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  | author =  

  | author = Alexander William Kinglake.

  | title = Magic and Prophecy in the East  

  | title = Magic and Prophecy in the East  

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{{Style S-Small capitals|The}} author of “Traces of Travel brought from the East” says,—

{{Style S-Small capitals|The}} author of “Traces of Travel brought from the East” says,—

{{Style P-Quote|“In Syria, and Palestine, and Egypt, you might as well dispute the efficacy of grass or grain as of Magic. There is no controversy about the matter. The effect of this, the unanimous belief of an ignorant people, upon the mind of a stranger is extremely curious, and well worth noticing. A man coming freshly from Europe is, at first, proof against the nonsense with which he is assailed ; but often it happens that after a little while the social atmosphere in which he lives will begin to infect him, and if he has been accustomed to the cunning of sense, by which Reason prepares the means of guarding herself against fallacy, he will yield himself at last to the faith of those around him : and this he will do by sympathy, it would seem, rather than from conviction.”}}

{{Style P-Quote|“In Syria, and Palestine, and Egypt, you might as well dispute the efficacy of grass or grain as of Magic. There is no controversy about the matter. The effect of this, the unanimous belief of an ignorant people, upon the mind of a stranger is extremely curious, and well worth noticing. A man coming freshly from Europe is, at first, proof against the nonsense with which he is assailed ; but often it happens that after a little while the social atmosphere in which he lives will begin to infect him, and if he has been accustomed to the cunning of sense, by which Reason prepares the means of guarding herself against fallacy, he will yield himself at last to the faith of those around him : and this he will do by sympathy, it would seem, rather than from conviction.”}}  

 

While thus making light of the Spiritualism of the East the author gives the following to illustrate the prophetic or clairvoyant pretensions of Lady Hester Stanhope. He says,—

While thus making light of the Spiritualism of the East the author gives the following to illustrate the prophetic or clairvoyant pretensions of Lady Hester Stanhope. He says,—

{{Style P-Quote|“The Prophetess announced to me that we were upon the eve of a stupendous convulsion, which would destroy the then recognized value of all property upon earth, and declaring that those only who should be in the East at the time of the great change could hope for greatness in the new life that was now close at hand ; she advised me, while there was yet time, to dispose of my property in fragile England, and gain a station in Asia ; she told me that, after leaving her, I should go into Egypt, but that in a little while I should return into Syria. I secretly smiled at this last prophecy as a ‘bad shot,’ for I had fully determined, after visiting the pyramids, to take ship from Alexandria for Greece. But men struggle vainly in the meshes of their destiny ; the unbelieved Cassandra was right after all; the Plague came, and the necessity of avoiding the Quarantine, to which I should have been subjected if I had sailed from Alexandria, forced me to alter my route : I went down into Egypt, and staid here for a time, and then crossed the Desert once more, and came back to the mountains of the Lebanon, exactly as the Prophetess had foretold.”}}

{{Style P-Quote|“The Prophetess announced to me that we were upon the eve of a stupendous convulsion, which would destroy the then recognized value of all property upon earth, and declaring that those only who should be in the East at the time of the great change could hope for greatness in the new life that was now close at hand ; she advised me, while there was yet time, to dispose of my property in fragile England, and gain a station in Asia ; she told me that, after leaving her, I should go into Egypt, but that in a little while I should return into Syria. I secretly smiled at this last prophecy as a ‘bad shot,’ for I had fully determined, after visiting the pyramids, to take ship from Alexandria for Greece. But men struggle vainly in the meshes of their destiny ; the unbelieved Cassandra was right after all; the Plague came, and the necessity of avoiding the Quarantine, to which I should have been subjected if I had sailed from Alexandria, forced me to alter my route : I went down into Egypt, and staid here for a time, and then crossed the Desert once more, and came back to the mountains of the Lebanon, exactly as the Prophetess had foretold.”}}

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