Category: Isis Unveiled, Volume II: H. P. Blavatsky (1877)

"The Roman Catholic Church has two far mightier enemies than the "heretics" and the "infidels"; and these are - Comparative Mythology and Philology. When such eminent divines as the Reverend James Freeman Clarke go so much out of their way to prove to their readers that "Critical Theology from the time of Origen and Jerome...and [...]

"In rivalry of the fierce Mary-worshippers of the fourth century, the modern clerical persecutors of liberalism and "heresy" would willingly shut up all the heretics and their books in some modern Serapion, and burn them alive. The cause of this hatred is natural. Modern research has more than ever unveiled the secret. "Is not the [...]

"No more do sundry very learned Copts scattered all over the East in Asia Minor, Egypt, and Palestine, believe in the total destruction of the subsequent libraries. For instance, they say that out of the library of Attalus III of Pergamus, presented by Antony to Cleopatra, not a volume was destroyed. At that time, according [...]

"There are strange traditions current in various parts of the East - on Mount Athos and in the Desert of Nitria, for instance - among certain monks, and with learned Rabbis in Palestine, who pass their lives in commenting upon the Talmud. They say that not all the rolls and manuscripts reported in history to [...]

"If Science has unintentionally helped the progress of the occult phenomena, the latter have reciprocally aided science herself. Until the days when newly reincarnated philosophy boldly claimed its place in the world, there had been but few scholars who had undertaken the difficult task of studying comparative theology. This science occupies a domain heretofore penetrated [...]

"Wonder after wonder was reported to have occurred in the spiritual circles and the lecture-rooms of the mesmerists; the sick were healed, the blind made to see, the lame to walk, the deaf to hear. J. R. Newton in America, and Du Potet in France, were healing the multitude without the slightest claim to divine [...]

"The magnetists and healers of our century came into direct and open competition with the apostles. The Zouave Jacob, of France, had outrivaled the prophet Elijah, in recalling to life, persons who were seemingly dead; and Alexis, the somnambulist, mentioned by Mr. Wallace in his work, was, by his lucidity, putting to shame apostles, prophets, [...]

"If any doubt that Gregory of Tours approved of a practice that prevails to this day, more or less, even among strict Protestants, let them read this: "Lendastus, Earl of Tours, who was for ruining me with Queen Fredegonde, coming to Tours, big with evil designs against me, I withdrew to my oratory under a [...]

"Where, in the records of European Magic, can we find cleverer enchanters than in the mysterious solitudes of the cloister? Albert Magnus, the famous Bishop and conjurer of Ratisbon, was never surpassed in his art. Roger Bacon was a monk, and Thomas Aquinas one of the most learned pupils of Albertus. Trithemius, Abbott of the [...]

"As for America being overflowed with sensitives and mediums, the reason for it is partially attributable to climatic influence and especially to the physiological condition of the population. Since the days of the Salem witchcraft, 200 years ago, when the comparatively few settlers had pure and unadulterated blood in their veins, nothing much had been [...]