Blavatsky H.P. - Our Christian XIXth Century Ethics: Difference between revisions

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<center>[Lucifer, Vol. II, No. 12, August, 1888, pp. 482-484]</center>

 

But—“our shops, our horses’ legs, our boots. . . . have all benefited by the introduction” of the “macadam of civilization,” says Dickens. Yea; but have not our hearts turned, on the other hand, to stone also? Have they not been macadamized in their steady petrifaction with this rapid spread of civilization? Highwaymen may, or may not, have disappeared with more perfect highways, yet it is certain that they have reappeared since in every class of life and trade, and that highway robbery is now taking place on still deadlier, if improved and legalized principles. “Crawling beggars and dirty inns” offend our esthetic feelings no longer; but starving beggars have found their numbers increasing tenfold and are multiplying at a rate in proportion to the extortionate charges of white-washed inns, now turned into palace-hotels. And if—still according to Dickens—“much of the ribbonism, landlord-stalking from behind hedges, and Skibbereen starvation of Ireland may be attributed to the baleful roads of bygone days,” to what shall we attribute the same evils, only on a more gigantic scale, in the Emerald Island to-day?

 

 

How then shall we characterise the unparalleled act of violence, perpetrated on the modern principle that “might is right,” which has been offered in the face of all the world by a crowned husband to his innocent wife, and by the first statesman in Europe to an unprotected Queen—a woman? Has Queen Nathalie of Servia played false to her country, was she a faithless wife, or a bad mother? No; most decidedly not. Has she in any way deserved the insult dealt her at the hands of these two men, in the European scandal which has now disgraced the King, her husband, and the country to whose honour and protection she trusted herself? Once more, and a thousand times, no. All those who knew Milan Obrenovitch’s life, his low moral standard, his family relations for the last years, and especially his small intrinsic value as King, patriot and man, will deny emphatically any accusation against Queen Nathalie. On the other hand many are those who knew her personally from her {{Page aside|84}}birth and throughout her girlhood. A good daughter cannot be a bad mother. A pure, noble-minded woman can hardly be a guilty wife.

 

Therefore every honest man and woman has a right to say that no more brutal, heartless, unqualifiable act has ever been perpetrated in the political dramas of this century of the greatest civilisation. Such an act committed by a Milan of Servia, the salaried bravo of Austria, could hardly astonish anyone. But that the deed should be sanctioned by one who had just proclaimed in the hearing of all Europe, that he “feared God alone,” is incomprehensible. We are far, it seems, from the barbarous Middle Ages, when the German Ritter fought and died to protect a woman. We are in the age of civilisation and politics. Poor, unhappy Nathalie Keshko! Who of {{Page aside|85}}those who knew her hardly a dozen years ago, the beautiful, happy, innocent girl, the ornament of the high social circles of Odessa, would have ever dreamt of such a fate for her? Left early an orphan, she was brought up by her guardian as a beloved daughter. Love, wealth and happiness smiled upon her from her very cradle, until that unfortunate marriage of hers—a true mésalliance—with the unworthy nephew of the martyr-Hospodar, Michael Obrenovitch. The descendant of the swine-herdsmen of Servia has since become an opéra-comique King, who now dishonours the nation which chose him for its ruler. It was not her beauty that attracted him; but her millions. The noble uprighteousness of her character and her true womanly moral qualities must have made him dread her from the first; and while these repelled the profligate husband, the millions of Nathalie Keshko consoled him, by permitting him to enlarge his harem, and make his mistresses share the same palace with the virtuous legitimate wife. And now, having filled the life of the unfortunate young Queen with gall, he gives her the last deadly blow by depriving her of her only child, making of her a Rachel weeping and refusing to be comforted.

 

Ye, unrighteous judges who fear neither moral law, nor do you feel ashamed before the open censure of the teeming millions of those who openly blame you; it is posterity which will render to you your just dues, and thus avenge the memory of this martyred Queen and mother. That day must come, when, passing into history, your political action will be read with disgust and horror even by the descendants of those who now keep silent, instead of raising their voices in the defence of that innocent woman.

But while whole nations of private individuals can do nothing except protest, sincerely and as vainly; all those who could do so effectually, will not lift a finger on behalf of Queen Nathalie. The public is willing, but powerless; the Sovereigns and potentates all-powerful, but evidently unwilling. But, O, ye Crowned women, mothers, and wives of Europe! Unless you join your voices in one mighty cry of indignation and protest against such an infamous act of despotism and undeserved cruelty, you have small right indeed to call yourselves Christians or to represent the religion of your Christ in the eyes of the masses. Although might is really right in our age of dissembling and of unexampled Selfishness, there may be something worse in store for those who fail to do the right thing by an oppressed sister. That which is now being done to the legitimate Queen of an insignificant little Kingdom, may be done to any of you—when the hour of just retributive justice strikes. Arise then and protest in the name of human rights while you are still in power. For who knows how long that power may yet last? Verily, in view of the rapid spread of civilization and the despotism of such politics, the day when that hour will strike is only a question of time and of expediency. . . . .

{{Style P-Signature|ADVERSA.}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|In connection with the erratic conduct of Milan, and especially his sudden abdication, certain peculiar circumstances have come to light. It would appear on good authority that Milan under the hypnotism of Madame Artemisia Christich resigned his crown. This woman, whose influence over the King had long been unaccountable to his friends, had been for some time carrying on hypnotic and mesmeric experiments, using the King as her subject. His manner on the day of his abdication has been described by several eye-witnesses in the contemporary press, such as the London Standard, for instance. The impression of these people was that the King behaved like one hypnotized, and in a different state of consciousness from his ordinary one.}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|Natalie wrote a work entitled Mother (Russian trans., St. Petersburg, 1891), in which she outlines her painful experiences, but somewhat strains the facts of the story. She also published a book of Memoirs (Paris, 1891). A brilliant description of her character may be found in a letter addressed to her from Ristich, and partially translated in the Russkiya Vyedomosti, No. 27, 1891.—Compiler.]}}