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3. This is the date of Van Helmont's death; he was born in 1577. (return to text)
4. Baron du Potet was for years Honorary member of the Theosophical Society. Autograph
letters were received from him and preserved at Adyar, our Headquarters, in which he deplores
the flippant unscientific way in which Mesmerism (then on the eve of becoming the "hypnotism"
of science) was handled "par les charlatans du jour." Had he lived to see the secret science in its
full travesty as hypnotism, his powerful voice might have stopped its terrible present abuses and
degradation into a commercial Punch and Judy show. Luckily for him, and unluckily for truth,
the greatest adept of Mesmerism in Europe of this century -- is dead. (return to text)
The Signs of the Times
It is intensely interesting to follow season after season the rapid evolution and change of public
thought in the direction of the mystical. The educated mind is most undeniably attempting to free
itself from the heavy fetters of materialism. The ugly caterpillar is writhing in the agonies of
death, under the powerful efforts of the psychic butterfly to escape from its science-built prison,
and every day brings some new glad tidings of one or more such mental births to light.
As the New York "Path" truly remarks in its September issue, when "Theosophical and kindred
topics . . . are made the texts for novels," and, we may add, scientific essays and brochures, "the
implication is that interest in them has become diffused through all social ranks." That kind of
literature is "paradoxically proof that Occultism has passed beyond the region of careless
amusement and entered that of serious enquiry." The reader has but to throw a retrospective
glance at the publications of the last few years to find that such topics as Mysticism, Magic,
Sorcery, Spiritualism, Theosophy, Mesmerism, or, as it is now called, Hypnotism, all the various
branches in short of the Occult side of nature, are becoming predominant in every kind of
literature. They visibly increase in proportion to the efforts made to discredit the movements in
the cause of truth, and strangle enquiry -- whether on the field of theosophy or spiritualism -- by
trying to besmear their most prominent heralds, pioneers and defenders, with tar and feathers.
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STUDIES IN OCCULTISM
33
The key-note for mystic and theosophic literature was Marion Crawford's Mr. Isaacs. It was
followed by his Zoroaster. Then followed The Romance of Two Worlds, by Marie Corelli; R.
Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; The Fallen Idol, by Anstey; King Solomon's Mines
and the thrice famous She, by Rider Haggard; Affinities and The Brother of the Shadow, by Mrs.
Campbell Praed; Edmund Downey's House of Tears, and many others less noticeable. And now
there comes a fresh outburst in Florence Marryat's Daughter of the Tropics, and F. C. Philips'
Strange Adventures of Lucy Smith. It is unnecessary to mention in detail the literature produced
by avowed theosophists and occultists, some of whose works are very remarkable, while others
are positively scientific, such as S. L. Macgregor Mathers' Kabbalah Unveiled, and Dr. F.
Hartmann's Paracelsus, Magic, White and Black, etc. We have also to note the fact that
theosophy has now crossed the Channel, and is making its way into French literature. La France
publishes a strange romance by Ch. Chincholle, pregnant with theosophy, occultism and
mesmerism, and called La Grande Pretresse, while La Revue politique et litteraire (19 Feb.
1887, et seq.) contained over the signature of Th. Bentzon, a novel called Emancipee, wherein
esoteric doctrines and adepts are mentioned in conjunction with the names of well known
theosophists. A sign of the times!
Literature -- especially in countries free from government censorship -- is the public heart and
pulse. Besides the glaring fact that were there no demand there would be no supply, current
literature is produced only to please, and is therefore evidently the mirror which faithfully
reflects the state of the public mind. True, Conservative editors, and their submissive [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]