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vol. title: Miscellaneous Scraps from January 1st 1878 vol. period: 1875-1878 pages in vol.: 153 |
We are All Wrong
We have always hitherto taken solid comfort in the thought that this world is governed by fixed and unerring laws, and that all things, whether moral or material, must and do render strict obedience to these immutable decrees. If we were not sure that a cause would produce its effect, what trouble would ensue! If it was never certain that when you added two and two together the sum would be four, what derangements would occur in commerce! Suppose that eight was not invariably one more than seven, what would have become of the trick to count in Hayes? Suppose that sometimes water ran up hill and sometimes down, would not the hydraulic engineers be in a quandary? Suppose the sky occasionally fell, wouldn’t it be disagreeable, even if you could catch larks, especially as they would be of no use to you when you got them?
Thus we see how much our happiness, our prosperity, and our general well-being depend on natural laws and our faith that they are unchanging and unchangeable. Therefore, when Mme. Blavatsky, one of Hierophant Olcott’s theosophists, enlightening a World reporter, spoke with disrespect, and even contempt, of the law of gravitation, with which the name of Newton will be connected through all time, we felt as if a near and very dear friend had been abused by that iconoclastic lady. But yesterday a defender of Mme. Blavatsky argued her cause in that journal, and if we are not mistaken in the style of the letter, that chivalric defender is no other than our ponderous friend, Hierophant Olcott himself. So thinking, we have perused the letter with great absorption of interest and profound regard for the arguments advanced. Hierophant Olcott’s specialty is Eastern lore, particularly all that concerns the mysteries of Buddhism. His theosophical religion he has culled from that store, and he it was who discovered that the earliest ancestors of the Aryans, that is, the people who lived somewhere near the time of Adam and Eve, had furnished to the Buddhist priests that long-sought prize, the true and perfect religion. When, therefore, Hierophant Olcott talks about the mysteries of the infinite, we lay aside all other occupations and listen to his words with respectful attention.
If this World writer is he, our Oriental friend sustains Mme. Blavatsky in her opposition to the law of gravitation with zeal and ponderousness. He speaks of the “current notions” concerning that law, and instances many cases where solid bodies have totally disregarded its decrees, and poised themselves in mid air, with nothing to support them but the ambient ether. Hierophant Olcott says that the Prince of Wales and his staff saw a fakir in India sit calmly in the air in broad daylight, with nothing to support him, while gravitation in vain tried to bring him down. If this did really happen, it was a very extraordinary thing, and we shall await with eagerness the forthcoming official history of the Prince’s experiences in the East, in order to read about this marvellous occurrence at length and in detail. We must remember, however, that Hierophant Olcott was not himself present at the performance, and so gets his information regarding it from mere hearsay. Mr. Bull Run Russell can tell us about it more accurately. Still, we do not yet discredit the story, for possibly Dr. Dix may some day lift himself to the top of Trinity steeple by his boot straps.
There are many reported instances of human bodies floating about in the air, as if their substance was imponderable, but we regret never to have seen the feat performed. Mr. Home, the spiritualist, it is asserted, thinks nothing of sailing about the room, and he has no fear of starting forth in the air from the topmost window of the highest house. When next he attempts either of those things we hope we shall be there to see.
The World writer, after disposing of the law of gravitation, attacks that other “natural law, supposed fixed and untransgressable, that a man cannot live when cut open and disembowelled.” It has been held since the time of Æsculapius and Galen that to keep this human machine running you must give it fuel, or food; that the bowels are the furnace of the steam machinery of man, and as essential to his existence as the furnace of a steamboat to its locomotion. They are a very delicate part of the human organism, and surgeons would hesitate about removing them, even if they were diseased, except from a cadaver. Yet, this World writer, whom we assume to be Hierophant Olcott, agrees with Mme. Blavatsky and that entertaining French priest, the Abbé Huc, that it is “no uncommon thing for the lamas to cut themselves open, expose their entrails, and then, bringing the severed edges together, with a few passes of the hand to cause the wound to heal instantaneously, without leaving a scar.” If this is so, it is wonderful, and we advise all our surgeons to go at once to Asia and learn how it is done. Perhaps Dr. William A. Hammond will see the propriety and wisdom of journeying with Hierophant Olcott to the Buddhist monasteries where this thing is done, and so start a new departure in medical science and veracious reporting.
We shall not deny that people can float in the air, or that they can cut open their bowels and bring the wound together again without its leaving a scar. The economy of nature is a subject to which not only one man, but also countless generations of men may profitably give their thought; and to our perception miracles occur every day, because we yet fail to understand the marvellous laws which govern the universe. There is enough in the world to keep men investigating for thousands of years to come. Still, it is remarkable that a man can cut open his bowels and close the wound again without leaving a scar, and we should not have believed it could be done if Mme. Blavatsky and Hierophant Olcott had not said so.
We hope to see these things practically tested in the New World, where we all can see. If a barbarian fakir can sit calmly in the air and disembowel himself without inconvenience, why may not these extraordinary operations be performed in the metropolis of America? We therefore call on Hierophant Olcott to attest the faith that is in him. Let him mount the tall tower, and when he gets near the clock project himself into the ether which surrounds that abode of Thought, and then give himself a few cuts in mid air. We guarantee that Printing House square will be full of observers, and that the reporters will record the success of the experiment with minute accuracy, for among the best informed and conscientious members of the newspaper fraternity in New York, are those enterprising gentlemen whose work is as honorable as it is efficient.
Women in Secret Societies
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Editor's notes