Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-05-29
LETTER FROM A. MARQUES.

your account Of Rev. Garvin's
lecturer
Rev. Garvin, unwittingly 1
know, did me, and through me
did the cause of Theosophy Il
great injustice, by quoting an
incomplete newspaper report of
my lecture, which led him and
his audience to believe that Theo-
sopby countenanced witchcraft
and "kahunaism" (whatever that
may be). Therefore the fear of
doing the Rev. Garvin similar
injustice by holding him respon-
sible for what is found in the
synopsis, however fair that may
be, of his sermon published by
the BULLETIN, will prevent me
from taking him personally to
task for the utterances attributed
to him. But there are points in
the BULLETINS synopsis which L
do wish to take exception to. I
shall not deal with the peculiar
mistakes made about Theosophy,
because they only show that utter
lack of proper information on
the subject, such as is unfortu-
nately very commonly shown by
preachers, in speaking from the
pulpit, in their self assumed char
acter of teachers of humanity, of
things they know anything about,
is verify amazing! Whatever Rev.
Garvin did say about Theosophy,
he is irresponsible and must be
forgiven for it under the same
plea as Jesus used when asking
for forgiveness for those who were
crucifying him. But | want to
refer to questions of history. The
BULLETINS synopsis says that
''the Romans borrowed their reli-
gious knowledge from the Greeks
(?D, and these had stolen theirs
from the Egyptians and Pheni-
clans, while they borrowed from
the Chaldeans and Assyrians, who
stole from the Abrahamic family
all their notions of spirituality,
eternity, ETC., etc" This indeed
is very convenient theory for
sectarian purposes, but it is look
ing back at history through
very bold sectarian glass.
The Egyptians had their reli-
gion and deep mysteries long be-
fore the first man of the Jewish
race was born. The tombs of the
NIIth Dynasty lately discovered
by the present director of the
Egyptian Museum, contain the
mummies Of king and his fami-
ly, who lived four hundred years
before Abraham, and the relics
therein found, as described in a
late Scientific American, show
that the Egyptians were already
then highly civilized, and they
had before that been ruled by IL
civilized dynasties 49, dynasties
mind, not kings-whose monu-
ments fortunately cannot be de-
sroyed for the satisfaction of any
stCJdTlan theories.
On the other. side, who and
what was Abraham. the founder
of the above quoted "Abrahamic
Family?" According to an au-
thority that can hardly be gain
said in the matter-the Bible-he
was a herdsman, living-not al
ways very edifyingly--in the most
primitive, patriarchal style, wan
dering about on the uncultivated
lands Of regularly constituted
nations, much about as the North
American Indians now do among
the settlements of the civilized
white race; and Abraham
or his sons only got their
start in ciyilisation by going down
among the advanced Egyptians,
and serving the Egyptian mon
archs. How could the Egyptian,
Chaldean and Assyrian nations
"steal" from Abraham the know
ledge he did not have himself,
while they had already possessed
it centuries before his birth?
Then, again, what was the jew
ish nation at the time of the first
and second captivities? Semi
barbarians at most, and that was
why they were reduced to slavery,
as useful punishment, by the
more civilised Chaldeans and As
syrians, through contact with
whom they obtained their first
notions of true Spirituality" etc.
The fact is, that really the Jews
''stole" all their ideas from their