Blavatsky H.P. - Huxley and Slade: Who is More Guilty of False Pretencies: Difference between revisions

GUILTY OF “FALSE PRETENCES”?}}

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To the Editor of the Banner of Light:

Of him it may be said, as it has of other teachers before, that what he said that was new was not true; and that which was true was not new. Without going into details, for the moment it suffices to say that the materialistic theory of evolution is far from being demonstrated, while the thought that Mr. Huxley does not grasp—i.e., the double evolution of spirit and matter—is imparted under the form of various legends in the oldest parts of the Rig-Veda (the Aitareya-Brâhmana). Only the benighted {{Page aside|227}} Hindus, it seems, made the trifling improvement over modern science, of hooking a First Cause on the further end of the chain of evolution.

It will scarcely be said that this allegory is capable of more than one interpretation, viz.: that the ancient Hindus many centuries before the Christian era taught the doctrine of evolution. Martin Haug, the Sanskrit scholar, asserts that the Vedas were already in existence from 2,000 to 2,200 B.C.

If, satisfied with the osseous fragments of a Hellenized or Latinized skeleton, we admit that there is a physical evolution, by what logic can we refuse to credit the possibility of an evolution of spirit? That there are two sides to the question, no one but an utter Psychophobist will deny. It may be argued that even if the Spiritualists have demonstrated their bare facts, their philosophy is incomplete, since it has missing links. But no more have the Evolutionists. They have fossil remains which prove that once upon a time the ancestors of the modern horse were blessed with three and even four toes and fingers, the fourth answering “to the little finger of the human hand,” and that the protohippus rejoiced in “a fore-arm.” Spiritualists in their turn exhibit entire hands, arms and even bodies in support of their theory that the dead still live and revisit us. For my part I cannot see that the osteologists have the better of them. Both follow the inductive or purely scientific method, proceeding from particulars to universals; thus Cuvier, upon finding a small bone, traced around it imaginary lines until he had built up from his prolific fancy a whole mammoth. The data of scientists are no more certain than those of Spiritualists; and while the former have but their modern discoveries upon which to build their theories, Spiritualists may cite the evidence of a succession of ages, which began long prior to the advent of modern science.

Speaking of evidence, it is strange what different and arbitrary values may be placed upon the testimony of different men equally trustworthy and well-meaning. Says the parent of protoplasm:

We also feel that no more than Caesar would such men as Cicero and Herodotus and Livy and a host of others “have made these false statements” or reported such things “unless they believed them to be true.”

Some day, proofs as conclusive will be discovered of the reliability of the ancient writers as to their evidence on psychological matters. What Niebuhr, the German materialist did with Livy’s History, from which he eliminated every one of the multitude of facts there given of phenomenal “Supernaturalism,” scientists now seem to have tacitly agreed to do with all the ancient, mediaeval and modern authors. What they narrate, that can be used to bolster up the physical part of science, scientists accept and sometimes cooly appropriate without credit; what supports the spiritualistic philosophy, they incontinently reject as mythical and contrary to the order of nature. In such cases “evidence” {{Page aside|233}} and the testimony of “eye-witnesses” count for nothing. They adopt the contrary course to Lord Verulam, who, arguing on the properties of amulets and charms, remarks that, “we should not reject all this kind, because it is not known how far those contributing to superstition depend on natural causes.”

There can be no real enfranchisement of human thought, nor expansion of scientific discovery, until the existence of spirit is recognized, and the double evolution accepted as a fact. Until then, false theories will always find favour with those who, having forsaken “the God of their fathers,” vainly strive to find substitutes in nucleated masses of matter. And of all the sad things to be seen in this era of “shams,” none is more deplorable—though its futility is often ludicrous—than the conspiracy of certain scientists to stamp out spirit by their one-sided theory of evolution, and destroy Spiritualism by arraigning its mediums upon the charge of “false pretences.”

{{Style P-Signature|H.P. BLAVATSKY.}}

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{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook Vol. III, p. 119, there is an undated cutting from the Spiritual Scientist which treats of opinions on spirit return among the ancients. H.P.B. wrote a footnote in pen and ink which says:]}}

Mind is the quintessence of the Soul—and having joined its divine Spirit Nous—can return no more on earth—IMPOSSIBLE.

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{{HPB-CW-comment|[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. IV, p. 35. there is pasted a cutting from the New York Sun of December 17, 1876. It is a brief communication from Col. H. S. Olcott who repudiates the charge of having received $8,000 from Baron de Palm, and proves that the expenses of the funeral and the cremation were paid by him and Mr. Henry J. Newton; he says that “not a Dollar has been, nor ever will be realized from the Baron’s estate.” H.P.B. marked this article and wrote on the margin in blue pencil:]}}