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

"Men possessed of such knowledge and exercising such powers patiently toiled for something better than the vain glory of a passing fame. Seeking it not, they became immortal, as do all who labor for the good of the race, forgetful of mean self.   Illuminated with the light of eternal truth, these rich-poor alchemists fixed [...]

"Baptista Porta, in his treatise on Natural Magic, enumerates a whole catalogue of secret formulae for producing extraordinary effects by employing the occult powers of nature.   Although the "magicians" believed as firmly as our spiritualists in a world of invisible spirits, none of them claimed to produce his effects under their control or through [...]

"The phenomena of the mystic odors and music, exhibited by Roger Bacon, have been often observed in our own time. To say nothing of our personal experience, we are informed by English correspondents of the Theosophical Society that they have heard strains of the most ravishing music, coming from no visible instrument, and inhaled a [...]

"As a commentary on this, the modern historian remarks:  "This may be taken as a sort of exemplification of the class of exhibitions which were probably the result of a superior knowledge of natural sciences."   No one ever doubted that it was the result of precisely such a knowledge, and the hermetists, magicians, astrologers [...]

"In the legendary history of Friar Bacon, as  "well as in an old play written by Robert Green, a dramatist in the days of Queen Elizabeth, it is recounted, that, having been summoned before the king, the friar was induced to show"  some of his skill before her majesty the queen.   So he waved [...]

"Many of these mystics, by following what they were taught by some treatises, secretly preserved from one generation to another, achieved discoveries which would not be despised even in our modern days of exact sciences.   Roger Bacon, the friar, was laughed at as a quack, and is now generally numbered among "pretenders" to magic [...]

"Appolonius and Iamblichus held that it was not "in the knowledge of things without, but in the perfection of the soul within, that lies the empire of man, aspiring to be more than men."   Thus they had arrived at a perfect cognizance of their godlike souls, the powers of which they used with all [...]

"Professor Agassiz, who occupied in America nearly the same eminent position as a scientist which Mr. Faraday did in England, acted with a still greater unfairness.   Professor J. R. Buchanan, the distinguished anthropologist, who has treated Spiritualism in some respects more scientifically than any one else in America, speaks of Agassiz, in a recent [...]

"The better to prove to the experimenters the reality of their own impulsion, Professor Faraday placed several card-board disks, united to each other and stuck to the table by a half-soft glue, which, making the whole adhere for a time together, would, nevertheless, yield to a continuous pressure. Now, the table having turned - yes, [...]

"Faraday, whose name is pronounced by the anti-spiritualists in every discussion upon the phenomena, as a sort of scientific charm against the evil-eye of Spiritualism, Faraday, who "blushed" for having published his researches upon such a degrading belief, is now proved on good authority to have never sat at a tipping table himself at all! [...]