Correspondence
[Great freedom is given to correspondents who sometimes express opinion diametrically opposed to those of this Journal and its readers. Unsolicited communications cannot be returned; copies should be kept by the writers Preference is given to letters which are not anonymous.]
Sir,—You challenge me to “quote from Mr. Sinnett’s book verbatim the alleged ‘proofs of selection and control’ which have satisfied” me. I could do so certainly, but at a sacrifice of your space and of my time, to which neither of us would consent. Having read the book, you must be aware that I should have to quote pages on pages to avoid an abstract of my own, which would not satisfy the condition you impose. After the discussion that has already taken place those who are really interested in the distinction between mediumship and adeptship will doubtless read The Occult World for themselves, and will form their own conclusions. For those who will not take that trouble now (a trouble that would be relieved by the rare literary merits of the book), I confess I am not disposed to take any more trouble myself.
On the general subject of the relation of Spiritualism to Theosophy and Occultism, the admirable letter of Onesimus in your paper this week says nearly all that is at present necessary to be said. To J. K.’s exposition of the principles of occult science I look forward with a satisfaction not impaired by my guilty consciousness of a moderate consumption of tobacco. The few smokers in the Theosophical Society may smile at the exaggerated importance attached to trifles. They may deprecate statements notoriously at variance with experience. But the will welcome true teaching from whatever quarter it may come.
July 3rd.
<Untitled> (The Earl of Crawford...)
The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres has been appointed the British representative at the forthcoming Electrical Congress at Paris, and has left London for that city.
Swedenborg Society.—The seventy-first annual meeting of this Society was held at 36, Bloomsbury Street, London, on Tuesday last week, the Rev. Dr. Bayley in the chair. The report of the committee states that 1,500 volumes have been printed during the year, and that 3,017 volumes of the English translations have been disposed of against 2,575 last year. Theological students have received 115 copies of the True Christian Religion, and 113 copies of the Apocalypse Revealed, and ministers of the various religious bodies 58 copies of the former and 34 copies of the latter. Free libraries and other institutions have been supplied with 260 volumes. A new edition of the Arcana Coelestia is being prepared in 8 vole, instead of 12 vols. The Free Library at Pretoria, South Africa, now possesses many volumes of Swedenborg’s works, and, assisted by a friend, copies of the True Christian Religion have been sent to the ministers of the Dutch Reformed Church in Cape Colony. The Reflections of Mr. Panduring, of Bombay, has been translated into the Marathi language for circulation in India. A special effort has been made to supply the Communal and other libraries in Italy with copies of the four translations which have been made in Italian, and 131 libraries have received the four works. The Heaven and Hell has been translated into Polish. This work is intended for circulation in Russian Poland. A resolution pledging the members to special efforts in printing and circulating Swedenborg’s works was passed, and also one in which, while recognising the value of the revision of the New Testament regretted that the ignorance of the revisers of the revelations made by Swedenborg of the nature of the heavenly world, had been the cause of imperfect translation in many instances.
Answers to Correspondents
Theosophist:— Your letter is in type, but we cannot find room for it till next week.
X.—In consequence of the dissensions in the movement during the past two years, and the attacks upon us, much good work has been stopped, including experiments with medium, and Mr. Blackburn’s weighing machinery, the bringing out of more new books, and the completion of the second volume of a work partially published. If the energy devoted, under the guidance of two or three well-know individuals, to doing harm to workers inside the movement, had been expended in a legitimate direction, the public records of the last two years would have been of a more pleasing nature.
C. C. M.—You have answered the letter but not the spirit of our suggestion. A few good instances proving her alleged power to govern the manifestations would have sufficed. We cannot find a test one either in the book or out of it.
Notes by the Way
We have had the pleasure during the past week of a visit by the Hon. Alexander Aksakof, Russian Imperial Council, and have been gratified to learn from him of the steady growth of Spiritualism in Russia. M. Aksakof, who has spent a few days in London, is now on a visit to Ventnor, Isle of Wight.
Occultism and Imagination
Sir,—Permit me to set myself right with two of your correspondents—“Kether” and “A. J. Penny.”
The first named merely reports Mr. Sinnett’s unsupported assertion that “In India the highest Occultists have risen to a knowledge which far transcends anything in Europe.” This statement I strenuously dispute, and I call for proofs of its accuracy; but not a scintilla of evidence has been brought forward to justify the preposterous claim. I ask for facts and they are not produced.
Occultists seem to me to take rank with the alchemists and Rosicrucians of old. They are animated with the wildest hopes and most weird pretensions, without being able to confer any practical benefits upon society.
A. J. Penny accuses me of doubting the creative power of Imagination. I beg leave to say that I never entertained or expressed any doubt on the subject. I fully believe in the power of Imagination to create ideas, thoughts, images, and in its proper sphere, to influence all the other faculties of man; but I do object to the idle and unphilosophical habit of attributing to Imagination all those results, for the causes of which we are too impatient to seek a better explanation.
I feel confident that the exercise of Imagination invites the co-operation of Spirits of a kindred quality to our own disposition, and that to their assistance must be attributed the generation and exhibition of those phenomena which so often surprise and baffle the human understanding.
Our Spirits combine with other Spirits to produce some of the greatest wonders in Nature and Art.—Yours, &c.,
London, July 25th, 1881.
Spirits? Or Unconscious Cerebration?
Sir,—Will you allow me to thank “Epsilon” for his second letter? He has not, however, answered my questions, and he does not express any opinion whether Spirits were present at my stances or not; nor does he explain why after some months of intercourse, “the Spirits” gradually became incoherent, and finally ceased to manifest at all.
And he does not shew what “health,” “mental calibre,” &c., have directly to do with the question whether Spirits were present I always supposed that these factors would influence the class of phenomena. But I still ask how they affect the question whether my results were produced by “Spirits or unconscious cerebration?”
Unlike “Epsilon,” I am no respecter of persons; I have no objection to any Spirits that choose to come. At any rate nihil humanum alienum a me puto, and a demon surely would be well worth study, could its objective reality be proved. I grant that my experiments have not lasted so long as I could wish. But as I stated before I can now get neither truth nor falsehood out of the table; it simply won’t move at all.
And since it is improbable that I shall ever come across persons of higher “mental, moral, emotional, and spiritual development,” than some with whom I have sat and failed, I fear my case is hopeless.
Thanking you, bit, for giving so much of your valuable space to this correspondence,—I am, &c.,
July 23rd, 1881.
<Untitled> (The July number of the Theosophist...)
...
Editor's notes
- ↑ Correspondence by C.C.M., London Spiritualist, No. 463, July 1, 1881, p. 23
- ↑ The Earl of Crawford... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 463, July 1, 1881, p. 23
- ↑ Answers to Correspondents by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 463, July 1, 1881, p. 23
- ↑ Notes by the Way by unknown author, Light, v. 1, No. 30, July 30, 1881, p. 236
- ↑ Occultism and Imagination by Trident, Light, v. 1, No. 30, July 30, 1881, p. 236
- ↑ Spirits? Or Unconscious Cerebration? by Pseudo-Medium, Light, v. 1, No. 30, July 30, 1881, p. 236
- ↑ The July number of the Theosophist... by unknown author, Amrita Bazar Patrika, The, Thursday, July 7, 1881
Sources
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London Spiritualist, No. 463, July 1, 1881, p. 23
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Light, v. 1, No. 30, July 30, 1881, p. 236