Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-05-12

BILE to correspond at distance without
mechanical appliances. And who that
knows anything OF the history of scientific
discovery will be rash enough to assert
that there may not be other natural forces,
even more subtle and powerful than Elec-
tricity, yet unrecognized? The true sci
enlist refuses to put any limit &c the posi-
bil;ties Of Nature. The Oriental Adept
simply claims TO have made profounder
researches into Nature than his Western
brother has succeeded in effect.
ing. He has moreover pur-
sued his researches by methods
which have rarely been followed in the
West. In order to learn all that can be
learned of the mind he has begun by put
ting HIS body, and especially his brain, in
the most receptive condition. By rigid
attention to diet, exercise, and mental
processes, he has exalted his intellectual
powers, strengthened his will, and thus Ia
cilitated his researches. And we may
pause here to say that the dependence OF
the mind upon the body is well understood
by every literary and scientific worker.
ALI such know that gross habit of body
is incompatible with the best intellectual
results that whoever wishes to get the
best intellectual results must eat and drink
sparingly and judiciously. The ancient
Greeks understood that the mems sana
could only be found IN corpore sano. But
Christian asceticism so caricatured the
doctrine of physical discipline that men
ultimately rebelled against it, and BOW
by long habit have become gross and
careless in this respect, The Adept edu.
Gates his body to be abstemioup, and in SO
doing ne acquires for his mind fresh elias
ITCHY and force. He cultivates his will
also, and gradually it obtains control over
Nature, being aided by knowledge OF
reconcile natural laws. Thus far there
has been no demand upon the reader fol
the exercise of belief in the Supernatural.
And in fact there is no Supernatural for
the Adept. He asserts tine existence OF
natural phenomena which certainly tran,
scend ordinary experience, but ne claims
that they are as much part Of Nature as
the commonest phenomena which occur
before our eyes every day. True Science
will be slow TO pronounce anything in.
credible, for true Science knows that the
supposed miracles OF one age are the COM
monplaces OF the next; and the generation
which has witnessed the invention of the
railroad, the telegraph, the monograph,
the telephone, the speOtroscope, photog.
raphy, and the electric light-cannot afford
to draw the line anywhere, and say that
discovery must cease there.
Demonstration, however, is what the
average man insists upon, and this Mr..
Sinnett has undertaken to give in his book.
Through Madame Blavatsky he was
brought into communication with one of
the Brotherhood, who bore the name of
Koot Hoomi, and considerable portion of
the volume consists of the letters written
to the author by this remarkable person
age. The phenomena which were pro-
duced through Nine. Blavatsky for the
satisfaction of earnest inquirers, and some
of the more remarkable of which are mar
rated by Mr.. Sinnett, are such as to pro-
duce conviction in candid minds that some
uucompreheEded natural force must have
been employed. Here is an instance re.
lated by Mr.. Sinnett. A party of ladies
and gentlemen agreed to have picnic
ave set out at the appointed time next
morning. We were originally to have been
party of ak, but a seventh person joined
US Just before we started. After going
down the hill for some hours place was
chosen in the wood near the upper
waterfall for our breakfast; the baskets
that had been brought with US were I'M.
packed, and, as usual at an Indian pic
mic, the servants at little distance lighted
q fire and set to work to make tea and
coffee. Concerning this some joking arose
over the fact that we had one cup and
saucer too few, on account of the seventh
person, who joined us at starting, and some
one laughingly asked Madame Blavatsky
to create another cup and saucer. There
was no set purpose in the proposal at first,
but when Madame Blavatsky said it would
be very difficult, but that if we liked she
would try. attention was of course at once
arrested. Madame Blavatsky, as usual,
held mental conversation with one of the
brothers, and then wandered about in the
neighborhood of where we were sitting
that is to say, within a radius of half a
dozen yards from our picnic clsth-I
closely following, waiting to see what
would happen. Then she marked spot On
the ground, and called one of the gentlemen
of the party TO bring knife to dig with.
The place chosen was the edge of little
slope covered with thick weeds and grass
and shrubby underground. The gentle.
man with the knife tore up these in the
first place, with some diff Guilty, as the
roots were tough and intertwined. Cut
ting, then, into the matted roots and earth
with the knife, and pulling away the de-
bris with his hands, he came at last on the
edge of something white, which turned
out, as it was completely excavated, to be
the required cup. A corresponding saucer
was also found after little more digging.
Both objects were in among the roots,
which spread everywhere through the
ground, so that it seemed as if the roots
were growing round them. The cup and
saucer both correspondent exactly, as re-
CARDS their pattern, with those that had
been brought to the picnic, and constituted
a seventh cup and saucer when brought
back to where we were to have breakfast. d
Mr.. Sinnett adds that the original
set OF china was of somewhat peculiar
pattern, bought a good many years
previously in London, and which assuredly
could never have been matched in Simla. y
The whole of the circumstances and condi.
lions in this case were such as absolutely
to preclude fraud or deception of any
kind. In the first place the spot whereon