HPB-SB-3-120

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vol. 3, p. 120

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

vol. 3 (1875-1878)

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eng • рус

From Gibbon's “Ancient Egypt.”

Egyptian Priority

Can the theologian derive no light from the pure primeval faith that glimmers from Egyptian heroglyphics to illustrate the immortality of the soul? Will not the historian deign to notice the prior origin of every art and science in Egypt, a thousand years before the Pelasgians studded the isles and capes of the Archipelago with their forts and temples?—long before Etruscan civilization had smiled under Italian skies? And shall not the ethnographer, versed in Egyptian lore, proclaim the fact that the physiological, craniological, capillary, and cuticular distinctions of the human race existed on the first distribution of mankind throughout the earth?

“Philologists, astronomers, chemists, painters, architects, physicians, must return to Egypt to learn the origin of language and writing; of the calendar and solar motion; of the art of cutting granite with a copper chisel, and of giving elasticity to a copper sword; of making glass with the variegated hues of the rainbow; of moving single blocks of polished syenite, nine hundred tons in weight, for any distance, by land and water; of building arches, round and pointed, with masonic precision, unsurpassed at the present day, and antecedent by two thousand years to the ‘Cloaca Magna’ of Rome; of sculpturing a Doric column one thousand years before the Dorians are known in history; of fresco painting in imperishable colors; of practical knowledge in anatomy; and of time-defying pyramid building.

“Every craftsman can behold, in Egyptian monuments, the progress of his art four thousand years ago; and whether it be a wheelwright building a chariot, a shoemaker drawing his twine, a leather-cutter using the selfsame form of knife of old as is considered the best form now, a weaver throwing the same hand-shuttle, a whitesmith using that identical form of blowpipe but lately recognized to be the most efficient, the seal-engraver cutting, in hieroglyphics, such names as Shoopho’s , above four thousand three hundred years ago,— all these, and many more astounding evidences of Egyptian priority, now require but a glance at the plates of Rossellini.”

Human Levitation

In the Quarterly (Eng.) Journal of Science (here is a long, interesting and very well written article on “Human Levitation,” from which the following information is quoted:}}

“Till the last two centuries all persons known in Christendom to be subjects of levitation were probably either burnt or canonised, according to the ruling clerical view of their orthodoxy or the reverse.”

An attempt to collect some of the chief examples not condemned gives in tabular form the volume and page of the Bolandist's “Acta,” where particulars may be found. The latter we have omitted, but give the following list of forty levitated persons canonized or beatified, with their dale of birth, country and condition in life.—

Andrew Salus, Scythian Slave, —880-946; Luke of Soterium, Greek Monk,—890-946; Stephen I., King of Hungary, —978-1038; Ladislaus I., do., (his grandson),— 1041-1096; Christina, Flemish Nun,— 1150-1220; St. Dominic, Italian Preacher, —1170-1221; Lutgard, Belgian Nun, —1182-1246 Agnes of Bohemia, Princess,—1205-1281; Humiliana of Florence, Widow,—1219-1246; Jutta, Prussian Widow Hermit,—1215-1264; St. Bonaventure, Italian Cardinal,—1221-1274; St. Thomas Aquinas, Italian Friar, —1227-1274; Ambrose Sansedonius, Italian Priest,—1220-1287; Peter Armen, gol, Spanish Priest,—1238-1304; St. Albert, Sicilian Priest, —1240-1306; Princess Margaret of Hungary,—1242-1270; Robert of Salentum, Italian Abbot,—1273-1341; Agnes of Mt. Politian, Italian Abbess.— 1274-1317; Bartholus of Vado; Italian Hermit,—1300; Princess Eliza brth of Hungary, 1297- 1338; Catherine Columbina, Spanish Abbess,—1387; St. Vincent Ferrer, Spanish Missionary,—1359-1419; Coleta of Ghent, Flemish Abbess,— 1381-1447; Jeremy of Panorma, Sicilian Friar,—1381-1452; St. Antonine, Archbishop of Florence,—1389-1459; St. Francis of Paola, Missionary, —1440-1507; Osanna of Manua, Italian Nun,—1450-1505; Bartholomew of Anghiera, Friar,—1510; Columba of Rieti, Italian Nun,—1468-1501; Thomas, Archbishop of Valencia,—1487-1555; St. Ignatius Loyola, Spanish Soldier,—1491-1556; Peter of Alcantara, Spanish Friar,—1499-1562; St. Philip Neri, Italian Friar,—1515-1595; Salvator de Horta, Spanish Friar, —1520-1567; St. Luis Bertrand, Spanish Missionary,—1526-1581; St. Theresa, Spanish Abbess, —1515-1582; John a Cruce, Spanish Priest,—1542-1591; J. B. Piscator, Roman Professor,—1586; Joseph of Cupertino, Italian Friar,— 1603-1663; Bonaventure of Potenza, Italian Friar,—1651-1711.

Experiments in Materialization

The Statement of a Scientic Investigator who is Permitted to Enter the Cabinet

Experiments with the young lady medium, Miss Showers, continue—the results being occasionally reported. The Spiritualist, of Jan. 8, has an interesting account. The “conditions” are improving, and one person after another is favored by being permitted to see and touch, both the medium and the materialized spirit, at one and the same time. A calm, earnest, spirit of enquiry is met with a corresponding desire on the part of the spirit-world to give that information most needed. The experience of Mr. William Harrison, editor of the above named paper, is a valuable contribution to our collection of facts concerning the phenomena of materializations. He says:—

“Lenore (the materialized spirit) next asked me to go in, and directly the curtains opened I saw something Large lying along the bottom of the recess, for some stray light found its way in through the curtains, and feebly illuminated a space about a foot square at the centre of the bottom of the cabinet. Lenore, whose few instructions I faithfully obeyed, led me by the hand, knelt down by the side of the object, and placed my hand on it; it was the shawl, and directly I touched it something heavy inside moved under my hands, like a person turning half over when asleep. Lenore said, “That’s Rosie” (Miss Showers). I said, “Can you give me her hand?” She felt for it, then as if suddenly remembering, said, “Oh, it is not by her side; they have tied her hands together, but feel how her heart beats,” and she placed my hand on a part of the shawl under which something was palpitating violently. Lenore’s hand was on the top of mine, and I could see her kneeling by my side, as she was in white, and in the illuminated part of the cabinet. I asked her to seize my arm with her other hand, so that I could see and feel both her hands. She grasped my coat-sleeve with it, but I said, “No, please grasp my wrist,” which she at once did, so that I not only saw but felt both her warm hands, and that she was kneeling and landing like myself. Then I made, in effect, the following statement to the listeners outside the cabinet: “I am kneeling by the side of Lenore, and can see and feel both her hands on the top of my hand and wrist; underneath the shawl, right under my hand, something large is palpitating violently, and I am not biologised.” It was not a mechanical kind of motion below my hand; it was irregular. Thus the sum and substance of my testimony is that something large and living, not Lenore, was wrapped up in that shawl, and that Lenore told me it was Miss Showers. I did not see her face, which should have been in that part of the cabinet in darkness, and on the other side of Lenore, who told me to leave the cabinet, as I had been in it as long as possible for a first visit, but that I should come in again another time, and the spirits would gradually get used to my influence. She held my hand down on the palpitation object for a minute or more.

I may remark that the mental and other conditions which influence all manifestations produce such tangible, well-marked effects at materialization seances that these latter, apart from their intrinsic interest, are of special value in elucidating the laws and conditions which govern the whole range of Spiritualistic phenomena. Thus, it has been proved in The Spiritualist that there is a connecting link between materialization manifestations and the writing mediumship of Messrs. Flint and Mansfield; in short, these materialization seances not only throw light upon the conditions influencing all the physical phenomena below them, but throw some light upwards towards the writing, clairvoyant and trance manifestations, where the effects of varying conditions are too intangible to be observed with equal ease.

Editor's notes

Sources

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  Spiritual Scientist, v. 3, No. 14, December 9, 1875, p. 159

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  Spiritual Scientist, v. 1, No. 21, January 28, 1875, p. 243

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  Spiritual Scientist, v. 1, No. 21, January 28, 1875, p. 243