<Untitled> (A very queer work)
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Spiritualism in the United States
Madame Blavatsky has been for some time past engaged in preparing for the press a volume, which, if the information that reaches us be veritable—and we have no reason to question its reliability—is destined to produce a profound sensation in the world of letters. This work will be called “The Veil of Isis; or, Skeleton Keys to Mysterious Gates.” It will comprise eight or nine hundred octavo pages. The publisher, J. W. Benton, has not yet determined whether to print it in two volumes or one, but inclines to the latter. It will appear simultaneously in London and New York. The MS. has been reviewed and most highly praised by Prof. Alexander Wilder, M. D., the Platonist and Archaeologist, who pronounces it “a book with a revolution in it”—equal to Enemoser’s great work on the History of Magic, in every respect. One of its chief merits he finds to be the fact that no statement is made upon mere assertion, but everthing is fairly quoted when an author is cited, and chapter and verse are given.
“It is hard to say,” states our informant, “which is abler —her analysis of the pretentions of modern science, or her sifting of modern religion—to each of which one-half of the book is devoted. Her long residence in India, Thibet and Egypt, her constant intercourse with the learned mystics of those countries, and her free access to the precious libraries of ancient books and MSS. in their hands, have fitted her as no other critic has been fitted for the colossal task she has now almost completed. Surprise will lie evoked at the complete answers which she will afford to the many queries and speculations propounded by Max Muller, Hang, Kings borough, Lord Amberly, Coleman, Inman and others, as to the real meaning of Oriental symbols and myths.
Editor's notes
Sources
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Spiritual Scientist, v. 5, No. 18, January 4, 1877, p. 213