Category: Isis Unveiled: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

"If it were certain that the limits of human experience could never be enlarged, then there might be some justice in Hume's assumption that he was familiar with all that could happen under natural law, and some decent excuse for the contemptuous tone which marks all of Huxley's allusions to spiritualism. But, as it is [...]

"High above all other names in his Pantheon of Nihilism, Mr. Huxley writes that of David Hume. He esteems that philosopher's great service to humanity to be his irrefragable demonstration of "the limits of philosophical inquiry", outside which lie the fundamental doctrines "of spiritualism", and other "isms". It is true that the tenth chapter of [...]

""Facts I know", says Mr. Huxley, "and Law I know." Now, by what means did he become acquainted with Fact and Law? Through his own senses, no doubt; and these vigilant servants enabled him to discover enough of what he considers truth to construct a system which he himself confesses "appears almost shocking to common [...]

"We have also given as much thought as our natural powers will permit to Professor Huxley's celebrated lecture On the Physical Basis of Life, so that what we may say in this volume as to the tendency of modern scientific thought may be free from ignorant misstatement. Compressing his theory within the closest possible limits, [...]

"As to the advance of scientists, their very learning, moreover, is impeded by these two causes - their constitutional incapacity to understand the spiritual side of nature, and their dread of public opinion. No one has said a sharper thing against them than Professor Tyndall, when he remarks, "in fact, the greatest cowards of the [...]

"Every day brings new admissions of scientists themselves, and the criticisms of well-informed lay observers. We find the following illustrative paragraph in a daily paper: "It is curious to note the various opinions which prevail among scientific men in regard to some of the most ordinary natural phenomena. The aurora is a notable case in [...]

"You never hear the really philosophical defenders of the doctrine of uniformity speaking of impossibilities in nature. They never say what they are constantly charged with saying, that it is impossible for the Builder of the universe to alter his work. ...No theory upsets them (the English clergy). ...Let the most destructive hypothesis be stated [...]

"Taking the above into consideration, we do not see why the learned alchemists and physicists - physicists, we say - of the Mosaic period should not also have possessed the natural secret of developing in a few hours myriads of a kind of these bacteria, whose spores are found in the air, the water, and [...]

"From the time of Van Helmont, who, in the seventeenth century, despite the ridicule to which he exposed himself, was willing to give the true directions for the so-called production of eels, frogs, and infusoria of various kinds, down to the champions of spontaneous generation of our own century, it has been known that such [...]

"De Candolle, one of the most distinguished botanists of this century, sought to prove in 1825, at the same time when the waters of the lake of Morat had apparently turned into a thick blood, that the phenomenon could be easily accounted for. He attributed it to the development of myriads of those half-vegetable, half-infusory [...]