The Nature and Aim of Theosophy: An Essay Read Before the Cincinnati Literary Club, January 17, 1886. First and Second Editions.

Cincinnati: Robert Clark & Co., 1886. First edition. Small square octavo. 42 pp. including a full page allegorical illustration. Printed terra-cotta wrappers, Excellent.Jirah Dewy Buck received his medical training at Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, completing the program in 1864. He began practice that year in Cincinnati as a homeopathic physician in general practice. He also taught medicine at Cleveland Medical College, and became Dean of the Pulte Medical College in Cincinnati until it was merged into Ohio State University. In 1890 Dr. Buck became President of the American Institute of Homeopathy. He practiced medicine for over 40 years. Dr. Buck became active in the Theosophical Society in 1879. In 1880, he was a member of the General Council of the Theosophical Society. On May 13, 1884, he was appointed by Col. Olcott to be a member of the Board of Control of the Theosophical Society's activities in the United States. In Mahatma Letter 140, written in March, 1886, Madame Blavatsky gave A. P. Sinnett an indication that Dr. Buck was being "helped" by the Mahatmas to make the Society "a grand movement" in America. The Cincinnati Theosophical Society was formed on May 9, 1886 at the Buck home on Oak Street. Cincinnati was one of the earliest centers of theosophical adherents in the US and Buck was their patriarch. The first edition is signed lightly in pencil by a woman in his inner circle.Madame Blavatsky quoted an essay of his in The Key to Theosophy saying, "No living theosophist has better expressed and understood the real essence of Theosophy than our honoured friend Dr. Buck".[10] She also referred to him as "a true Philaletheian" in her book, quoting from an article he published in The Theosophist (September 1883, p. 327) titled "The Ethics of Theosophy."