The Ring of Science
The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, will be held at Detroit, Mich., commencing on Wednesday, August nth. The Permanent Secretary calls special attention to the meeting of the Entomological Club. It is proposed to form a subsection of Anthropology at the coming meeting of the Association.
We give the above the benefit of our circulation without charge, a liberality which, being necessarily unexpected by the Association, in view of the disgraceful behavior of itself and individual members towards spiritual science, will doubtless be appreciated. We Spiritualists can afford to be lenient to these poor, blind materialists, for they do not know any better than to do as they have. The helpless creatures are only human moles. As they burrow in their “dim galleries,” what can they know of the inner world, which their predecessors only discovered at the moment when communication was interrupted between them and their fellow grubbers.
See what will happen at this Detroit meeting: Their Entomological Club will have heated debate upon trapdoor spiders, and acrimoniously discuss whether the male My gate avicularia has a darker shade of brown than the female on the upper segment of the body, and more cilia1 to the square inch; after which, as an appetizer for dinner (champagne and fixings on the lake) mention will be made of that Dismal-Swamp louse, which (see Trans 1874) the surveyors found always pointing its nose to the North, whichsoever way they might lay it down. Prof. Hilyard will enquire across the room, of Professor Dawson whether the Myriapoda with two antenna, so highly esteemed by the Scolopendra tribes of India, are more nutritious than the date-palm. Professor Youmans will propose to the Club the election to honorary membership of the “correspondent of the Department of Agriculture” whose discovery of mortality among bots upon the application of a decoction of tansy he had appropriately noticed, at page 384, Vol VII No 39 of Pop. Science Monthly. Prof. E. B. Elliott will show that he was right and Prof. H. E. Davis wrong in the number of young lepidoptera which, when placed end to end, will measure a mile,—the true figures being 0174 X b—y542 1·2 = A’ss.
The Anthropological subsection will no doubt give prominence to a discussion upon Measles as a Religious Element among the Andamanese; and an adjournment could hardly be reached without a fight over the old puzzle, whether it is probable that the American stovepipe represents the form of the prayer-cylinder of the I.acustrians. If Professor Buchanan, who has forgotten more about Anthropology than any of them ever knew, should attempt to crowd upon them the complete study of Man in all his relations, he will be coughed down and the floor granted to somebody who has a speech ready upon the reticulated button-hole of the Bergalese rajpoot's coat. And yet they are not happy.
Have we done any injustice to the American and British Association—for they are both alike. Consult the printed volumes of Transactions, in which may be found record of some of the very papers above enumerated, and others about orange-peel oil, fat women, hyena's dens and the blastoderms of birds’ eggs. If these learned children (for what are they else, who play with such toys?) would simply confess their ignorance of spiritual facts, laws and philosophy, we would have nothing to complain of. It is their own affair whether they study this or that science, and prefer to use the few hours they have on earth in discovering the nature of the respiratory organs of the shark or any other, ignoble tomfoolery, to studying the spiritual part of Man and his inter-mundane communications, attractions and perils. But what the whole Spiritualistic press and all intelligent Spiritualists so indignantly denounce, is the fact that scientific men like Davy, Faraday, Tyndall and Huxley pronounce upon these matters without being possessed of any data upon which to form an opinion. Worse, they sometimes have deliberately lied about observed phenomena, to avoid making a favorable report. If any of them feels aggrieved at our language, let him say so, and we will prove its literal accuracy.
Ancient Works on Occult Science
A correspondent writing on the above subject, recommends students to read “The Hermetic Mystery” published in London, in 1850. He says that in it may be found a masterly inquiry into “Occult Science.” He says of the old philosophers; their knowledge of spiritual things far transcended anything known at the present day. To them divine things were reduced to an absolute science—more absolute, I should say, than even our exact sciences, because the exact sciences have had their origin with these very men, and were the result of the attainment of a higher degree of spiritual development than is conceived of or known at the present day.
A chain of circumstances of a most extraordinary kind, which it would be out of place here to enumerate, put me in possession of the key to the Hermetic Mystery in 1859. Since that time I have made pretty good use of it, as the public shall soon discover, having managed to solve those problems that are of the greatest vital interest to mankind, and which have puzzled the world for thousands of years up to the present, and if we may judge from the results of our boasted increase of scientific knowledge, by our mortality statistics, we are as far, if not farther, off than ever. The very importance of these discoveries of mine necessitates the utmost care and caution being used to prepare the public for them, in order that the greatest good may be done to the greatest number, and thereby secure a proper consideration fer the time and labor spent in maturing and proving of these discoveries, and so putting them beyond the possibility of .1 doubt, and therefore in the field of absolute science.
There is no subject of which so little is known as the Hermetic Philosophy, and none that requires so much caution in speaking of, especially to outsiders. So few have the least idea of what is at the bottom of it, and such ideas as are abroad concerning it are diametrically opposed to its Intrinsic teachings. Such being the case, one must be extremely careful to whom they speak on the subject. No amount of idle curiosity will give anyone a true insight into it. None but practical, patient, painstaking, philosophical, and mathematical turn of mind need enter into this arena, and his motives or purposes must be of the purest and highest order, or he will labor in vain, as the old philosophers themselves testify, one having labored for thirty-five years before he arrived at what he sought after; but to such a one as above described 1 am warranted in saying—and I know it from practical personal experience—that there is no problem of Nature in the bounds of reason—and many, too, that may be considered impossible—which cannot be solved through a knowledge of this philosophy, for it gives us a much deeper insight into Nature than can possibly be got otherwise, or could be conceived of, and therefore what is possible and reasonable becomes lucid and absolute to such minds, which would otherwise be an undecided cloud or muddle to the outer world, or those on the lower plane of thought. I enclose my card, and am
Another writer says:
“I beg to say that I have been an investigator of “The Occult Sciences" the greater part of my life. I have endeavored, without success, to procure “L’Etoile Flamboyante” of the Baron Tschoudi. Bailliere could not meet with a copy anywhere. The works of Eugenius Philalethes I have met with in the British Museum, and also the “Claris ab Initio Mundi Absconditis” of Gulielmus Postellus. All such are written “under seal,” and can only be understood by initiates. It will save him a great deal of time and disappointment if he reads first the modern works of Eliphaz Levi, and these again are still further interpreted by the works of Alphonse Cahagnet, who is more practical. The French intellect is more adapted to, and has worked out these subjects more than thirty years ago. Their works may be procured through any I bookseller.
Test Conditions Demanded
There is such a mass of evidence in favor of Spiritualism, there are so many genuine mediums, such a variety of phenomena that admit of no doubt, that Spiritualists can well afford to demand that every medium shall be thoroughly tested before he is admitted to confidence. Where the phenomena are of an unusual and startling character, common sense would seem to dictate their rejection, except they are accompanied with the most unquestioned proofs of genuine- <... continues on page 1-65 >
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Ring of Science by Olcott, H. S., Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 23, August 12, 1875, pp. 270-1
- ↑ Ancient Works on Occult Science by unknown author (signed as Lex et Lux, W.A.A.), Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 23, August 12, 1875, p. 266
- ↑ Test Conditions Demanded by unknown author (signed as †–––†), Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 23, August 12, 1875, p. 275
Sources
Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 23, August 12, 1875, p. 266
Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 23, August 12, 1875, p. 270
Spiritual Scientist, v. 2, No. 23, August 12, 1875, p. 275