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A LETTER FROM MADAME BLAVATSKY
To the Editor of the Spiritual Scientist:
Sir,—In my country, and in every other recognized as civilized, except America, a man who defames and slanders a woman innocent of crime, however humble she may be, is condemned as a coward. What should European gentle, men think of American manhood, when they read in the Spiritualist journals of the United States, such false, cowardly and unmannerly assaults upon a foreign-born lady, a life-long Spiritualist, and NOT A PROFESSIONAL MEDIUM, 144 as those against myself, which have recently appeared? My great offences are, that I have told the truth, but not all the truth, about certain dishonourable persons, who taint the name of American Spiritualism, by association with it; and given a very imperfect glimpse of the wonders of Magic, which, in common with a hundred other travellers, I have been made acquainted with in the course of extended travels through the East. These malicious assaults upon my reputation, harm only those who have attacked me; for my antecedents are too well known to require a formal defence at my hands. But I blush as a Spiritualist for the impression which they must inevitably produce, as to the ribaldry and licence permissible in American journalism towards a woman. If it can bear the opprobrium I have nothing to say.
Meanwhile, as answer to numerous questions and criticisms, I send you the following translation of a chapter from one of Lévi’s books.