 899 , on

I gnatius Donne l ly ' s a l leged discove ry of a cyphe rin the insc r ipt ion o n Shake spea re ’ s grave .

1 9 0 0'

The E volution of the Human In te llect . Addressin the Fir st M . E . Chu r ch , Te r re Haute , Indiana ,

2 9 May, 1 9 0 0 . 1

(Terre Haute Gaze tte , May 3 0 ,

Tw o Hundred Opera tive Ca se s . In sane Women .

By Richa rd M . Bucke , M .D.

Rep r in ted from Proceedin gs of the Ame r icanMedico -Psychologica l Asso cia t ion . Richmond ,V a . , 1 90 0 .

1 9 0 1

How shall w e dispose of o u r sew age"The Die te t i cand Hygien ic Gaze tte , a Mon thly Journa l o f

Physio logica l Medicine , New Yo rk , Ap r . , 1 9 0 1 ,pp . 1 9 3 -4 .

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Co sm l c Co nsc 1 o u sness : A Study i n the Evo lu ti onof the Human M ind , Edited by Dr . RichardMau r ice Bucke , pp . "V I I I . 3 1 8 .

Inne s[

81 Sons , Philade lphia , 1 9 0 1 . Limite dedition of 5 00 co pie s p r in ted from the type ) .

A second edition w as issued in 1 9 06 by the

same pub lishe rs ; and a thi rd by Me ss r s . E . P .

Dutton Cc . , New Yo rk , in 1 92 3 .

1 902

Books tha t have in te rested me . To ronto Mail,Feb . 2 2 ,

Of this edition copies were printed .

Each copy is bound by hand , numbered and

signed by

q.

This is number

P r inted by The B elcher P r inting Company1 1 1 Adelaide S treet West, Toronto