Jump to content

HPB-SB-4-49: Difference between revisions

HPB-SB-4-49 (view source)

Revision as of 14:37, 7 July 2026

3,375 bytes added ,  7 July
m
no edit summary
mNo edit summary
mNo edit summary
 
Line 252: Line 252:
  | item = 3
  | item = 3
  | type = review
  | type = review
  | status = wanted
  | status = proofread
  | continues =
  | continues =
  | author =
  | author =
Line 266: Line 266:
}}
}}


...
The missionary labors of the reverend Wang Chang Foo, the
Buddhist who is seeking proselytes in Minnesota, and who is in
correspondence with Mme. H. P. Blavatsky, will probably be aided
in no small measure by the forthcoming treatise which that lady
yesterday announced through the columns of {{Style S-Small capitals|the world}}.
 
“The Veil of Isis” is to be published shortly by Mr. J. W. Bouton
in handsome shape. It is to be a large book, illustrated, and
containing diagrams intended to symbolize certain propositions
advanced in it. Although, however, it is Buddhist in tendency, and
is written by an avowed Buddhist, it is not a simple treatise on
Buddhism, but an ambitious effort to expose the alleged errors and
misrepresentations of modern science and Christianity. And it
differs from the works of those who have undertaken to tell of the
faiths of the ancients in that it presents these faiths not from the
outside, as any observer might present them, but authoritatively, as
only an initiate can do.
 
Mme. Blavatsky, who has given importance to the Theosophical
Society by becoming its Corresponding Secretary, has put into this
work the fruit of the study of a lifetime in the East, where she is
said to have acquired an unusual knowledge, not only of Oriental
languages, but of ancient religions.
 
The book is divided into two volumes, one treating exclusively of
the relations of modern science to ancient theurgic science, and the
other of the ancient world-religions and their offshoots in various
ages. The theogonies, myths, symbology, rites, emblems, and
theologies of past and present generations are all passed in review,
and discussed with great show of erudition and critical acumen. The
analyses of the myths of India, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, Rome,
Phœnicia, Mexico and the Germanic peoples are said to be extremely
interesting.
 
The origin of modern faiths is patiently traced and the points of
resemblance carefully marked.
 
Max Müller, Haug, Champollion, Layard and other authorities are
cited against themselves, and answers made to their speculative
inquiries.
 
A large portion of the work is devoted to the consideration of the
Bible, and the writer explains what in many places seems to be the
original meaning of the words and phrases which are now translated
in the light of modern thought. The book of Job she considers to be
an allegorical description of the trials and final triumph of a
neophyte in the ancient mysteries; while Genesis and Exodus are
alleged to be purely cabalistic.
 
The story of Jesus is also treated at great length, and the miracles
related in the New Testament are compared with those which the
author claims to have seen performed in the East and by
spiritualistic mediums here. And the so-called identity of Christian
and Buddhist doctrine in many points is carefully discussed.
 
In the other volume the various views of scientists respecting the
universal ether, the imponderable known and unknown forces and
their correlations, cosmogony, geology, astrology, chemical action,
alchemy, &c., are reviewed, criticised and compared. The relations
of man to the universe, including its control over its phenomena, are
viewed from the side of the ancient Magians. The philosophy of
gestation, life and death are treated after a novel and vigorous
fashion, and the mystical domain of psychology is traversed.




Retrieved from "https://en.teopedia.org/lib/Special:MobileDiff/35467"