Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-11-09
THEOSOPHY.
As it Is Expounded by the New Priestess,
Mrs. BeSant.

| London Standard.
Mrs. Besant delivered lecture last even
| ing on Philosophy and Occultism.
Mrs. BeSaut stated that thcoSophy came
| forward as holding the spiritual as opposed
| to the material conception of the universe,
| but declaring that it might he justified tn
| the intellect and demonstrated to the reason.
Humanity asked for something more than
the outcome of agnoSticiSm, which was
that man climbed upward to fall back in
the end; and in response to this de-
mand theosophy cana with its message of
! life and Immortality, showing that the uni
verse was, indeed. Il spiritual universe, ttat
man was essentially spirit; caud that that
spirit was Immortal, eternal and imperish-
able, as well as uacreatcd. 1t said to acnns-
tic science: ''Aian is an organism involving
new powers, new sciences, new things for
investigation, and what you call 'unAuOw-
able is only 'uuknOwable' TO many to-day,
but which has been already investigated
by few, and is net beyond the reach
Of those who dare 10 tread an
unknown path" Having pointed out that
the distinction between theoSophy and oc-
cultism was that the latter was Il branch of
theOsophy which belonged to the more adj
vanced in theosophic science, Mrs. BeSant
added that beyond this, theosophy alleged
that there We're different planes of life,
thought and being-namely the physi-
cal, or lower planes, and the spir-
itual, or higher planes, the latter being
denominated ''astrO," ''pasSional,' ''men-
tai and SO on. The lecturer referred at
length TO the evidences furnished by cases
of hypnotism, clairvoyanre etc. of the ex-
istence of 4 spiritual or will power capable
of moving matter, and went on to contend
that what theosophiStS regarded rs the
higher planes were eternal and imperISha-
BILE
She also stated that one of the doctrines
of theOsophy was that of reinCarnation, it
hold NJ
the earth, encased itself in the human
form, gathered human knowledge through
the education of life, and when death ar
rived, and the body WAS worn out, the I'M
mortal principle of intelligence, or the
spirit f man, passed through period of
to earth with the experience already
gathered, entering upon 4 new
course of human life, thus constantly aC-
cumulating mental and moral capacities by
an evolution, and one that was necessary to
explain the differences in the intelligence
and morality of man. Theosophy, she said.
further held that there was i mental and
moral as well as physical heredity, and
that there was principle termed karma,
which meant that a, humanity sowed so
must it reap.
At the close of the lecture a number of
questions, written by members of the audi
ence and handed to the chairman, We're
answered by Mrs. Besant, whose replies
may be summarized as follows: The cX-
PLANTATION of how mans want of all recoll4c-
ton of a previous state of existence was 10
be reconciled with belief in Il future state
of existence was, roughly, that the
brain memory belonged 10 q transient
personality. To the question whether
there was any knowledge de-
rived from ascertained facts ac-
cessible to inquirers in proof of the dec
triae of reincarnation, the answer was con-
tanned in the suggestion furnished by the
immense differences, morally and intellect
ually, between human beings, the divergen-
cies often existing in the case of twins, the
numerous cases of infant genius in which
there was knowledge such as could
not have been acquired in the pres
cnt state of existence. In reply to
the question. Are beasts reincarnated
and if not, why not!" the answer was that
the reincarnation principle passed
through all the lower stages of existence,
including the mineral, the plant and the
brute up to man that this was process OF
differentiation, and that gradually this prin-
ciple, which was general and universal be-
came individualized as the physical aDpa-
ratus became suitable for the manifestation.
The reply TO the question, docs not theos-
.ophy destroy the intuition implanted by God
in every Individual" was that it did not de-
stroy, but rather trained that faculty A
question as to the origin and use of evil was
broadly that evil was the persistence of the
lower or brute, nature in the lower planes
of humanity. As to individual mind, origin.
that was derived from the universal mind
which, like light, pervaded the universe.
With regard to the period of reincarnation,
that varied according TO the stage of evolu-
ton reached by the individual In reference
to PRAYER, theosophists did not believe In
prayer to any object outside of humanity;
she preferred to put it, not as prayer, but
as the aspiration of 4 lower to higher
life. AS to the theory of n personal God,
if by this were meant an extra-cOsmic God,
distinct from the universe and yet infinite,
so unphilosophic a conception was not part
of the theosophic theory. With reference
to love, Mrs. Besant stated that she re-
garded love as the great moving force of
the world, but 1t needed wisdom to prevent
its doing harm.