The Spiritualist newspaper > No.288, March 1st 1878

March 1, 1878. THE SPIRITUALIST. 99
Theosophy propounds. I start from my facts, and when in
doubt do not spin a theory, but prefer to wait, or possibly j
to ask.
“ The true scientist is always a Theosophist first of all,”
says Professor Wilder. One is tempted to wish that the
proposition could read the other way, and that the Theoso¬
phist were a Scientist so far as to use the scientific method
of deduction. But what is Theosophy ? Then I come with
my definitions again. I read Miss Kislingbury’s paper with
open eyes, for I found it started with the question, What is
Theosophy? (p. 76), and was headed, Theosophy Simplified.
But, alas ! my hopes were blighted; for I found no answer
to the question, and the simplification consisted in leaving
out the difficulties. Half-a-dozen answers might very
easily be given to the question by six different readers of the
late correspondence; and it is of that variety of statement
that one has a fair right to complain. As each little Bethel
is erected on a text, ignoring inconvenient contradictions in
the other inspired writers, so a number of rival societies
might be founded for eternal wrangling on the dicta of the j
Theosophists.
I fear that I must omit a great part of what I should like j
to say. But I again protest that definitions must be laid
down before any profitable argument can be had. For in- I
stance, I feel sure that I mean by Spiritualism something !
very different from what my Transatlantic friends mean,
while I can and do accept as mediums what Madame j
Blavatsky says are “ not mediums . . . but incarnate illu- |
minated souls, working consciously in collaboration with
pure disembodied human and unembodied planetary spirits
for the elevation and spiritualisation of mankind.” That is
pretty much what I mean by the highest form of me-
diumship.
When they speak of the dangers of mediumship I can
follow them \ but I turn aside when they speak so glowingly
of the duty of cultivating the powers of one’s own spirit as
being free from all danger. I recognise the ditty.
“ I know my soul hath power to know all things,
Yet is she blind and ignorant in all.
I know I’m one of Nature’s little kings,
Yet for the least and vilest things am thrall.”
I recognise my potencies, but I am by no means sure that
the Theosophist recipe for developing them is one that may
be safely followed. I speak with reserve, but, having seen
both, I tried both. I am disposed to say that experiments
with one’s own spirit, in the way of cultivation of its latent
power in abnormal directions, are both dangerous and, in
the pressure of daily work, impossible, and that in a far
greater degree than the practice of mediumship under
properly guarded conditions. But, of all this, each must
judge for himself. The fruit of the tree of knowledge is
not plucked without much trouble and some risk, if it be
only the risk of having one’s eyes opened so as to know
one’s own mental and spiritual nakedness.
Each, I say, must decide for himself in a matter that
concerns himself. I have no quarrel with all the theories I
have lately read beyond this : that I see no beauty in them
that I should abandon for any of them what to me is a
sublimer faith and a more assured belief. I see points in
all that I can accept and agree with, and I have the less
difficulty in doing so, that they already exist in my own
system. I know it is very easy to point the finger of scorn
at the blots that defile what is popularly known as Spiritu¬
alism. That is a cheap and easy method. The question
with me is not the least affected by any such course of
argument, which I put aside as I do Maskelyne’s assaults on
the phenomena, which I know really to exist. I take a
higher ground, and here I find myself in sympathy with one
who, in this matter, I should think, would be accepted by us
all as speaking words of truth and soberness. I quote from
the Journal of June 8, 1877:—“Spiritualism differs from
mere psychology in this, that it is a religion as well as a
science, and that, in proportion as Spiritualists forget this
they are helping to weaken its influence as a moral re¬
generator. ... If we encourage what I must call a grow¬
ing affectation of unbelief in our own facts, and are con¬
tinually wasting our strength in endless disputations on
points about which no real Spiritualist feels any doubt, we
shall end by finding ourselves unable to meet the attacks
I of outsiders, or to impress them with the importance and
| beauty of our subject. If Spiritualism is worth having, it is
| worth holding fast; and we should endeavour to put it for-
I ward in its best aspects, and not as though we had no
| longer any faith in that which we profess to advocate.”
The writer is Miss Kislingbury; and I am glad to find my-
| self in entire accord with her sentiments. They find in-
j deed anew appropriateness now which may excuse my re-
| producing them; and they express, in terms of admirable
clearness, a duty which, as “ a real Spiritualist,” I am pro¬
foundly impressed with, that of “holding fast ” to Spirit¬
ualism and endeavouring “ to put it forward in its best
aspects.”
And in so doing, it is something more than a passing
satisfaction to feel assured that within the ranks of those
called Spiritualists there is a large body of strenuous and
earnest souls whose sympathies are deep and rooted, and
whose divergences lie on the surface, and so are plain for men
to see; while their real and abiding faith rests deep down
below these superficial ripples, unmoved in its serenity by
the winds of controversy and disputation.
At no time, I firmly believe, were there more such
amongst us. At no time, I am fully sure, has their pre¬
sence been more needed. Dr. Wyld has expressed a fear
that discussions such as these may split us into two camps.
I, on the contrary, sincerely hope that the very fact that so
many can be found whose inner and real agreement will
stand the shock of external and superficial difference is a
hopeful indication that we may one day realise the prayer of
the Master for his children—that they all may he one.
WRITING- MEDIUMSHIP IN RELATION TO SPIRIT
IDENTITY.
BY EMILY KISLINGBURY, SECRETARY TO THE BRITISH NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OP SPIRITUALISTS.
“ The individual who first perceives a new fact, puts himself in advance of, and more or
less in antagonism with, others. If his perception be true, but not accepted, it is not his
fault that “ he be right and everybody else wrong.” Such a state of things has happened
more than once in the history of science, but it. is happily transitory; the many moving
one-ward, the one onward.”—Owen, Anatomy of Vertebrates, vol. iii., p. 165.
Of late there has been much examination and discussion
amongst us of new theories and possible new explanations in
regard to what we have known as spiritual manifestations,
and some of us have shown no little alarm, lest in so examin¬
ing and discussing, we should lose our hold on views hitherto
most generally received, and which are more or less dear to
the hearts of us all. For myself, I consider it of such
! supreme importance that we should arrive at right conclu¬
sions in these matters, that I shall not allow myself to be
j driven back or frightened away from due examination of
every theory, new and old, which may or can be presented
| to us, in explanation of the strange things occurring in our
I midst, and for a true and faithful account of which the world
i will hold us Spiritualists to a certain extent responsible. I in-
| tend, therefore, to go on exercising full freedom of inquiry,
! looking carefully all round both facts and theories, turning
| them over, and handling them familiarly, until I get right into
| the heart of things, and learn something of their true
! nature, instead of being satisfied with that which appears
I only. This is laborious, and often thankless work; but on
| the whole it is to me pleasant as well as profitable, and I
| mean to go on with it, openly and fearlessly. This evening,
i however, I propose to leave the thorny wilds of the great
j unexplored, where one gets terribly torn and scratched by
I the brambles, and to wander awhile up the old, sunny,
familiar highway of Spiritualism proper, endeavouring to
gather, as best I may, some traces of the identity of our
! loved and lost, as they lie scattered in the various records to
| which I have had access. Others will doubtless be able to
II furnish, from the storehouse of their private experience,
11 many far better proofs than those with which I have been
11 privileged to meet.
I have confined myself to proofs given through writing-
[ | mediumship, and to only a particular phase of that, for you
[ | are all aware that writing mediums present a great variety
11 of manifestation, and as this theme has been treated by a
11 far abler writer than myself, whose published work will
11 shortly be in our hands, I will only allude to it in a cursory
11 manner.
Broadly speaking, writing through mediums is of two