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vol. title: Vol Four of The Theosophical Society of The Arya Samaj of Arya-wart vol. period: Sept 1878 – Sept 1879 pages in vol.: 350 |
< Day of Intercession for Missions (continued from page 8-237) >
V.—Desire of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance.
R.—Alleluia, Alleluia.
V.—And the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession.
R.—Alleluia, Alleluia.
V.—Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
Theosophic Thaumaturgy
The following paragraph from The Bombay Gazette was copied into The Friend of India of April 11th last:—
“Strange stories have, for several years, been rife in the American newspapers about the marvels of Thaumaturgy wrought by the Countess Blavatsky, one of the Theosophical party now in Bombay. If they are credible, the inference would be that a Simon Magus in petticoats had arisen in our days. Some of them stagger belief, as, for instance, her causing music to float through the air in the absence of any comprehensible cause, the instantaneous duplication of documents and articles of clothing, the causing of inscriptions in golden letters, of Oriental texts to appear and disappear on the furniture, the rendering of herself invisible, the production of paintings and writings on paper by the mere placing of her palm upon the same. Yet all these phenomena and many equally strange have been attested by numbers of eye-witnesses, not Theosophists, not even always previous acquaintances. Of one of her magical pictures—the portrait of an Indian yogi—Thomas Le Clear, an eminent American painter, and William R. O’Donovan, an equally distinguished sculptor, affirmed, in a London journal, that no living artist could, in their opinion, equal it in vigour, breadth, and uniqueness, while they were both unable to decide upon the nature of the colouring substance employed or the manner of its application.”
The same paper proceeds to give an account of somewhat similar feats in Bombay, one “under the very eyes of an assistant magistrate and collector of the North-west Provinces.” Another has already been commented upon, in the strain naturally to be expected, by several London newspapers. A gentleman, known to our readers by his contributions to these columns, may perhaps be identified as one of the witnesses to this particular marvel, nothing less than the instantaneous transmission of a glove from Mme. Blavatsky in Bombay to the gentleman in question in London, who received it through the mediumship of a lady, a well-known private medium. As, however, he has publicly explained (while declaring his own entire belief in the fact asserted, and confidence in the persons principally concerned as agents) that in his view the evidence depends for its force on the personal character of the two ladies in question, which the general public cannot be expected to know much about, we agree with him that it does not satisfy the conditions which would make the story suitable for publication. Evidences of spirit agency or of magical power should be quite independent of such assumptions. To personal friends the integrity of individuals may be matter of almost or quite absolute certainty, but for the inexperienced public it is better to exclude injurious suggestions by strict demonstration that they are inconsistent with the facts.
Can a Bombay daily newspaper be delivered in London by occult means on the morning of its publication? That would be evidence adapted to the requirements of the public.
Attempted Suicide of a Novelist
Madame Pashkoff, one of the most popular of modern Russian novelists, has attempted to commit suicide in an hotel at Odessa. The circumstances that led to the act are related by the Golos in an interesting sketch of her life, which has been one fuller of incident and excitement than half a dozen romances. It appears that the father of Madame Pashkoff was a bahrin, or serf proprietor, of the old school, the owner of 7,000 souls, and a descendant of the ancient Tartar princes. He was of an exceedingly despotic temperament, and brought up his daughter according to masculine principles, teaching her to wrestle, to fence, to use the sword and revolver, and to ride astride on horseback like a man. At the age of 16 she wrote her first novel, “The Princess Vaira Glenski,” which at once took the public taste, and made her name famous among the educated classes of Moscow. A year later her father married her offhand to a man she did not see previous to the night of the betrothal, and it is not surprising to learn in consequence that at 19 she was already divorced, and living alone in her father’s Moscow mansion. Here she made her house one of the most fashionable of the old capital, and in the very zenith of her popularity married Pashkoff, the millionaire, and retired for a twelvemonth to his mining estates in the Urals. Her second husband was then appointed Russian agent in Egypt, and she accompanied him thither, and before long had the rare and singular honour of dining alone with the Viceroy. Tiring of leading the Russian colony at Cairo she set out on a journey through Syria and Palestine, not confining herself, like ordinary lady tourists, to the main roads, but roaming about in the most unsettled districts. On her return to the Mediterranean she went on a yachting cruise in the Levant, visited Italy, darted off afresh to Mount Lebanon, and equally unexpectedly made her appearance at the end of a year at Mentone. She now wrote a number of novels and became a corresponding member of the French Geographical Society, a connection which led her after a while to proceed on a journey round the world. This terminated last winter, and about the same time she lost her colossal fortune. Separated from her second husband, forsaken by her friends and reduced to extreme poverty, she retired a few days ago to a room in one of the meanest hotels in Odessa and attempted to take her life. By chance, a button on her dress caused the bullet to miss her heart and to bury itself in her shoulder, whence it has since been extracted. The tragic circumstances investing the wayward descendant of the Tartars have created great sympathy among the admirers of “The Princess Vaira Glenski,” and should Madame Pashkoff recover from her serious wound a fund will be formed to place her once more in a position above penury.
Oriental Translator to Government.—Vinayakrao Vasudevjee Esq., has after all retired and Mr. Shankar Pandoorang Pandit has been appointed to the vacant post. Several rumours were afloat as to the nomination of an oriental translator and the choice has at last fallen upon Rao Bahadur Shanker Pandoorang Pandit. We congratulate Government on this point as we think no better selection could have been made. Mr. Shankar has from his abilities and official experience well deserved the post to which he has lately been appointed. Our contemporary of the Dnyan Prakash while writing on this subject has passed a foolish remark on Mr. Shankar and has given a word of advice to him. He says ‘it is well known how he managed to render himself unnecessarily unpleasant to the mercantile community of Bombay in his capacity as Assistant Collector of License Tax when a little tact on his part would have easily avoided all the row that was made over his doings.’ <... continues on page 8-239 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ Theosophic Thaumaturgy by unknown author
- ↑ Probably in HPB’s handwriting.
- ↑ Probably in HPB’s handwriting.
- ↑ Portrait of a woman by unknown author
- ↑ Attempted Suicide of a Novelist by unknown author, English Mail, The, London, May 30, 1879
- ↑ Oriental Translator to Government... by unknown author, Deccan Star, The, Sunday, June 8, 1879