TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preface v

BEFORE THE VEIL.

Dogmatic assumptions of modern science and theology ix The Platonic philosophy affords the only middle ground xi Review of the ancient philosophical systems xv A Syriac manuscript on Simon Magus xxiii Glossary of terms used in this book xxiii

Volume first

THE "INFALLIBILITY" OF MODERN SCIENCE.

CHAPTER I.

OLD THINGS WITH NEW NAMES.

The Oriental Kabala 1 Ancient traditions supported by modern research 3 The progress of mankind marked by cycles 5 Ancient cryptic science 7 Priceless value of the Vedas 12 Mutilations of the Jewish sacred books in translation 13 Magic always regarded as a divine science 25 Achievements of its adepts and hypotheses of their modern detractors 25 Man's yearning for immortality 37

CHAPTER II.

PHENOMENA AND FORCES.

The servility of society 39 Prejudice and bigotry of men of science 40 They are chased by psychical phenomena 41 Lost arts 49 The human will the master-force of forces 57 Superficial generalizations of the French savants 60 Mediumistic phenomena, to what attributable 67 Their relation to crime 71

CHAPTER III.

BLIND LEADERS OF THE BLIND.

Huxley's derivation from the Orohippus 74 Comte, his system and disciples 75 The London materialists 85 Borrowed robes 89 Emanation of the objective universe from the subjective 92

CHAPTER IV.

THEORIES RESPECTING PSYCHIC PHENOMENA.

Theory of de Gasparin 100 " of Thury 100 " of des Mousseaux, de Mirville too " of Babinet 101 " of Houdin 101 " of MM. Royer and Jobart de Lamballe 102 The twins— "unconscious cerebration" and "unconscious ventriloquism." 105 Theory of Crookes 112 " of Faraday 116 " of Chevreuil 116 The Mendeleyeff commission of 1876 117 Soul blindness 121

CHAPTER V.

THE ETHER, OR "ASTRAL LIGHT."

One primal force, but many correlations 126 Tyndall narrowly escapes a great discovery 127 The impossibility of miracle 128 Nature of the primordial substance 133 Interpretation of certain ancient myths 133 Experiments of the fakirs 139 Evolution in Hindu allegory 153

CHAPTER VI

PSYCHO- PHYSICAL PHENOMENA.

The debt we owe to Paracelsus 163 Mesmerism — its parentage, reception, potentiality 165 "Psychometry" 183 Time, space, eternity 184 Transfer of energy from the visible to the invisible universe 186 The Crookes experiments and Cox theory. 195

CHAPTER VII.

THE ELEMENTS, ELEMENTALS, AND ELEMENTARIES.

Attraction and repulsion universal in all the kingdoms of nature 206 Psychical phenomena depend on physical surroundings 211 Observations in Siam 214 Music in nervous disorders 215 The "world-soul" and its potentialities 216 Healing by touch, and healers 217 "Diakka" and Porphyry's bad demons 219 The quenchless lamp 224 Modern ignorance of vital force 237 Antiquity of the theory of force-correlation 241 Universality of belief in magic 247

CHAPTER VIII.

SOME MYSTERIES OF NATURE.

Do the planets affect human destiny ? 253 Very curious passage from Hermes 254 The restlessness of matter 257 Prophecy of Nostradamus fulfilled 260 Sympathies between planets and plants 264 Hindu knowledge of the properties of colors 265 "Coincidences" the panacea of modern science 268 The moon and the tides 273 Epidemic mental and moral disorders 274 The gods of the Pantheons only natural forces 280 Proofs of the magical powers of Pythagoras 283 The viewless races of ethereal space 284 The "four truths" of Buddhism 291

CHAPTER IX.

CYCLIC PHENOMENA.

Meaning of the expression "coats of skin" 293 Natural selection and its results 295 The Egyptian "circle of necessity" 296 Pre-Adamite races 299 Descent of spirit into matter 302 The triune nature of man 309 The lowest creatures in the scale of being 310 Elementals specifically described 311 Proclus on the beings of the air 312 Various names for elementals 313 Swedenborgian views on soul-death 317 Earth-bound human souls 319 Impure mediums and their "guides" 325 Psychometry an aid to scientific research 333

CHAPTER X.

THE INNER AND OUTER MAN.

Pere Felix arraigns the scientists 338 The "Unknowable" 340 Danger of evocations by tyros 342 Lares and Lemures 345 Secrets of Hindu temples 350 Reïncarnation 351 Witchcraft and witches 353 The sacred soma trance 357 Vulnerability of certain "shadows" 363 Experiment of Clearchus on a sleeping boy 365 The author witnesses a trial of magic in India 369 Case of the Cevennois 371

CHAPTER XI.

PSYCHOLOGICAL AND PHYSICAL MARVELS.

Invulnerability attainable by man 379 Projecting the force of the will 380 Insensibility to snake-poison 381 Charming serpents by music 383 Teratological phenomena discussed 385 The psychological domain confessedly unexplored 407 Despairing regrets of Berzelius 411 Turning a river into blood a vegetable phenomenon. 413

CHAPTER XII.

THE "IMPASSABLE CHASM."

Confessions of ignorance by men of science 417 The Pantheon of nihilism 421 Triple composition of fire 423 Instinct and reason defined 425 Philosophy of the Hindu Jaïns 429 Deliberate misrepresentations of Lemprière 431 Man's astral soul not immortal 432 The reïncarnation of Buddha 437 Magical sun and moon pictures of Thibet 441 Vampirism—its phenomena explained 449 Bengalese jugglery 457

CHAPTER XIII.

REALITIES AND ILLUSION.

The rationale of talismans 462 Unexplained mysteries 466 Magical experiment in Bengal 467 Chibh Chondor's surprising feats 471 Tbe Indian tape-climbing trick an illusion 473 Resuscitation of buried fakirs 477 Limits of suspended animation 481 Mediumship totally antagonistic to adeptship 487 What are "materialized spirits" ? 493 The Shuddla Mâdan 495 Philosophy of levitation 497 The elixir and alkahest 503

CHAPTER XIV.

EGYPTIAN WISDOM.

Origin of the Egyptians 515 Their mighty engineering works 517 The ancient land of the Pharaohs 521 Antiquity of the Nilotic monuments 529 Arts of war and peace 531 Mexican myths and ruins 545 Resemblances to the Egyptian 551 Moses a priest of Osiris 555 The lessons taught by the ruins of Siam 563 The Egyptian Tau at Palenque 573

CHAPTER XV.

INDIA THE CRADLE OP THE RACE.

Acquisition of the "secret doctrine" 575 Tro relics owned by a Pali scholar 577 Jealous exclusiveness of the Hindus 581 Lydia Maria Child on Phallic symbolism 583 The age of the Vedas and Manu 587 Traditions of pre-diluvian races 589 Atlantis and its peoples 593 Peruvian relics 597 The Gobi desert and its secrets 599 Thibetan and Chinese legends 600 The magician aids, not impedes, nature 617