HPB-SB-3-78

T i

vol. 3, p. 78

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

vol. 3 (1875-1878)

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By the Dead

O Poverty! till now I never knew The meaning of the word ! What lack is here! O pale mask of a soul great, good, and true ! O mocking semblance stretched upon a bier ! Each atom of this devastated face Was so instinct with power, with warmth and light ; What desert is so desolate ! No grace Is left, no gleam, no change, no day, no night. Where is the key that locked these gates of speech, Once beautiful, where thought stood sentinel, Where sweetness sat, where wisdom passed, to teach Our weakness strength, our homage to compel ? Despoiled at last, and waste and barren lies This once so rich domain. Where lives and moves, In what new world, the splendor of these eyes That dauntless lightened like imperial Jove's ? Annihilated, do you answer me ? Blown out and vanished like a candle flame ? Is nothing left but this pale effigy, This silence drear, this dread without a name ? Has it been all in vain, our love and pride, This yearning love that still pursues our friend Into the awful dark, unsatisfied, Bereft, and wrung with pain ? Is this the end? Would God so mock us ? To our human sense No answer reaches through the doubtful air ; Yet with a living hope, profound, intense, Our tortured souls rebel against despair ; As bowing to the bitter fate we go Drooping and dumb as if beneath a curse ; But does not pitying Heaven answer " No ! " With all the voices of the universe ?

A Modern Martyr to the Philosophy of History

Prof. Gervinus, in the early part of 1853, published his “ Introduction to the History of the Nineteenth Century.” Scarcely had the book appeared before the government of the Grand Duchy of Baden, with most of the other governments of Germany, condemned the work as an act of high treason. The professor was brought to trial accordingly, at Mannheim, on the 24th of February, 1853, upon the indictment of “ having published a work against constitutional monarchy, with the intention of deposing the lawful head of the State,” &c. The case was argued pro and con, when Prof. Gervinus rose, and, among other instructive statements, said,—“ If the balance (of facts) incline towards a more liberal form of government, towards democratic institutions, and, therefore, towards self-government, and the participation of the many rather than of the few in the affairs of State, I am not to blame, nor is it my ordinance, but that of History and of Providence. My work is only what all historical narrative should be, vindication of the decrees of Providence, and to revolt at them appears to me neither pious in a moral point of view, nor wise in a political. That which is proved by the most remarkable facts of history will not be altered in the slightest degree by the suppression of my work, or by my condemnation. The charge on this head is an absurdity, since no rational end can be attained by it.”

The entire speech is in vindication of the Aristotelian law of historic development, and well worthy the attention of all seeking a better acquaintance with the ethical side of human history. The professor, however, was condemned for his writings, notwithstanding his sensible speaking.—the sentence imprisoning him for four months. The obnoxious book was publicly destroyed  ; but the good spirits, working for the maturity of thought and the development of Science, caused it to re-appear in London, Bell & Daldy being the mediums of publication.

<Untitled> (You make you own record)

You make your own record : it is yours ; there is no evasion, no escape–and you have in the present, as you have in the future ages, such even as your thoughts, emotions, aspirations, feelings, deeds and words shall correct for you.

Daily and hourly, your thoughts pass to that which ennobles or that which deforms and dwarfs the spirit. Every instant of time you are adding to the treasures of your spiritual life, or you are taking from it that which should adorn it.

The Great Expose Again

Mme. Blavatsky, of whom we publish a sketch on page 121, has written a letter in reply to the “scientific doctor,” who went up to Chittenden and then went home again. She denies that the circle room of the Eddy family is so dark as he describes it ; on the contrary, it was light enough to distinguish any person in the apartment. Instead of six spirits in all, one hundred and nineteen appeared in a fortnight ; and all of them were differently dressed. She refutes his simple statement, “ Mr. Eddy did it all,” by saying,—

“ When the learned doctor will have explained to us how any man in his shirt-sleeves and a pair of light pants for an attire can possibly conceal on his person—the cabinet having been previously found empty—a whole bundle of clothes, women’s robes, hats, caps, head-gears, and entire suits of evening dress, white waistcoats and neckties included, then he will be entitled to more belief than he is at present. That would be a proof indeed ; for, with all due respects to his scientific mind, Dr. Beard is not the first Œdipus that had thought of catching the sphinx by its tail and so unriddle the mystery. We have known more than one ‘ weak minded fool,’ ourselves included, that has labored under a similar delusion for more than one night, but all of us were finally obliged to repeat the words of the great Galileo, ‘ E pur, se muove ! ’ and give it up.”

At the close of the letter appears the following wonderful and unaccountable phenomena: we give her words :—

“ I will add but a few words before ending my debate with Dr. Beard forever. All that he says about the lamp concealed in a band-box, the strong confederates, &c., &c., exist but in his imagination, for the mere sake of argument, we suppose. ‘ False in one false in all,’ says Dr. Beard on column the sixth. These words are a just verdict to his own article.

“ Here I will briefly state what I reluctantly withheld up to the present moment from the knowledge of all such as Dr. Beard. The fact was too sacred in my eyes to allow it to be trifled with in newspaper gossiping. But now, in order to settle the question at once, I deem it my duty as a Spiritualist to surrender it to the opinion of the public.

“ On the last night that I spent with the Eddys, I was presented by George Dix and Mayflower with a silver decoration, the upper part of a medal with which I was but too familiar. I quote the precise words of the spirit, ‘ We bring you this decoration, for we think you will value it more highly than Anything else. You shall recognize it, for it is the badge of honor that was presented to your father by his Government for the campaign of 1828, between Russia and Turkey. We got it through the influence of your uncle, who appeared to you here this evening. We brought it from your father’s grave at Stavropol. You shall identify it by a certain sign known to yourself.’ These words were spoken in the presence of forty witnesses. Col. Olcott will describe the fact and give the design of the decoration.

“ I have the said decoration in my possession. I know it as having belonged to my father. More I have identified it by a portion that, through carelessness, I broke myself many years ago ; and, to settle all doubt in relation to it, I possess the photograph of my father—a picture that has never been at the Eddys’, and could never possibly have been seen by any of them—on which this medal is plainly visible.

“ Query for Dr. Beard : How could the Eddys know that my father was buried at Stavropol ; that he was ever presented with such a medal, or that he had been present and in actual service at the time of the war of 1828 ? ”

<Untitled> (The Yale Professors)

The Yale Professors as – "asses."

The Yale Professors, after subjecting J. R. Brown, the “ mind-reader,” to every test their ingenuity could devise, in eight different seances held at private residences and at the Sheffield scientific school, have satisfied thsmselves of the genuineness of his psychological peculiarity. Prof. Lyman, at a public meeting, said he would “ stake his reputation upon the genuineness of the phenomena,” which he “ considered of great scientific value.” One of the most wonderful features is the wire test ; an individual holding one end of a slack wire and Brown the other, he can tell what is passing in the individual's mind equally as well as when holding his hand, thus exploding the Beard notion Brown accomplished his feats by noticing involuntary motion. A correspondent of a New York daily had a private seance with him ; desiring to see if the conductivity of metal bore any part in the transmission of a fluid from one brain to the other, or whether any dry substance would perform the same office, he experimented with a varnished rattan, and afterwards with a dry towel ; he holding one end and Brown the other, as in the wire test. He noticed a wide difference, the rattan occasioning Brown much trouble, while with the towel he felt only a feeble influence on his mind, and gave it up ; clasping hands, however, his success was instantaneous. This suggests, to scientists the advisability of further experiment to determine the difference, if any, between substances of a metallic, vegetable, or animal nature as conductors of brain fluid.

Editor's notes