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

"The huckstering about of pompous names attached to the idiotic communications has given the scientific stomach such an indigestion that it cannot assimilate even the great truth which lies on the telegraphic plateaux of this ocean of psychological phenomena.   They judge by its surface, covered with froth and scum. But they might with equal [...]

"The position assumed by modern scientists is that even though the occurrence of certain mysterious phenomena in the presence of the mediums be a fact, there is no proof that they are not due to some abnormal nervous condition of those individuals.   The possibility that they may be produced by returning human spirits need [...]

"The phenomena are actually witnessed, mysterious in their nature - generally and perhaps wrongly termed spiritual - it is now idle to deny.   Allowing a large discount for clever fraud, what remains is quite serious enough to demand the careful scrutiny of science. "E pur se muove", the sentence spoken ages since, has passed [...]

"Not many years ago, the person who questioned the infallibility of some theological dogma was branded at once an iconoclast and an infidel. Vae victis!...Science has conquered. But in its turn the victor claims the same infallibility, though it equally fails to prove its right.   "Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis", the saying [...]

"The same holds good with everything else. If psychology had had its Darwin, the descent of man as regards moral qualities might have been found inseparably linked with that of his physical form.   Society in its servile condition suggests to the intelligent observer of its mimicry a kinship between the Simia and human beings [...]

"Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defense And fills up all the mighty void of sense...." - POPE "But why should the operations of nature be changed? There may be a deeper philosophy than we dream of - a philosophy that discovers the secrets of nature, but does not alter, by penetrating them, [...]

"Physical science has already reached its limits of exploration; dogmatic theology sees the springs of its inspiration dry. Unless we mistake the signs, the day is approaching when the world will receive the proofs that only ancient religions were in harmony with nature, and ancient science embraced all that can be known.   Secrets long [...]

"The neglect and withholding of these proofs have driven such eminent minds as Hare and Wallace, and other men of power, into the fold of modern spiritualism. At the same time it has forced others, congenitally devoid of spiritual intuitions, into a gross materialism that figures under various names. But we see no utility in [...]

""Terra legit carnem tumulum circumvolet umbra, Orcus habet manes, spiritus astra petit", says Ovid, speaking of the threefold constituents of souls.   But all such definitions must be subjected to the careful analysis of philosophy. Too many of our thinkers do not consider that the numerous changes in language, the allegorical phraseology and evident secretiveness [...]

"Many a Christian divine has been forced to acknowledge that there is no authentic source whence the assurance of a future state could have been derived by man. How could then such a belief have stood for countless ages, were it not that among all nations, whether civilized or savage, man has been allowed the [...]