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strange manifestation taking place in seance-rooms are rejected by the majority of the men of science as absard superstitions, while they are regarded by the Spiritualists as indicative of the existence of disembodied Spirits!
Our Eastern doctrines having been proclaimed by the general body of Spiritualists as impertinent intruders, leaders of that body seem to have discovered at last a very simple means for getting rid of them. Mr. Henry Kiddle has found out that the Mahatma whose instructions are embodied in Mr. Sinnett's publications haw committed an act of plagiarism in borrowing certain sentences from one of his lectures without admitting his obligation. He tells us, he wrote to Mr. Sinnett about his discovery more than a year ago; and though Mr. Sinnett distinctly states that he never heard from him, this American discoverer has been very persistently complaining to the public of the great injury done to him. This is considered as a very "grave charge" by the Spiritualists, who suppose that it "strikes at the very root of the pretentions of the Adepts." But if these Spiritualists, "Perplexed Readers," and "Students" who are making such a terrible fuss about the matter were to examine the passage in question carefully, they will, perchance, be able to perceive that there is evidently some confusion and mistake in the whole matter, and that the probabilities of the case are against the truth of Mr. Kiddle's complaint. Upon a closer examination of it I find that—
I.So far as the leading idea in the passage is concerned, if any body has committed literary theft it is the complainant himself and not the accused. I find no reference to Plato in the passages quoted from Mr. Kiddle's lecture in his letter published in Light,*[1] and the complainant has very prudently omitted the reference to the Greek philosopher that precedes the passages which he reproduces from the Mahatma's letter.
- ↑ * Nor is there in his now famous lecture at Lake Pleasant, for we have procured and carefully read it.—Ed.
