Jump to content

Blavatsky H.P. - (New) York Against Lankester: Difference between revisions

m
no edit summary
mNo edit summary
mNo edit summary
Line 65: Line 65:


I am an American citizen in embryo, Mr. Editor, and I cannot hope that the English magistrates of Bow Street will listen to a voice that comes from a city proverbially held in small esteem by British scientists. When Professor Tyndall asks Professor Youmans if the New York carpenters could make him a screen ten feet long for his Cooper Institute lectures, and whether it would be necessary to send to Boston for a ''cake of ice'' that he wished to use in the experiments; and when Huxley evinces grateful surprise that a “foreigner could express himself in your [our] language, in such a way as to be so readily intelligible, to all appearance,” by a New York audience, and that those clever chaps—the New York reporters—could report him despite his accent, neither New York witnesses nor New York “spooks” can hope for a standing in a London court, when the defendant is prosecuted by English scientists. But fortunately for Dr. Slade, British tribunals are not inspired by the Jesuits, and so Slade may escape the fate of Leymarie. He certainly will, if he is allowed to summon to the witness stand his Owasso and other devoted “controls,” to write their testimony inside a double slate, furnished and held by the magistrate himself. This is Dr. Slade’s golden hour: he will never have so good a chance to demonstrate the reality of phenomenal manifestations and make Spiritualism triumph over skepticism; and we who know the doctor’s wonderful powers, are confident that he ''can'' do it, if he is assisted by those who in the past have accomplished so much through his instrumentality.<ref> {{HPB-CW-comment|[Consult the ''Bio-Bibliographical Index'' of the present volume for other data concerning Dr. Slade.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>
I am an American citizen in embryo, Mr. Editor, and I cannot hope that the English magistrates of Bow Street will listen to a voice that comes from a city proverbially held in small esteem by British scientists. When Professor Tyndall asks Professor Youmans if the New York carpenters could make him a screen ten feet long for his Cooper Institute lectures, and whether it would be necessary to send to Boston for a ''cake of ice'' that he wished to use in the experiments; and when Huxley evinces grateful surprise that a “foreigner could express himself in your [our] language, in such a way as to be so readily intelligible, to all appearance,” by a New York audience, and that those clever chaps—the New York reporters—could report him despite his accent, neither New York witnesses nor New York “spooks” can hope for a standing in a London court, when the defendant is prosecuted by English scientists. But fortunately for Dr. Slade, British tribunals are not inspired by the Jesuits, and so Slade may escape the fate of Leymarie. He certainly will, if he is allowed to summon to the witness stand his Owasso and other devoted “controls,” to write their testimony inside a double slate, furnished and held by the magistrate himself. This is Dr. Slade’s golden hour: he will never have so good a chance to demonstrate the reality of phenomenal manifestations and make Spiritualism triumph over skepticism; and we who know the doctor’s wonderful powers, are confident that he ''can'' do it, if he is assisted by those who in the past have accomplished so much through his instrumentality.<ref> {{HPB-CW-comment|[Consult the ''Bio-Bibliographical Index'' of the present volume for other data concerning Dr. Slade.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. BLAVATSKY,
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. BLAVATSKY,}}
''Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical Society''.}}
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|''Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical Society''.}}
{{Style P-No indent|''New York, October'' 8th, 1876.}}
{{Style P-No indent|''New York, October'' 8th, 1876.}}


{{Footnotes}}
{{Footnotes}}