life of goethe. - iapsop. the hermetic and alchemical writings of aurtolu* phlupput tlieophrastm bom...
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LIFE OF GOETHE.By HEINRICH DljNTZER. With Authentic Illustration» and Facsimile».
New and Oheap Edition. Cloth, 2a 6d. net.“ Ought to receive a very warm wrloome, h e it contain» much iniormatiim that has
never before found it* wav Into print. Illiwt rated profusely and with taste, enntitnin* nKTMvtf not only portrait«, but specimens <4 the handwriting of the (peat German poet and philosopher, it t» what Its translator claims, an accurate and citilom account of tba personal circumstance* of Goethe'« Ufe. Goethe's ancestry, his birth and undent years at Leipxig and Strasbur». hi* Ufe at Frankfurt and Wetilor.'thepublication of '& tt,' the cftnmcn cement of bis Lame, his tourney* in S wit ret land, his public Labours, the trip« to Italy and France, acquaintance with Schiller, and his chein« days, are dealt wHh amply, and we are shown aii-HCether such a picture of the great man that we feel how much of his wonderful Ufe was hitherto unknown and. indeed, undreamt of. AU lovers of Goethe's wurks should tie grateful for this addition to tbetr cognisance of the distinguished anther." — T h t D eity T rttfm p h
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PARACELSUS. THE HERMETIC AND ALCHEMICAL WRITINGS Of Aurtolu* PhlUpput Tlieophrastm Bom but, of Hohcnhciiii. called Paracels us the Great, now for the first time translated into English. Edited by A rthur E dw ard Wait«, a voU. 4to. cloth. P u b lu ktd at ¿3 !»«. 64. Reduced to |8*. t 894.
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THE
OCCULT REVIEWA MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE INVESTIGATION OF SUPERNORMAL PHENOMENA AND THE STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
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All communications to the Editor should be addressed c/o the Publishers, William Rider & Son, L imited, 164 Aldersgate Street, London, E C.
THE question has been asked why the investigation of psychical phenomena has not been taken up in America (with very rare exceptions) by men of high scientific position and world-wide celebrity, in the way in which (notably during the last few years) has been the case in Europe. I think the report of the Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, voi. II, Part I, will suggest a pretty definite reply to this query. In the number cited Mr. Hereward Carrington gives the results of his investigation of mediumistic phenomena at the “ Camp ” at Lily Dale in New York State. I take the opportunity of publishing the portrait of the author of this sensational exposé of the methods of certain soi-disant American mediums. Mr. Carrington’s name will no doubt be familiar to most readers of the O c c u l t R e v i e w , as the energetic assistant of Dr. Hyslop in the foundation of the American Society for Psychical Research, and in connection with the authorship of various books and articles dealing with psychical and general scientific subjects, notably “ The Physical Phenomena of Spiritualism,” an edition of
VOL. VII. M AY 1908 No. 5
NOTES OF THE MONTH
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MR. HEREYVARD
CARRIN GTON.
which I see Mr. Werner Laurie is about to publish in the British Isles, and also an important and original work on “ Vitality Fasting and Nutrition.” He has now under preparation another book on “ Problems of Psychical Research,” which he hopes to issue early next year. Mr. Carrington, I may add, is well adapted to be an expert investigator of psychic phenomena, as he has aquick observant eye and an alert mentality. Moreover, not the least important of his qualifications is an extensi\re practical knowledge of conjuring and sleight of hand. Mr. Carrington is still a very young
man, having been born in Jersey, Channel Islands, on October 17, 1880. Part of his education was obtained in England and part in America,
where he finally settled permanently in the year 1899. From this date to 1903 he lived in the West, mostly in Minneapolis, Minn., where he engaged in the book business, among other things editing Street & Smith's novelists’ library. He left this work to join Dr. Hyslop as indicated above. The spiritualistic camp is a regular summer institution in America,
and the camp at Lily Vale is perhaps the most celebrated of its class. Lily Dale is situated some sixty miles south of Buffalo, N.Y., and
consists of the station, a couple of hotels, a few farmhouses and the Assembly Grounds— containing the hotel of the Assembly, a library building, several smaller halls, a large auditorium, and a number of cottages, rented either to visitors by the season or to mediums. Lectures are delivered in the big auditorium twice a day. Séances with the mediums are generally arranged for in advance, as the books of the professional psychic are liable to be pretty full up. Needless to say, Mr. Carrington did not put up at the hotel under his own name. For the fortnight in August which he spent investigating, he was Mr. Charles Henderson. The requirements of the séance room suggested
the necessity of a family circle, and this took shape, under the names of Robert and Jane
TH E CAM P AT
L IL Y D A LE.
A N IM PROVISED
FA M ILY CIR CLE. Henderson, father and mother (both in spirit land), and Victoria and Eva Henderson, sisters, also passed over.
All the usual forces of psychic manifestation were ” on tap ” at Lily Dale, and all were tried in turn— spirit photographers, trumpet mediums, slate-writing mediums, materializing mediums, mediums for physical phenomena, automatic message-bearers, et hoc genus omne. The spirit photographer to whom Mr. Henderson sat refused to allow him to watch the plates being
N O TES O F T H E MONTH 239
developed. When he called the next day they were handed to him, and after careful examination he made the following report:—
There is only one plate, I find, as the second exposure, made in the dark room, was supposed to be on the same plate as that which was exposed upon the veranda. As a matter oi fact, I know this to be untrue, for the reason that I saw the photographer change the plate slide, after we had taken up our positions in the darkened room. It is more than probable, in my estimation, that no plate at all was exposed in the second case—simply a pretence at
photographing being made, and the original plate “ doctored ” ; and this supposition is strengthened by the fact that only one exposure is sometimes made (so the photographer informed me) and spirit faces come on that! But, as stated before, the faces appearing on the plate are quite inconclusive for the reason that no tests were allowed, this really strongly indicating fraud. For, if genuine, why should tests of a rational character be objected to ?
After much delay, I finally succeeded in securing the two photographs, and not only are none of the faces recognizable, but they do not bear the
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slightest trace of any family resemblance whatever. They are as alien as possible. One of the faces is that of a woman ; the other three of men. one of them wearing a turban. More than that, the photo shows signs of undoubted fraudulent manipulation. One of the faces (that of the woman) upon being examined through a magnifying glass, clearly shows the miniature indentations made by the electric needle used in reproducing newspaper cuts. This is clearly noticeable on the forehead, but can be seen to extend all over the face, even with the naked eye, when examined carefully. This face was, therefore, copied from some newspaper, or from some magazine, reproducing it from the paper in which it originally appeared. One of the other faces shows clear marks of manipulation also. The line of the hair extends some distance down the side of the head, beyond the point at which the hair would normally end, and shows that the face was cut out from some magazine, pasted upon a dark background, and photographed upon the same plate upon which my portrait was taken.
Mr. Carrington’s investigations of the trumpet mediums were equally unsatisfactory “ All the information (he writes) the trumpet gave me I supplied to the medium first, and false as well as true information was given back to me through the trumpet.” With regard to the production of the voice, he says :—
Several times, during the séance, I leant forward in my chair and advanced my ear close to the medium’s head. In this manner I was enabled to reach a point from four to six inches from her mouth. I distinctly heard the medium doing the talking herself, the sound of the constrained voice being distinctly audible in her throat. There was no doubt in my mind that she was doing the talking, as I could clearly hear it. Several times I saw the trumpet outlined against the light at the top of the cabinet, and every time the angle of the trumpet indicated that it was pointing directly for the medium’s mouth. Her own voice and the voice issuing from the trumpet were never heard together, and the voices were such as thè medium might easily have imitated. Several times I felt the medium moving about, and heard the rustle of her skirts. Everything pointed to the fact that the medium and she alone was doing the talking—even had I not heard her doing so. My conclusion is, therefore, that the phenomena observed by me through this medium are to be explained by the most obvious and simple trickery.
In connection with the materializing séances, Mr. Carrington attributes the phenomena to an understanding with confederates, a conclusion which his observations of what took place certainly do not exclude. Here is one of his experiences :—
My sister “ Eva ” materialized for me. I suggested “ Eva ’’ and she " came.” I never had a sister Eva, so she was a little out of place. However, she ” came ” as a little girl about ten years old, with a hooked nose, bright black eyes, and a fringe of false hair over her forehead. Her doll-like appearance was very manifest. After she dematerialized, I was on the point of walking back to my chair, but was told to wait. 1 returned
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to the curtains of the cabinet, and my mother announced herself present, “ who had died from consumption.” The curtains were pulled aside, and I put my face close to the opening, since it was so dark I could see nothing. And there, in the dim twilight of that séance room, I beheld one of the most ghastly, most truly terrifying faces I have ever seen. It was white and drawn, and almost shiny in its glossy, ashen hue. The eyes were wide open and staring—fixed. The head and face were encircled in white ; and it would have required a great deal of fortitude, for the moment, to look steadfastly at that terrifying face, in that still, quiet room, in response to the spirit’s demand : “ Look at me ! ” The distance between our faces was not more than six inches ; and, after the first shock, I regarded the face intently. I was spurred by curiosity and excitement, and prompted yet further by the spirit form, who grasped my wrist, through the curtain, and drew me yet closer—until I was nearly in the cabinet itself. I remembered that my mother had not died from consumption, and that the present face in no wise resembled hers, and my feeling of terror lasted but an instant ; but it was there at the time, I confess. I regarded the face intently, and it was gradually withdrawn into the shadow of the cabinet, and the curtains pulled over it. I am certain that, had I been in an excited and unbalanced frame of mind at that instant, I should have sworn that the face actually melted away as I looked at it. But my mental balance was by that time regained, and I could analyse what was before me. I can quite easily see how it is that persons can swear to the melting away of a face before their eyes, after my own experience. The appearances clearly indicated that, and it was only my alertness to the possibility of deception in this direction, which prevented my testifying to the same effect.
On another occasion the following incident served to enliven the proceedings :—
One of the spirits caught its drapery in the points of one of the ladies’ hats. Did the piece of drapery dematerialize ? No indeed ! The poor spirit had to wait ignominously outside the cabinet, in the middle of the floor, w’hile the drapery was unhooked ! Another incident was this. Towards the close of the séance the medium walked out into the room, several times, " in a trance ”—a form appearing at the opening of the cabinet curtains at the same time. Evidently some confederate was employed. When the medium returned to the cabinet, a head was thrust from the opening, between the curtains, and the light was turned up. “ The medium,” exclaimed some one. “ If it is, he’s grown whiskers,” remarked some one else. (Which shows that spiritualists do not lack a sense of humour, at times.) But the solution at once suggested itself ; the medium had been “ transfigured ! ”
Comment is, of course, superfluous on occurrences of this kind. What will rather excite surprise is that such a method of money making is tolerated by the authorities, and that those who attend such séances do not insist on having their money returned.
Nothing but a combination of the people most interested
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242 T H E O CCU LT R E V IE W
will avail to put down exhibitions of this disgraceful character,
did take place, with the result of the suppression, at least in that locality, of a crying scandal. What was done at Onset could be done, and should be done, wherever this sort of thing lifts its head. Nothing would tend more effectually to purify the “ psychic ” atmosphere.
Mr. Hereward Carrington’s conclusion is that so far as physical manifestations were concerned, nothing that did not appear to be fraudulent was obtained, though the work of several of the trance and test mediums indicated that they possessed supernormal power of some kind. He sums up, “ I am convinced that from the professional ‘ physical medium ’ nothing is to be obtained but fraud and the results of fraud.”
Without subscribing absolutely to this last dictum, it is not difficult to see how it is that among professional mediums fraud is, to say the least, extremely common. Genuine physical mediums are undoubtedly very rare, and the exercise of any form of mediumship for materialization results in physical exhaustion to the medium. To hold several such séances in the course of the day— nay, even in the course of the week, is a drain on the medium’s vitality which, if persisted in, can only result in moral and physical wreck. The deduction is obvious. For money-making purposes a substitute of a fraudulent character has to be found.
This does not, of course, apply to the natural psychic, though even the natural psychic must use his or her powers with extreme care, if he (or she) does not want to suffer severely in health. It is not surprising therefore that it was among this class alone that Mr. Carrington was satisfied of the genuineness of the phenomena.
There are one or two observations which the report of the American Society for Psychical Research seems to call for. In the first place the assumption of Mr. Hereward Carrington that by attending the camp at Lily Dale he might count on meeting the best specimens of American mediumship seems quite devoid
advantage, and that it is just such places as these that the inves
N E C E SSIT Y
FOR DRASTIC
ACTION .
and the monthly publication in some well- known organ of a spiritualistic black list. I understand that in connection with the “ Camp ” at Onset some such combined action actually
IS L IL Y D ALE
A GOOD
SAM PLE ?
of justification. I should rather suggest that the probability was that he would there encounter those who were most interested in turning mediumship (or its counterfeit) to financial
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N O TES OF T H E MONTH 243
tigator desirous of discovering the genuine article should mostscrupulously avoid. In saying this I am far from suggesting that the exposure of fraudulent mediumship is not a thing in itself to be encouraged. I would merely indicate that the point Mr. Carrington makes that he has done his best to discover the genuine article is not a good one. If I am not mistaken, the exposure of fraudulent mediumship at the Camp at Onset had the whole-hearted support of The Progressive Thinker, the most influential spiritualistic organ in America. This goes to show the attitude of the better-class spiritualist in America towards such goings on.
Mr. Carrington’s report of his investigations at Lily Dale curiously synchronizes with the very careful similar investigations made by leading European scientists into the case of Eusapia Palladino. Some report of these appears in the April issue of the Annals of Psychical Science, and in one or two previous numbers.*
It will be seen that the conclusions there arrived at are very far from bearing out in the case of the most notable European medium the summary condemnation of professional mediumship which has resulted from Mr. Carrington’s visit to the celebrated Camp in New York State, and the references in Mr. Carrington’s
. report to the Italian medium would, I suggest,E l SAPIA § * ., •,« j . •« i , • , i
at their investigations of the powers of the Italian psychic.The simultaneous publication of the two reports may well
be advanced as an argument in favour of the desirability of some joint action on both sides of the Atlantic. Why should not the European investigators invite Mr. Hereward Carrington over ? Young as he is, he has special qualifications for the task,
qualifications which, it may be added, are not A PLEA FOR ^ , . , ,
bring to the task an open mind and an acute intelligence, and if his attitude inclines to the sceptical, I submit that, except in the case of the confirmed bigot, this is an advantage rather than the reverse, and would certainly lend force to his conclusions should he be satisfied of the genuineness of the phenomena.
The unfortunate relations between the American psychical* I f possible I shall make further reference to this in my next num
ber.— E d.
PALLADINO’INQUIRY.
be better withdrawn until such time as the American investigator has the opportunity of meeting the scientists of Europe and assisting
CO-OPERATION.possessed in an equal degree by the leading European scientific investigators. He would also
a* Gooole
244 T H E O C C U LT R E V IE W
SCIEN CE
KNOW S NO
FATH ER LAN D .
investigators and the English Society for Psychical Research need be no bar to such an arrangement, as the investigation in question is altogether outside the pale of the English Society. They might, indeed, be used to undo the bad impression created by the cold shouldering of Dr. Hodgson by the English Society. In this matter I have never disguised the fact that my sympathy was, in the main, with Dr. Hodgson, who enjoyed, and I think rightly enjoyed, the whole-hearted confidence of the American Branch. And in saying so, I feel that I voice a large body of opinion on this side of the Atlantic and not merely my own individual sympathies. This, however, is ancient history-. The work which the Society of Psychical Research ought to have taken up on this side has been taken in hand by independent investigators— independent as regards these investigations even when members of the English Society.
The work that is in hand requires the co-operation of all the workers. Science can afford no fatherland, and in this sense it is the great peace maker. Religions have set man against man. Commerce has created antagonistic interests and
set up high tariff walls. Literature divides men through diversities of language. But in the cause of Science all men are brothers and all join hands.
The cosmopolitan character of the O c c u l t R e v i e w gives it a special right to appeal to the solidarity of the interests of mankind in the cause of science, and I trust that this appeal may result, sooner or later— and the sooner the better— in the appointment of some European-American commission of inquiry and investigation into the phenomena which are at present engaging the investigation of the psychic inquirer and the occultist, the world over, the results of which, when obtained, will carry that weight which must perforce attach to the deliberate conclusions of the leading spirits of the scientific world. One
stipulation will be a necessary antecedent to any such inquiry. The field of inquiry- must not be narrowed by the prejudices— the broadest-
minded of us have prejudices— of its individual members. No subject, therefore, of psychic or occult interest must be ruled out until it has been disproved.
A big programme you will say. Y e s ; but not too big a one for the twentieth century to solve. But if it were, Time does not end with the present century, and the cause of science, like the sacred flame, must be handed on from generation to generation.
NO BIGOTS
n e e d a p p l y !
N O TES O F T H E MONTH 245
A NEW
PSYCH OM ETRIC
O FFER .
I have received a great many inquiries since my psychic coupon was discontinued from people in various parts of the world who are anxious to avail themselves of some such method
of inquiry. It has appeared to me that within the narrow compass allowed, it was impossible to supply an adequate diagnosis, and to many of the questions asked it was hopeless for any psychic
to attempt to give satisfactory replies without at least a personal interview. It is, moreover, at these personal interviews that the O c c u l t R e v i e w psychometrist (Miss Eileen Clements) can use her powers to the greatest advantage. I have, therefore, arranged with her to insert a notice of her name and address in the advertisement columns of this magazine, so that those who care to do so, can take the opportunity of visiting her. In the meanwhile I have engaged the services of a delineator of character, very highly recommended by Mr. W. T. Stead, and with whose work I have myself been favourably impressed: Thesedelineations will be longer than the diagnoses hitherto appearing, running on an average to some 300 words, more or less. The qualification necessary will be the sending up of a letter written by the inquirer, or the person whose character is to be delineated, together with three coupons from the current issue of the O c c u l t
R e v i e w . For further particulars readers are referred to a later page.
NEW P U B L I
CATION
DEPARTM EN T.
I have the pleasure to inform my readers that \Villiam Rider & Son, London, the publishers of the O c c u l t R e v i e w , have taken over the publishing business of Mr. Philip Wellby, of
6, Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London, W.C. Mr. Wellby’s publications consist mainly of works on Mysticism, Occultism, New Thought and kindred subjects, and it is proposed to
develop the business by adding from time to time further publications on the broader aspects of Religion and Science, and dealing generally with the trend of the intellectual and spiritual movements of the present day. Mr. Wellby’s publications will, in future, be supplied from 164, Aldersgate Street, London, E.C., or alternatively they can be obtained through the^ordinary trade channels. It is proposed in the near future to make arrangements with an American house for the supply of the bulk of these publications to the LTnited States and Canada.
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REINCARNATION
B y JE SSIE ANNIE ANDERSON
DIM, undeclared, within a shadowy place, To-Morrow stands,
And we, toward her veiled, alluring face, Stretch forth our longing hands.
But she, elusive, waits, aloof and free, Until, at last,
Herself unwinds her veilings, till we see Our Re-incamate Past.
Cerements or swaddling-bands her swathings are :— Herself a child,
A nestling innocence, a flower, a star,Magnificently mild.—
Or spawn of formless things and dateless days, In dullness bred,
Flung forth, misgotten cumberers of the ways, Unwished, nor quick nor dead.—
Or some Grey Sin’s untimely after-birth,Come, doomed and old,
With power to mouth and grin in Simian mirth, And clawed to clutch and hold.
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DR. DEE AND QUEEN ELIZABETH
T E R C E N TE N A R Y OF DEATH , 1608
B y E M ILY B A K E R
As this year, 1908, is the tercentenary of the death of one of our greatest English occultists, the following sketch may not be uninteresting:—
Dr. John Dee, bom July 18, 1527, a great mathematician and astrologer, B.A. of St. John's College, Cambridge, and afterwards Fellow of Trinity, was a noted man in his day. Although through calumny and the injudiciousness of friends he was greatly maligned, still, by those who lived in those days, he was spoken of as “ being well beloved and respected of all persons of quality, who very often invited him to their houses or came to his . . . a great peacemaker ; for if any neighbours fell out, he would never let them alone till he had made them friends. A mighty good man was he ! ”
He was very handsome, tall and slender, with a clear, sanguine complexion, and, in later years, a long beard as white as milk. “ He wore a gown like an artist’s, with hanging sleeves and a slit."
He dwelt in a house near the waterside, a little westward from the church at Mortlake, on the Thames and, although during his long life he held two livings (Upton and Long Leadenham) and ended in becoming Warden of Manchester College, yet he seemed to cleave to his old home, probably from its being in the midst of friends, and from its nearness to London and the Court.
But our intention now is to show the close relation which seemed to exist between the learned doctor and the “ good Queen
She was evidently in touch with him before her coronation, for we hear that " he wrote an astrological calculation respecting the choice of a fit day for Elizabeth’s coronation.”
Six years after she came to the throne, Queen Elizabeth deigned to become his pupil, and he disclosed to her at Greenwich seme of the secrets of his mysterious book.
Dr. Dee possessed a crystal globe, which had the property— which is not unknown to us in these days— when intently looked into, of presenting pictures or figures, and even emitting sounds. Forms appeared, after a time, either on the surface of the globe
Bess."
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or in the room. It was necessary, as it appears that Dr. Dee was not a seer himself, for him to have some one who w as; therefore, first a man named Barnabas Saul, and after an apothecary of the name of Kelly, took the part of seer, and Dr. Dee wrote down all
Specialty reproduced for the OccrL T R j v i i w from a print in the British Museum.
the wonderful things that were revealed to him. Here we must say, although it appears that Dr. Dee himself was perfectly honest and straightforward, and always denied all idea of magic— still, latterly it was plain that Kelly deceived him and induced him to do and say things which caused him great sorrow, and loads his
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memory with obloquy. He dissociated himself from Kelly after this.
But although the common people looked upon Dr. Dee as a magician, Queen Elizabeth did not, and she evidently held him
D R. D E E A N D Q U EEN E L IZ A B E T H 249
in high esteem. In 1575, it is recorded in his Diary, " that the Queen, with the most honourable Privy Council and other Lords and nobility came purposely to visit his Library, but finding his wife was within four hours before buried out of the house, her Majesty refused to go in, but willed that he should fetch his famous
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glass, and show her some of the properties of it, which he did. Her Majesty was taken down from her horse by the Earl of Leicester, Master of the Horse, at the Chureh Wall at Mortlake. and saw some of the properties of that glass, to her Majesty’s great astonishment and delight.”
In the same year Dr. Dee mentions several interviews with the Queen, both at Windsor and Richmond.
On November 25 he writes : “ I spake with the Queene hora quinta. I spake with Mr. Secretary Walsingham. I declared to the Queene her title to Greenland, Estetiland and Friseland.” Five years later he drew up a chart to show her title to countries discovered in different parts of the world. This was highly approved by Lord Burgh ley.
In 1578 Dr. Dee married a second time to one Jane Fromonds, and by her he had several children, to whom he seems to have been greatly attached. He mentions that some of them had for godmothers the Countess of Cumberland and the Countess of Essex, besides other ladies of title. In this year he was sent to Germany to consult the most learned physicians there concerning the state of the Queen’s health for, " her Majestie had grievous pangs and pains caused by toothache and the rheum.”
In September, 1580, Dr. Dee writes in his diary : “ The Queene Majestie cam from Richmond in her coach, the higher way of Mortlake felde, and when she cam right against the church she turned down toward my house, and, when she was against my garden in the felde she stode ther a good while, and than cam vnto the street at the great gate of the felde, where she espyed me at my doore making abevsains to her Majestie ; she beckened her hand for me ; I cam to her coach-side, she very speedily pulled off her glove and gave me her hand to kiss ; and to be short, asked me to resort to her court, and to give her to wete when I cam ther. hor. 6J- meridie.”
Is not this a graphic picture of the great Queen, whom one does not often think of as going about in such a homely, friendly fashion. The haughty, beruffled and buckramed Elizabeth pulling off her glove for the handsome scholar to kiss, and perhaps at the same time asking some question of the wonderful stone.
We hear of many such visits just at this time, especially one he paid to the Queen in the garden at Richmond, to deliver into her hands the two rolls he had made of the " Queene Majesties titles.”
At the death of his mother, he writes: “ October 10th, The Queene Majestie to my grete comfort cam on hoseback, with her
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trayn, from the Court and at my dore gratiously calling me to her, exhorted me briefly to take my mother’s death patiently, and withall told me that the Lord Threasorer had gretly commended my doings for the title, which .he had to examine, which
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title, in two rolls, he had brought home two hours before ; she remembered also how at my (first) wife’s death it was her fortune likewise to call upon me.”
It was about this time that he became possessed of another
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stone, which he said was given him by an angel, and was called the “ Holy Stone.” This is a crystal of smoky quartz and is now
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in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, having been removed there from the British Museum.
The Lord Burghley must have had rather a bad time of it just then, for we read that Dr. Dee took his book for the correc-
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tion of the Calender to the Lord Treasurer. It was entitled, A Playne and humble avise for our Gratious Queene Elizabeth, her most excellent M ajestic to -peruse and consider, as concerning the needful Reformation of the Vulgar Kalendar for the civile yeres and daies accompting or verifying, according to the time truly spent.
It was inscribed : ” To the Right Honorable and very singular good Lorde, My Lorde Burghley, Lorde Threasorer of England,” with the following verses :—
To on and Sum, .I shew the thing and reason w h y ;A t large, in brief, in .nidale wise,I humbly give a playne ad vise;For want of tyme, the tyme untrew If I have myst, cammand anew Your honor may. So shall you see T h a t love of truth doth govern me.
The original MS. is still preserved in Ashmoles Library. It was never entirely printed, but created great sensation at the time and was the cause of considerable controversy.
It was now that Dr. Dee was introduced to Prince Albertus Laski, of Vasco in Polonia, by the Earl of Leicester in his chamber at the Court at Greenwich. It is impossible in this article to enter into Dr. Dee’s dealings with this foreigner, who came constantly to his house at Mortlake to consult with him upon occult subjects, and which ended in his going abroad with him that same year and staying away from England for a considerable time.
On July 30 he writes : “ The Queene removed on Tuesday from Greenwich to Sion, by water, coming by my dore: . . . Her Majestie being informed by the Right Honorable Earle of Leicester, that wheras the same day in the morning he had told me that his Honor and Lord Laskey would dine with me within two days after. I confessed sincerely to this, that I was not able to prepare them a convenient dynner, unless I should presently sell some of my plate or pewter for it. Wherupon her Majestie sent unto me very royally within one hour after forty angels of gold from Sion, whither her Majestie was now come by water from Greenwich.”
Dr. Dee returned to England December, 1589, when he went at once to the Queen, who was at Richmond, and was most favourably received by her Majesty.
About this time he speaks of sending his children to school with the schoolmaster at Mortlake, a Mr. Lee, giving him “ his
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house rent and fifty shillings yerely for my three sons and daughter.”
Dr. Dee seems to have been in money difficulties at the end of the year 1591 ; for after enumerating his debts he says : " the Archbishop of Canterbury gave me £5 in ryalls and angels. . . . Her Majestie cam to Richmond and gratiously sent for me. I cam to her at three quarters of the clok aftemone ; and she said she would send me something to kepe Xmas with. Mr. Richard Candish (uncle of the navigator) gave my wife forty shillings, and on Tuesday after sent £10 in ryalls and angels, and before he sent me £20— £32 in all.”
The Queen had promised to send Dr. Dee a hundred angels to keep his Christmas. She called for him at his door on the fourth
of December as she passed by, and he met her a t E st sh e n e Gate, where she graciously, putting down her mask, “ did say w i t h m e r y cheer, ' I thank thee, Dee ; ther was never promise made but it was broken or kept.’ ” He understood the Queen to mean the hundred angels she had promi sed to
send him that day. She sent him £50 the next day.Not long after this Mr. Candish received from the Queen’s
Majestie warrant by word of mouth to assure Dr. Dee ” to do what he wold in philosophic and alchemie, and none shold chek, controll, or molest him, and she said she wold ere long send him £50 more to make up the hundred.”
The Lord Burghley seems to have shown Dr. Dee some attention about this time, for he writes in his diary : " The Lorde Threasorer invited me to dynner at Mr. Maynards at Mortlake, where Sir Robert Cecill and Sir Thomas Cisill and his lady were
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also. The Lorde Threasorer allso sent me some venison to supper. He invited me to dynner allso on the tenth day at which was the Lorde Cobham, and after dynner he requested the Lorde Threasorer to help me to St. Crosses (Winchester) which he promised to do his best in. The Countess of Warwick had sent me word by Mr. Ferdinando of the Queen’s gratious speeches at St. Crosses, and the Lorde Archbishop told me the like.”
Queen Elizabeth seems still to have had occult dealings with her old friend, for he writes: " May 3rd, 1594, between 6 and 7 aftemone the Queene sent for me to her in the privy garden at Greenwich, when I delivered in writing the heavenly admonition and her Majestie took it thankfully. Only the Lady Warwick and Sir R. Cecill his lady wer in the garden with her Majestie.”
A month after he had another interview with the Queen, the last that he records:—
" I, my wife and seven children before the Queen at Thisell- worth. My wife kissed her hand, I exhibited my request for the Archbishop to come to my cottage.”
Evidently Dr. Dee did not get what he wanted, for he writes : " After I had heard the Archbishop his answers and discourses, and that after he had byn the last Sunday at Tybalds with the Queene and Lorde Threasorer, I take myself confounded for all suing or hoping for anything that was. And so adieu to the Court and courting tyll God direct me otherwise ! The Archbishop gave me a payre of sufferings* to drinke. God be my help as he is my refuge. Amen.”
The next year he was appointed Warden of Manchester College, and with that his personal intercourse with Queen Elizabeth ceased, for he did not return to Mortlake until the year after the Queen died. The last mention of her in his diary, just before he left Manchester, w as: " The Countess of Warwick did this evening thank her Majestie in my name and for me, for her gift of the Wardenship of Manchester. She took it gratiously ; and was sorry it was so far from hence, but that some better thing neer hand shall be found for me, and if opportunity of tyme wold serve, her Majestie wold speake with me herself.”
But as it is not recorded, we fear the opportunity did not occur. Dr. Dee was at Manchester only eight years and then, being in a very weak state of health, he gave up the Wardenship and returned to his beloved Mortlake, when he must have sorely missed his royal patroness and friend. He passed awayatthe endoffouryears, and his body was buried in the graveyard of old Mortlake Church.
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VAMPIRES
Br FRANZ HARTMANN, M.D.
A CLASS of phenomena which has given rise to many strange and horrible occurrences is that of vampirism, or the preying upon the vitality of a person and abstracting from him nervous force. This kind of vampirism we meet every day and are ourselves often subjected to it. We often meet people whose very presence draws upon our strength and causes fatigue. Sensitive, hysterical or mediumistic persons always vampirize each other. To magnetize, hypnotize or influence a person is a kind of obsession ; to absorb the thought, magnetism or influence of another is a kind of vampirism, and there are persons who can live entirely upon the vitality of others. •
1. I have already mentioned in a previous paper on " Metathesis ” in the O c c u l t R e v i e w the case of the “ wonder g ir l" at Radein, who for seven years lived without food or drink, being nevertheless in good health. Instead of taking food she withdrew vitality from the children that were brought to her for the purpose of receiving her blessing. Some of these children sickened, some wasted away and died. She did not do this consciously and willingly; for she was a very pious person and, owing to her long fasting, even considered a saint. Many other persons of that kind are known in history ; accounts of such sometimes appear in the papers, but they are soon hushed up, because our scientists cannot explain them ; their science being still only superficially acquainted with certain natural laws. Still, popular opinion claims that it is not healthy for young children to sleep with old people in their beds, and medical science silently approves of this view.
2. In the Bible it is claimed that when David grew old, a young girl was given to him to supply him with vitality, and not very many years ago certain institutions, based upon this principle, were existing in France. Young girls were supplied to old men or women as bedfellows. Usually the old person (after having had to submit to certain precautionary measures) had to sleep between two girls, a fair-haired and a dark one ; for which privilege he had to pay a certain sum. All of these girls soon lost vitality; some of them died; and these establishments were finally closed by order of the police.
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VAMPIRES 267This is called " Vampirism among the living ” ; but there is
another kind of vampirism; namely, vampirism exercised by black magic, or sorcery, and the vampirism of the grave.
Of vampirism exercised by witchcraft, the following may serve as an instance :—
3. A miller at V-----hired a young man to labour in his mill.The boy was healthy and strong ; but after a while he began to look pale and emaciated, and his strength grew less from day to day. The miller asked him about his ailment; but the boy pretended not to know. At last, however, he confessed to him that every night near midnight something heavy, of the shape of a large-sized egg, was pressing upon his breast, causing a distressing nightmare, and rendering him unable to breathe or to move. The miller thereupon watched at the bedside of the boy, and made him promise to give him a certain sign when he felt the presence of the vampire. The boy gave the sign, and the miller grasped with both hands that egg-shaped thing, which, although being invisible, seemed to the touch as if it were made of gelatine. He carried it to the chimney and threw it into the fire, and the boy, after that time, was troubled no more. This stoiy has been told to me by a relative who lived at the said mill when this occurrence took place.
The following is an extract from one of the numerous letters concerning such subjects which I often receive :—
D e a r S i r ,— Permit me to ask your advice in regard to the following mysterious case: A woman in my neighbourhood, a widow, is the mother of four children, of whom the two oldest ones are twins. One of these, a beautiful girl, is fearfully troubled by what seems to me a mysterious invisible something, which almost every night presses upon her breast, drawing the vitality out of her, the body of the child growing cold and rigid as a corpse. The vampire, or whatever it may be called, announces its coming by raps, moving of furniture and noises of various kinds. I may say that a year ago, shortly before the trouble began, the mother of the child had to dismiss a thieving servant woman, whereupon that woman pronounced a curse, and said she would be revenged upon the child. The child was taken to the hospital, where they said it was “ hysteria ” ; but they could do no good. While she was at the hospital the noises at the
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residence continued, and the mother received pinches, which caused swellings that remained visible for several days. Thanking you in advance for your answer,
There are two obstacles in the way of understanding the nature of such cases; namely, the ignorance of the fact that vitality is not a product of the cellular activity of the natural bod y; but, on the contrary, the vitality of the body is a manifestation of the activity of life, which is a power as universal as magnetism or electricity; and, furthermore, there is the ignorance of the fact that this power can be attracted and employed, unconsciously by the majority of people and consciously by those who are acquainted with its laws. I am often asked to advise some remedy against the influence of black magic or vampirism, and I know of no other than to restore the health of the body, and to render it thus impermeable to such influences. In regard to counteracting such influences, magic powers can be counteracted only by “ magic,” i.e. spiritual power. The best remedy, therefore, is the power of the true faith; namely, confidence in one's own divine self, by means of which a protective “ astral" shell is formed around us, through which no evil influence can penetrate. By this means we may protect ourselves and even another, if we surround him with our aura. This power, however, is at the present time not in everybody’s possession ; those who can drive out demons are now as rarely to be found as at the time of Jesus of Nazareth; and it will probably be some time before the healing by the power of the Holy Spirit will become generally practised by the medical fraternity as a whole.
The vampires of the grave belong to another order ; but such cases seem to be at present of very rare occurrence in civilized countries. They constitute a disgusting subject, which hardly needs to be discussed in this paper. Some such cases, where the astral body of the dead kept the physical body in the grave in a state of preservation by supplying it with vitality obtained by vampirizing the living, are reported in Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled. I myself have no experience in this line.
Yours sincerely,
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B y FLORENCE FARR
THE ROSICRUCIANS AND ALCHEMISTS
A LEGEND arose in the time of the Lutheran outburst of a mysterious master called Christian Rosenkreutz, who was buried for a period of 120 years in the central cavern of the earth. His shrine was seven-sided, and all the symbols of the universe were said to have been found disposed round him in this place. The Egyptian tradition of Seker, the god in the central cavern of the Duat, evidently found an echo in the heart of the inventor of this legendary father of mysteries, and it will be interesting to try and discern the meanings of the main symbols of the Rosenkreutz legends in Egypt and in Germany.
The Egyptian Duat, or Underworld, was represented by a fivefold star, or star of five radiations, enlarging as they receded from the centre, and therefore not bearing the same symbolism as the pentagram. The Rose is fivefold in its structure and is a well-known symbol of silence. The stages of its existence pass from the bud, or potential state of prajaya, to the unfolding of its leaves as the pleroma, or fulness or manifestation of creative power. Consciousness, thought, reasoning, will, and the sense of individuality are five of its powers; the five senses are other manifestations of the same symbol. When the pollen of a flower is ripe the creative work begins, the petals fall and the fruit and seed are formed. The processes of life are a rhythmic coiling and uncoiling ; a radiation and attraction, and an emanation or separation. The fruit coils round the seeds, the juices pass to and fro, and finally the husk of the fruit bursts and the seeds fall out separately as emanations, each complete in itself.
So in the degrees of human enlightenment the purest state is Being so unified and perfect that the kind of consciousness that depends upon comparison cannot exist. The second state is the sense of being without bounds, which is often called wisdom. The third state is discernment, or understanding, and may be attained by concentration of the subjective mind upon an object until full understanding is attained. And these states of the unmanifest consciousness are called Sat-Chit-Ananda in the Vedantic philosophy and Ain-Soph-Aur in the Kabalistic
SSI
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philosophy; and Ptah-Seker-Osiris was the concrete image of these ideas in Egypt. *
Now the Rose of the Rosicrucians was a more complicated symbol than the Cup. As we have seen the Cup was a symbol of creation, and its form was connected with the symbol of a circle in contrast to the Cross. The symbol of the Rose contains five petals and five divisions of the calyx. It is evidently the symbol of creation in activity, not in potentiality only. Perhaps we may believe the Rose to be a symbol of the subtle body of man, which is one with nature, and the Cross the symbol of the body and the name or word of man. The union of the Rose and Cross would symbolize a man able to unite himself to the great powers of. Nature, or tatwas, familiar to us under their Hindoo names Akasa, Vayu, Tejas, Apas and Prithivi, or the kingdoms of sound, sensation, perception, absorption and reproduction more commonly called hearing, touching, seeing, eating and generating.
Now the notion of obtaining the natural powers of an adept is most apparent in the traditions that come through Egypt and Chaldea, and the idea of the super-essential state in contrast to power is most apparent in the Oriental traditions. The high caste Oriental has the aristocratic spirit that conceives the height of life on this world to consist in the delicacy of perception associated with perfect self-satisfaction, while the democratic spirit of the West cannot conceive itself without desires, struggles and potencies for gratifying desires ; democracy wishes to do and to have ; aristocracy is sufficient unto itself.
Rosicrucianism and Alchemy are both allegories constructed by these working democratic minds, and in the alchemical symbolism we can trace the exact degrees of initiation through which the man, still under the great race delusion of progress, must pass before he realizes that his real self is the same yesterday, to-day and for ever.
It is true in a sense that this treasure of all sages, this knowledge of Being which all mystics seek, forms itself vehicles in time and space in which it carries out the imaginations which spring from the relative side of absolute consciousness, and it is interesting to trace the different degrees of attainment.
Alchemical symbolism is mainly the symbolism of distillation. To take a simple process, let us imagine that we desire to obtain the white and the red tinctures from honey. The alchemist would put the honey in the cucurbite of an alembic. Placing it over a gentle heat he would drive the essential part of the spirit into the head or beak of the alembic, whence it would pass as
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steam into the neck of the receiver and become liquid once more as it cooled. This liquid was the white tincture, or spirit of honey mixed with water. This is the symbol of that concentration and meditation whereby the mind of man becomes subtilized and fit to perceive philosophical impressions. The white tincture is the symbol of light and wisdom.
But to obtain the red tincture of power a far more complicated process had to be performed. It consisted mainly of pouring back the distilled spirit upon the black dead-head that had been left as residue in the cucurbite and by the exercise of great care and the addition of certain matters acting upon the mixture in such a way that finally the whole of the original matter was distilled and no black dead-head remained and a wonderful red tincture was the result of the transmutation of the black nature.
This symbolical process involves the passing through definite stages of progress in the world of changing life. Let us imagine it carried out to its logical conclusion upon our own earth. We know that the mineral kingdom is the state in which form lasts for infinite ages and can stand great heat and cold without destruction. We know that the giants of the vegetable kingdom last many hundreds of years, but although the process of their growth and decay is prolonged they are not capable of resisting fire or of existing in the frozen zone. We know that certain animals, such as elephants, tortoises and parrots, live for very long periods of time. All these creatures have greater tenacity of existence in the forms or vehicles of life than the human creature.
It is also plain that as the earth becomes more and more subject to violent change, when the great floods and the ice and the burnings visit it, in its old age conscious life must exist in more enduring but less complex, sensitive, visible forms than it does at present. Now consciousness of Being is the name we give to the white tincture which the adept distils from his human form in the alembic of the mind. It is brought about by the fire of imagined emotion and devotion under the stress of intense concentration. To focus thought has the same effect as to focus sunlight. It becomes a force analogous to heat. It is, in a word, emotion evoked by the skill of the sage. In this fire the Adept raises his consciousness until it is separate from the gross body, and no longer aware of the objective world. Passing through the gate of dreams it enters the subjective world and lives in its own brightness. Here it learns that it can create infinite visions and glories, and here the saints rejoice, each in his own heaven. Here finally
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the sage perceives his own divinity and is united to his God. This is the white initiation in the eyes of the Rosicrucian doctors, and according to the scriptures of the alchemists the sage has gained the white tincture. The objective world only remains in his consciousness as blackness and ignorance and death. In his divine nature he seeks to redeem the dark world, to draw it up into the divine nature and make it perfect. His vision can now show him a world in which man can no longer exist in material human form. His own desire for wisdom has drawn up the human element out of the visible or objective state. He is no longer merely a man in a human body because his subtle body has possessed itself of the characteristic human faculty of self-conscious comparison, the origin of wit, laughter and criticism.
The humanity that is beyond animal consciousness has the power of acting and knowing at the same moment; it can seem one thing and know at the same time that it is another. It is not a noble quality ; it is nothing more than the power of laughing at ourselves; and yet it is the great redeeming quality, for it is the germ of all wisdom and enlightenment.
The ordinary dreamer lives in his subtle body as the fool of his own fancy, and the dream shows how little human wisdom his subtle body has obtained ; but the subtle body of an adept can perceive the illusionary formulation of panoramas of light and form arising from the half-seized impression of light falling at a certain angle across the red edge of a blanket and the linen of a sheet just as he closes his eyes. The dream of the sage is a consciously guided dream. Like an author, he writes his own dramas and delights in the joys and tragedies of his creations. He no longer suffers from the attacks and sorrows that his own mind creates, but observes them with excitement and interest. He watches his own tears and cuts into the heart of his own emotions.
These are some of the experiences of the sage who has transferred the human principle from the body of matter to the subtle body.
The material body may in this stage of enlightenment be considered as a beautiful and healthy animal; it carries on the physical functions in temperate ways, unaccompanied by the fantastic imaginations of a human being. And there is little doubt that the bull of Apis was considered to take the place of the body of the adept Osiris in this way. The body of a sacred animal would answer every purpose for the divine man whose invisible body had attained some degree of complex, conscious life. The ner-
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vous forces of the animal world act as the physical basis for the dream-powers of the subtilized or deified man.
In China the flying dragon, the mythical combination of all kinds of animal life, represents the body of the deified man that can command all the elemental states of matter that can exist in the air, the fire, the earth and the water. The dragon is the symbol of the material body of the being who has complete command of the elemental world and afterwards becomes the subtle body in the further stage of being of which we are told in Druid tradition.
When the earth grows older and complex animal forms such as flying-fish and sea-serpents and monstrous alligators, can no longer exist, another symbol must be taken from the writings of the Rosicrucian doctors and the alchemists, and we enter upon the study of the Tree of Life. He who eats of the fruit of the Tree of Life will become one with the Elohim, or creative gods, and will live for infinite ages.
Imagine the world enveloped in a great white cloud, moist and warm like a hot-house ; giant palms and ferns and mosses dripping with moisture; a climate like that of the Cocoa-palm Islands off the west coast of Africa, where animals and men can only live a little time. In this world the adept would use some marvellous tree as the physical basis of his life ; and his subtle body would have drawn up into itself all the forces of motion that make a tree less powerful to our minds than an animal. The subtle body in this state would have become a veritable dragon of complex forces. It would have drawn into itself the mixed sphinx-natures of the birds and the fish, the creeping things and the four-footed creatures. The dryad of each tree would be a mighty Druid ; the great Pendragon would have his oak as a physical form and would exercise his powers in reality as we can imagine the ancient Druid sages exercised theirs in imagination.
This state of the subtle body may perhaps have been symbolized by the Green Dragon of the alchemists, but the Red Dragon arose after still further distillation.
Now we have to imagine a world all fire and molten glory of flame, in which no tree or flower could exist; a world in which wonderful agate trees would circle the white crystals of their pith with bands of violet and hyacinth and blue melting into stretches of pale chalcedony and shrouded in dark crystal bark, their branches glimmering with emerald leaves ; a world in which mineral life has learned at last to show itself in perfect form, where light and fire glowed alternately and played with elemental
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shapes and images of beauty. And so, at last, we come to the last symbol of the alchemists— the symbol of the final perfection, the Summum Bonum, the Philosopher’s Stone.
Let us imagine what that state would mean for the ad ept; his gross body a pure ruby, a perfect crystalline form with all the powers of growth, of nourishment, of reproduction drawn from the vegetable kingdom into his subtle body, carried on without disgust or satiety through the beautiful mediums of fiery blossoms and shining leaves ; his subtle body almost visible as a light shining in the fiery world ; his children flowers of flame and his physical form an everlasting memory of beauty ; his mind an all-pervading consciousness in which blossoming imaginations arose or subsided under the law of his w ill; a perception unified with a faculty that ordered joy to succeed sorrow and sorrow to succeed joy because he knew that one cannot manifest without the other. A supreme artist, he would rejoice in creation ; a supreme critic, he would rejoice in contrast.
So the red tincture would be attained and the black, the white and the red worlds explored and analysed in the imagination of the Rosicrucians and alchemists of the Middle Ages
We still see the same desire for progress among those who strive for the ancient stone here in this western democratic world of men who desire “ to have ” and " to do.” But these circles of everlasting recurrence so dear to Friedrich Nietzsche are not what he called them. They are not aristocratic.
The aristocracy of mind is shown in the philosophy of Villiers de l’lsle Adam, who cried : “ As for living, our servants can do that for us." It is the feeling of the great Buddhist intellect who sees that in the words " l a m not ” there is a wonder and a vision and song far exceeding the mere ideas of limited ecstasy and knowledge concealed in the words " I am.”
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THE CURATIVE PROVINCE OF ELECTRICITY
By FRANCES TYRRELL-GILL.*
ACCORDING to the latest pronouncement of Science, Electricity in either an active (current) or passive (static) form pervades every atom of the Universe. We have come, then, to the point of regarding it as a form of energy or force differentiated only from thought in that it may be demonstrated or transmitted by mental control. Yet the terms may almost be said to be convertible— to find the sufficient word for each varying expression of the O n e - E n e r g y ; thought itself is but an electrical discharge from the brain.
Everywhere, going on unceasingly, through the universal expression of life, is the constant interaction of allied forces. Now thought— consciously applied mind— directing the manifestations of Electricity, makes known to us the forms of motion— as exemplified in telepathy, wireless or other telegraphic operations, light, heat, traction, cataphoresis, etc. Again, Electricity impresses itself upon the mind of man by, as far as we can yet see, its own unconscious expression, as in lightning, the Aurora Borealis, the magnetic needle, and other, as we term them, in contradistinction to definite mental expression, natural phenomena. Now we find it as the magnetic current directed by human means to certain ends, and now again acting unconsciously as in the attraction of metals, radio-activity, atomic attraction and repulsion, and in other more elementary forms. It is as demonstrable in hypnotism and animal magnetism as in the nervous system of the body, but in either its passive or active state, when once its conditions have been determined, it is, wherever found, always subject to the direction of its highest expression, the thought of man.
It is in the manifested fact that it may be transformed, transmitted, or controlled by mental action that we begin to see its enormous possibilities as a curative power.
• All the purely professional ideas in this article have been derived from the instruction of Mr. J. Macdonald Moore, " medical electrician,” whose successful treatment of illness, upon these lines, has come under my notice. These ideas I have endeavoured to work into my conception of the " oneness ” of mind F. T. G.
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266 THE OCCULT REVIEW
In considering this question, its value as an aid in the cure of disease, by redistribution within, and introduction to the human system, it may be of assistance to think of its analogous action in other substances. Baron von Reichenbach, in his researches in magnetism (Electricity under another form), discovered that the poles or sides of a crystal were appositively positive and negative. From this ascertained point, and employing the same method of inquiry, he was able clearly to demonstrate that the human body equally emits electricity both positive and negative ; though in the latter case it might be well, for the sake of emphasizing the difference of degree between the two states to speak of it as ready for emission, but waiting on the directing power of will. But taken together the passive and active conditions point to the conclusion that the human body has within itself all the constituents of the Cosmos.
Granting this, it is not difficult to see how large a part the medical electrician, provided he be versed in psychic laws, may, in the future, play in the cure of disease. For it begins to be apparent that he alone, using simply the forces of Nature— mastering in the first instance the causes of disturbance— interchanging and directing them, arrives at the desired effect, the restoration of harmony. For all illness, whatever its degree of seriousness, is found to be, when followed up to first cause, disturbance of function. Cancer, consumption, anaemia, are only different forms of disturbance. That the difference of the expression should be always due to local influence points to the fact that the fundamental cause is ever the same. And because he knows that there is but the one energy or force everywhere— Spirit all-pervading— he looks upon the local effect, consumption, cancer, whatever it may be, as something in the nature of a false appearance, an outcome of the disturbance of organic law, that must disappear before the reality and assertion of Vital Force. And he, as the highest expression of mind, is able, as it were, to put his hand upon all other forms of force, to redistribute, convey, and exercise at will. When he finds the system depleted of its natural electricity— natural force— his aim is, by outside introduction of vital energy to make good the general loss, so that the patient shall be in a fit state to generate electricity, or evoke the life within, for himself— or in other words change the negative condition to the positive state. And whether for this purpose the psycho-therapeutist shall employ magnetism, hypnotism, nerve transference, or directly applied electricity, in accordance with the need of the
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CURATIVE PROVINCE OF ELEC TR IC ITY 267m om en t, h e is n eith er d estro yin g n or dim inishing, b y one iota,
th e un iversal su p p ly .
K n o w in g , as P la to teaches, t h a t he is him self a u n it o f th e
u n iversal Consciousness, an d therefore a p a rta k e r o f th e n atu re of
th e W h ole, h e kn ow s also, for th is his k n o w led ge o f p sy ch ic law s
m u st te a ch him , th a t he ca n a lly h im self to, an d d ra w freely upon
th e O n e Source for th e needed en e rgy o f his su b je ct— th e brain
b ein g th e director of th e a ctio n itself. I t has, for som e tim e
p a st, been a d v a n ce d th a t th e h idd en a n d m ysteriou s forces of
life are gen erated , th ro u gh th e brain an d n ervou s system , b y w h a t
is term ed “ n erve au ra,” an d th a t th is elem en t w ou ld a cco u n t
for all th e phen om en a v a g u e ly a ttr ib u te d to a v ita l principle.
T h is is n o t sa y in g t h a t it is th e v it a l prin ciple itself, b u t
th a t su b stan ce th ro u gh w h ich th e v ita l prin ciple seeks expression
in m aterialised form .
T h a t " v i t a l p r in c ip le ” a n d n erve force are n o t id en tica l w e
h a v e p roof sufficient in th e fa c t th a t th e brain an d nerves, like
th e rest of th e organs, perish or are d isin tegrate d w ith th e d is
solu tion o f th e b o d y , an d th a t th e y retain none of th e properties
assu m ed to b elo n g to th em , w hile here in m an ifestation .
B u t w hen w e find a force w h ich produces w ith in th e organism
th e effects a ttr ib u te d to th e " v it a l p rin cip le ” ; w hen w e find
th is force c a p a b le o f m o v in g th e m uscles, stim u la tin g th e circu
latio n , p ro m o tin g d igestion an d respiration, an d g e n e ra lly a c t
in g u p on th e w hole n ervou s syste m , are w e n o t a t least ju stified
in assu m in g th a t it is one w ith , an d of th e sam e n a tu re as th e
v ita l p rin cip le itself ? W e h a v e a sufficient a rra y of p hen om en a,
th ro u g h w h a te v e r ch an n el w e m a y elect to ob serve th e a ctio n of
e le ctric ity , to enable us to d efin itely an n ou n ce th a t it th e chosen
m otor of v it a l force. T h e p h ysio lo g ist w ho ca re fu lly an d w ith
open m in d, observes its w o rk in g as a th e ra p e u tic a g e n t for th e
cure of disease, th e an a to m ist, w ith th e scientific in stin ct for dis
co v e ry , w h o w atch e s its effect u pon d ead m a tte r, w ill find th a t
th e y h a v e sufficient d a ta to enable th e m to assum e th a t th e y
are ap p ro a ch in g th e solu tion o f th e m an ifestatio n o f life ; an d
th a t evid en ce h as been afforded th em of th e ab so lu te oneness
of th e n a tu re o f all en e rg y th ro u g h o u t th e U n ive rse, h o w e ver
diverse in expression it m a y be.
In sh ort th e h u m an b o d y is an ep itom e of all th e forces
of th e U n iverse. M ore an d m ore m a y this b e claim ed n ow
th a t th e enorm ous possibilities of b ein g are b eco m in g kn ow n
to us b y research in p sy ch ic realm s.
I f it b e ad m itted , then , th a t th e cu rren ts o f m an ’s b ein g
268 TH E OCCULT REVIEWare a redu plication o f th e curren ts o f th e U n iverse, isolated,
in appearance o n ly, b y th e h u m an form , b u t a c tu a lly p a rt o f
th e one gre a t C ircu it, w e see th a t an actio n an alogous to th a t
o f C osm ic d istu rban ce ta k es p lace in th e h u m an b o d y b y the
u p settin g of fun ction . In th e case o f th e cosm ic d istu rb an ce
w e do n o t see th e d irect actio n o f M ind in restoring harm on y,
b u t w e are still conscious o f its actio n b y seeing th e result. B u t
in th e case o f h u m an d istu rban ce w e ca n see th e operator
a t w ork in th e restoration o f harm on y, because he is actin g
w ith in th e circle of his an d ou r consciousness. B u t a ll th e w hile,
as in th e case o f th e C osm ic read ju stm en t, he is usin g n othin g
ou tsid e of him self th a t is n ot, b y im plication , w ith in him self.
T h e philosop h y o f cure b y e le ctric ity lies in its u n iversality.
I t is everyw h ere for th e seeking— P rotean -like, it ch an ges th a t
the m in d o f m an m a y b e k e p t on the alert for e v e r y n ew exp res
sion. I t is because he finds th a t h a v in g d em on strated som ethin g
of th e A l l F orce in one direction he m u st still, for th e sake
of d eve lo p m en t, d em on strate it in an other, th a t w e find each
scien tist, in turn, ta k in g a ste p b e yo n d his forerunner in the
realm of p sy ch ic research.
W h y , then , it m a y be asked, has so little b een ach ieved
in the w a y of cure b y the expression of a pow er possessing such
m arvellous cap abilities ? M a y it n o t b e becau se the operator
or experim enter, as a rule, has looked h ith erto upon its use
alm ost e x clu siv e ly as b elon gin g to th e p h y sica l plane, and
th a t he, b y such an a ttitu d e , has circum scribed its action ? In
M edicine, as a profession, a n y th in g , h ith erto, ou tside of estab
lished m eth od s has found b u t little favour. B u t now th a t the
scientific spirit is seizing th e m ore m odern an d forw ard of
its m em bers, m en tal forces are b egin n in g to b e used in th e
cure o f disease, an d th is m ust lead to fu rther in vestigatio n
in th e v e r y region th a t has been opposed to them . B u t the
m edical electrician, w hen d eep ly versed in p sy ch ic law s, kn ow s
th a t he is d ealin g solely w ith a spiritual force. H e therefore,
b y his a ttitu d e , keeps him self in co n sta n t to u ch w ith the
u n lim ited — w ith him it m u st be ever onw ards an d still onwards.
H e kn ow s th a t there are ever h igher an d finer expressions
of this force b e yo n d those w ith w h ich he h as m ad e him self
fam iliar. A n d th a t “ th e fa iry tale of Science an d th e long
results of tim e ,” w onderful as th e y m a y seem , are b u t as the
prelude to th in gs to be. F o r it is all in illu stration of the
principle th a t behin d e v e ry su b-d ivision in m an ifestation there is
b u t O n e M ind.
original fromD n I Ifcl lX/CDC
SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH SPORT
By L C. R CAMERON
Author of “ Otters and Otter-hunting,” etc., etc.
T H E sportsm an of to -d a y is not u su a lly regarded b y th e cognoscenti as one to w hom a belief in ** th e co n victio n o f th in gs th a t
appear not ” ap p eals w ith a n y gre at force. Ind eed , th e term
“ m ere fo x-h u n ter " h as been em p lo yed as one of con tem p tu ou s
reference b y those w h o live, or p reten d to live , “ th e higher
life ,” tow a rd s those for w h om th e life of th e fields exercises
a m ore p o te n t call. I t w as n ot ever thu s. N im rod w as appre
c ia tiv e ly described as “ a m ig h ty hu n ter before th e L o rd ” ; an d
C h au cer cou p led '* hunters ” an d “ h o ly m en ” togeth er. M a n y
of th e m ost n o ted sportsm en of N orthern E n g la n d , du rin g w h a t
C ath o lics call “ th e penal tim es ” esp ecially, w hen th e y w ere
le g a lly disqualified from servin g th e S ta te in a n y official ca p a c ity ,
w ere m ost d e v o u t a n d earnest adh eren ts o f th a t form of C hris
tia n ity w hich insists upon a higher spiritual life an d a firm er
credence in th e supernatural th a n a n y other. T h e C a th o lic
C hurch has, in p oin t of fa ct, ta k en legitim a te sport under its pro
tectio n in th e person of S t. H u b e rt— w ho w as co n verted to
C h ristia n ity w hile sta g -h u n tin g b y th e appearance of a w h ite
hart w ith a crucifix b etw een his antlers— an d u p on th is sain t's
festival d a y (N ovem ber 3), fallin g as it does a t th e com m ence
m en t of th e h u n tin g season, celebration s in his honour an d th a t
o f th e chase still ta k e p lace in p arts of F ra n ce an d B elgiu m . T h e
original breed of hounds from w h ich our present d a y p a ck s d erive
w as called after S t. H u b e r t ; an d th e m ediaeval “ H u n ters'
M ass,” w hich o n ly lasted a qu arter of an hour, w a s in stitu te d
to show th e recognition o f th e claim s of th e chase to th e
indulgence of th e C hurch, an d offered a real lin k betw een sp ort
an d sp iritu ality.
T h is being so, i t is n ot surprising th a t w e should find a m ass
of legen d ary lore an d o f so-called superstitious belief con nected
w ith variou s kin ds o f field sports, an d d e v o u tly cred ited b y
those w hose business or pleasure it is to chase th e w ild deer or
follow th e roe, to shoot flyin g, to angle, to h u n t, or to h aw k.u
Original fromU A D \ / A D r \ I I M I X / C D C I T V
270 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
R eco rd o f such beliefs is n ot m ad e in th e volu m es of th e " B a d
m in to n ” L ib ra ry , nor are b o o ks on folklore esp ecially con cerned
w ith p rogn ostication s con n ected w ith sport. T h e illu stration s
collected in th is article are ch iefly those th a t h a ve com e to the
w riter ora lly in th e course of h a lf a life-tim e g iv e n to th e p u rsu it
o f field sports, ch iefly in th e realm s o f h u n tin g, sh ootin g an d
an glin g.
In form er tim es gre a t a tte n tio n w as p a id b y h u n tin g m en to
th e asp ect o f th e " H u n te r s ’ M oon ,” th e m oon for th e m on th
o f N o vem b er ; a n d auguries as to th e w eath er th a t w ould d is
tin gu ish th e ensuing season w ere d raw n from its first ap p earan ce
in th e e ven in g sk y . Seein g h ow depen den t h u n tin g is u pon
fa vo u rab le w eath er con dition s— absen ce of frost, snow, fog, o v e r
m u ch rain or a d ro u g h t— it is ea sy to u n derstan d th e im p ortan ce
a tta ch e d b y our forefathers to “ th e look o f th e n ew m oon ” ;
w h eth er it la y on its b a ck an d th reaten ed rain, or stood u p righ t,
p rom isory of fair w eather, or en w rap t in h aze or halo p rogn osti
ca te d an u n se ttle d period. A s th e sym b o l of D ia n a , “ qu een
an d h u n tress,” it d ou b tless a ttr a c te d th e especial regard o f th e
h u n tin g m an, w h o n o w a d a y s p laces m ore fa ith in inefficient
m eteorological forecasts an d a p erfu n cto ry ta p p in g of his
b arom etrical fetish in th e front hall. O u r astrological ancestors,
h ow ever, h a v e recorded in a * M onkish rh ym e ’ a sp o rtin g b elief
con n ected w ith th e w eath er w h ich r u n s :
S i so l splendescat M a ria purificante,M a jor fr it g la d es post festum quant fu it ante.
T h e m ost num erous gro u p of h u n tin g su perstition s is co n
cerned w ith th e hare : an an im al w hose n a tu ra l h ab its— its
su d d en appearan ce in th e m id st of a seem in gly e m p ty enclosure,
its speed, cun ning, m ysteriou s evan ish m en t a t m om en ts w hen
escape from th e hounds seem s w h o lly im possible, a n d its e x tr a
ord in arily hum an scream w hen ca u g h t— h a ve ever m ad e it a
su b je ct of aw esom e regard, esp ecially in C e ltic countries.
In C ornw all, for instan ce, th e ap p arition o f a w h ite hare
before hounds is considered to be th e spirit o f som e w om an or
girl w ho h as been b e tra y e d b y th e h u n tsm an or b y one of his
fo llo w e r s ; an d unless hounds ca n be w h ip p ed off an d th e chase
sto p p e d som e disaster is b o u n d to ensue.
A g a in th e w idespread opinion th a t w itch es possess th e pow er
of ta k in g th e form o f a hare is responsible for th e Irish belief
th a t it is n o t lu c k y to kill one before sunrise, even if it should
h a v e crossed yo u r p a th . T h e sam e belief a tta ch es to th e stoat
Digitized by Google Original fromJ A D \ / A D n I I I . I I X / C D r i T V
SPORT SUPERSTITIONS 271— w h ich th e Irish ca ll a w easel— an d for th e sam e r e a s o n ; al
th o u g h I h a v e heard of no con sp icu ou s ill-fortun e o v e rta k in g th e
M aster o f th e re cen tly-e sta b lish ed B ellm o u n t W easel H o u n d s
in Irelan d . Sh o u ld a hare cross an d recross y o u r p a th three
tim es on yo u r w a y to a m eet, it is a w arn in g to y o u to turn b a ck ,
or y o u w ill m eet w ith an a ccid en t in th e h u n tin g field th a t d a y .
T h e sam e if a sto a t or w easel cross th e road in fron t o f y o u . I f
a single m agp ie fly over yo u r p a th it is also a w arn in g of disaster,
w h ich m a y, how ever, be a v e rte d if y o u lift y o u r c a p p o lite ly to
th e b ird a n d (in K en t) spit in to th e crow n o f it.
T h e to w n of H a rro w -o n -th e -H ill possesses a curious legend
th a t if a h u n ted hare runs th rou gh it a fire w ill b reak ou t. T h is
b elief w as verified d u rin g th e H ead m astersh ip of B ish o p W o rd
sw orth, w hose house w as d estro yed b y a fire coin cid en t w ith the
appearan ce of a hare in th e s t r e e t ; an d th e sam e th in g has a ga in
h ap p en ed there once w ith in th e last tw e n ty years. C u riou sly
enough, S t. A n selm , th e p atron sain t of H arrow — w h ich he calls
H erga — has recorded th a t he saw a hare ru n n in g th rou gh the
village, w h ich rem in ded h im of " a sou l fleeing from the fires of
H ell. " T h is pious legen d is com m em orated in th e m od em
C ath o lic C h u rch a t th e foot of th e H ill b y a sta tu e of S t. A n selm
represented w ith a hare.
B e lie f in th e ill-lu ck th a t follow s a m an w ho on se ttin g forth
for his d a y 's sport finds his p a th crossed b y a hare is v e r y p reval
e n t in C o r n w a ll; an d a m o d e m w riter has recou n ted th e pre
v e n tio n of a fishing exp ed itio n b y th e sim ple exp ed ien t o f its
e n e m y m aliciou sly ca stin g a hare's foot ab oard th e boat.
T h e H igh lan d ers of S co tla n d h a ve a legen d o f an o tter— de
v o u tly b elieved in, w hich ** never is b u t a lw a ys to be " seen—
w h om th e y ca ll Ddbhar-chu, “ th e d a rk or obscure d o g ,” w hose
sk in ca n heal all diseases, its v a lu e b e in g th e am ou n t of pure g o ld
it w ill co n ta in a fte r h a v in g been sew n u p to m a k e a sporan, or
purse.
I t is in terestin g to com pare th is legen d w ith th e sto ry w ith
w h ich th e Secon d L a y of S igu rd F a fn isb a n a in th e H eroic p art
o f th e P o e tic E d d a c o m m e n c e s: w here O d in , L o k i an d Hcenir
com e upon an o tte r e a tin g a fine salm on w h ich he h as ju st k illed
a n d sla y him . T h is is O tr , th e son o f H reidm ar, to w h om th e
iE sir show th e skin, b ein g con dem n ed as pun ish m en t to fill
an d co ver it w ith red gold . A k in to these is th e Irish b elief th a t
a purse m ad e of a " w easel’s ” skin w ill n ever b e e m p t y ; b u t
th e purse m u st b e fou n d , n o t m ad e n or stolen.
In th e Isle o f S k y e there is still a curren t belief th a t if a w h ite
272 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
seal b e encountered b y th e sp ortsm an m ore th a n a m ile from
th e coast, som e terrible d isaster is a b o u t to o ve rta k e th e island.
A m o n g th e deer-stalkers sigh t o f those fabu lou s creatures,
th e w ater-horse an d th e w ater-bu ll, is fre q u e n tly credited. T h e y
liv e in th e tarn s an d lochs h igh a m o n g th e hills. T h e la tte r is
said to liv e on otters— p o p u la rly supposed b y m en of science to
h a v e n o n a tu ra l enem ies— an d th e form er te m p ts h u m an beings
to m ou n t him , w hen he rushes in to th e w a te r w ith his powerless
h u m an freigh t, w hose lu n gs an d live r w ill b e fou n d floa tin g on
th e surface o f th e w a te r after m a n y d a y s. T h e w ater-horse
assum es variou s form s, th e m ost insidious o f w hich is th a t of a
y o u n g m an w ith san d in his h air a n d w eeds a b o u t his brogues. T h e w ater-bu ll em erges from th e lochs a n d covers dom estic cow s,
w hose p ro ge n y m a y b e kn ow n b y th eir ab n o rm a lly short ears.
T h e stalkers also som etim es see a t n igh t ** th e w h ite hound
w hose b a y in g no m an hears ” coursing a lo n g th e u p p er slopes of
th e hillsides. T h e vision a lw a y s p orten ds th e im m inence o f war,
an d it is said th a t prior to th e B oer W a r th e w h ite h ou n d w as seen
b y m a n y ghillies a n d shepherds in th e N orth ern an d W estern H igh
lands, w hence m ost of th e m en w h o w ere k illed in th e ran ks of
L o v a t ’s S co u ts an d th e S co ttish H orse w ere su b seq u en tly draw n.
T h e " W ish t H o u n d s,” w h o hu n t sta g s in th e air on D artm oor,
possess a n a ffin ity w ith th e *' w h ite hound ” or " h ound of d e a th ,"
a n d find a cou n terp art in T e u to n ic legend.
C om in g to th e sport of sh ootin g w e h a v e th a t fin ely hum ane
C e ltic " forest law ” th a t forbids th e killin g o f a sittin g bird, ix . a b ird u pon its nest. M ore obscure is th e preju d ice com m on
am o n gst a ll H ighlanders, w h ich h as n ow spread to th e S o u th o f
S co tla n d , again st sh ootin g th e lap w in g, or “ pees w eep .” T h e
b ird is harm less, it is true, b u t so num erous an d such g o o d e a tin g
t h a t it is difficult to k n o w w h y th is p reju d ice should exist. I t
does n o t e x ist in E n g la n d , nor does it a p p ly to th e golden p lover
in S co tlan d , nor to th e eg g s o f either species. T h e curlew , w hich
is freely slau gh tered elsew here, is n o t k illed in Irelan d or th e
H igh la n d s, b ein g regarded a s a b ird o f e v il o m e n ; b u t its con
gener, th e w him brel, or *' M a y b ird ,” is ea g erly so u gh t after
d u rin g th e sp rin g m igration . In C ornw all th e ch ou gh is not
sh o t b y th e true C o m ish m an , because th e soul of K in g A rth u r
is supposed to h a v e m ig ra te d in to a ch o u gh u n til th e tim e w hen
he shall return to redeem th e C eltic peoples from th e thraldom
o f th e S a x o n . T h is legend is m en tion ed in Don Quixote, w here
th e b ird is called a raven ; an d “ E n glish m en ” ta k e th e place
o f C om ish m en in C e rv a n te s’ version.
jinai froirDigitized t Google I I All
SPORT SUPERSTITIONS 273T h e w arn in g co n v e y e d b y th e single m agp ie ap p lies to sh ootin g
as w ell as to h u n tin g, a n d th e w riter once h ad a curious con firm a
tion o f th e v a lid ity of th is belief. H e w as w a lk in g w ith a y o u n g
farm er to jo in a ra b b it-sh o o t on a n eighbou rin g farm . A m agp ie
crossed th e p a th a n d w as salu ted b y th e w riter in th e trad itio n al
m anner. T h e y o u n g farm er, w h o h a d been ed u ca ted a t a B oard
School, la u gh e d th e b elief in porten ded b ad , lu ck to scorn.
D u rin g th e d a y he lost a v a lu a b le ferret, a n d la te in th e aftern oon
w as sta n d in g in a lan e m aca d a m ized w ith th e local gran ite, w hen
his b rother fired a t a ra b b it a n d th e sh ot, ricoch etin g from th e
h ard surface of th e road severely w ou n d ed th e u n b eliever in the
ear an d ch eek an d narrow ly m issed d estro yin g th e sigh t of one
eye. H ere, as elsewhere, th e con n ection o f w itches w ith hares
is co m m o n ly held credible. T h ere are, in p oin t o f fa ct, m a n y
recorded in stan ces in w h ich a w ou n d ed hare has ta k e n refuge
in an a d ja ce n t co tta g e , an d, b ein g so u gh t there, n o th in g b u t an
old w om an b leed in g from a gu n sh o t w o u n d in th e leg has been
d iscoverable.
T h e ap p earan ce o f a w easel w hen one is an g lin g is om inous
o f b a d s p o r t ; b u t th e m ost u n fo rtu n ate th in g th a t ca n h ap pen
to a n an gler in Irelan d is to b e ask ed w here he is g o in g to fish.
R a th e r th a n an sw er such a qu estion th e n a tiv e w ou ld return
hom e an d ab an d on his in ten tion for th a t d a y .
In C ornw all, w here th e ch ief en e m y o f th e sea-fisherm en
is th e dog-fish, a sh ark -like fish th a t ruins th eir n ets, it is cu sto
m a ry w hen one is u n w ittin g ly ca u g h t to b lin d it b y th ru stin g
thorn s in to its eyes an d th en to th ro w it o verb oard, th a t it m a y
go an d w arn its fellow s n o t to com e near th e fishing grounds.
T h e re is an oth er curious an d v e r y old b elief in C orn w all expressed
in C ornish t h u s : " Diber mor-gi en m is M i, rag dho w il maw," w h ich m a y be in te r p r e te d : " E a t a dog-fish in M a y m on th, if
y o u w an t to b eget a b o y ."
T h e dog-fish is called th e K in g 's fish b y th e G a e ls o w in g to
th e d isp u te th a t arose b etw een th e K in g o f L o ch la n n an d F io n n
as to w hose c a tc h it w as, w hen it w as fou n d to h a ve th e h ooks of
b o th an glers in its m ou th . I t w as aw arded to F io n n , an d th e
K in g (as m odern anglers w ill b e alarm ed to hear) fined for not
h a v in g n oticed th a t it h a d ta k e n his b a it first.
T h e superstitions o f th a t v e r y superstitious class o f " sports
m an " th e ra cin g m an h a ve n ot been d e a lt w ith here. T h ese are
a ll con cerned w ith dream s a n d om ens h a v in g for th eir o b je ct th e
selection o f a horse u p on w hose success th e y ca n w in m o n ey b y
b e ttin g , a n d h a v e little in terest eith er for th e gen uine sportsm an
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274 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
or th e th o u g h tfu l stu d en t. B u t in conclusion here is an in terest
in g a n d v e r y an cien t “ ch arm for an a d d e r-b ite ,” to w hich b o th
h u n tin g an d sh ootin g m en an d their hounds an d d ogs w ere in
form er d a y s p ecu lia rly lia b le :
A cross w as m ad e of tw o pieces o f h azel w ood, an d h a v in g
been laid u p on th e w ound, th e follow in g w as recited :
Underneath this hazelen moteIs a braggoty worm with a speckled throat.Nine double hath h e :Now nine double to eight double,Eight double to seven double.Seven double to six double,Six double to five double.Five double to four double.Four double to three double,Three double to two double.Two double to one double.One double to no double hath he.
A fte r w hich th e person recovered. A sim pler cure th a n a n y
Mrs. M ary B a k e r G . E d d y an d her dupes h a ve y e t succeeded in
in v e n t in g ; th o u gh m ost m o d e m M asters o f h ou n d s w o u ld
p r o b a b ly prefer th e cu sto m a ry dren ch of sa l-v o la tile an d o live
oil, su p p lem en ted b y an o u tw a rd a p p lica tio n an d rep eated a t
an in te rva l of six hours, to th e tro u b le o f p rocu rin g a “ h azelen
m o te ” an d c o m m ittin g such a ch arm to m em ory.
Original fromU A D U A D D I I M I X / E D C I T VDigitized by Google
By CATHERINE CROWE
THE DUTCH GENERAL’S STORY
[The following story appears in Mrs. Catherine Crowe’s Ghosts and F a m ilyLegends, now out o f print. The narrative is given as told by aDutch General of Mrs. Crowe’s acquaintance, and seemed to me ofsuch sufficient psychical interest to merit reproduction.— E d .]
“ T H E D u tc h a n d B e lg iu m W a r broke o u t a t B russels on th e
28th o f A u g u s t, 1830, an d w e im m e d ia tely a d v a n ce d w ith a
con siderable force to a tta c k th a t c ity . I w as a lieu te n an t
colonel th en , an d com m an d ed th e 20th foot, to w h ich regim ent
I h a d been la te ly ap p oin ted .
" W e h a d been three or four d a y s in ca n to n m e n t, w hen I
h eard tw o of th e m en, w h o w ere d ig g in g a little drain a t th e
b a c k of m y te n t, ta lk in g of Jo k el F a lc k , a p riv a te in m y regi
m en t, w h o w as n o ted for his extrao rd in ary disposition to som no
lence, one of th em rem arkin g th a t he w ou ld ce rta in ly h a v e g o t
in to trou b le for b ein g asleep on his p o st th e p reviou s n igh t, if
it h a d n o t been for M ungo. ‘ I d o n ’t k n o w h ow m a n y tim es he
h as sa v e d h im ,’ ad d ed he.
" T o w h ich th e oth er answ ered th a t M u n go w as a v e r y
v a lu a b le friend, a n d h a d sa v e d m a n y a m an from pun ishm en t.
" T h is w as th e first tim e I h a d ever h eard o f M ungo, an d
I ra th er w ondered w h o it w as th e y allu d ed t o ; b u t th e con
versation slipped from m y m in d an d I n ever th o u g h t of ask in g
a n y b o d y .
“ S h o rtly a fte r th is I w as g o in g m y rounds, b ein g field-officer
of th e d a y , w hen I sa w b y th e m oon ligh t th e se n try a t one of
th e o u tp o sts stretch ed u pon th e groun d. I w as som e w a y off w hen
I first p erceived him ; a n d I o n ly k n ew w h a t th e o b je c t w as
from th e situ atio n , an d because I saw th e g litte r o f his a cco u
trem en ts ; b u t alm o st a t th e sam e m o m en t th a t I discovered
h im , I observed a large b la ck N ew fo u n d lan d d o g tro ttin g tow ard s
him . T h e m an rose as th e d o g ap p roach ed, a n d h ad g o t upon
his legs before I reach ed th e sp o t. T h is occupied th e sp ace
of a b o u t tw o m in u tes— perhaps n o t so m uch.
" ‘ Y o u w ere asleep on y o u r p o st,' I s a i d ; a n d tu rn in g to
th e m o u n ted ord erly th a t a tte n d e d m e, I to ld him to g o b a c k an d
b rin g a file o f th e g u ard to ta k e him prisoner, an d to sen d a
se n try to relieve him .
" ‘ N on , m on colonel,’ said he, a n d from th e w a y h e sp oke
Original fromU A D \ / A D r \ I I M I X / C D C I T V
276 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
I p erceived he w as in to x ica ted , * i t ’s all th e fa u lt of th a t damné M u n go. I l m ’a m a n q u é .’
“ B u t I p aid n o a tte n tio n to w h a t he said a n d rode on, con
clu d in g Mungo w as som e sla n g term o f th e m en for drink.
" Som e even in gs a fte r this, I w as riding b a ck from m y
b rother’s qu arter— he w as in th e 15 th , an d w as sta tio n ed a b o u t
a m ile from us— w hen I rem arked th e sam e d og I h ad seen before
tro t u p to a se n try w ho, w ith his legs crossed, w as leanin g a ga in st
a w all. T h e m an started , an d b egan w alk in g b ack w a rd s and
forw ards on his b eat. I recognized th e d og b y a large w hite
stre a k on his side, a ll th e rest o f his co a t being b la ck .
" O n th e sam e even in g a t m ess, I heard one o f th e subalterns
s a y to th e officer w ho sa t n e x t him , * I t ’s a fact, I assure yo u ,
an d th e y call him M u n go .’
" ' T h a t ’s a new nam e th e y 'v e g o t for schnapps, isn 't it ? '
I said.
" * N o , sir ; it 's th e nam e o f a d o g ,' replied th e y o u n g m an,
lau gh in g.
" * A b la ck N ew fo u n d lan d , w ith a large w h ite strea k on his
*' * Y e s, sir, I b elieve th a t is th e d escrip tion ,’ replied he.
" ‘ I h a ve seen th a t d og tw o or three tim e s,’ said I. ' I saw
h im th is even in g. W h o does he b elo n g to ? '
" * W e ll, sir, th a t is a d ifficu lt q u e stio n ,’ answ ered th e l a d ;
an d I h eard his com pan ion s a y , * T o O ld N ic k , I sh ould th in k .’
“ * D o y o u m ean to s a y y o u 'v e really seen M u n go ? ’ said
so m e b o d y a t th e tab le.
“ * I f M u n go is a large N ew fo u n d lan d — b la ck , w ith a w h ite
stre a k on its side— I sa w him ju s t now . W h o does he b elo n g to ? '
" B y th is tim e, th e w hole m ess ta b le w as in a titte r, w ith
th e exce p tio n o f one old ca p ta in , a m an w h o h a d been years in
th e regim ent. H e w as of v e r y h u m b le e x tra ctio n , an d h ad
risen b y m erit to his present position.
** * I believe C a p ta in T ------- is b e tte r a cq u ain ted w ith
M u n go th a n a n y b o d y p resent,’ answ ered M ajor R ------- w ith a
sneer. * P erhaps he can te ll y o u w h o he belongs to .’
" T h e la u gh ter increased, an d I sa w there w as som e jo k e , b u t
n o t u n d erstan d in g w h a t it m ean t, I said to C a p ta in T -------, * D oes
th e d o g belon g to Jo k el F a lc k ? ’
" ' N o , sir,' he replied, ‘ th e d o g belongs to n o b o d y now .
H e once belon ged to an officer called Joseph A tv e ld .’
“ * B elo n gin g to this regim en t ? ’
fla n k ?
Y e s, sir.
Original fromU A D \ / A D r \ I I M I X / C D C I T V
TH E DUTCH G EN ER A L’S STORY 277“ ' H e is d ead , I suppose ?
" ' Y e s, sir, he is.’
“ ' A n d th e d o g has a tta ch e d him self to th e regim en t ? ’
“ D u rin g th is con versation , th e suppressed la u gh ter con tin u ed ,
an d e v e ry e y e w as fixed on C a p ta in T ------- , w ho answ ered m e
sh o rtly, b u t w ith th e u tm o st g r a v ity .
“ * In fa c t,’ said th e m ajor co n te m p tu o u sly, 4 accord in g to
C a p ta in T ------- , M ungo is th e gh o st of a deceased d o g .’
“ 4 I t is easier to lau gh a t such a th in g th a n to believe it,
sir,’ said he. 41 b elieve it, becau se I kn ow it . ’
441 sm iled, an d tu rn ed th e con versation .
44 I f a n y b o d y a t th e ta b le e x ce p t C a p ta in T ------- h ad m ad e such
a n assertion as this, I should h a v e ridiculed th em w ith o u t m ercy ;
b u t he w as an old m an, a n d from th e circu m stan ces I h a ve
m entioned regard in g his origin, w e w ere carefu l n ot to offend him ;
so no m ore w as said a b o u t M ungo, an d in th e h u rry o f even ts
th a t follow ed I n ever th o u g h t o f it again. W e m arched on to
B russels th e n e x t d a y ; an d after th a t w en t to A n tw e rp , w here
w e w ere besieged b y th e F ren ch th e follow in g year.
“ D u rin g th e siege, I som etim es heard th e n am e o f M ungo
again ; an d, one n igh t, w hen I w as v is itin g th e gu ard s an d sentries
on gran d rounds, I c a u g h t a glim p se o f him , an d I fe lt sure th a t
th e m an he w as ap p roach in g, w hen I ob served him , h ad been
a s le e p ; b u t he w as screened b y an an gle o f th e bastion, an d b y
th e tim e I tu rn ed th e co m er, he w as m o vin g ab ou t.
44 T h is b ro u gh t to m y m in d all I h ad heard a b o u t th e d o g ;
an d as th e circu m stan ce w a s curious, in a n y p o in t o f view , I
m en tion ed w h a t I h ad seen to C a p ta in T ------- th e n e x t d a y , sa yin g ,
41 sa w y o u r friend M ungo last n ig h t.’
44 4 D id y o u , sir ? ’ said he. 4 I t ’s a stran ge th in g l N o d o u b t,
th e m an w as asleep ! ’
44 B u t do y o u seriou sly m ean to s a y th a t y o u b elieve th is to
b e a vis io n a ry d og, an d n o t a d o g o f flesh an d blood ? ’
44 4 1 do, s i r ; I h a v e been q u izze d enough a b o u t i t ; an d,
on ce or tw ice, h a v e n ea rly g o t in to a quarrel, because people
w ill persist in la u gh in g a t w h a t th e y k n o w n o th in g a b o u t ; b u t
as sure as th a t is a sw ord y o u hold in y o u r hand, so sure is
th a t d o g a spectre, or gh o st— if such a w ord is ap p licab le to a
fo u r-fo o te d b e a s t ! ’
“ 4 B u t i t ’s im possible ! ’ I said. 4 W h a t reason h a ve y o u
for such an ex tra o rd in a ry b elief ! ’
“ 4 W h y , y o u kn ow , sir, m an an d b o y , I h a v e been in th e
' Y e s, sir.
n Google
278 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
regim ent all m y life. I w as born in it. M y fath er w as p a y -
sergean t of N o. 3 co m p a n y, w hen he died ; an d I h a ve seen M ungo
m yself, p erh aps tw e n ty tim es, an d kn ow n, p o sitiv e ly , o f others
seeing him tw ice as m a n y m ore.’
“ * V e r y p ossib ly ; b u t th a t is no proof th a t it is n o t som e
d o g th a t has a tta ch e d him self to th e re gim e n t.’
“ ' B u t I h a v e seen an d heard o f th e d og for f ifty years, s i r ;
a n d m y fa th er before m e h ad seen an d h eard of him as l o n g ! ’
“ 4 W ell, ce rta in ly, th a t is e x tra o rd in a ry— if y o u are sure
o f it, an d th a t i t ’s th e sam e d o g ! ’
“ 4 I t ’s a rem arkable dog, sir. Y o u w o n ’t see an oth er like
it w ith th a t large w h ite streak on his flank. H e w o n ’t le t one
of our sentries be foun d asleep, if he ca n help ; unless, indeed,
th e fellow is drun k. H e seem s to h a v e less care of drunkards,
b u t M ungo has sa v e d m a n y a m an from pu n ish m en t. I w as
once n ot a little in d eb ted to him m yself. M y sister w as m arried
o u t o f th e regim en t, an d w e h ad h ad a b it of a fe s tiv ity , and
d ran k rath er too freely a t th e w ed din g, so th a t w hen I m oun ted
gu ard th a t n ig h t— I w a sn ’t to sa y , d ru n k , b u t m y h ead w as
a little gone, or s o ; an d I sh ould h a ve been c a u g h t n od d in g ;
b u t M ungo, k n ow in g, I suppose, th a t I w as n o t an h a b itu a l
d run kard, w oke m e ju s t in tim e .’
“ 4 H o w d id he w a k e y o u ? ’ I asked.
“ 4 1 w as roused b y a short, sharp b ark , th a t sou n ded close to
m y ears. I sta rte d up, an d h ad ju s t tim e to c a tc h a glim p se of
M ungo before he va n ish ed ! ’
“ 4 Is th a t th e w a y he a lw a y s w akes th e m en ? ’
“ 4 S o th e y s a y ; an d, as th e y w ake, he d isap p ears.’
“ I recollected n ow th a t on each occasion w hen I h a d observed
th e dog, I had, som ehow , lost sigh t of him in a n in s t a n t ; and, m y
cu rio sity b ein g aw ak en ed , I ask ed C a p ta in T ------- if ours were
th e o n ly m en he to o k ch arge of, or, w h eth er he show ed th e
sam e a tte n tio n to those of oth er regim en ts ?
“ 4 O n ly th e 20th, s i r ; th e tra d itio n is, t h a t a fte r th e b a ttle
o f F o n te n o y , a large b la ck m astiff w a s foun d ly in g beside a dead
officer. A lth o u g h he h ad a d rea d fu l w o u n d from a sab re c u t on
his flan k, an d w as m u ch e xh au sted from loss of blood, he w ou ld
n o t le a v e th e b o d y ; an d ev e n after w e bu ried it, h e co u ld not
b e en ticed from th e sp o t. T h e m en, in terested b y th e fid elity
a n d a tta ch m e n t o f th e anim al, b o u n d u p his w ounds, an d fed
an d ten d ed h i m ; an d he b ecam e th e d o g o f th e regim en t. I t
is said, th a t th e y h a d ta u g h t him to g o his rounds before th e gu ard s
an d sentries w ere vis ite d , an d to w a k e a n y m en th a t slep t. H o w
JrmirDigitized by Google D \ / A D r v H M i w c D c r r
TH E DUTCH G E N E R A L S STORY 279
th is m a y be, I ca n n o t s a y ; b u t he rem ained w ith th e regim ent
till his d eath , an d w as buried w ith a ll th e respect th e y cou ld
show him . Sin ce th a t, he has show n his g ra titu d e in th e w a y
I tell y o u , an d of w hich y o u h a ve seen som e in stan ces.’
“ 4 1 suppose th e w h ite streak is th e m ark o f th e sabre cu t.
I w onder y o u n ever fired a t h im .’
“ 4 G o d forbid, sir, I should d o such a th in g ,’ said C a p ta in
T ------- , lo o k in g sharp round a t m e. 4 I t ’s said th a t a m an d id so
once, an d th a t he n ever h ad a n y lu ck a fte r w a r d s ; th a t m a y be
a superstition, b u t I confess I w ou ld n ’t ta k e a good deal to do i t . ’
44 4 If, as y o u believe, i t ’s a spectre, it co u ld n ot b e h urt,
y o u k n o w ; I im agine g h o s tly dogs are im pervious to b u lle ts.’
“ 4 N o d o u b t, sir ; b u t I sh ou ld n ’t like to t r y th e experim en t.
B esides, it w ou ld b e useless, as I am co n vin ced a lre a d y .’
“ I pondered a good d eal upon this con versation w ith th e
old ca p tain . I h ad n ever for a m om en t en tertain ed th e idea
th a t such a th in g w as possible. I sh ould h a v e as m u ch exp ected
to m eet th e m in otau r or a fly in g dragon as a gh o st of a n y sort,
esp ecially th e gh o st of a d og ; b u t th e evid e n ce here w as cer
ta in ly startlin g. I h a d n ever ob served a n y th in g like w eakness
an d cre d u lity a b o u t T ------- ; m oreover, he w as a m an of kn ow n
cou rage, an d v e r y m u ch respected in th e regim ent. In short,
so m u ch h ad his. earnestness on th e su b je ct staggered m e, th a t I
resolved w hen ever it w as m y tu rn to v is it th e gu ards an d sentries,
th a t I w ou ld ca rry a p isto l w ith m e re a d y prim ed an d loaded, in
order to se ttle th e question . I f T ------- w as right, there w o u ld be
an in terestin g fa ct established, an d no harm done ; if, as I cou ld
not help su sp ectin g, it w as a cu n n in g trick of th e m en, w ho h ad
train ed th is d o g to w a k e them , w hile th e y k e p t u p th e farce of th e
spectre, th e an im al w ou ld b e w ell o u t of th e w a y , since th e ir
reliance on him no d o u b t led th em to g iv e w a y to drow siness w hen
th e y w ou ld otherw ise h a ve stru ggled a ga in st i t ; indeed, th o u gh
none of our m en h ad been d e te cte d — th an ks, perhaps, to M ungo
— there h ad been so m u ch n egligen ce la te ly in th e garrison th a t
th e gen eral h ad issued v e r y severe orders on th e su b ject.
“ H o w ever, I carried m y pistol in v a in ; I d id n o t happen to
fall in w ith M ungo ; an d som e tim e afterw ards, on h ea rin g th e
th in g allu ded to a t th e m ess-table, I m en tion ed w h a t I h ad
done, ad d in g, 4 M ungo is too kn ow in g, I fa n c y , to rim th e risk of
g e ttin g a b u llet in h im .’
“ 4 W e ll,’ said M ajor R ------- , 41 should lik e to h a ve a shot a t
h im , I confess. I f I th o u g h t I h ad a n y ch an ce of seeing him ,
I ’d ce rta in ly t r y i t ; b u t I ’v e never seen him a t a ll.’
280 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
“ * Y o u r b e st c h an ce,* said another, ' is w hen J o k el F a lc k
is on d u ty . H e is su ch a sleep y scoundrel, th a t th e m en s a y if it
w as not for M ungo, h e’d pass h alf his tim e in th e gu a rd -h o u se/
“ * I f I co u ld c a tc h him I ’d p u t a n ou n ce o f lead in to h i m ;
th a t he m a y re ly o n .’
“ * In to Jo k el F a lc k , sir ? ’ said one of th e subs, lau ghin g.
“ ‘ N o, sir,’ replied M ajor R ------- ; * in to M ungo— an d I ’ll do
it, to o .’
“ ‘ B e tte r n ot, sir,’ said C a p ta in T ------- , g ra v e ly , p ro vo kin g
th e r e b y a gen eral t itte r round th e tab le.
“ S h o rtly after this, as I w as one n ig h t g o in g to m y qu arter, I
sa w a m o u n ted ord erly ride in an d ca ll o u t a file o f th e gu ard to
ta k e a prisoner.
“ ‘ W h a t ’s th e m a tte r ? ’ I asked.
“ * O n e o f th e sen tries asleep on his p o st, sir ; I believe it ’s
J o k el F a lc k .’
“ ‘ I t w ill b e th e last tim e w h o e ver it is,* I said ; * for th e
gen eral is determ ined to shoot th e n e x t m an t h a t ’s c a u g h t.’
“ ‘ I sh ould h a v e th o u g h t M ungo h ad stood Jo k el F a lc k ’s
friend so often th a t h e’d n e v e r h a v e allow ed him to b e c a u g h t,’
said th e a d ju ta n t. * M u n go has n eglected his d u ty.*
“ * N o, sir,’ said th e orderly, g r a v e ly . ‘ M ungo w ou ld h a ve
w a k e d him , b u t M ajor R ------- sh ot a t h im .’
“ ‘ A n d killed h im ,’ I said.
“ T h e m an m ad e no answer, b u t to u ch ed h is c a p an d rode a w a y.
“ I heard no m ore of th e affair th a t n ig h t ; b u t th e n e x t m orning,
a t a v e r y ea rly hour, m y servan t w o k e m e, sa yin g th a t M ajor
R -------w ished to speak to m e. I desired he should be a d m itted , an d
th e m om en t he entered th e room I sa w b y his coun ten ance
th a t som eth in g serious h a d occurred ; o f course, I th o u g h t th e
en e m y h ad gain ed som e u n e xp ecte d a d v a n ta g e d u rin g th e n igh t,
an d sa t u p in b ed inquirin g eag erly w h a t h ad h appen ed .
“ T o m y surprise he p u lled o u t his p o ck et-h a n d k erch ief and
b u rst in to tears. H e h ad m arried a n a tiv e of A n tw e rp , an d
his w ife w as in th e c it y a t th is tim e. T h e first th in g th a t occurred
to m e w as, th a t she h ad m et w ith som e accid en t, an d I m en tion ed
her nam e.
" * N o , n o ,’ he said ; 4 m y son, m y b o y, m y poor F r itz ! *
“ Y o u kn ow th a t in our service e v e ry officer first enters his
regim en t as a p riv a te soldier, an d for a certain sp ace o f tim e does
a ll th e d u ties of th a t position. T h e m a jo r’s son F r itz w as th u s in
his n o vicia te. I con clu d ed he h a d been killed b y a s tr a y shot,
an d for a m in u te or tw o I rem ained in th is persuasion, th e m a jo r’s
Original fromLJ A D \ / A D r\ I I M H / E D C I T VDigitized by Google
speech b ein g ch oked b y his sobs. T h e first w ords he u ttered
were—
“ ‘ W o u ld to G o d I h ad ta k e n C a p ta in T -------’s a d v ic e ! *
“ * A b o u t w h a t ? ’ I said. 4 W h a t h as h ap pen ed to F r itz ? ’
“ 4 Y o u know ,* said he, 4 y e ste rd a y I w as field-officer of th e
d a y ; a n d w hen I w as g o in g m y rounds last n igh t, I happen ed
to ask m y orderly, w ho w as assistin g to p u t on m y sash, w h a t
m en w e h ad to ld off for th e gu ard. A m o n g st others, he n am ed
J o k e l F a lc k , a n d rem em bering th e con versation th e oth er d a y a t
th e m ess tab le, I to o k one of m y pistols o u t o f th e holster, and,
a fte r loadin g, p u t it in m y p o ck et. I d id n o t e x p e ct to see th e
d og, for I h a d n ever seen h i m ; b u t as I h ad no d o u b t th a t th e
s to r y of th e sp ectre w a s som e d od ge o f th e m en, I determ ined, if
e v e r I did, to h a v e a sh ot a t him . A s I w as g o in g th ro u gh th e
P la ce de M eyer, I fell in w ith th e gen eral, w h o join ed m e, a n d
w e rode on to geth er, ta lk in g o f th e siege. I h ad fo rg o tte n all
a b o u t th e d og, b u t w hen w e ca m e to th e ram part, a b o v e th e B a stio n
d u M a tte , I su d d e n ly sa w e x a c tly su ch an an im a l as th e one
described, tro ttin g b en eath us. I k n ew there m u st b e a se n try
im m e d ia te ly b elo w w here w e rode, th o u g h I co u ld n ot see him ,
a n d I h ad no d o u b t th a t th e an im al w as m a k in g to w a rd s h i m ;
«o w ith o u t sa y in g a w ord, I drew o u t m y p isto l an d fired, a t
th e sam e m o m en t ju m p in g off m y horse, in order to look o ve r th e
bastion , an d g e t a sigh t o f th e m an. W ith o u t com p reh en din g
w h a t I w a s a b o u t, th e gen eral d id th e sam e, a n d there w e sa w th e
s e n tr y ly in g on his face, fa st asleep .’
44 4 A n d th e b o d y o f th e d o g ? ’ said I.
44 4 N ow here to b e seen,’ he answ ered, 4 an d y e t I m u st h a v e
h it h im — I fired b a n g in to him . T h e gen eral sa y s it m u st h a v e
b een a delusion, for he w a s lo o k in g e x a c tly in th e sam e d irection ,
a n d saw no d o g a t a ll— b u t I a m certa in I saw him , so d id th e
ord erly.’
44 4 B u t F r itz ? ’ I said.
44 4 I t w as Fritz,— F r itz w a s th e se n try,’ said th e m ajor, w ith
a fresh b u rst of grief. * T h e co u rt-m a rtia l sits th is m orning, an d
m y b o y w ill b e shot, unless in terest ca n b e m ad e w ith th e gen eral
to gra n t h im a p ard on .’
441 rose an d dressed m yse lf im m e d ia tely , b u t w ith little h ope
o f success. P oor F r itz b e in g th e son of an officer w as aga in st
h im rath er th a n o th e rw ise ; it w ou ld h a v e been considered an
a c t o f favo u ritism to spare him . H e w as s h o t ; his poor m oth er
d ied o f a broken heart, an d th e m ajor le ft th e service im
m e d ia te ly a fte r th e surrender of th e c it y .”
TH E DUTCH G EN ERA L’S STORY 281
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CORRESPONDENCE[The name and address of the writer, not necessarily for publication,
is required as evidence of bona fides, and must in every case accompany correspondence sent for insertion in the pages of the Occult Review.— E d.]
In y o u r N o te s o f th e M on th for M arch, referring to “ m ateri-
ism ,” y o u w rite :
“ T h e lead in g scien tists o f E u ro p e h a ve— alm ost w ith o u t
reserve— throw n it overboard. H aeckel has lon g o u tliv e d
his d a y . H e has liv e d to see him self th e espouser of a lost cause.
M aterialism is snow ed un der.”
Is th is indeed so ? A re there n o t passages in H a e ck e l’s w orks
w h ich render q u ite clear th a t his purpose w a s to d eal w ith th e
p h y sica l side n o t because there w as no other, b u t because he held
there w as no ch an ce o f u n d erstan d in g th a t oth er u n til th e m aterial
fou n d ation s of th e p h y sica l side w ere d em on strated ?
A re y o u n o t forgetfu l of th e fa c t th a t D arw in , H u x le y and
H a e ck e l— to n am e three o n ly o u t of th e gre a t “ m aterialists ” —
h ad no a lte rn a tiv e b u t to turn their b ack s on th e “ other ” side ?
W h en th e y h ad co m p leted their ta sk an d dispelled from th e
m inds of m en th e ign oran t superstitions p ro p aga ted as regards
th e p h ysica l origin of th e h u m an race, th e w a y for an in tel
ligen t h an d lin g of th e other side w as open— b u t n o t before.
T h a t th e other side is n ow b ein g in v e stig a te d an d becom ing
— g ra d u a lly — understood is d u e a b so lu te ly to th e m aterialists.
H o w , for exam p le, w ould th e Occult Review h a v e fared, sa y , in
1808, a d a te b are ly f ifty years before th e gre at b a ttle s were fou gh t
an d w on b y “ m aterialism ” o ve r " m ed iaevalism ” ?
I t w o u ld h a ve been denoun ced, a n a th em a tized — an d suppressed. Y o u rs fa ith fu lly , F . S.
[T h e w riter is n o t w ith o u t ju stifica tio n for w h a t he says. B u t
a m I n o t rig h t also ?— E d .]
Sir,— M a y I p o in t o u t t h a t th e w riter of th e poem ” O b livio n ”
in y o u r la st nu m ber has con fu sed G a u ta m a , th e la st B u d d h a ,
a m an w ho n ever professed to be other th a n a m an, w ith a v e r y
m u d d led con cep tion of th e B ra h m of th e A d v a it a school of
th e V e d a n ta p h ilo so p h y ? G a u ta m a lau gh e d a t all tran scen
d e n ta l teach in g, an d in his serm ons c o n s ta n tly p okes fu n a t
th e id ea of D e it y a t all. H is te a ch in g is fou n ded on th e fou r
n ob le tru th s, tru th s w h ich all th e w orld a d m its to be truths,
th e first of w h ich is *' T h e E x iste n c e o f S orrow ." H e h a d n o
use for opinions or theories. S H O O N G Y E .
To the Editor of the Occult Review.
To the Editor of the Occult Review.
U A D \ / A D n I I MI \ / CD
REVIEWS
T he Life of Goethe. B y A . B ielsch o w sk y. G. P . P u tn a m 's
Sons. 3 vols. 15s. n e t per volu m e.
T o those lovers o f G o eth e w ho are u n able to s tu d y his w orks
in th e original th e ap p earan ce of a tran slation o f B ie lsch o w sk y ’s
Goethe, scin Leben und seine Werke, w h ich is u n iversa lly ack n o w
ledged as th e b io g ra p h y par excellence o f th e p oet, w ill be th e
m ost w elcom e e v e n t in th e w orld of books this spring. U n til
its p u b licatio n , G e rm a n y h a d been co n ten t th a t th e m ost popular
an d s y m p a th e tic s tu d y of her gre ate st p o et sh ou ld h a v e com e
from th e a p p recia tive pen o f an E n glish m a n . B u t since G . H .
L ew es aw ak en ed his co u n trym en to a realization o f th a t greatness,
th e open in g o f th e G o eth e A r c h iv has su pplied m u ch n ew m aterial
th en inaccessible, w ith th e result th a t B ie lsch o w sk y ’s w ork is
fou n d ed on a broader basis of kn ow ledge, a deeper in sight, and
a critical o u tlo o k w hich has th e a d v a n ta g e o f th a t m ore d ista n t
p ersp ective im possible to th e m an w ho w rites, as it were, a b o v e
a n e w ly-tu rfe d gra ve. T h u s their p oin ts of difference are often
m ore in stru ctive an d en ligh ten in g to th e un p reju diced stu d en t
th a n those o f agreem ent, w here th e one is b u t an exp an sion of
th e other. O n th e w hole, th o u gh in m a n y cases th e late r b io
grap her m a y b e said to o n ly w iden an d deepen th e v is ta v a g u e ly
glim p sed b y his predecessor, an d to define an ou tlin e form erly
blurred, y e t he does far m ore th a n t h i s ; for w hile L ew es w as
to a con siderable e x te n t concerned w ith th e surface, B ielsch o w sk y
is ra rely occu p ied w ith a n y th in g b u t th e d ep th s, w h eth er em o
tio n al or in tellectu al. O n th e m u ch d isp u ted problem , for in
stan ce, of G o e th e ’s co n d u ct o f his lo ve affairs, w e h a ve an a p t
illu stration o f th is differing p o in t o f view , for w here L ew es half
defen ds an d h a lf blam es, B ielsch o w sk y, sw eepin g aside m ere
criticism o f th e action s them selves, an d d iv in g d ow n in to th e
in m o st recesses of th e p o e t’s soul, brin gs to lig h t th e m o tiv e s
w h ich g a v e rise to them , an d challen ges th e ju d g m e n t o f the
w orld on these. So, too, w ith his trea tm en t o f those first w ild
W e im a r d a y s ; an d th o u gh one m a y feel th a t th e biograph er
h as perhaps gon e a little too far, y e t one ca n n o t b u t feel too
th a t he reaches a lw a ys th e roo t of th e problem , th a t fu n d am en t
a lly h e is u n d o u b te d ly righ t. A n d th is sam e c la r ity of per
cep tion , com b in ed w ith an in tu itiv e in tellectu a l in sigh t w hich
pierces th e surface an d goes stra ig h t to th e h eart o f th in gs.
Original fromJ A D \ / A D r v 1 i f c i i x/CD e r r
284 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
distinguishes his critical an alyses o f th e w orks them selves. F o r
these, th o u gh a lw a ys sch olarly, are n ever o n ly th a t, an d th e
ea sy flow of th e w riter's s ty le an d th e n a rra tive m eth od he has
ad op ted , cause his volum es, w hile fu ll o f su ggestiven ess an d
in terest for th e deeper stu d en t, to hold for th e gen eral reader
all th e fascin ation o f a p sych o lo gica l rom an ce founded on th e
m a g n e tic p erso n ality o f a gre at genius. N o p o et has e v e r w o ven
in to his w o rk his ow n experiences in th e realm s o f b o th a ctio n
an d th o u g h t as G o eth e d id , and n o critic has so sk ilfu lly show n
ju s t h o w an d w here th is in terw e avin g ta k es p lace as B ielsch o w sk y.
T h e chief charm of his b io gra p h y from th e literary an d a rtistic
p o in t of v ie w lies in th e fa c t th a t he h as throw n him self so h eart
an d soul in to his lab ou r of love, w h ich w as also th e labour o f a
lifetim e, h as him self becom e so im p regn ated w ith th e sp irit o f
his p oet-hero, th a t he freq u en tly falls, either d elib erately or u n
con sciously, in to th e v e r y w ords of G o eth e him self, w h ich to those
a cq u ain ted w ith th e w orks an d letters an d journ als a t first h and,
g iv e s a sense of in tim a c y an d re a lity to th e w hole w h ich cou ld
h a rd ly h a v e been produced in a n y other m anner, h ow ever su b tle.
T h e result is so h a p p y th a t one can im agin e n o one, after even
d ip p in g in to th e first volu m e, foregoing th e pleasure of reading
all three, an d for those w ho desire to kn ow , n o t o n ly G o eth e th e
m an an d G o eth e th e p oet, b u t also G o eth e th e statesm an an d
G o e th e th e philosopher, G o eth e th e a rtist an d G o eth e th e scien tist,
— those, in short, w ho w ish for a real com prehen sive kn ow led ge
of th e m an y-sid ed an d w ith a l in ten sely lo va b le p erson ality o f
G e r m a n y ’s g re a te st son, ca n n o t d o b e tte r th a n m eet him in th e
pages of B ielsch o w sk y, w hich are, b y th e w a y , liberally in ter
le a v e d w ith exce llen t illu stration s o f th e p o et an d his friends.
F in a lly , to Mr. C oop er’s share, as tran slator, in th e p rod u ction
o f th ese volu m es, one ca n o n ly accord th a t h igh est praise o f a ll
— th a t he h as succeeded in th e rare an d difficult a ch ievem en t
o f m a k in g a tran slatio n read like an original w ork, reprod u cin g
w ith facile an d h a p p y a c cu ra cy n o t o n ly th e th o u g h t itself, b u t
also th a t in ta n g ib le garm e n t o f “ s ty le ” in w h ich it is clad.
Hypnotic T herapeutics in T heory and Practice. B y John
D u n ca n Q u acken b os, A .M ., M .D . L o n d o n an d N e w Y o r k :
H arp er & B rothers. 1908.
T his in terestin g vo lu m e differs som ew h at in m ann er from w h a t
w e on this side e x p e c t in su ch w orks, b u t it is to b e w elcom ed as
g iv in g th e opinions o f an experien ced observer. I f th e reader
Nora A lexander.
REVIEW S 285finds h im self w ish in g th a t there h ad been m ore p ractice an d
less th e o r y — m ore description of cases an d less sp ecu lation
a b o u t th e p sy ch ic n a tu re of m an — he w ill a t least a d m it th a t
d e ta ils are a p t to becom e tedious, a n d th a t th e fa cts of h yp n o tism
d o seem to require a m ore or less m y stica l kin d o f p sy ch o lo g y ,
if w e are to a tte m p t a n y ex p la n a tio n a t all.
T h e m eth o d s e m p lo yed b y D r. Q u a ck en b o s in in d u cin g
h yp n osis are p r a c tic a lly th e sam e as those e m p lo yed b y all th e
practition ers o f th e n o w triu m p h a n t N a n c y School. Prolon ged
m on oton ou s ta lk , su ggestin g th e gra d u a l on -com in g o f sleep, is
com b in ed w ith fixatio n of th e gaze on som e sm all, b righ t o b ject;
or, w ith re fracto ry su b jects, th e fascin atio n -m eth o d o f th e la te
M . V o isin is a d o p te d , success u su a lly b ein g a tta in e d in fifteen
or tw e n ty m in u tes. H yp n o sis h a v in g been in duced, th e ap p ro
p riate th erap eu tic su ggestion s are m ad e. I t is to be regretted
t h a t th e a u th o r g iv e s us n o inform ation as to th e p ercen tages
o f h y p n o tiza b le an d n o n -h yp n o tiza b le persons am on g his p atien ts.
A lso , som e classification o f th e “ stages ” is v e r y desirable ;
for, th o u g h su ch d ivision m u st b e m ore or less ro u gh -an d -read y,
it is im p o rta n t to d istin gu ish a t least b etw een som n am bu lic
(am nesic), h y p o ta c tic (loss of con trol o ve r m otor nerves, etc.),
a n d un in fluen ced or sligh tly-in flu en ced su b jects. F u r th e r classi
fication is useful, e.g. th e six stages o f L iéb ea u lt.
D r. Q u a ck en b o s g iv e s a list o f diseases w h ich are ben efited
b y su ggestio n al treatm en t, a n d a few of his ow n cases are d e
scribed. O n e o f th e m ost rem arkable is a case in w h ich a cure o f
diabetes seem s to h a v e been effected. T h is p a tie n t h ad lost five
pou n d s in w e ig h t per w eek for six co n secu tive w eeks, a n d his
d e b ility an d em aciatio n w ere extrem e. T h e local p h ysician s w ere
o f opinion th a t he cou ld n ot liv e tw o m on ths. D r. Q u acken b os
g a v e him seven su ggestion al treatm en ts, “ assuring him of his
m en tal con trol o ve r th e m an u factu re a n d assim ilation o f sugar,
ordering th e reten tion an d conversion o f su ga r in his b o d y , de
stro yin g his a p p e tite for sw eets an d sta rc h y foods, rendering him
to leran t o f th e d ia b e tic d iet, a n d d irectin g an equ able increase
in flesh.” W ith in a few m o n th s th e p a tie n t w as stron g enough
to h u n t w ith th e hounds, a n d su gar h as n ow been ab sen t for six
years. W e are n o t to ld w h a t sta g e o f h yp n osis w as reached in
this v e r y in terestin g case.
A m o n g th e oth er disorders w h ich h a v e been successfu lly
trea ted are dipsom an ia (seven hun d red cases, 80 per cen t,
cured), klep to m a n ia, delusions, m orbid fears, a n d variou s
perversions an d abn orm al propensities.
10!I IMI
286 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
T h e p sych o lo gica l th eo ry a d o p te d b y D r. Q u a ck en b o s is, in
th e m ain , th a t of Mr. M y e r s ; th e term translim inal b ein g su b
stitu te d , n ot w ith o u t reason, for sublim inal. M an is regarded
as ex istin g sim u ltan eo u sly in tw o w orlds, " d escribed as th e
o b je ctiv e , su p ralim in al, or w orld o f w a k in g life— in w h ich he
com m u n ica tes th rou gh his senses w ith th e phen om en al universe
— a n d th e su b je c tiv e or tran slim in al, th e w orld of sleep, o f an
all-com p reh en sive, e x tra -p la n e ta ry or ou tsid e existen ce, o f w hich
th e e arth -life is b u t a fractio n al exp ression ." H y p n o tic su gges
tion secures th e a id o f th e ** tran slim in al or h igh er sp iritu al
se lf,” w h ich ca n e x ert a p ra c tic a lly boundless con trol o ve r organs
o f b o d y a n d facu lties o f m ind. D r. Q u a ck en b o s, follow in g
an cie n t term in o lo gy, calls th e tran slim in al self th e pneuma, an d
its b o d ily or conscious expression th e psyche or psyche-soma ;
e v e n g o in g so far as to assum e th e c o n tin u ity o f th e pneuma w ith
G o d . H ere w e reach a fu ll-b low n m ysticism w h ich m a y repel
th e n o n -sp ecu la tive m ind. B u t th e b o o k is o f su ch e v id e n t sin
c e r ity an d h eigh t o f m oral tone, an d is w ritte n w ith su ch litera ry
g ra ce, th a t no reader— m y s tic or n o n -m ystic— w ill g ru d g e th e tim e
s p e n t in its perusal.
T h e D i s c o v e r y o f t h e S o u l . B y F lo y d B . W ilson. N e w
Y o r k : R . F . F en n o & C o., 18, E a s t S e ven teen th Street.
' 1908. P rice $1.00.
A n in terestin g an d u p -to -d a te trea tm en t o f m a n y different b u t
allied problem s, all bearin g on th e n atu re an d d e stin y o f m an .
T h e au th o r discusses th e w ork of th e S o c ie ty for P sy ch ica l R e
search, q u o tin g th e conclusions arrived a t b y som e o f its lead in g
m em bers. F ro m th is he goes on to th e p sych o lo gica l theories
of exp la n a tio n b y " d u a lity of m in d ” — conscious an d su b
conscious— an d to th e H in d u vie w s as to a still greater d ive rsity
of m en tal sta te s or planes. T h e evo lu tio n of th e id ea of G o d is
traced, an d th e w hole C osm ic m arch is presented as a gra d u a l
d evelo p m en t or u n foldin g of th e D ivin e.
” Liberation is to be obtained by the expansion of the knowledge of the soul, when it will feel its union with the Divine, and with the universe, which is nothing but a projection out of the Divine.” As one after another corollary is formulated from the teachings of the new or higher psychology of to-day, they will be found to parallel this and other Oriental aphorisms which are in themselves divers deductions or conclusions from the unwritten philosophy of the East, which the adepts have mastered through oral teachings combined with the tests of experience (p. 184).
J . A r t h u r H i l l .
U A D W A D n I I M I W C D C I T V
Original from
REVIEW S 287M a n y a p t q u o ta tio n s are g iv e n from p sychologists, poets and
philosophers, an d th e b ook m a y be recom m ended as a h e alth y,
o p tim istic m essage from an em in en tly san e an d ju d icial-m in d ed
The History and Power of Mind. B y R ich a rd Ingalese.
L on d on : L . N . F o w le r & C o., 7 , Im p erial A rcad e, L u d g a te
Circus, E .C .
T his b o o k is m ad e u p o f a nu m ber of lectures delivered in N e w
Y o r k in 190 0 -2 , w ith som e little a d d itio n al m a tte r in th e form
of am plification. T h e h ead in gs of a few of th e chapters w ill
serve to in d icate som ethin g of its scope— O ccu ltism : Its P a st,
P resen t an d F u t u r e ; D iv in e M ind : I ts N a tu re an d M an ifesta
tio n ; D u a l M ind an d its O rigin ; T h e A r t of S e lf-C o n tr o l; T h e
L a w of R e -E m b o d im e n t; Colours of T h o u g h t-V ib ra tio n ; H y p n o
tism an d H o w to G u a rd a ga in st I t ; T h e C ause an d C ure o f Disease.
T h e gen eral te a ch in g is eclectic, th o u gh it m a y be rou gh ly
classed alon g w ith th e N e w T h o u g h t of D resser an d Trine. Th ere
is som e resem blance to C hristian Science, p a rticu la rly in the
au th o r's hostile a ttitu d e to h yp n o tism an d " an im al m agn etism ,”
w h ich are regarded as a sort of b la c k m agic. T h ere is also a
flavou r of T h e o so p h y in Mr. In galese's v ie w s on re-in cam ation
an d Cosm ic D a y s, an d he inform s us w ith great care and exactn ess
on ¿ u c h m atters as our w hereab ou ts b etw een in carn ation s and
th e len gth of our d isca m a te sojou m in gs. W e need n o t b e u n
d u ly surprised b y th e au th o r’s rem a rk a b ly e x a c t kn ow ledge on
these an d other points, for he h as p resu m a b ly been posted u p
b y th e m asters an d a d ep ts w ho figure freq u en tly, th o u gh v a g u e ly ,
in his pages. O n m ore ord in ary m atters, w here w e can ch eck
him , he is n o t alw a ys q u ite reliable. T h e S .P .R . w as founded,
n o t in 1886, b u t in 1882 ; D r. B a ra d u c's n am e is w ro n gly sp elt
e v e ry t i m e ; an d one of L y tto n 's books is g iv e n an incorrect
title. B u t these are trifles. A m in d th a t can sport lig h tly w ith
C osm ic D a y s — th a t can tell us all a b o u t such m atters as the
N ig h t of B ra h m a an d th e D w ellers of th e Threshold — can h ard ly
b e e x p e cte d to concern itself m u ch w ith base m inutia o f this
T h e b o o k is w ell w ritten , an d is go o d of its class. I f th e
reader ca n n o t b elieve all th a t it tells him — well, i t is a p ity , b u t
it is his ow n fa u lt. S p e a k in g of a certain recondite m atter, the
au th o r s a y s :—
I cannot prove this statement to yon because of the limitation of your vision, but you can prove it for yourself— as you can prove every
m ystic. A ngus Macgregor.
Digitized by G ( X ‘ Q I C
288 TH E OCCULT REVIEWother statement I shall make in these lectures— if you develop to that point where your inner senses permit you to function upon that plane of existence where forces are visible as forces, as causes, and not as effects or phenomena (p. 134).
W e h a ve heard th is kin d o f th in g before. I t m a y be all
righ t, b u t th e present review er has h u m b ly to confess that his
** inner senses ” do n o t seem q u ite to g e t th e h a n g of this higher-
p lan e-fu n ction in g y e t. A n d if th e y did, it is to b e feared that
he w o u ld n ’t b e ab le to distin gu ish th e results from w h a t he calls
— in other people— th e p rod u cts of an unbridled im agination or
a vig o ro u sly crea tive “ su b lim in al."
T he Magic Seven. By L id a A. C hurchill. L o n d o n : L . N.F o w le r & C o., 7, Im p erial A rcad e, L u d g a te C ircus, E.C.
P rice is . n et.
T his little b o o k is a p u rp osely concise a cco u n t of th e unseen
forces in th e m ind, w h ich are s ta te d to b e th e real forces, by
th e persistent, p a tie n t a n d in telligen t use of w h ich a pow er may
be p u t in to operation w h ich is in vin cible. B riefly, th e book
con tain s ch ap ters on su ch su b je cts as self-co n cen tration and
th e use of th e w ill, w heth er to insure perfect health, or to attain
other desirable o b jects. M a n ’s w ill is s ta te d to b e his individual
ized G od -p ow er, an d w hen con join ed to th e great ocean of force
an d intelligence, his con cen trated th o u g h t becom es th e power
of G o d in operation. T h e s ty le is p ith y an d p oin ted , and the
w riter m akes her m eaning clear, an d narrates a p t little incidents
in illu stration of her teach in g.
T he Blue Lagoon. B y H . de V ere Stack p oole. L o n d o n : T.
F ish er U n w in , A d e lp h i T errace, Stran d .
T his is a story which is at once subtle, humorous and exciting, and which has also its pathetic note.
A s in others of Mr. S ta ck p o o le ’s books, th e sm ooth and de
lig h tfu l passages open su d d en ly in to v a g u e sadness or piteous
episodes o f trou ble.
T w o children, cousins, D ic k an d E m m elin e (from w hom all
reference to d e a th h as been ca refu lly hidden) are on a voyage
w ith their father. T h e ship ta k es fire, an d th e b o y an d girl are
b y th e m ista k e o f an old Irish sailor, P a d d y B u tto n , separated
from their fath er an d all others o f th e crew.
W ith this old m an th e y reach one o f th e b eau tifu l islands
J. Arthur Hill.
Original fromU A D \ / A D r \ I I M I X / C D C I T V
REVIEW S 289
so u th o f th e L in e. A t first tim e slips lig h tly b y . T h e old m an h as
determ in ed even before he reaches th e islan d n o t to " frigh t
th e childer,” an d fo rth w ith cares for them w ith e v e ry tender
ness, tellin g them stories of his v illa g e in Ireland an d o f “ the good
p eop le,” delicious stories in their exaggeration . H is repartees
to th e little b o y ’s in cessan t qu estion s are no less am using, as—
“ W h a t is a d ivil, P a d d y ? ”
“ Y o u ’re w a n .”
T h is C eltic sailor, w h o b elieves in fairies an d cluricaunes, is
a nurse to th e children, an d even m akes a skirt for th e girl, w hich
can b e reefed u p for pad d lin g.
A s th e children gro w u p an d d evelop , the con trast o f their
n atu res, th e w id en in g an d e x p a n d in g of them , th e gra d u a l daw n
o f th e m an an d w om an an d th e b irth of love, th e life of exqu isite
p u r ity an d freedom alone (as far as h u m an com panionship goes)
am id th e b e a u tifu l little w orld th a t is theirs, m akes a sto ry n ot
e a sily to b e laid aside h a lf read, an d n o t easily forgotten .
P erh a p s som e o f Mr. S ta ck p o o le ’s b est w o rk is in The Blue Lagoon. I t is also one of th e features of his w ritin g th a t one
n ever kn ow s w h a t to e x p e c t on th e n e x t page.
D . P .
J o u r n e y s t o t h e P l a n e t M a r s . T ran scrib ed a u to m a tica lly
b y Sara W eiss. Secon d edition . T h e A u stin P u b lish in g
C o m p a n y, R ochester, N e w Y o rk , 1905.
A S p i r i t B a n d , m ad e u p o f su ch illustriou s souls as G iord an o
B runo, H u m b o ld t, D arw in , A ga ssiz, B u lw er L y tto n , an d others,
is com m issioned to assist in th e revelation o f th e tru th o f a
fu tu re life to the in h a b ita n ts of M ars. T h e spirit of th e sen sitive
(Mrs. W eiss) is co n v e y e d th ith er, her b o d y rem ain in g in sleep
or tran ce on earth . B e in g incarn ated, she is m ore ak in to the
p h y sica l beings on M ars, th a n are spirits w ho are freed from
th e flesh ; an d she is ab le to reveal herself to m ed iu m istic M ar
tian s, an d to sp eak throu gh one o f th em in tran ce. She th u s
h as th e u n ique honour of in a u gu ratin g a n ew religious era on
ou r neighbou rin g p la n et.
T h e in h a b ita n ts are v e r y like earth-dw ellers, b u t taller an d
handsom er. T h e y are m ore learned in m echanics an d som e
o th er sciences, b u t are behind us in a stro n o m y an d g eo lo gy.
T h e fau n a an d flora are su rprisin gly sim ilar to ours, an d indeed
e v e r y th in g seem s q u ite fam iliar. T h e people are m o stly v e g e
tarian s, b u t th e y are n o t to ta l abstainers from alco h o l. T h e
sam e lan gu age is spoken all o ve r th e p la n et, th o u gh d ialects
GoogleDigitize
290 TH E OCCULT REVIEW
occur in som e regions. F o r th e m ost p art, ju d g in g from the
sam ples giv e n , th e lan gu age seem s rather ch a o tic ; b u t occa
sio n a lly w e com e across a w o rd -fa m ily w hich m akes us feel
q u ite a t hom e, b o th as to stem an d term ination s : e.g. geniilano — p r in c e ; geniilana = princess ; gentola— la d y , gracious one,
g e n tle one, e t c . ; gcntolissim a= queen, or suprem e la d y . A
sm atterin g of Ita lia n w ou ld a p p a r e n tly com e in h a n d y for an y
one learn ing th e M artian tongue. I t m a y be rem arked here
th a t th e exam p les in this b o o k bear no resem blance to th e sup
posed M artian ob ta in ed throu gh th e m edium ship o f M lle. “ H élène
S m ith ” (Professor F lo u rn o y ’s From India to the Planet M ars).T h e astron om ically-in clin ed reader w ill tu rn w ith interest
to th e revelation s con cerning th e fam ous " ca n als.” I t appears
from th e c la ir v o y a n t's discoveries th a t M . F lam m arion and
Professor L ow ell are righ t in su pposin g these m ark in gs to be
irrigation-channels engineered b y in telligen t beings. T h is is
in op p osition to th e v ie w of D r. A . R ussel W allace, w ho, in a
recen t volu m e (Is M ars Habitable ? a rep ly to Professor L o w e ll’s
Mars and its Canals), further defends his previou sly-exp ressed
conclusions as to th e n o n -h a b ita b ility of th e p la n et. Considering
D r. W a lla ce ’s sy m p a th e tic a ttitu d e tow ards spirits in general,
th is seem s a case o f ev il being returned for good. F a r greater
w e ig h t w ill, h ow ever, a tta c h to th e opinion s o f astronom ers on
such a su b je c t than to th e rath er am ateu rish specu lation s of
the learned natu ralist.
T o sum u p, h ow ever, th e scientific in v e stig a to r of to -d a y
w ill h esitate to deny th e p o ssib ility o f o b ta in in g kn ow led ge of
M ars or oth er p la n ets b y supernorm al m ean s ; an d it is lik ely
en o u gh th a t m a n y o f our presen t n otion s m a y be w rong.
T h is m u ch m a y be ch eerfu lly a d m itte d . Still, in th e present
sta te o f affairs, th e p ro b a b ility of su blim in al rom an cin g—
w h ich is a t least a b etter-estab lish e d fa c t th a n cla irvo ya n ce
or spirit-m essages— m u st be h eld to p rovid e a sufficient e x
p la n atio n of au to m a tism s of this kin d . T h is does n ot m ake
th em less in terestin g ; th e p sych o lo gica l v a lu e of such pro
d u ctio n s m a y be con siderable. A n d of course, as in the present
case, there is no need to ca st th e least d o u b t on th e bona fides of th e " m ed iu m .”
A n g u s M a c g r e g o r .
T h e L o r d s o f t h e G h o s t l a n d : A H i s t o r y o f t h e I d e a l .
L on d on : T . W erner Laurie, C lifford's Inn. 3s. 6d. n e t.
A l t h o u g h th e title o f th is b ook, w h ich m eans “ th e g o d s,”
REVIEW S 291is som ew h at m isleading, there is no d o u b t a p receden t for it
in th e d esign ation of E l L il, L o rd of G h osts, one o f th e go d s of
th e an cien t C h ald aean c it y of N ip p u r, m en tion ed b y th e author,
an d in la te r tim es in th e H o ly G h o st of th e C hristian T r in ity .
T h e sto ry o f th e gods, from B rah m a to Ju p iter, of seven o f th e
w o rld ’s gre a te st d ivin ities, w ho ruled o ve r im m ense an d e x tre m e ly
diverse areas of civ ilizatio n , can n ot fail to be a ttr a c tiv e to a n y
in tellige n t h u m a n b ein g, an d is here recoun ted in broad outlin es
w h ich d o n ot, how ever, preclude a g re a t m ass o f in terestin g
d eta il. Mr. S a ltu s h as th e h a p p y fa c u lty of ta k in g a com pre
h en sive and, as it were, a b ird ’s-eye v ie w of th e w onderful vicissi
tu d e s in th e k in gd o m of h eaven . In a single p aragrap h he
com presses in a tellin g an d illu m in a tin g m ann er th e evo lu tio n
o f m yth o lo gies w h ich traversed centuries or, it m a y be, thousan ds
o f years. H e sum s u p th e ge n e a lo g y of religions in these w o r d s :—
Hindu and Chaldaean beliefs constitute the two primal inspirational faiths. From the one Buddhism and Zoroasterism developed. From the other the creed of Israel and possibly that of E gypt came. Religions that followed were afterthoughts of the divine.
A n d here is a description of th e g lo ry o f B a b y lo n :—
Within the gates, in an enclosure ample and noble, a space that exceeded a hundred square miles, an area sufficient for Paris quintupled, observatories and palaces rose above the roar of human tides that swept in waves through the wide boulevards, surged over the quays, flooded the gardens, eddied through the open-air lupanar, circled among statues of gods and bulls, poured out of the hundred gates, or broke against the polychrome walls and seethed back in the avenues, along which, to the high flourishes of military bands, passed armed hoplites, merchants in long robes, cloaked Bedouins, Kelts in bearskins, priests in spangled dresses, tiara'd princes, burdened slaves, kings discrowned, furtive forms — prostitutes, federasts, human wolves, vermin, sheep— the flux and reflux of the gigantic city.
T h e au th o r passes in review th e religions o f Israel an d G reece,
an d show s h ow from th e fuliginous chaos of late r R o m e there
em erged th e w h ite star of C hrist, th e quin tessence of th e ideal
elem en ts o f all form er religions ; an d he con cludes w ith a pane
g y ric on reincarnation, “ th e suprem e A lh a m b ra of d ream .”
B . P . O ’N
Original fromU A D \ / A D r \ I I M I X / C D C I T V
PERIODICAL LITERATURE
T H E Theosophical Review u su ally tak es n ote o f recent " finds ”
w hich interest th e stu d en t o f an cien t religion an d occultism .
T h e A p ril issue reproduces from th e Atherueum a p ap er read
before th e S o cie ty of B ib lica l Archaeology, in w hich a coin of
G a z a is com pared w ith p a p yri re cen tly d iscovered a t E le p h a n
tine. T h is eviden ce show s th a t in th e fourth ce n tu ry b.c. the
nam e of J eh o va h , or Y a h w e h , w as sp elt w ith three letters only,
J H V . T h e coin also bears a w in ged w heel, recalling th e m y stic
V ision of E zek iel. Mr. M. W . B la ck d en g iv e s a first series
o f fragm en ts from th e Book of the Dead, w ith a vie w o f show ing
th a t this c r y p tic d ocu m en t consists o f " u tteran ces tak en from
th e trad ition al d ram atic m ysteries,” an d therefore o f high va lu e
to th e stu d en t of an cien t m ysticism , m ixed u p w ith m agical
formulae an d spells for th e benefit of th e liv in g an d o f th e dead.
T h ree of th e prayers, as tran slated b y Mr. B la ck d en , go to the
roo t o f all m ysticism :—
O Hawk within the Shrine, may I penetrate unto Her whose face is veiled.
O Horns in the Southern Heaven, Thoth in the Northern Heaven, tranquillize for me the wild-blown flame, that I m ay advance " Equilibrium ” to her desire.
“ I am " is the flower of the Desert Shrine, the blossom of the Hidden Horizon. . . . Grant unto me his love, O Lord of the one Ego.
‘ D r. W . W y n n W e stc o tt continues his exposition of " T h e Ser
p e n t-M y th ,” esp ecially w ith regard to B ib lica l references in th e
stories o f th e F a ll an d of th e E x o d u s, an d to th e K a b a listic
an d G n o stic sym bolism s.
M a n y R eview s, b o th occu lt an d general, are now d evo tin g
m u ch space to th e consideration o f th e present an d probable
fu tu re asp ects of religious th o u gh t. T h e International m ade
th is th e lead in g them e of a recent num ber, w ith articles on
'* T h e F u tu re o f th e R eligiou s T em p era m e n t,” an d on “ T h e
F u tu re of R eligio n ,” an d a su m m ary b y various correspondents
o f th e religious m ovem en ts an d tendencies in different parts
of th e w orld. R eligion , like occu ltism , is, in its higher aspects,
th e search for th e re a lity u n d erlyin g a p p e a r a n c e s; an d it
also accords w ith occu ltism in ackn ow led gin g the re a lity of
perception s w hich are n o t am en able to th e low er criterion of
scientific or logical reasoning.
Sim ilar them es are being vig o ro u sly discussed in T h e O p en
Court, esp ecially in relation to th e historical (or idealized histori
cal) Jesus, w ith em phasis on th e id ea th a t th e e x a c t p erson ality
P E R IO D IC A L L IT E R A T U R E 293
an d personal h isto ry o f Jesus m a tte r little in com parison w ith th e
va lu e o f th e new er an d m ore inw ard con ception s o f etern al tru th
w h ich were p laced before m an an d th e higher m odes of perception
w hich he w as encouraged to c u ltiv a te , a t th a t p articu lar period of
his in tellectu a l an d sp iritu al d evelop m en t. T h a t th e ou tw a rd
form o f C h ristia n ity represents a fusion o f the lead in g features of
m a n y religions, an d th a t a n y other o f th em w hich h ad ob tain ed
th e su p rem a cy w ou ld h a ve h ad to d eve lo p on sim ilar lines, co n
strain ed b y th e te n d e n cy of th e th o u g h ts o f th e age, is one o f th e
lead in g conclusions, and this v ie w is ta k e n also b y a w riter in th e
Revue Spirite. A n d as w ith occu ltism , so w ith religion ; th e
o u tw a rd form s an d cerem onies w ere in ten d ed a t once to ve il an d
to present, accord in g to th e u n d erstan d in g of th e beholder,
th e esoteric m y stic tru th w hich th e y enshrined ; for all sym b olism
is a t once a con cealing an d a re vealin g of truth.
T h e M etaphysical Magazine show s som ew hat less p en e tra
tion in an article on “ F etich ism ” b y C has. E . C u m m in g, w ho
th in ks th a t th e ascription o f certain pow ers to p articu lar fetiches,
am on g w h ich he includes th e phases of th e m oon, arose o u t of
th e ch an ce ob servation th a t a fo rtu n ate or u n fortu n ate e v e n t
follow ed im m e d ia tely on a n y action w ith regard to certain ob jects,
or perform ed a t certain seasons, an d th e o b je ct or season w as
therefore accred ited w ith th e good or ev il influence. T h e occu ltist
w ill, perhaps, h a ve m ore s y m p a th y th a n th e w riter o f th e article
w ith th e ideas in d icated in th e follow ing sto ry :—
A negro was placing food and palm wine as an offering before a tree that was his fetich. He was asked why he did it. The tree was a fetich, he said, because his father had chipped it with his hatchet and was immediately killed by the bite of a serpent. B ut the tree could not make the serpent bite him, he was told. After much questioning he made it understood that the spirit that dwelt in the tree had induced the spirit that was in the serpent to avenge him. “ But you can see that the tree does not use the food and drink you bring,'’ he was told. “ The spirit in the tree eats the spirit there is in the food," was the reply in effect.
W ritin g on “ T h e M etap h ysics o f M a tte r,” th e ed itor of
th e sam e R e vie w , Mr. L ean d er E d m u n d W h ip p le, com pares
th e notion o f th e separateness o f th e a to m w ith th e id ea of self,
an d regards b o th as “ in verted an d sen se-lim ited illusions w ith
regard to in fin ity ” :—
The fact is that the discovery of the atom by science is the result of the irresistible impulse from beneath the sense-consciousness, of the superconscious knowledge of the wholeness of reality and the perfection of truth. The eternal one was never separate from itself, and there is no other. I t never had any real “ parts,” therefore there is nothing for combination. As one of many, the atom is an illusion. I t is the a ll of
Googlet
204 THE OCCULT REVIEWthe one ; and as such it represents the divine reality oi the infinite comprehension of truth. If this be recognized, and the psychic faculties duly considered, it is not difficult to conceive that the ultimate atom of any element must be spiritual in essence, universal in substance, and perpetually active. The principles of chemistry are spiritual activities. * The laws of operation are all mathematical, therefore spiritual in nature, and every reality that permanently endures in the rehlm of chemistry can be proved to be purely spiritual. The “ reality ” of matter, then, is the non-material activity of spiritual principles.
A s a pen d an t to th e experiences of a W e st-E n d p hysician,
re cen tly related in th e O c c u l t R e v i e w b y Mr. In kster G ilb ert
son, w e q u o te from the H indu Spiritual Magazine an accou n t
o f som e stran ge happenings in India, en titled “ Troubles o f a.
F a m ily ”
Our brother, who was a pundit in a school at Calcutta, came to our native village with his wife, who was about 14 or 15 years of age. A couple of days after their arrival clouds of earth came rolling down from the ridge of one of the thatched houses day and night, and mud, pieces of stone, and brickbats commenced dropping down inside the rooms from the ceilings.One day I had sat down to m y meal, and after taking one mouthful I was going to take another, when the whole plateful vanished. Again, earthen and metal pots danced and careered about the room from one side to another. A child, a few days old, was raised to the ceiling, carried in a slanting position through the door and placed lightly in the middle of the courtyard. A professional exorciser was kicked and beaten on the shoulders and back by the spirit. Cooking utensils containing rice partly or fully boiled, would be taken up bodily from the hearth and dashed over it, spoiling the food. Once a brass pitcher full of water went straight up to a height of about 20 feet and then dropped down again. I was fond of fish, and had bought a big one, and just as I was washing it the pieces began jumping up from the basket and flying in the air, and at last disappeared in the skies, to m y great disappointment. One day, in the dark, my legs were caught as in a vice and were tied together with a piece of rope above the ankles, with such force that I screamed with pain and cried out for help. I was pulled all about the room and on to the verandah.The rope had to be cut, as the knot was so peculiar that it could not be loosened.
A n account is also given of a S a d h u from Southern In d ia
w ho joined a p a r ty acco m p a n yin g th e Prim e M inister o f G w a
lior ; on th e jo u rn ey th e la tte r received a telegram ask in g him
to m eet Sir L epel Griffin, b u t th e S ad h u told him he need n ot
hurry, as Sir L ep el had been tak en ill and w ou ld b e confined
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T h is also w as correct. H e further announced th e issue o f a
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th e reversal of th e decision b y an ap p eal to th e P r iv y C o u n cil.
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