The Rebiewer
...
The Knout
Mr. Editor: – I have read some of the assaults upon Colonel Olcott and myself, that have appeared in the Journal. Some have amused me, others I have passed by unread; but I was quite unprepared for the good fortune that lay in store for me in the embryo of the paper of February 16th. The “Protest” of Mr. W. Emmette Coleman, entitled “Sclavonic Theosophy versus American Spiritualism,” is the musky rose in an odoriferous bouquet. Its pungent fragrance would give the nose-bleed to a sensitive whose olfactories would withstand the perfume of a garden full of the Malayan flower-queen—the tuberose; and yet, my tough, pug, Mongolian nose, which has smelled carrion in all parts of the world, proved itself equal even to this emergency.
“From the sublime to the ridiculous,” says the French proverb, “there is but a single step.” From sparkling wit to dull absurdity, there is no more. An attack, to be effective, must have an antagonist to strike, for to kick against something that exists only in one’s imagination, wrenches man or beast. Don Quixote fighting the “air-drawn” foes in his windmill, stands for ever the laughingstock of all generations, and the type of a certain class of disputants, that, for the moment, Mr. Coleman represents.
The pretext for two columns of abuse—suggesting, I am sorry to say, parallel sewers—is that Miss Emily Kislingbury, in an address before the B.N.A. of Spiritualists, mentioned Colonel Olcott’s name in connection with a leadership of Spiritualism. I have the report of her remarks before me, and find that she neither proposed Colonel Olcott to American Spiritualists as a leader, nor said that he had wanted “leadership,” wanted it now, or could ever be persuaded to take it. “It is seriously proposed,” says Mr. Coleman, “by our trans-atlantic sister, Miss Kislingbury, that American Spiritualists should select as their guardian guide—Col. H. S. Olcott!!” If anyone is entitled to this wealth of exclamation points it is Miss K., for the charge against her from beginning to end is simply an unmitigated falsehood. Miss K. merely expressed the personal opinion that a certain gentleman for whom she had a deserved friendship, would have been capable, at one time, of acting as a leader. This was her private opinion, to which she had as good a right as either of her defamers—who, in a cowardly way, try to use Colonel Olcott and myself as sticks to break her head with—have to their opinions. It may or may not have been warranted by the facts—that is immaterial. The main point is, that Miss K. has not said one word that gives the slightest pretext for Mr. Coleman attacking her on this question of leadership. And yet, I am <... continues on page 4-236 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Rebiewer by unknown author (signed as Cosmist, in The Evolution), Banner of Light, Boston, Saturday, March 16, 1878. In section "The Reviewer"
- ↑ The Knout by Blavatsky H.P., Religio-Philosophical Jornal, Chicago, Ill., March 16, 1878. Text copied from katinkahesselink.net and needs a proofread against original newspaper text.
This is pub. in "A Modern Panarion," page 156.. – Archivist