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

"Dr. Fournie, of the National Deaf and Dumb Institute of France, in chapter 2 of his work, in discussing the question of the foetus, says that the most powerful microscope is unable to show us the slightest difference between the ovarian cell of a mamifer and a man; and, respecting the first or last movement [...]

"What is imagination? Psychologists tell us that it is the plastic or creative power of the soul; but materialists confound it with fancy. The radical difference between the two, was however, so thoroughly indicated by Wordsworth, in the preface to his Lyrical Ballads, that it is no longer excusable to interchange the words. Imagination, Pythagoras [...]

"Eliphas Levi, who is certainly one of the best authorities on certain points among kabalists, says: "Pregnant women are, more than others, under the influence of astral light, which assists in the formation of their child, and constantly presents to them the reminiscences of forms with which it is filled. It is thus that very [...]

"To apply the above propositions to the case in point: There are several well-recognized principles of science, as, for instance, that a pregnant woman is physically and mentally in a highly impressible state. Physiology tells us that her intellect faculties are weakened, and that she is affected to an unusual degree by the most trifling [...]

"For a student of occult philosophy, who rejects in his turn the method of induction on account of these perpetual limitations, and fully adopts the Platonic division of causes - namely, the Efficient, the Formal, the Material and the Final, as well as the Eleatic method of examining any given proposition, it is but natural [...]

"Another instance is that of Maria Teresa Parodi. This woman, who had previously given birth to eight well-formed children, was delivered of a female infant the upper part of which only was a double. Instances in which before and after the production of a monster the children were perfectly healthy are numerous, and if, on [...]

"Because, forsooth, animals and plants are observed to produce malformations of their species as well as human beings, Magendie and his school infer that the human malformations of an identical character are not at all due to maternal imagination, since the former are not. If physical causes produce physical effects in the subordinate kingdoms, the [...]

"Following St. Hilaire, he divided the history of the subject into the fabulous, the positive, and the scientific periods. It suffices for our purpose to say that in the present state of scientific opinion two points are considered as established: 1, that the maternal, mental condition has no influence in the production of monstrosities; 2, [...]

"This mysterious process of a nine-months formation the kabalists call the completion of the "individual cycle of evolution." As the foetus develops from the liquor amnii in the womb, so the earths germinate from the universal ether, or astral fluid, in the womb of the universe. These cosmic children, like their pigmy inhabitants, are first [...]

"What is the primitive shape of the future man? A grain, a corpuscle, say some physiologists; a molecule, an ovum of the ovum, say others. If it could be analyzed - by the spectroscope or otherwise - of what ought we expect to find it composed? Analogically, we should say, of a nucleus of inorganic [...]