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vol. title: vol. period: 1874-1876 pages in vol.: 208 |
< Rosicrucianism in New York (continued from page 1-54) >
Of late Rosicrucianism has been brought to the front by the advent in the States of a Russian baroness?!!, Madame H. P. De Blavatsky. It was just after Col. Olcott’s astounding stories in the Sun about the floral gifts received from the spirits through a Boston medium, that I was kindly bidden by my friend Mr. Sotheran, of the American Bibliopolist, to meet both Madame and the Colonel the following evening in Irving Place; with permission to bring some friends.
Col. Olcott is well known as the author of “People from Another World,” and its account of the Eddy manifestations at Chittenden, Vt. His experience as a lawyer and a war detective might be supposed to guard him against deception, and he stands newspaperial fire nobly.
Il Conte, the Secretary once of Mazzini, a representative of Italy’s needs and wrongs, commands interest by his fund of general information.
Mr. Sotheran harmonized the elements.
Judge M., of New Jersey, represented the judicial mind, and his poetic wife graces any gathering.
There was present also a Boston gentleman whose name has figured in Col. Olcott’s reports. Mr. M. has been in many lands, travelled miles by the hundred thousand, is a practical scientist, served his country in the suppression of the African Coast slave trade before the war, journeyed with Livingstone, loves his many flowers, which love him back again, and brings a store of things new from his treasury. It was for him that the heather had been brought spiritually from Scotland, and it was pleasant to hear the story from him. The centre of the group was
who is certainly a most original and interesting woman to meet. The journals have complained of her cigarettes, but Orientation fastens many habits upon tourists. Madame speaks English with a strong accent, but with remarkable fluency and accuracy, distinguishing nicely its delicacies and quickly understanding its allusions. She wears the military jewel described by Col. Olcott — brought, as is averred, from her father’s Russian tomb to her through a spirit who talked Russian, in presence of the Eddys. She said she valued it more than any ornament except her fantastic Rosicrucian jewel which she wore about her neck. She is perhaps forty years old, strong-built, brusque and generous appearing. Interesting were the stories she had to relate about her residence in Asia and Africa — like Lady Mary Wortley Montague, living long away from the sight of European women. Marvellous were her narratives of her attempts at commerce, selling a cargo for cocoanuts which the unseaworthy ship could not bring away. Strange sights had she seen among the tribes of sorcerers in Africa; a negro, who, by black art, could submit to seventeen shots while the muzzle touched his body, causing each bullet to describe a triangle, spin into the air and finally bury itself in the earth; and a child whirled about in the air by invisible hands.
It would be discourteous to detail the minutiae of a friendly conversation where there was no attempt at publicity or magic display; or offer notions about it. The Phallic element in religions; the souls of flowers; recent wonders among the mediums; history; Italian character; the strangenesses of travel; chemistry; poetry; Nature’s duality trinity; Romanism; Gravitation; the Carbonari; jugglery; Crook’s new discoveries about the force of light; the literature of magic — were among the topics of animated discussion lasting till after midnight.
If Madame Blavatsky can indeed bring order out of the chaos of modern spiritism she will do the world a service. Col. Olcott declares that till he met her he had no philosophy which could adequately explain the contradictory phenomena he witnessed, but now he sees “confusion, order in his path.”
Meanwhile occurs this suggestion. If Siam and Hindostan have possessed this sacred truth, why are they so behind the age in their progress? Without it, behold what the Anglo Saxon has done for the earth and himself. Nor does it require a profound observance of the moral and humane condition of the Occident as compared with the Orient, to conclude that whatever we may lack in metaphysics, we are in no wise behind in the practices of the domestic virtues and philanthropy. Yet far be it from any mind to doubt that there may yet be something more to learn; “more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy.”
Written by Rev. DR Wiggin. This article provoked itre wisth of that Rev DR Bellows; hence he wrote another one, on “Sorcery and Necromancy” and pitched into us.
# On that evening the first idea of the Theos. Society was discussed.
For a much better account see a quotation on p. 296 in E. H. Britten's Nineteenth Century Miracles ... 1883[1]
The Spiritual Scientist
Most of the organs of the spiritualists in this country are filled with insipid ghost matter, very tiresome and useless to all whose brains have not been softened by the spirit craze. The Spiritual Scientist, a neatly printed weekly periodical, is an exception. Its editorial columns exhibit talent, while its conductors, with a boldness quite remarkable for a spirit paper, actually condemn, as unworthy of true believers, the printing and circulation of the unauthenticated trashy stuff delivered by common mediums. To its cotemporary the Banner of Light, it administers a severe rebuke for its agency in this matter, and alleges that for the past ten or twelve years that journal has poured out a weekly stream of pretended spirit communications, of which not more than two in a hundred had any evidence of being genuine, or contained anything beyond childish nonsense, the merest babbings of infancy. It thinks the time has now come to substitute the intelligent speech of adolescence, which it accordingly undertakes to do in its next article.
Subject: The American Association for the Advancement of Science, now in session at Detroit.
Disgraceful behavior of the Association and of individual members thereof, towards spiritual science, are charged on the following specifications:
“If,” says the Scientist, “these learned children would simply confess their ignorance of spiritual facts, laws, and philosophy, we could have nothing to complain of. But what the whole spiritualistic press and all intelligent spiritualists so indignantly denounce is the fact that scientific men, like Davy, Faraday, Tyndall, and Huxley, pronounce upon these matters without being possessed of any data upon which to form an opinion. Worse, they sometimes have deliberately lied about observed phenomena, to avoid making a favorable report. If any of them feels aggrieved at our language, let him say so, and we will prove its literal accuracy.”
“The helpless creatures are only human moles. As they burrow in their ‘dim galleries,’ what can they know of the inner world, which their predecessors only discovered at the moment when communication was interrupted between them and their fellow grubbers?”
“See what will happen at this Detroit meeting: Their Entomological Club will have heated debate upon trapdoor spiders, and acrimoniously discuss whether the male mygale avicularia has a darker shade of brown than the female on the upper segment of the body, and more ciliæ to the square inch; after which, as an appetizer for dinner (champagne and fixings on the lake), mention will be made of that Dismal Swamp louse, which (see Trans. 1874) the surveyors found always pointing its nose to the north, whichsoever way they might lay it down. Professor Hilgard will enquire, across the room, of Professor Dawson, whether the Myriapoda with two antennæ, so highly esteemed by the scolopendra tribes of India, are more nutritious than the date palm. Professor Youmans will propose to the Club the election to honorary membership of the “correspondent of the Department of Agriculture” whose discovery of mortality among bots, upon the application of a decoction of tansy he had appropriately noticed at page 384, Vol. VII, No. 39 of Popular Science Monthly. Professor E. B. Elliot will show that he was right and Professor H. E. Davis wrong in the number of young lepidoptera which, when placed end to end will measure a mile, — the true figures being 0174 x b — y542½ = A’ss.
“The anthropological subsection will no doubt give prominence to a discussion upon measles as a religious element among the Andamanese; and an adjournment could hardly be reached without a fight over the old puzzle, whether it is probable that the American stovepipe represents the form of <... continues on page 1-56 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Britten, Emma Hardinge, Nineteenth century miracles, or, Spirits and their work in every country of the earth : a complete historical compendium of the great movement known as "modern spiritualism" (read on Internet Archive). This book has several pages dedicated to The Theosophical Society.
- ↑ The Spiritual Scientist by Olcott, H. S., Scientific American, v. 33, No. 10, September 4, 1875, pp. 151-2. First idea of TS
Sources
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HPB's note
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Scientific American, v. 33, No. 10, September 4, 1875, p. 151
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Scientific American, v. 33, No. 10, September 4, 1875, p. 152
