The Spiritualist newspaper > No.317, September 20th 1878

Sept. 20, 1878.
THE SPIRITUALIST.
137
Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought. By James Bonwick, j
F.RGr.S. (C. Kegan Paul and Co.)
This work, which is a sequel to Pyramid Facts and Fancies,
by this well-known author and member of the Council of j
the National Association of Spiritualists, is a valuable con¬
tribution to the literature of Egyptology. The author assumes
as an initial position the idea that it is impossible to inter¬
pret rightly the mythology of ancient Egypt by a reference
to that of ancient Greece, Hindostan, or Syria. The latter
especially affords, perhaps, least grounds on which the precise
dogmas of the immortality of the soul can be identified with
those of the earlier religion. Moses, who was skilled in 11 all
the learning of the Egyptians,” possessed exactly just such
knowledge of the soul as the Egyptian hierophants had '
possessed before him. The funeral rites of the Egyptians
appear in all cases to have been framed by a nation who
were especially desirous that the soul after death should be
prayed for, and that the absent should in all cases receive
benefit from the prayers of the survivors. As Mr. Bon wick .
writes, after a body was interred,
The absent one was not lost. Below, far below, beneath the
very feet of visitors, in the rock-cut chamber, lay the mum¬
mied remains. But there was something not to be buried
and preserved. That something belonging to the deceased was
the object of affectionate regard. The body had received the care
which duty and love exacted. But that something else was asso¬
ciated with the visit of friends. The prayers were not directed to the 1
corpse. The offerings were not dedicated to the entombed. Supplica¬
tions rose in the mastabd for the spirits of dear ones. Offerings came ,
from the living to the living. The soul was a fact in the thought of
Egyptians. Apart from the body, however mysteriously associated
with it still, it could welcome tears and kisses, appreciate presents, and
be blessed by the gods in the entreaties of mourners.
The conception which the ancient Egyptians seem to have
possessed of Amenti (Hades), heaven, hell, and purgatory,
appears to have been the foundation of some of the prevalent
doctrines respecting a future life. Much of the popular
belief in England respecting the existence of spirits and of
ministering angels has not been derived from ancient Pagan
or Christian traditions, but is rather the outcome of the
mythology of the Miltonic period; and it is a matter for
surprise that a series of beliefs, whose origin and ancestry
cannot be traced back further than the seventeenth century,
should form the intellectual pabulum of so many intellectual
Englishmen. Yet it may be questioned whether the ideas
which are, to say the least, inherent among Englishmen
respecting the cosmogony of the earth, are in any way trace¬
able to the traditions of the Semite, or even of the Hamitic
nations. Egypt, which is essentially a Hamitic nation, ;
would not appear to English readers as the likely cradle of i
a pure spiritual mythology. The conception that some souls !
after death remained constantly, if not consciously, in j
Amenti (Hades) before pursuing their destination to heaven, <
hell, or purgatory ; the idea of the possible extinction of \
the life of the soul after death, and that the existence of j
human souls in states of happiness or misery subsequent to j i
their passage over the river of death was by no means a j \
necessity of death itself; both these are essentially Egyptian |1
traditions. i
The admiration which we may feel for “the fair humanities j
of old religion” does not blind us, in the case of the <
Egyptian mythology, to the fact that the soul was often J
grossly anthropomorphised. It was endowed with limbs j
and passions like unto those of man; and while we per- j
ceive in the Egyptian mythology little reference to the J
conception of a spirit which, after passing through succes- |
sive glorified states, may eventually return to the Deity who | j
created it, and of whom it is a part, we recognise nothing j
whatever which is akin to the latter and grosser conceptions |
by the Greeks and Romans of lares and manes. j
For the minute explanation of the details of the ancient |
Egyptian mythology, we must refer to Mr. Bonwick’s book |
itself, which abounds in detail, facts, and references, the j
compilation of a conscientious anthropologist, and genuine j
Spiritualist, who has endeavoured to trace in the ancient I
theories (following the example of the hierophants of Egypt, I
who were really adepts in the highest sense, and in direct |
communication with a genuine spirit world) the relationship !
j of older methods of thought to modern Spiritualism. At
| the present time, when even the most elementary know-
j j ledge of Egyptian hieroglyphics is confined to a small
* | number of persons, when the relationship they bear to the
11 languages and mythology of Assyria cannot be explained
11 without the invention of a supposititious “Accadian” people,
11 whose genesis is uncertain, whose history is unrecorded, and
! | whose creed respecting the destiny of the soul is unknown
' to us, the publication of a work like this, from the pen of a
| Spiritualist, marks an epoch in the history of European inter-
| pretations of the inscriptions of the land of the Pharaohs
! which deserves record, though it may not receive that full
| examination which the student of the records of Egypt can
! alone devote to it. It is much to be desired that every
j Spiritualist who claims to have a theory as to the possible
j position of the soul after death, should make himself
! thoroughly acquainted with the ideas on the subject
possessed by those from whom the great founder of the
Jewish religion derived his knowledge and experience of the
1 relations of man to the unseen.
.
On Tuesday next, September 24th, Dr. Carter Blake will deliver a
| lecture before the Marylebone Society of Inquirers into Spiritualism
at Quebec Hall, Great Quebec-street, at 8.30 p.m., on “Experimental
I Spiritualism.”
Artificial Memory.—A writer in the recent number of Mayfair
thus spoke of the method of Professor Stokes“ A peculiarity about
his system is its secrecy. The votaries who attend the mnemonical
shrine in Margaret-street, London, are bound by their word never to
reveal his system. And this obligation to secrecy is perfectly natural.
The mnemonical ‘ key ’ can be acquired by the dullest head within the
space of an hour, and if the invention—the labour of many years to
bring it to its present perfection—were not secured by some such plan
as this, unscrupulous pupils would speedily set up as teachers, and
the inventor would be ruined. Possessed of the secret key, quite a
universe of enterprise reveals itself to the novice. With a little
I practice, hundreds of words, names, or dates can be poured into the
| memory, and then pumped out in their proper sequence. Long rows
of figures can be trotted into the memory, and trotted out again with
ease. And it is all the same to the initiated whether he repeats them
backwards or forwards, or makes a start in the middle and travels up
or down. It is really a sensation worth, acquiring to be able in a
leisurely walk down Regent-street or the Strand to commit to memory
the names and trades of all the shops, and at the end of the thorough¬
fare to pour them out in their proper order, thus placing one on a
level with a trick that Macaulay was always vain of. A peculiar
prejudice exists against a man improving his memory. We are all
ready to own that in certain matters our memories are defective,
j but when it comes to the improvement of them it seems such a slur
upon our capacity to go to a memory doctor that few of us care to do
i it. There are many men of the highest capacity—men whom the
world would think the last to require artificial aid — who have,
Nicodemus-like, gone to Stokes at night and forbade him ever to speak
j of their visits in public. Quite different is it with Sir Stafford,
j Northeote. His keenest delight is to display the memory tricks he
j learned from Professor Stokes, and on one occasion at Exeter, in taking
a chair at a lecture, he did not himself disdain to illustrate the marvels
of mnemonics.”
A Curious Action.—In the First Division of the Court of Session,
Edinburgh, Lord Gifford has heard the case of James Bryce against
Joseph Agnew, surgeon dentist, Bath-street, Glasgow, for £500 damages
and expenses. It was stated that about November, IS^O, he entered
the employment of the defendant as an apprentice, and remained till
February, 1878. During the latter months of 1877, and in the begin-
| ning of 1878, the plaintiff, at the defendant’s request, went to his house
j at Crossbill every night. On these occasions the defendant induced the
I plaintiff to become the subject of experiments in magnetism. These
experiments consisted in placing large magnets in front of, behind, and
above the plaintiff’s head, which were also connected with his head by
means of magnetic chains. Besides these there were also rods of mag-
j netised metal placed about the room, and the plaintiff was made to hold
himself in such a position as to allow himself to fall under the influence
] of magnetism. These proceedings, and other experiments of a similar
nature, which the plaintiff was unable to describe, were repeated by the
| defendant for several days running, and frequently for about two hours
j at a time. The defendant enjoined upon the plaintiff the strictest
| secrecy as to the experiments, as well as to their nature and effect, and
particularly enjoined him not to tell his parents. During the progress of
i the experiments, and, it was alleged, in consequence thereof, the mind
j of the plaintiff became seriously affected, and about the end of February,
| 1878, he became insane, and on one or two occasions was apprehended
as a lunatic. His physical health was also shattered, and he was still
| suffering from the effects of the experiments. At the time when the
plaintiff entered the employment of the defendant it was said he was in
j perfectly good health, both of mind and body, and had been so all his
lifetime. The defendant said the boy acted in the capacity of page, and
j he (defendant) feeling interested in the subject of magnetic sleep, sub-
i jected him to some experiments, without producing any effect. It was
alleged that before entering the defendant’s service the plaintiff had
shown symptoms of insaniiy. The case has not concluded.—Bristol
Daily Post.