The times., 1898-04-18
EX ORIENTE LUX.
The Teachings of the Wise Men Of
the East.

The Teachings of the Wise Men of
the East.
Major James Albert Clark. a student of
the esoteric lore of the Orient, addressed
the Theosophical Society last night at
their hall in the Metzerott building, the
subject being: The Wise Men of the
East" Referring to the vast literature
which is now acknowledged by modern
scholarship to be the product of oriental
thought, the lecturer quoted Prof. Max
Muller, who said: IF l were asked under
what sky the human mind has most fully
developed some of its choicest gifts. has
most deeply pondered on the greatest
problems of life, and has found solutions
of them which will deserve the attention,
of those who have studied Plato and
Kant, l should point to India If l were
to ask myself from what literature we
here in Europe may draw that corrective
which is most wanted in order to make
our inner life more perfect, more compre-
hensive more universal, and in fact more
truly human life, not for this life only,
but for a transfgured and eternal life,
again l should point to India"
Celebrating on this view of the arcane
teachings of the sages of the East mot
the prests) the lecturer said that most
stupendous paradox is presented by the
dogmatic theologians who print pictures
for the edification OF Sunday school child
rem of wise men of the East coming to
the babe at Bethlehem and in the next
breath teaching these children and en-
phasizing the teaching with fanaticai
zeal and bigotry that these men were not
wise, but heather and pagans. From the
fourth century when the swamping OF
Europe in ignorance began, until the con-
quest of India over eighty years ago, the
anathemas of the church have been
hurled against the very system of ethics
which was parent to Christianity as Sans
crit is found by scholarship to be ths
parent tongue of all Indo- European lam
guages. And these children when of
larger growth contribute means to furth-
er system of propaganda on. India's
coral strand to be met by the cold, critical
and unanswerable fact that not only is
dogmatism not wanted there will not
! thrive there, but that at a single point.
Calcutta, now considered one of the great
educational centers of the world, there
are twenty colleges. with three thousand
students, surrounded by over fifty-five
thousand English speaking non-Christian
natives, a dynamic force for the future
which will compel respect for the prin-
| ciples so often throttled by the fagot ana
rack during the temporal supremacy of
| a now waning ecclesiastical power.
Further commenting on the antiquity
of the teachings of the Eastern sages, Max
Muller some years ago laid it down for a
conclusion of some certainty that the
| RigVedaS could not be traced back in
writing to a point earlier than $500 e. G..
! Following this daring allegation a learn
| ed Iiindoo scholar. almost simultaneously
! with a professor in a German university
| forced the manuscripts back 6000 B. c.
| This was REINFORCED by the careful study
| of Prof. Bloomfield of Johns Hopkins
| University and there most students have
I seemed to rest, but Theosophists have pur-
I sued the trail to a further reach. Accept
/ in the teaching of the Eastern sages
which are held tentatively because yet
4 disproved, that man has been on this
/ planet over eighteen million years the
reach of investigation still goes on, no
/ more strange or wonderful than the enun-
citation OF scientists in their speciality that
! man was on the American continent in
] the post-Pliocene four hundred thousand
years ago. The one hundred pages of the
/ Smithsonian report on the migrations of
] the Svastica is interes. ing to the archaeo-
Z logist, but far more interesting TO the
/ theosOphist is the well substantiated fac.
! in the lore of the East, that the Svastica
! wherever found carried its meaning with
| 1t, and the editor of that valuable paper
] a credit to the Smithsonian Institution.
will reap a rich harvest when he delves
! into the esoteric teachings which are in
/ variably concomi.ant with the outlining
! of the Syastica, whether on .decaying tenn
/ pies or when drawn on the ground by
( chance-meeting pilgrims the world over
/ The Essenes knew il in Apostolic days;
/ the teacher Of Nazareth knew it as few
/. men know TO a certainty. II shows yet in
/ Yucatan despite the burning of the CO.
| ordinate literature by Spanish priests 1t
/ is imbedded in the ancient wisdom of the
4 Chinese; was well known to the learning
/ of the Egyptians when Moses was a stu
/ dent of the schools; was ingrained with
! the warp and roof of Arabian erudition
| where Moses had a further forty years of
| initiation; was sublimely known to the
| order of Melchisedek, and but partially
| known to Aaron who was made High
| Priest by his brothers imperial com
! mand. much as Napoleon forced his So
| called low-born relatives into the kingly
! circle of Europe. 1t is worn on the badge
| pin of every Theosophist as an evidence
| that truth crushed to earth will rise
again, as all things re-embody. all life
| reincarnates. And the law of Karma fol-
| lows in exact justice, that whatsoever
| man soweth, that shall he reap" The
! 32' years ending in 1908 shows 143 900
/ thinkers tortured at rack, of which 45 900
were burned at the stake by the Inquisi-
| ton. Spain'S karma is in evidence now