HPB-SB-10-27

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vol. 10, p. 27

H. P. Blavatsky Scrapbooks

from Adyar archives of the International Theosophical Society

vol. 10

 

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< "Spirits Before Our Eyes.” (continued from page 10-26) >

write by post or to send a messenger. At last he determined to go himself to Mr. Weld at Southampton. So he set of the same evening, and, passing through. London, reached Southampton the next day, and drove from thence to Archer’s Lodge, Mr. Weld’s residence. On arriving there, and being shown into his private study, Dr. Cox found Mr. Weld in tears. The latter, rising from his seat, and taking the doctor by the hand, said, “My dear sir, you need not tell me what you are come for. I know it already. Philip is dead. Yesterday I was walking with my daughter Katherine on the turnpike road in broad daylight, and Philip appeared to us both. He was standing on the causeway with another young man in a j black robe by his side. My daughter was the first to perceive him. She said to me, ‘Look there, papa! there is Philip!’ I looked and saw him. I said to my daughter, ‘It is Philip, indeed; but he has the look of an angel.’ Not suspecting that he was dead, though greatly wondering that he was there, I went towards him, with my daughter, to embrace him; but a few yards being between us, while I was going up to him a labouring man, who was walking on the same causeway, passed between the apparition and the hedge, and, as he went on, I saw him pass through their apparent bodies, as if they were transparent. On perceiving this, I at once felt sure that they were spirits, and, going forward with my daughter to touch them, ‘Philip sweetly smiled on us, and then both he and his companion, vanished away.” A few weeks afterwards Mr. Weld was on a visit to the neighbourhood of Stonyhurst, in Lancashire. After hearing mass one morning in the chapel, he, while waiting for his carriage, was shown into the guest room, where, walking up to the fireplace, he saw a picture above the chimney-piece, which, as it pleased God, represented a young man in a black robe, with the very face, form, and attitude of the companion of Philip as he saw him in the vision, and beneath the picture was inscribed, “St. Stanislaus Kostka,” one of the greatest saints of the Jesuit order, and the one whom Philip had chosen for his patron saint at his confirmation. His father, overpowered with emotion, fell on his knees, shedding many tears, and thanking God for this ‘fresh proof of his son’s blessedness.

Many of the stories related are insufficiently authenticated to be of any value for scientific purposes. Indeed, this is a usual fault with books of this class. We do not question the desire of the compilers of them to be impartial. But the mind on a subject like this—especially in its revolt from materialism—is apt to be carried away by enthusiasm, and so to impose upon itself. Patience and coolness of judgment are needed in the collecting and sifting of facts, and to refrain from theorising requires self-restraint. To work in the dark among facts, that others may see hereafter, is a self-denying task. To reap the fruits of knowledge is more pleasant than sowing the seed. The time is not yet come—if it ever will in this world—to reap the fruits of a scientific knowledge of the spirit-world. The most that we can do is to note the facts that are given, and wait patiently for the rest. For this reason, while we hold the theories cheap, we attach a certain degree of value to such efforts as Mr. Harrison has made in this book to make us acquainted with the facts.

(From “Public Opinion,” Aug. 16th.)

Spirits Before our Eyes. Vol 1. By W. H. Harrison. (Harrison.) The distinction made by the advancing progress of psychology, and which divides idealists into the two opposing camps of Spiritualists and Animists, is rapidly widening; and the publication of this work will enable the public very fairly to judge what sort of facts exist on which a large number of persons consider that they have tangible proof of the existence of human life beyond the grave. A Spiritualist (of whom Dr. B. W. Richardson may be taken as an example) is one who considers that the real substance of man’s body is not bounded by the limits of his physical organism; or, in the words of Mr. Enmore Jones, that man passes out of his body a living, intelligent substance. An Animist, on the other hand (and Dr Edward Burnet Tylor’s definition will serve) is one who believes that certain dead persons communicate with certain living persons, under certain conditions. The shades of Animism vary from the gross superstitions of the Shaman to the scientific evidence which this book adduces in favour of a theory such evidence could not prove. Mr. Harrison has, however, had an uphill battle to fight, and has fought it well, though we are suspicious whether there are enough intelligent people in the ranks of avowed Animists, or, as they call themselves, Spiritualists, to sec that his argument cuts both ways, and that the accent he lays on a posteriori evidence would, if successful, overset the grounds on which immortality has been considered by Kant to be a necessary condition of human existence. The author, in his employment of scientific methods, has followed precisely the path indicated by the physicist, and has placed that of the metaphysician aside. The book deals with the nature, characteristics, and philosophy of spontaneous apparitions, and shows how to reproduce experimentally some of the phenomena connected with them. It will, therefore, serve as an admirably convenient supplement or companion to H. P. Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled, and is not so irritating to the European, as opposed to the Eastern mind. In fact, the modesty and delicacy with which the author brings forth a series of well-marshalled facts, and carefully excludes all anonymous testimony, will secure for his work a patient and deferential reading from every one. Whether the evidence that the forces which produce certain results arc what they say they are, or what the ardent “ghost monger” (the expression is that of Dr. K. R. H. Mackenzie, F.S.A.—not our own) may say that they are, is another question altogether, though we may say that Mr. Harrison’s collection of facts will always be of the highest interest, as it contains a number of anecdotes not in Schaible’s Encyclopedia of Hexenlehre. This work is of much promise, the more so as we see that the second volume is in the press. Whatever ideas we may have of the value of the facts adduced, we must cordially admit that we have at last in the English language a systematically arranged collection, which will serve as an invaluable resort to quote from. Mr. Harrison has told his story well and precisely, and we shall look for the second volume with interest.

(From “The Publishers’ Circular,” July 1st.)

Spirits Before our Eyes. Vol. I. A most curious collection of examples got together from every conceivable source, with the view of solving the problem of the immortality of man, by evidence strong as any on which men are condemned to death by courts of law. Among the works quoted in support of his views by Mr. Harrison arc Lockhart’s Life of Walter Scott, Moore’s Life of Byron, Lord Lindsay’s Report, William Howitt on the Supernatural, an address by Mr. Serjeant Cox, &c., &c. We may add that we believe Walter Scott in his letters mentions the famous Memoires de Philippe de Comines as containing a ghost story. Of the spelling of “Comines” or “Commines” we are not sure, for there are two towns so called, one of which has one name, and one the other.

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