Changes

  | pages        = 46-49

  | pages        = 46-49

  | publications = Spiritual Scientist, Boston, Vol. I, December 3, 1874, pp. 148-9

  | publications = Spiritual Scientist, Boston, Vol. I, December 3, 1874, pp. 148-9

  | scrapbook    = 1-9

  | scrapbook    = 1:9

  | previous    = Zirkoff B. - Elbridge Gerry Brown

  | previous    = Zirkoff B. - Elbridge Gerry Brown

  | next        = Zirkoff B. - H.P.B.’S ROLE AT THE EDDYS’ HOMESTEAD

  | next        = Zirkoff B. - H.P.B’s Role at the Eddy’s Homestead

  | alternatives = [http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v1/y1874_007.htm KHL]

  | alternatives = [http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/articles/v1/y1874_007.htm KH]

  | translations = [https://en.teopedia.org/lib/HPB-SB-1-9#HPB_SB_item_1-9-1 Russian]

  | translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/ЕПБ-ЛА-1-9#.D0.95.D0.9F.D0.91_.D0.9B.D0.90_.D1.8D.D0.BB.D0.B5.D0.BC.D0.B5.D0.BD.D1.82_1-9-1 Russian]

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{{Style P-Title|MADAME BLAVATSKY}}

{{Style P-Title|MADAME BLAVATSKY}}

Beard did and will do it yet—dares to defy such a formidable body as that, there must be some cause for it. His insults, gross and vulgar as they are, are too fearless to leave one particle of doubt that if he does it, it is but because he knows too well that he can do so with impunity and perfect ease. Year after year the American Spiritualists have allowed themselves to be ridiculed and slighted by everyone who had a mind to do so, protesting so feebly as to give their opponents the most erroneous idea of their weakness. Am I wrong, then, in saying that our Spiritualists are more to be blamed than Dr. Beard himself in all this ridiculous polemic? Moral cowardice breeds more contempt than the “familiarity” of the old motto. How can we expect such a scientific sleight-of-hand as he is to respect a body that does not respect itself? We ourselves brought upon our heads that shower of abuse lavished by his hand with the dexterity and ability of a drunken London cockney.

Beard did and will do it yet—dares to defy such a formidable body as that, there must be some cause for it. His insults, gross and vulgar as they are, are too fearless to leave one particle of doubt that if he does it, it is but because he knows too well that he can do so with impunity and perfect ease. Year after year the American Spiritualists have allowed themselves to be ridiculed and slighted by everyone who had a mind to do so, protesting so feebly as to give their opponents the most erroneous idea of their weakness. Am I wrong, then, in saying that our Spiritualists are more to be blamed than Dr. Beard himself in all this ridiculous polemic? Moral cowardice breeds more contempt than the “familiarity” of the old motto. How can we expect such a scientific sleight-of-hand as he is to respect a body that does not respect itself? We ourselves brought upon our heads that shower of abuse lavished by his hand with the dexterity and ability of a drunken London cockney.

My humble opinion is, that the majority of our Spiritualists are too much afraid for their “respectability” when called upon to confess and acknowledge their “belief.” Will you agree with me, if I say that the dread of the social Areopagus is so deeply rooted in the hearts of your American people, that to endeavour to tear it out of them would be undertaking to shake the whole system of society from top to bottom? “Respectability” and “fashion” have brought more than one utter materialist to select (for mere show) the Episcopalian and other wealthy churches. But Spiritualism is not “fashionable,” as yet, and that’s where the trouble is. Notwithstanding its immense and daily increasing numbers, it has not won, till now, the right of citizenship. Its chief leaders are not clothed in gold and purple {{Page aside|49}} and fine raiments; for not unlike Christianity in the beginning of its era, Spiritualism numbers in its ranks more of the humble and afflicted ones, than of the powerful and wealthy of this earth. Spiritualists belonging to the latter class will seldom dare to step out on the arena of publicity boldly proclaim their belief in the face of the whole world; that hybridous monster, called “public opinion,” is too much for them; and what does a Dr. Beard care for the opinion of the poor and the humble ones? He knows but too well, that his insulting terms of “fools” and “weak-minded idiots,” as his accusations for credulousness, will never be applied to themselves by any of the proud castes of modern “Pharisees”; Spiritualists, as they know themselves to be, and have perhaps been for years, if they deign to notice the insult at all, it will be but to answer him as the cowardly apostle did before them, “Man, I tell thee, I know him not!”

My humble opinion is, that the majority of our Spiritualists are too much afraid for their “respectability” when called upon to confess and acknowledge their “belief.” Will you agree with me, if I say that the dread of the social Areopagus is so deeply rooted in the hearts of your American people, that to endeavour to tear it out of them would be undertaking to shake the whole system of society from top to bottom? “Respectability” and “fashion” have brought more than one utter materialist to select (for mere show) the Episcopalian and other wealthy churches. But Spiritualism is not “fashionable,” as yet, and that’s where the trouble is. Notwithstanding its immense and daily increasing numbers, it has not won, till now, the right of citizenship. Its chief leaders are not clothed in gold and purple  

 

 

 

{{Page aside|49}} {{Style P-No indent|and fine raiments; for not unlike Christianity in the beginning of its era, Spiritualism numbers in its ranks more of the humble and afflicted ones, than of the powerful and wealthy of this earth. Spiritualists belonging to the latter class will seldom dare to step out on the arena of publicity boldly proclaim their belief in the face of the whole world; that hybridous monster, called “public opinion,” is too much for them; and what does a Dr. Beard care for the opinion of the poor and the humble ones? He knows but too well, that his insulting terms of “fools” and “weak-minded idiots,” as his accusations for credulousness, will never be applied to themselves by any of the proud castes of modern “Pharisees”; Spiritualists, as they know themselves to be, and have perhaps been for years, if they deign to notice the insult at all, it will be but to answer him as the cowardly apostle did before them, “Man, I tell thee, I know him not!”}}

St. Peter was the only one of the remaining eleven that denied his Christ thrice before the Pharisees, that is just the reason why, of all the apostles, he is the most revered by the Catholics, and has been selected to rule over the most wealthy as the most proud, greedy and hypocritical of all the churches in Christendom! And so, half Christians and half believers in the new dispensation, the majority of those eleven millions of Spiritualists stand with one foot on the threshold of Spiritualism, pressing firmly with the other one the steps leading to the altars of their “fashionable” places of worship, ever ready to leap over under the protection of the latter in hours of danger. They know that under the cover of such immense “respectability” they are perfectly safe. Who would presume or dare to accuse of “credulous stupidity” a member belonging to certain “fashionable congregations”? Under the powerful and holy shade of any of those “pillars of truth” every heinous crime is liable to become immediately transformed into but a slight and petty deviation from strict Christian virtue. Jupiter, for all his numberless “Don Juan”-like frolics, was not the less considered for it by his worshippers as the “Father of Gods”!

St. Peter was the only one of the remaining eleven that denied his Christ thrice before the Pharisees, that is just the reason why, of all the apostles, he is the most revered by the Catholics, and has been selected to rule over the most wealthy as the most proud, greedy and hypocritical of all the churches in Christendom! And so, half Christians and half believers in the new dispensation, the majority of those eleven millions of Spiritualists stand with one foot on the threshold of Spiritualism, pressing firmly with the other one the steps leading to the altars of their “fashionable” places of worship, ever ready to leap over under the protection of the latter in hours of danger. They know that under the cover of such immense “respectability” they are perfectly safe. Who would presume or dare to accuse of “credulous stupidity” a member belonging to certain “fashionable congregations”? Under the powerful and holy shade of any of those “pillars of truth” every heinous crime is liable to become immediately transformed into but a slight and petty deviation from strict Christian virtue. Jupiter, for all his numberless “Don Juan”-like frolics, was not the less considered for it by his worshippers as the “Father of Gods”!