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were by no means immune.
23 Others prominent in the movement at the time were Governor N. P. Tallmadge,
of Wisconsin, Rev. Adin Ballou, J. P. Davis and Benjamin Coleman; and Profs.
Bush, Mapes, Gray, and Channing from leading universities. Mr. Epes Sargeant, of
Boston, added prestige to the cult. A Dr. Gardner, of Boston, and the Unitarian
Theodore Parker gave testimony as to the beneficent influence exerted by the
Spiritualistic faith.
24 By strange and fortuitous circumstances he became the guest of the Emperor of
the French, of the King of Holland, of the Czar of Russia, and of many lesser
princes. His demonstrations before these grandees were extensions of the
phenomena occurring in his youth. See Howitt's History of the Supernatural, Vol.
II, pp. 222 ff.
25 Howitt's History of the Supernatural, Vol. II, p. 225.
26 He published his The Great Harmonia (Boston 1850); The Philosophy of
Spiritual Intercourse (New York, 1851); The Penetralia (Boston, 1856); The
Present Age and Inner Life (New York, 1853); and The Magic Staff (Boston, 1858).
He edited a periodical, The Herald of Progress.
27 Howitt's The History of the Supernatural, Vol. II, p. 228.
28 That there was much very real theosophy among the early German Pietists who
settled north and west of Philadelphia in the Pennsylvania colony is indicated
by the following extract from The German Sectarians of Pennsylvania, by Julius
Friedrich Sachse (Vol. I, pp. 457 ff.). He says: "Thus far but little attention
has been given by writers on Pennsylvania history to the influences exercised by
the various mystical, theosophical and cabbalistic societies and fraternities of
Europe in the evangelization of this Province and in reclaiming the German
settlers from the rationalism with which they were threatened by their contact
with the English Quakers.
"Labadie's teachings; Boehme's visions; the true Rosicrucianism of the original
Kelpius party; the Philadelphian Society, whose chief apostle was Jane Leade;
the fraternity which taught the restitution of all things; the mystical
fraternity led by Dr. Julian Wilhelm Petersen and his wife Eleanor von Merlau-
both members of the Frankfort community-all found a foothold upon the soil of
Penn's colony and exercised a much larger share in the development of this
country than is accorded to them. It has even been claimed by some superficial
writers and historians of the day that there was no strain of mysticism whatever
in the Ephrata Community, or, in fact, connected with any of the early German
movements in Pennsylvania. Such a view is refuted by the writings of Kelpius,
Beissel, Miller, and many others who then lived, sought the Celestial Bridegroom
and awaited the millennium which they earnestly believed to be near.
"With the advent of the Moravian Brethren in Pennsylvania the number of these
mystical orders was increased by the introduction of two others, viz., The Order
of the Passion of Jesus (Der Orden des Leidens Jesu), of which Count Zinzendorf
was Grand Commander, and the Order of the Mustard Seed (Der Senfkorn Orden)."
204
CHAPTER III HELENA P. BLAVATSKY: HER LIFE AND PSYCHIC CAREER
1 Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky, by A. P. Sinnett (Theosophical
Publishing Society, London, 1913), p. 35. See also footnote at bottom of page
155, in Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett (New York, Frederick A.
Stokes Co.,
2 Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky, by A. P. Sinnett, pp. 39-40.
3 Vol. II, p. 599.
4 Her recital of marvels seen in Tibet corresponds in the main with similar
narratives related by the Abbé Huc in the first edition of his Recollections of
Travel in Tartary, Tibet and China. Mr. Sinnett makes the statement, without
giving his evidence, that the "miracles" related by the Abbé in his first
edition were expurgated by Catholic authority in the later editions of the work.
5 Madame Blavatsky later verified the long distance phenomenon by receiving in
writing, in response to an inquiry by mail, a letter from the Rumanian friend
stating that at the identical time of the Shaman's concentration she had
swooned, but dreamed she saw Madame Blavatsky in a tent in a wild country among
menacing tribes, and that she had communicated with her. Madame Blavatsky states
that the friend's astral form was visible in the tent.
6 In 1873 while at the Eddy farmhouse with her new friend Col. Olcott, she
revealed to him this chapter in her life, proving it by showing him where her
left arm had been broken in two places by a saber stroke, and having him feel a
musket ball in her right shoulder and another in her leg, revealing also a scar
just below the heart where she had been stabbed by a stiletto.
7 It must have been about this time that Madame did some traveling in an
altogether different capacity than occult research. She is known by her family
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