Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.  

The result was to keep it. --Abu-Fool Danyal ibn Amir al-Makhiri 03:09, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery

 * – (View AfD) (View log)

Notability not established, content mostly title and chapter headings, wikilinked! IPSOS (talk) 22:23, 1 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Delete no reliable sources provided to support notability of book, and author has no WP article. Quickly, before someone actually writes articles on the chapters! Deor 00:52, 2 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment This is a classic book, but I'm at a bit of a loss at how to justify that. It was published in 1850, so there aren't modern book reviews and news items. Google scholar has a couple of articles that seem to be discussing it in a historical context, but I don't have a subscription to view the full text to check them out (perhaps someone else here does). The book has been reprinted numerous times, including one in 2005. I'd like to call it a keep but improve the article, but as I'm not in a position to check the possible references, I can't give anything concrete. Polenth 04:54, 3 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep I managed to turn up a source for notability and edited some of the other oddities (like the incorrect date and the chapter list). One source isn't ideal, and it's still very stubish, but I think there's enough to keep it for improvement now. Polenth 00:20, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment. Any suggestions why Walter Leslie Wilmshurst redirects to this page? No one by that name seems to be mentioned on it. Deor 02:48, 4 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Comment He wrote an intro to one of the reprints. That's worthy of a mention in a discussion of reprints, but not of a redirect. He's notable in his own right as an author of Mason books and I can see someone wanting to make an article on him someday. The confusion probably came about because the original author of the article seemed to think the Wilmhurst reprint was the first edition and didn't know the real author's name. Polenth 04:03, 4 June 2007 (UTC)


 * Weak keep per Polenth. This book is also a reference for this article on alchemical symbolism. Ms. Atwood needs an article herself. Create & merge? --Evb-wiki 16:03, 6 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep and expand/merge with article on the author. I'm not involved with this article and just noticed the AfD listed. The book title brings up around 1,700 Google hits. Some of the links lead to pages that mention the book as part of the development of modern thinking on the topic of alchemy as a process of spiritual transformation rather than the mundane process of transmuting metals.  A couple of examples are here and here.  I'm not an expert and I don't put these forth as definitive reliable sources, but since I was able to find them so fast and Wikipeida is not paper, it seems to me we can take some time to let this article develop rather than quickly deleting it. I did find one reference that refers to a reliable source, here, in that it refers to comments about the book by noted author A. E. Waite.  His comments are controversial, however, this shows that the book is notable enough to generate some controvesy among experts in its topic.  Considering that I found this info in just a few minutes, I'm sure that editors will be able to expand this article and add interesting information about the author who seems to be a somewhat notable historical figure in this area of study.  --Parzival418 Hello 01:41, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep. I have added a second source to the article, though I admit that my addition uses only a small percentage of the relevant content in the source. The book is obviously considered notable and there are a number of potential scholarly sources for it in books and journal articles. -- Black Falcon (Talk) 01:49, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Keep Article has undergone extensive cleanup and sourcing since AfD was initiated. &mdash; Gaff  ταλκ 20:33, 7 June 2007 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.