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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Notes by the Way|12-183}} | |||
{{Style P-No indent|the doctrine, if accepted at all, must, as the authors put it, be intuitively apprehended as a part of a system or body of truth, and not proven by the mathematical principles of demonstration. I do not apprehend it in this way. I am not prepared to accept it, as usually understood; nor to hold it as any necessary part of my conception of truth: but I am by no means blind to the light that it throws on many problems of life. I have not seen it so philosophically and convincingly formulated as in this volume.}} | |||
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When the writers deal with the historical element of the existing religion, they shew a keen critical faculty, and a very considerable power of exact analysis. They point out that a halo of romance has gathered round sacred books, persons, and events which modern Biblical exegesis has roughly dispelled, and has traced that which in them is substantially true to systems of belief far more ancient than Christianity. “Thus, the whole story of the Incarnation, the expectation of the Messiah, the announcement by the angel, the conception by the Virgin, the birth at midnight in a cave, the name of the Immaculate Mother, the appearance to shepherds of the celestial host, the visit of the Magi, the flight from the persecuting Herod, the slaughter of the innocents, the finding of the Divine boy in the Temple, the baptism, fasting, and trial in the wilderness, the conversion of the water into wine, and other like marvels; the triumphal entry into the holy city, the Passion, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, and much of the teaching ascribed to the Saviour—all these are variously attributed also to Osiris, Mithras, Iacchos, Zoroaster, Chrishna, Buddha, and others at dates long antecedent to the Christian era.” That is to say, they are parts of Divine truth which continually crop up in various systems that profess to expound it: and their very presence in all is their most unassailable credential. | |||
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I should have liked to pursue a systematic analysis of this work, so as to point out to my readers what ground it covers, and give them, as it were, an outline map of the country. But the territory is vast, and my space is limited. I must hope to recur to some of the many points which interest me. For the present I can but say that there is a profound lecture on the genesis, nature, and progressive development of the soul; one on the various orders of Spirits, and how to discern them, which is, perhaps, the most interesting and suggestive to me among many that possess these qualities in a high degree. For the rest, the Fall, Redemption, the Atonement, and the nature of Christ are mystically treated in a way that often recalls the methods of the school of Mystics, and there are various appendices which I take to contain excerpts from the body of instruction which has been conveyed to the writers. The book in form is beautiful exceedingly, one of the best specimens of typography that I have seen. In spirit it is, as I have said, full of suggestive matter for thought, which even he who cannot agree must find benefit from, if it be only by finding himself forced to formulate and arrange his reasons for dissent. It will give the reader plenty of opportunity for this, but it will give him too, if he be not merely materialistic and formal in his methods of thought, much wholesome truth that his soul can feed on, and throughout it he will not find any spirit of inharmony or discord, but a clear and charitable, though often forcible and always candid, statement of the writers' conceptions of truth. | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|M. A. (Oxon.)}} | |||
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... | <center>''To the Editor of'' {{Style S-Small capitals| “Light.”}}</center> | ||
{{Style S-Small capitals|Sir,}}—With reference to Mr. Damiani's letter in your last issue, will you allow me to inform your readers that a meeting was held at Mr. Burns’s on the 28th ult. to carry out the proposal for a Dissolving View Exhibition of Spirit Photographs? A committee was formed, of which Mr. Hudson's old friend, Mr. Wootton, of 33, Little Earl-street, Soho, was made treasurer, and a subscription was opened at the same time by a donation of £1 from the treasurer. | |||
Mr. Hudson is now suffering from great domestic trouble, his wife having passed away last week after a long and severe illness, which has much taxed his strength. | |||
I have known Hudson as a brother for several years, and hope the Exhibition will be patronised by influential Spiritualists, and that they will not forget him in his present necessities. | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|A. Vacher.}} | |||
March 6th. | |||
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Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense. | |||
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... | <center>''To the Editor of'' {{Style S-Small capitals| “Light”}}</center> | ||
{{Style S-Small capitals| Sir}},—I hope you will not think me as unreasonably craving space in your crowded columns, if I venture to reply to “Trident’s” “Civil Question,” published by you in your last issue. Pray give the Re-Incarnationists credit for not wishing to intrude a tabooed subject in the Spiritual Press. Heaven knows! we are merely on the defensive. | |||
“Trident” demands facts to prove Re-Incarnation. The facts are innumerable, and if he will have a little patience, plenty will be forthcoming. | |||
“Trident” takes exception to my statement that a human being, dying prematurely, is bereft of training. I maintain this fundamental proposition, first, because if a Spirit could learn his ABC of life out of the flesh, he would not be sent into it: second, because, not having lived amongst men, he would be incompetent to understand humanity, and therefore, unfit to aid in guiding it; third, because a link would be wanting in the chain of evolvement from atom to angel; fourth, because a distinct and, may be, aristocratic caste, undefiled by earthly failures and mistakes, would be established in the Spheres, which, according to our idea of justice, would not be right. "Trident" does not tell us if those mistakes, which we call sins, are committed in the Spheres. If not, it is as true as ''errando discitur'', and ''experientia docet'', that there can be no progress there until, by repeated incarnations, we have acquired the wisdom to follow right and eschew wrong; then, indeed, progress in Spirit-life will find no hindrance and proceed swiftly. | |||
Now, as one good turn deserves another, will fact-demanding “Trident” reply to a “civil question" from a Re-Incarnationist! He avers that he knows that a Spirit leaving the body prematurely does continue to grow and improve in the Spirit-world. Does he? Where are his facts in proof? He also speaks of Spiritual Spheres as a matter of knowledge to him. On what facts does he establish his belief? Facts, friend “Trident,” facts! What! Revelations! Of such facts Re-Incarnationists have bushels full at "Trident’s” disposal. Let me, however, remind "Trident" that psychology is not Positivism, and that man can arrive at metaphysical truths without the crutches of external facts.—Very truly yours, | |||
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|G. Damiani.}} | |||
March 6th, 1882. | |||
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... | ''The Spiritualist'' has been discontinued, and ''Psyche'', a sixpenny monthly, takes its place, under the same editor. The first number contains a biographical sketch of the Hon. Roden Noel, author of a new work entitled, “A Philosophy of Immortality,” and Mr. Noel contributes a thoughtful article on “Elementals,” in which he expresses the difference between his own views and those of Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, and other Theosophists. The greater part of the number, however, is occupied with a description of the Sphygmograph, an instrument for registering variations in pulse vibrations, and its application by Dr. Purdon to psychological research. | ||
The editor in his first article expresses a “hope that the ruling spirit of ''Psyche'' will be one of peace and good will to all men.” The last paragraph in the number is as follows:— | |||
“The presence of three or four men publicly noted for long public hostility to a scientific section of the psychical press, and the absence of the names of various first-rate investigators of the subject who oppose their hostility, is a marked feature of the directorate of the new Society for Psychical Research. If all the nominal managers attended the legislatory meetings the point here raised would be of minor importance, but a quorum of six or seven is a liberal estimate of the average attendance at the gatherings of such bodies, so that the most active men in managing the public affairs of Spiritualism since the great secessions some three years ago, are the same knot of persons who seem to have the new Psychological Society in their hands. If the Society had started from a position of neutrality, it would have been a useful, peacemaking, and desirable organisation.” | |||
{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}} | {{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}} | ||
Latest revision as of 06:23, 16 November 2025
< Notes by the Way (continued from page 12-183) >
the doctrine, if accepted at all, must, as the authors put it, be intuitively apprehended as a part of a system or body of truth, and not proven by the mathematical principles of demonstration. I do not apprehend it in this way. I am not prepared to accept it, as usually understood; nor to hold it as any necessary part of my conception of truth: but I am by no means blind to the light that it throws on many problems of life. I have not seen it so philosophically and convincingly formulated as in this volume.
When the writers deal with the historical element of the existing religion, they shew a keen critical faculty, and a very considerable power of exact analysis. They point out that a halo of romance has gathered round sacred books, persons, and events which modern Biblical exegesis has roughly dispelled, and has traced that which in them is substantially true to systems of belief far more ancient than Christianity. “Thus, the whole story of the Incarnation, the expectation of the Messiah, the announcement by the angel, the conception by the Virgin, the birth at midnight in a cave, the name of the Immaculate Mother, the appearance to shepherds of the celestial host, the visit of the Magi, the flight from the persecuting Herod, the slaughter of the innocents, the finding of the Divine boy in the Temple, the baptism, fasting, and trial in the wilderness, the conversion of the water into wine, and other like marvels; the triumphal entry into the holy city, the Passion, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension, and much of the teaching ascribed to the Saviour—all these are variously attributed also to Osiris, Mithras, Iacchos, Zoroaster, Chrishna, Buddha, and others at dates long antecedent to the Christian era.” That is to say, they are parts of Divine truth which continually crop up in various systems that profess to expound it: and their very presence in all is their most unassailable credential.
I should have liked to pursue a systematic analysis of this work, so as to point out to my readers what ground it covers, and give them, as it were, an outline map of the country. But the territory is vast, and my space is limited. I must hope to recur to some of the many points which interest me. For the present I can but say that there is a profound lecture on the genesis, nature, and progressive development of the soul; one on the various orders of Spirits, and how to discern them, which is, perhaps, the most interesting and suggestive to me among many that possess these qualities in a high degree. For the rest, the Fall, Redemption, the Atonement, and the nature of Christ are mystically treated in a way that often recalls the methods of the school of Mystics, and there are various appendices which I take to contain excerpts from the body of instruction which has been conveyed to the writers. The book in form is beautiful exceedingly, one of the best specimens of typography that I have seen. In spirit it is, as I have said, full of suggestive matter for thought, which even he who cannot agree must find benefit from, if it be only by finding himself forced to formulate and arrange his reasons for dissent. It will give the reader plenty of opportunity for this, but it will give him too, if he be not merely materialistic and formal in his methods of thought, much wholesome truth that his soul can feed on, and throughout it he will not find any spirit of inharmony or discord, but a clear and charitable, though often forcible and always candid, statement of the writers' conceptions of truth.
Mr. Hudson's Benefit
Sir,—With reference to Mr. Damiani's letter in your last issue, will you allow me to inform your readers that a meeting was held at Mr. Burns’s on the 28th ult. to carry out the proposal for a Dissolving View Exhibition of Spirit Photographs? A committee was formed, of which Mr. Hudson's old friend, Mr. Wootton, of 33, Little Earl-street, Soho, was made treasurer, and a subscription was opened at the same time by a donation of £1 from the treasurer.
Mr. Hudson is now suffering from great domestic trouble, his wife having passed away last week after a long and severe illness, which has much taxed his strength.
I have known Hudson as a brother for several years, and hope the Exhibition will be patronised by influential Spiritualists, and that they will not forget him in his present necessities.
March 6th.
Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at very small expense.
A Civil Answer to A Civil Question
Sir,—I hope you will not think me as unreasonably craving space in your crowded columns, if I venture to reply to “Trident’s” “Civil Question,” published by you in your last issue. Pray give the Re-Incarnationists credit for not wishing to intrude a tabooed subject in the Spiritual Press. Heaven knows! we are merely on the defensive.
“Trident” demands facts to prove Re-Incarnation. The facts are innumerable, and if he will have a little patience, plenty will be forthcoming. “Trident” takes exception to my statement that a human being, dying prematurely, is bereft of training. I maintain this fundamental proposition, first, because if a Spirit could learn his ABC of life out of the flesh, he would not be sent into it: second, because, not having lived amongst men, he would be incompetent to understand humanity, and therefore, unfit to aid in guiding it; third, because a link would be wanting in the chain of evolvement from atom to angel; fourth, because a distinct and, may be, aristocratic caste, undefiled by earthly failures and mistakes, would be established in the Spheres, which, according to our idea of justice, would not be right. "Trident" does not tell us if those mistakes, which we call sins, are committed in the Spheres. If not, it is as true as errando discitur, and experientia docet, that there can be no progress there until, by repeated incarnations, we have acquired the wisdom to follow right and eschew wrong; then, indeed, progress in Spirit-life will find no hindrance and proceed swiftly.
Now, as one good turn deserves another, will fact-demanding “Trident” reply to a “civil question" from a Re-Incarnationist! He avers that he knows that a Spirit leaving the body prematurely does continue to grow and improve in the Spirit-world. Does he? Where are his facts in proof? He also speaks of Spiritual Spheres as a matter of knowledge to him. On what facts does he establish his belief? Facts, friend “Trident,” facts! What! Revelations! Of such facts Re-Incarnationists have bushels full at "Trident’s” disposal. Let me, however, remind "Trident" that psychology is not Positivism, and that man can arrive at metaphysical truths without the crutches of external facts.—Very truly yours,
March 6th, 1882.
"Psyche."
The Spiritualist has been discontinued, and Psyche, a sixpenny monthly, takes its place, under the same editor. The first number contains a biographical sketch of the Hon. Roden Noel, author of a new work entitled, “A Philosophy of Immortality,” and Mr. Noel contributes a thoughtful article on “Elementals,” in which he expresses the difference between his own views and those of Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott, and other Theosophists. The greater part of the number, however, is occupied with a description of the Sphygmograph, an instrument for registering variations in pulse vibrations, and its application by Dr. Purdon to psychological research.
The editor in his first article expresses a “hope that the ruling spirit of Psyche will be one of peace and good will to all men.” The last paragraph in the number is as follows:—
“The presence of three or four men publicly noted for long public hostility to a scientific section of the psychical press, and the absence of the names of various first-rate investigators of the subject who oppose their hostility, is a marked feature of the directorate of the new Society for Psychical Research. If all the nominal managers attended the legislatory meetings the point here raised would be of minor importance, but a quorum of six or seven is a liberal estimate of the average attendance at the gatherings of such bodies, so that the most active men in managing the public affairs of Spiritualism since the great secessions some three years ago, are the same knot of persons who seem to have the new Psychological Society in their hands. If the Society had started from a position of neutrality, it would have been a useful, peacemaking, and desirable organisation.”
Editor's notes
Sources
-
Light, v. 2, No. 62, March 11, 1882, p. 110
-
Light, v. 2, No. 62, March 11, 1882, p. 118