Madame Blavatsky about to unveil Isis to the world
Part 1. H.P. Blavatsky on the authorship of the foregoing introductory chapter. No amount of scholarly criticism can justify the baseless and feeble accusations of “wholesale plagiarism,” especially when the sincerity of purpose and noble objective of “Isis Unveiled” have been acclaimed by independent thinkers, and highly esteemed by those who read it. Part 2. Before the Veil. The sole purpose of philosophy to free the soul from the clutches of the senses, to raise her to the majesty of pure thought, and to afford visions of eternal truth, goodness, and beauty. Plato is the world’s interpreter; his wisdom is divine and eternal. His philosophy is the Wisdom of Love, not the love of wisdom. Life is more like a dream than a reality. The life of the interior spirit is the death of the external nature, so the night of the physical world presages the day of the spiritual. The aim of initiation is friendship and communion with God. Aristotle misrepresented Plato and mocked Pythagoras; he was neither a trustworthy witness, nor an initiate. Yet the world is a living arithmetic in its development, a realized geometry in its repose. Number 10 is the symbol and expression of a celestial ray radiating from The One and emanating, through endless differentiations, in the abyss of the phenomenal world — a chaos to sense, a cosmos to reason. The scholarch of the Platonic Academy utterly despised everything worldly, except the highest divine virtue. Intelligence, Conscience, and Will, of the Manava-Dharmashastra, are stages of spiritual progression, corresponding to Thought, Perception, and Envisagement (Intuition) of Xenocrates. The Daimonion of Socrates was his Divine Voice that guided him, guarded him, and inspired him all his life. Every star, like our earth, has a soul of its own. And every atom of matter is impregnated with the divine influx of the Soul of the World. It breathes and lives; it feels and suffers, as well as enjoying life in its way. Part 3. Glossary of 44 philosophical terms. No man worthy of the name of philosopher would care to wear honours that rightfully belong to another. The materialism of today is born of the brutal yesterday.