53
H.P.B.’S ROLE AT THE EDDYS’ HOMESTEAD
[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. I, pp. 11-12, a cutting is pasted from The Spiritualist of January 1, 1875. It is entitled “Materialized Spirit Forms” and is an article written by Benjamin Coleman who deals with Robert Dale Owen’s opinion on the genuineness of the phenomena of materialization. The following parts were commented upon by H.P.B.:
“The Countess’ presence at several of the Eddy séances led to most surprising manifestations, including the appearance of several spirits of persons known to her in foreign countries.”
H.P.B. marked this sentence with blue pencil and added at the side in pen and ink:]
Yes; for I have called them out MYSELF.
H.P.B.
[The last sentence of the article: “These American facts, coupled with our own, should have an important bearing in correcting the errors of both science and theology”—w as continued by H.P.B. who added in pen and ink:]
—and—Spiritualism please add. Belief in the agency of “Spirits” or disembodied souls in these phenomena is as foolish & irrational as belief in the agency of the Holy Ghost in the fabrication of Jesus if the latter ever lived.
H. P. Blavatsky.
[The following two items. entitled “Heroic Women” and “A Card from the Countess Blavatsky,” appear as cuttings from a newspaper in H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. I, p. 17. The name and date of the newspaper do not appear in print, but H.P.B. wrote in ink above the first cutting:
“From the N. Y. Mercury, Jan. 18, 1875.”
It is probable that these two items appeared one week apart from each other, but the actual dates have remained somewhat 54 uncertain, as the files of both the New York Mercury and Sunday Mercury have not been located, and therefore could not be verified. Words that are underlined have been underscored by H.P.B. herself in her Scrapbook. Her various comments at the side of the cuttings appear as footnotes.]