< What is the Intelligence? (continued from page 8-27) >
one particular medium happened to bear out much of the theosophic theory, “M.A.” can afford to be peculiarly funny at the expense of accuracy. “M.A.” ventures to suggest a remedy for these spirit vagaries. It is the old one, but unfortunately does not always apply. We are told to “purify our circles.” I have seen this done, and half a dozen worthy Christians listening, through a medium, to exhortations from “St. Peter” and St. Paul” by the hour—given through the lips of an entranced medium, in language which the men of Jewry or Athens would not have tolerated for a moment. I have seen in the quiet of a home circle, when the planchette has been used, a message written out describing the horrible death of a relative in a distant land, when no thought of such a person was present in the minds of the company. The name, age, and minute particulars were given to “identify” the spirit of the deceased woman, and of course the statement, so apparently truthful, was believed, until weary months afterwards letters arrived showing that the whole story of the planchette was a bit of as abominable a fiction as could be conceived of. It is useless for “M.A.” to tell me that the circle had anything to do with such a message. Is it possible that the embodied spirits of the family would have concocted a tale of murder for their own amusement? The theosophical elementaries are a more likely explanation. I fancy “M.A.” must be unacquainted with the mediumship of the Durham, Yorkshire, and Lancashire district. If he made a tour through some of the “circles”—not “promiscuous” ones, but those confined to earnest truth-seekers—he would find much to amuse, and not a little to astound him. At several there are the healing controls, who declare that they were medical men in earth-life, and talk rather learnedly on the subject, until you suddenly prove them to be arrant “quacks” from the expressions they let fall. Let me guard myself by saying, this is not everywhere the case, but frequently so.
A hackneyed expression is made use of by “M.A.”—“a theory which pretends to explain facts must explain all the facts, or it is worthless.” Certainly. But one theory will explain one set of facts, whilst it takes another theory for a dissimilar set. One theory is not going to cover all the facts of Spiritualism, though it may embrace those which have a relevancy for each other. If my theory as to “thought-reading” by spirits explains a very large variety of manifestations, it does not follow that I am to account for form phenomena or trance speaking by the same hypothesis.
“M.A.” asks, “How do we stand as Spiritualists in the face of the three Mentors who have been raised up to ‘smite us friendly, and reprove us?’” He supplies his own answer. Spiritualists are, to a great extent (particularly through clairvoyant mediums), the victims of my “masquerading spook,” and others of the genus. “Are we,” he wants to know, “befooled by the loose spirit of the medium?” I think I must also say, “Yes”—or how account for the fiasco at Blackburn? unless, indeed, you call in that unknown quantity, x, in the shape of a theosophic “elemental,” an even lower order of creation than my maligned “spook,” who has thrown a good deal of information upon a difficult subject, and rendered much that was hard easy of comprehension.
In reply to your contributor, Mr. J. Carson, I must say I should be prepared to accept his case as a genuine manifestation; but it is only another instance of a person recently deceased paying his final leavetaking. I have, in my own experience, met with two or three instances somewhat similar through different mediums. These cases are, however, I maintain, only oases in the desert of difficulty; but were it not for their friendly shelter, many of us in our spiritual progress might fall into “Doubting Castle,” or perish by the wayside of scepticism.
Ulverston, January 8, 1878.
What Truch is There in Astrology?
Sir,—The primeval science of astrology is divided into four major parts—viz., mundane, genethliacal, meteorological, and horary. A belief in mundane astrology may exist, as was the case with Lord Bacon, without relation to either the horary or the genethliacal divisions. Bamesey, who wrote a valuable treatise on mundane astrology, rejected the doctrines of horoscopes and horary figures. The history of all ages testifies to the reality of planetary influence on the great changes of the world, and the fates of nations. Pliny relates that Anaxagoras foretold the fall of a meteoric stone, about the second year of the 78th Olympiad, which occurred near the Egos, in Thrace. “It happened, in sight of many, in the day-time, a comet blazing at the time,” and, adds Pliny, “this stone was as big as a wain could carry, and was kept for a monument.” Of Anaximander, the disciple of Thales (a renowned astrologer), Pliny relates that “he foretold the earthquakes that overthrew Lacedaemon.” It is impossible that Pythagoras, Anaximander, and Anaxagoras could have been blind to the falsity of astrology, if it were a false science, as its adversaries assert; and it would have been impossible, also, for those ancient savants to have foretold events by means of its laws had astrology no foundation in fact. It is commonly asserted, in the present day, that the Copernican system of astronomy overthrew astrology. That this assertion is an idle and shallow one will be at once apparent when we reflect that Pythagoras anticipated the discoveries of Copernicus, for he taught the diurnal revolution of the- earth, and its annual motion round the sun, which he supposed to be the centre of the planetary system; they believed that “the stars do rule mankind.”
Had Anaxagoras discovered that astrology had no truth in it, most assuredly he would not have shrunk from publicly proclaiming such a discovery, for he did not shrink from incurring the penalty of death—afterwards mitigated into banishment, at the instance of his friend Pericles—for having promulgated his theories in regard to the moon.
For my part, I would not presume to call those ancient philosophers fools for believing in a science which they had studied, examined, and proved to be true. I leave it to the soi-disant nineteenth-century-philosophers to descend to personal abuse, in place of examination of that art which was the foster-mother of astronomy. I have never yet met with one opponent of astrology who could cast a figure of the heavens, correctly, for a given moment.
The Reverend Dr. Butler sat down to expose what he thought were the ridiculous absurdities of astrology; but as in order more effectually to show up the absurdities of the science, it was advisable to read and study the subject, he proceeded to do so, and thus not only became a convert, but wrote an “Apology for Astrology.”
Kepler, of whom it has been justly recorded that “the history of philosophy affords no more remarkable instance of sincere, uncompromising love of truth,” honestly avowed that “a most unfailing experience of the excitement of sublunary natures by the conjunctions and aspects of the planets, has instructed and compelled my unwilling belief.”
It may, perhaps, be interesting to your readers to know how I became a convert to the belief in astrology. It was in this wise: In the year 1860 my father, Dr. C. T. Pearce, requested me one day to visit for him a child suffering with a severe form of measles (in Northampton). I may state, par parenthese, that I had entered as a medical student, in October, 1859, at a London medical school. I found the child dangerously ill, and, in reply to a question put to me by the father (a shoemaker), I stated that it was my father’s opinion that she would have a sharp struggle for life. The shoemaker observed to me that he had no hope of her recovery unless she could survive midnight, for at the crisis, which would, he said, be determined at that hour, the moon would be in conjunction with Mars, and, having calculated his child’s horoscope, he feared that the ensuing crisis would be fatal. Such an observation from a half-educated workman- astonished me greatly, and I was still more astonished on learning the next day that the child had died just about midnight, as the father feared. Up to that time I had no faith in astrology, and had never studied it. Finding, however, in my father’s library a copy of Zadkiel’s Grammar of Astrology, and Tables for Calculating Nativities, I set about studying the science forthwith. My father had recorded the time of my birth (9h. 20m. a.m. of 10th November 1840, in London), and I found to my astonishment that the sign and planets then rising (Mercury and Venus in Sagittarius) described my personal appearance and mental proclivities very closely. I thereupon wrote to Zadkiel and told him that I intended to study astrology, and asked him what other books I should procure, and how long it would be necessary to study it before I should be fairly entitled to judge of its truth, and form an opinion upon it. I received a very courteous reply, in which Zadkiel said that I should study the science for one year, at least, before passing judgment upon its claims, and that I could not expect to become proficient in it for at least two years. My father’s extensive practice in Northampton gave me many opportunities of testing its truth, and the severest tests were at once applied, viz., (1) in relation to the birth of children who died in the first few months of their existence; (2) idiots; (3) children born defective, paralysed in lower extremities, deaf mutes, etc.; (4) attacks of dangerous diseases and accidents, such as the rupture of blood vessels, fevers, &c.; (5) children born blind; (6) persons who became insane in adult life. In all cases, I invariably found that the rules of the ancient and modern authors—I refer to Ptolemy, Placidus, Wilson, and Zadkiel—were strictly and succinctly borne out. In less than two years I found, like Kepler, that my experience had compelled my unwilling belief in astrology.
A very good proof of the truth of the science may be obtained on reference to pages 536-7 of the Medical Press and Circular for December 26th, 1877. The time of birth is therein given of a child which survived its birth only twenty hours, viz., 3h. 40m. p.m. of November 20th, 1877, at Dublin. The moon (almost exactly at the full) was then rising in exact square aspect (i.e., 90 deg. distance in longitude) to Uranus; which fully coincides with Ptolemy’s rule as to children who perish immediately after birth. With your kind permission, sir, I will resume the subject in a future number.
London, January 2nd, 1878.
Haunted Houses
Sir,— Professor Barrett’s account of the so-called haunted house, under the heading The Demons of Derrygonelly, as given in The Spiritualist of Jan. 4, is extremely interesting, and what strikes one is that such occurrences are, for the most part, of a very similar character, and do not seem like the doings of different persons. If demon or ghost produces them at all, most likely a highly developed ghost of a rat or cat is at work. Why not? It was certainly not the sort of thing the spirit of the deceased wife would be guilty of, for it would be sinful in a spirit of an affectionate wife from the spirit world to appear only to play such silly pranks.
4, Quai de la Douane, Boulogne-sur-Mer.
<Untitled> (Mr. George Harris's...)
Mr. George Harris’s Treatise on Man, is being translated into French, German, and Russian.
Dr. Slade is now in Vienna. His powerful manifestations draw much attention to Spiritualism in the various Continental cities he visits.
Next Monday evening, Mr. Thomas Shorter will read a paper on Form Manifestations, at one of the fortnightly meetings of the National Association of Spiritualists.
A correspondent writes that on the 28th and 29th December last a church bazaar was held in connection with St. Peter’s and St. Paul’s Church, Rishton, at which a “Horoscope of the Church” was exhibited. This horoscope was drawn up by Mr. George Ormerod, of High-street, Rishton, and prognosticated disturbances and disputes in connection with the church at particular dates.
Editor's notes
- ↑ What Truch is There in Astrology? by Pearce J. Alfred, London Spiritualist, No. 281, January 11, 1878, p. 22
- ↑ Haunted Houses by Atkinson G. Henry, F.G.S., London Spiritualist, No. 281, January 11, 1878, p. 22
- ↑ Mr. George Harris's... by unknown author, London Spiritualist, No. 281, January 11, 1878, p. 22
Sources
London Spiritualist, No. 281, January 11, 1878, p. 22