< The Occult World (continued from page 11-119) >
“The letter I received began, in medias res, about the phenomenon I had professed. ‘Precisely,’ Koot Hoomi wrote, ‘because the test of the London newspaper would close the mouths of the sceptics,’ it was inadmissible. ‘See it in what light you will, the world is yet in its first stage of disenthralment… lienee unprepared. Very true we work by natural, not supernatural, means and laws. But, as on the one hand, science would find itself unable, in its present state, to account for the wonders given in its name, and on the other the ignorant masses would still be left to view the phenomenon in the light of a miracle, everyone who would thus be made a witness to the occurrence would be thrown off his balance, and the result would be deplorable. Believe me it would be so, especially for yourself, who originated the idea, and for the devoted woman who so foolishly rushes into the wide, open door leading to notoriety. This door, though opened by so friendly a hand as yours, would prove very soon a trap—and a fatal one, indeed, for her. And such is not surely your object...Were we to accede to your desires, know you really what consequences would follow in the trail of success? The inexorable shadow which follows all human innovations moves on,'' yet few are they who are ever conscious of its approach and dangers. What are, then, they to expect who would offer the world an innovation which, owing to human ignorance, if believed in, will surely be attributed to those, dark agencies the two-thirds of humanity believe in and dread as yet?... The success of an attempt of such a kind as the one. you propose must be calculated and based upon a thorough knowledge of the people around you.’”
The author says that Madame Blavatsky, left to herself, “is always the worst devisor of tests imaginable,” and “utterly out of sympathy with the positive and incredulous temperament,” in which remarks he describes to the life a marked characteristic of physical mediums, with a few exceedingly rare and good exceptions. He also says that “Madame Blavatsky was untractable and excitable as an experimentalist, and herself no more than the recipient of favours from the Brothers in relation to the greater phenomena.” In the beginning of this sentence the characteristics of a physical medium are vividly pictured, and the close of it admits she has no control over some'' of the phenomena, but has to take what she can get, a fact which, we believe, has never previously been published, notwithstanding its importance.
Few write more severely upon those who base their belief on faith in authority, rather than upon verifiable evidence, than does Madame Blavatsky, in her strictures upon orthodox believers, in her book Isis Unveiled.'' Is it her opinion that the public at largo would act rightly, morally and religiously, to accept the belief and to take public action upon it, as Mr. Sinnett has done, that these Brothers have on actual existence in some locality not exactly specified? And that a society with world-wide ramifications should exist and promulgate such of their teachings as it can obtain, for the time at least, only upon the assertions of Madame Blavatsky? If so, why say a word against Catholicism and its head at Rome?
The book, as a whole, is the outcome, and a bold outcome—comingas it does from a good literary man—of honest conviction and of devout faith. We mean faith in the utterances accompanying the physical phenomena of Spiritualism, and do not apply the word “faith” to the descriptions of the phenomena themselves, for the latter are critically and carefully recorded, and the original facts are no doubt entirely genuine. The work is not likely to be popular among Spiritualists, since it seems to present our own phenomena in another guise, and from the imaginary superior standpoint taken up by the believers in “the Brothers.” Nor is it likely to be popular with leading Theosophists, since it plainly states that the Theosophical Society was started in an erroneous way, and might, with advantage, begin afresh under new managers. Nor will it be popular with the general public, who win not accept the reality of the genuine phenomena at any price. But it will interest, more or less, all these classes of readers. The work contains more than has hitherto boon publisher in book form, about the early career of Spiritualism in India, and in this respect is of exceptional historical value. The author is true to his convictions, and has taken a bold ant honest stand upon them before the public.
<Untitled> (A fine opportunity...)
A fine opportunity 1ms boon lost, for want of some good men working publicly in Spiritualism in London, to have provided an outlet whereby u groat number of Spiritualists could have expressed to the general public their indignation at the Fletcher fraud, and their sympathy with the lady who has boon swindled by some, and foully slandered by several others, in our ranks. For aught the general public know, most of the Spiritualists in the Kingdom may be sympathisers with the Fletchers, and nothing has boon done to remove such n stigma. The treatment the Fletchers’ victim has received, ought to weigh heavily on the conscience of the movement.
Editor's notes
- ↑ A fine opportunity... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 460, June 17, 1881, p. 280
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 460, June 17, 1881, p. 280