and Plato) by whose assistance these (the Eleusinian and Orphic)
Mysteries are developed, it is coeval with the universe itself; and
however its continuity may be broken by opposing systems, it will
make its appearance at different periods of time, as long as the sun
himself shall continue to illuminate the world. It has been, indeed,
and may hereafter be violently assaulted by delusive opinions; but the
opposition will be just as imbecile as that of the waves of the sea
against a temple, built on a rock, which majestically pours them back,
"Broken and vanquish'd foaming to the main."
Somewhat similar although less suggestive is the tribute of a recent
writer upon Neoplatonism:
The Neoplatonist held that nothing perishes and Neoplatonism is still
alive. Its mysticism has lived on. Its idealism can never die.
CLASSICAL CYRENE: by Ariomardes
What we call "history" is largely a dogma. It stands on a basis very
similar to that on which some other dogmas, religious, literary,
scientific, etc., stand; that is, it stands on a particular,
restricted, and local brand of culture, known as "Western
civilization." And, like these other dogmas, it is destined to become
seriously modified by later researches and discoveries.
For look at our classical history; it is founded chiefly upon a
literature--the literature of cultured circles in Greece and Rome. That
this literature does not reflect the life of the people to any adequate
extent we know; for the spade of the archaeologists, instead of
confirmations, too often unearths surprises. The results of archaeology
go to show that ancient peoples were more advanced in many important
arts of life than we had surmised from our acquaintance with the said
literature. Hebraic tradition, too, backed by the weight of religious
authority, has colored our views of the past, and prevented us from
estimating aright the claims of non-Christian peoples. In considering
the history of Hindûstân, Persia, Egypt, etc., students have sought
to make dates agree with their own sacred traditions. Again, we have
too often shown a lack of appreciation of the form and style of other
historians, when these have not adopted the literal and precise form
favored by our own historians; and have consequently, in a vain attempt
to take poetical language in the sense of a scientific treatise,
frequently rejected it and its message altogether.
Around that Mediterranean basin which was the classic theater, were
great nations to whose history we have not hitherto had access, but
of which we are now beginning to learn a little. The civilization--or
rather, several distinct civilizations--that preceded Greece, and whose
center at one time was Crete, at another the western shores of Asia
Minor; the mysterious Nabatheans and Sabaeans; the equally mysterious
Hittites; empires in Africa, south of Egypt, and inland from the east
coast; these and other fragmentary remains slowly accumulate to confirm
the assurances made by H. P. Blavatsky in _The Secret Doctrine_ that a
far greater and longer past lies behind us than we have so far guessed.
The name Cyrene is suggestive along these lines, and forms the topic
of a recent article by Professor Alfred Emerson of the Chicago Art
Institute, in _The Scientific American_.
A number of Dorian islanders, we are there told, planted a European
colony on the great Libyan headland to the south of Greece proper,
640 years B. C., so that Cyrene and its neighborhood had as long an
authentic history as ancient Rome itself. A dynasty of kings was
succeeded by a republic and the Libyans sometimes pressed the Greek
colony hard. Cyrene had its own school of philosophy and a famous
school of medicine. It had over 100,000 inhabitants, and the Ptolemies
gave it kings again.
Sporadic explorations have brought to light a few relics, but
heretofore the Ottoman government has repressed the curiosity of more
systematic researchers. Now, however, an American expedition has won a
firman to explore the ruins, and we shall soon have a record of this
powerful but little known outlier of classic culture.
KILLARNEY, IRELAND: by F. J. Dick, M. Inst. C. E., M. Inst. C. E. I.
Those who pass hurriedly through the Killarney district know little
of its manifold fascination. Even among natives few have thoroughly
explored its features. But to one who has made many more or less
prolonged visits there, at all seasons, and who has gained a
sympathetic interest in its people and in the legends that belong to
every rock, islet, and mountain, and who has seen it in storm and
sunshine, at dawn and sunset, and by moonlight, the feeling grows that
here the immutable decree of Karmic law, "there shall be no more going
up and down," during this cycle, never fully descended--that, in fact,
this is no part of the ordinary world at all, but something distinct,
sacred, set apart for some inscrutable reason and purpose. The very
atmosphere of some fairy-world of Light and Day hovers about these
Lakes and wooded mountain heights, and seems to penetrate everything.
Right in the center, in the very heart of all the beauty, between
Dinish Island and Glena, rises the Shee, or Sidhe (Sanskrit _Siddhi_)
Mountain--the mountain of the Fairy World, next to Purple Mountain.
Strange to say, it is just here, too, that the luxuriant vegetation of
Killarney seems fairly to run riot, and we find trees and shrubs of
tropical character growing side by side with those of temperate and
colder climes. Eucalyptus, palm, bamboo, jostle cedar and pine; while
the profusion of flowers of all kinds is amazing. And the delicious
perfumes of the place, with just a faint suggestion of a turf-fire
somewhere a little way off, are something to remember. Some of the
Killarney plants belong to what was once an unbroken coast-line
extending to Spain. Such are _saxifraga umbrosa_ (London pride),
_saxifraga geum_, _arbutus unedo_, and _pinguicula grandiflora_. The
arbutus grows in profusion at Killarney, although its real home, in a
sense, is among the Pyrenees. Other plants are found along the west
coast, which are indigenous to the eastern shores of America.
One thinks of Breasil, and the Isles of the Western Sea, a later
geological period than that when there was unbroken, or practically
unbroken, connexion between Ireland, Spain, and America. And then one
begins to wonder when the links of the past will be more clear.
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE OLD WEIR BRIDGE,
KILLARNEY]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE GAP OF DUNLOE,
KILLARNEY]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. COLLEEN BAWN ROCK,
KILLARNEY]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. AN OLD IRISH
FARMYARD]
These memories of the past! Are they not pressing more strongly than
ever on the hearts and imaginations--on the soul--of the Irish? No
attempted deadening of this urge by half-hearted dry-as-dust methods
ingeniously forced on the poor folk by interested parties (vested
interests) will avail much. The unrest, which manifests in so many
ways in contemporary Irish life, has surely a deep source. There are
incarnations and incarnations. Some kinds are racial, that is, belong
to the larger sweep of things. No artificial barriers can stop them.
No pretended patronage of the Irish language movement will be able
to check influences belonging to the inner life of a race-soul under
recurrent upward impulse.
Hy-breasil and the Isles of the West! Once the Coom-Dhuv, or Black
Valley, to the west of the Killarney Upper Lake, was an arm of the sea;
and those who lived on the temple-crowned heights of Killarney could
have told us something of those Isles, which were in no shadow-world,
but were realities, relics of Atlantis, undoubtedly. These legends must
find their solution, partly by the names, partly by the details; and be
studied in the light of H. P. Blavatsky's writings, particularly _The
Secret Doctrine_, where many a clue is given; and where the Sanskrit,
Chaldaean, and Irish names fail to give the clues, it seems the Welsh
will come triumphantly to the rescue. After all, the details have only
relative importance, for the broad facts are already plainly outlined
in _The Secret Doctrine_; and it is no very difficult matter to see
what is meant by Partholon, with the cow-faced and the goat-headed; by
Nemed; by the Tuatha de Danaan (Fourth Race Atlanteans of the Right
Path), and Formorians (those of the Left); some of their descendants
living on in archaic Ireland; and the Milesians, the early arrivals of
the Fifth, from Central Asia via Egypt and Scandinavia, when Spain and
Africa were one and Ireland was part of Scandinavia. All of which was
long before what we call the Celts, crossed the Caucasus into Europe.
Irish mythology is real history, some of it disfigured, as usual,
by irreverent or ignorant hands. The worst of it is that the Irish
seemed to enjoy having their past belittled, and their gods and heroes
dethroned in favor of a piece of patchwork of alien growth; a kind of
travesty of Eastern and Egyptian teachings, belittled, like the Irish
gods; and dethroned, truly! It was a "magical and Druidic mist" of the
wrong kind unfortunately, which descended upon the heirs of Atlantean
knowledge. And it will take some effort to dispel it, very probably. It
_is_ dispelled though!
Thoughts like these are apt to cross one's mind among the regal
solitudes of Killarney, where for miles, as you look down from some
crag, no human habitation can be seen--one of the places where you can
sit, and watch the Sword of Light, and the Spear of Victory getting
busy; so that the other two Jewels brought from the Isles of the West
will shine again.
One visible sign, at least, of the Sword of Light, is a growing
temperance movement among the youth of Ireland. Right conduct leads
to light, whatever be the mists obscuring one's vision along the
road of life. Perhaps the youth of Ireland will next look into the
ancient past to discern vestiges of nobility as well as simplicity of
character; and note what manner of men some true kings were, and by
whom attended--bards, or poet-seers; lawgivers, or disciplinarians;
craftsmen; and warriors. Another kind of functionary was--well, he was
not needed.
One of the legends of Killarney, really connected, it would seem, with
Inisfallen, has no very exact parallel, and possesses some interesting
and suggestive features. The story as given by Mr. Ockenden a century
and a half ago is somewhat as follows. There lived in Inisfallen many
hundred years ago a prince named O'Donoghoe. He manifested during his
stay on earth great munificence, great humanity, and great wisdom;
for by his profound knowledge in all the secret powers of nature, he
wrought wonders as miraculous as any tradition has recorded, of saints
by the aid of angels, or of sorcerers by the assistance of demons;
and among many other astonishing performances, he rendered his person
immortal. After having continued a long time on the surface of the
globe without growing old he one day took leave of his friends, and
rising from the floor, like some aerial existence, passed through the
window, shot away horizontally to a considerable distance, and then
descended. The water, unfolding at his approach, gave him entrance to
the sub-aqueous regions and then, to the astonishment of all beholders,
closed over his head, as they believed, for ever; but in this they were
mistaken.
He returned again, some years after, revisiting--not, like Hamlet's
ghost "the glimpses of the moon, making night hideous," but--the
radiance of the sun, making day joyful, to those at least who saw him;
since which time he has continued to make very frequent expeditions to
these upper regions, sometimes three or four in a year; but sometimes
three or four years pass without his once appearing, which the
bordering inhabitants have always looked upon as a mark of very bad
times. Mr. Ockenden continues the tale of his experiences:
It was feared this would be the third year he would suffer to elapse,
without his once cheering their eyes with his presence; but the latter
end of last August he again appeared, to the inexpressible joy of all,
and was seen by numbers in the middle of the day. I had the curiosity,
before I left Killarney, to visit one of the witnesses to this very
marvelous fact.
The account she gives is, that, returning with a kinswoman to her
house at the head of the Lake, they both beheld a fine gentleman
mounted upon a black horse, ascend through the water along with a
numerous retinue on foot, who all moved together along the surface
towards a small island, near which they again descended under water.
This account is confirmed in time, place, and circumstance, by many
more spectators from the side of the Lake, who are all ready to swear,
and, not improbably, to suffer death in support of their testimony.
Another account says that at the feast, before he first disappeared, he
was engaged in a prophetic relation of the events which were to happen
in the ages to come; and that after he reached the center of the Lake
opposite them, he paused a moment, turned slowly round, looked toward
his friends, and waving his hand to them with the cheerful air of one
taking a short farewell, descended.
Mrs. S. C. Hall relates that an English soldier of the 30th Regiment,
and an Irish comrade, were while she was at Killarney engaged in
plowing up part of the old churchyard in Inisfallen, a work they both
disliked. As they were mooring the boat in which they came to the
island in the morning, a day or so after the work had commenced,
they saw a procession of about two hundred persons pass from the
old churchyard, and walk slowly and solemnly over the lake to the
mainland. Reynolds (the soldier) himself was terribly alarmed, but his
companion fainted in the boat.
He repeatedly afterward saw smaller groups of figures, but no crowd so
numerous.
In answer to our questions, he expressed his perfect readiness to
depose to the fact on oath; and asserted he would declare it if on his
death-bed.
Some say the best way to approach Killarney for the first time is
by the wildly picturesque road over the mountains from Kenmare and
Glengarriff. One obtains a magnificent view of the Upper Lake from the
turn of the road a little north of the police barrack. Others again
have experienced the charm of an absolutely sudden surprise awaiting
them, when, arriving at Killarney by rail and driving south about a
mile or more, during which nothing is seen but the over-arching trees,
and turning to the left up a steep road south of the Flesk demesne,
toward one of the guest-houses there, the whole panorama of the
Lower Lake and the mountains bursts upon you just as you reach your
destination. Nothing has prepared you for a scene of so great beauty;
so this way of arriving has its merits. From this situation, or from
Flesk Castle; from a point above the Torc cascade; and from the point
first mentioned, are obtained perhaps the three finest views of the
Lakes. But in truth unrivaled view-points seem endless, each having its
own especial charm. The play of color, cloud, and shadow at various
hours and seasons is so extraordinary that no brush of painter could
ever do Killarney justice. As for photographs, they are merely like
pegs to hang one's memory-hats upon.
To know Killarney stay two months there at least, make friends with the
natives, learn the legends, and absorb the harmony of the region.
And though many an isle be fair,
Fairer still is Inisfallen,
Since the hour Cuchullain lay
In the bower enchanted.
See! the ash that waves today,
Fand its grandsire planted.
When from wave to mountain-top
All delight thy sense bewilders,
Thou shalt own the wonder wrought
Once by her skilled fingers
Still, though many an age be gone,
Round Killarney lingers.
_William Larminie_
THE VRBAS DEFILE, BOSNIA: by F. J. B.
Bosnia, in Europe, best known as one of the Balkan Provinces, belonged
in the fourteenth century to the kingdom of Stephen of Servia:
it attained freedom in 1376, then fell again under the Turkish
invasion of Europe. In 1878 the treaty of Berlin provided for the
occupation, by Austria-Hungary, of Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Dalmatia,
accomplished only after severe conflict with the Mahommedans. Count
Callay was appointed administrator and made it his life-work to
promote harmony between the different races, as well as to develop
the country's resources. Ultimately the three provinces were annexed
by Austria-Hungary; compensation was awarded to Turkey and the
long-feared European war averted. The Vrbas is a tributary of the
Save, which divides Slavonia from Bosnia, on its northern border. The
accompanying print exhibits the deep, narrow, rocky bed of the Vrbas
and the precipitous height of the cliffs forming this magnificent
defile, the summits being invisible from certain parts of the road.
The river was once probably one of the underground watercourses of
Bosnia-Herzegovina. Nature is majestic there and hews out her own rock
temples.
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. THE VRBAS DEFILE,
BOSNIA]
[Illustration: Lomaland Photo. and Engraving Dept. ROCKING-STONE
PINNACLE, MOUNT WELLINGTON, TASMANIA]
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES: by C. J. Ryan
There has lately been an interesting correspondence in _The English
Mechanic_ upon the subject of meteorites, and a remarkable conflict
of opinion has been manifested, showing that there is really not much
positive knowledge about them. The Earth's atmosphere is continually
being bombarded by these missiles, and the dust into which they are
transformed during their passage through it falls upon the Earth,
sprinkling it annually with a layer of dark mineral substance, which
if evenly spread, would cover the surface to about the thickness of a
match. For long it was denied by the Academies of Science that mineral
masses, varying in weight from a few ounces to several tons, ever fell
from the sky, although they had been frequently seen in the act of
falling and had been handled while still warm. But the incredulity of
the astronomers was broken down about a century ago and they could no
longer hold to their axiom that "as there are no stones in the sky,
they cannot fall out of it." The careful study of "shooting-stars" has
not been undertaken for much more than half a century. Although there
is no doubt that meteoric masses do fall to the ground occasionally and
that the meteoric dust which is found in the enduring snows on high
peaks and in the Arctic regions comes from the disintegration of such
objects, it is not certain that all of the shooting stars that flash
across our night skies (and day ones too, though we rarely see one by
day) are of the same nature as the meteoric stones which we can examine
in our museums.
One of the most difficult problems to explain is the cause of the
luminosity of the meteors. Many of them start into brilliancy at the
enormous heights of eighty or ninety miles above the Earth and, after
dashing at planetary speed across a distance of perhaps a hundred
miles or more, disappear at heights of thirty or forty miles from the
surface. Compared with the rapidity of their motion the quickest bullet
is practically at rest. The explanation most widely accepted is that
the friction of the meteorite in passing through our atmosphere at
such an enormous speed ignites it and rapidly destroys it. Objection
has been raised to this theory on the ground that the atmosphere
at great heights is exceedingly rare and that it is difficult to
believe it could offer enough resistance. Another problem has hitherto
proved quite insoluble; i. e., the long persistence of the train of
luminous particles which remain drifting in the upper air after the
disappearance of the explosive bolides. For instance, on February 22,
1909, such a luminous train was seen for several hours drifting across
the sky at high speed. Its height was so great that it was visible
over a large part of England and France. Why these sparks do not go
out instantly, in the same manner as those which follow the ordinary
shooting-stars, is an unsolved mystery.
The only thing that is well established about meteor showers is
that most of them are periodic and come from well-defined quarters
of the heavens. From the study of the directions from which these
streams come, it has been calculated that they travel round the sun
in long elliptical orbits, and are members of his family. An orbit of
thirty-three years has been computed for the famous November meteors.
They probably extend about as far as the planet Neptune on one side
of the Sun. The wonderful displays of November meteors seen in 1833
and 1866, which astonished the whole world, were probably caused by
the passing of the Earth through a particularly dense portion of the
stream. In 1866 we met the same portion that we had encountered in
1833. It was again looked for in 1899, thirty-three years later, but,
to the surprise of the astronomers, there was but a very ordinary
display. Many reasons have been offered for this, but no one really
knows enough to explain it satisfactorily. A few of the meteoric
streams follow the tracks of comets, and it is supposed that they may
be the disintegrated remains of comets, particularly in the cases where
the latter have faded away. There are many other peculiarities in the
behavior of meteorites and of the meteoric streams which are quite
incomprehensible, but enough has been said to show that the problem is
full of interest to inquiring minds.
* * * * *
Students of H. P. Blavatsky's teachings will not have failed to notice
that there is a continual effort being made by astronomers to find
some really satisfactory theory to explain the formation and behavior
of comets' tails. She discusses the subject in _The Secret Doctrine_
in such a way and gives such suggestive hints as to make it clear that
when we do get the real clue to the mystery there will be need for
further readjustments in our theories of matter. She also leads us to
understand that partly through the discoveries which will be made in
connexion with the anomalies of comets' tails, science will find that
the present theory of gravitation is highly incomplete, and that there
is an opposite force--repulsion--to be understood. Gravitation is only
one aspect of a mysterious force which is as definitely polarized as
electricity or magnetism. It is of interest to notice that Professor
Kapteyn, the famous Dutch astronomer of Groningen, has just declared at
the thirteenth Science Congress of Holland that the law of gravitation
is abrogated among the spiral nebulae. His words are:
All the known facts indicate that the so-called universal force of
Gravitation exerts no influence upon the primordial matter from which
all stars have been produced.
A few years ago--even to a date considerably later than the time
when H. P. Blavatsky wrote the daring suggestions in _The Secret
Doctrine_--such a statement would have been considered the rankest
heresy; no scientist would have dared to throw doubts upon the
universal supremacy of the law of gravitation. Truly, indeed, did she
prophesy that in the twentieth century it would be recognized that
she had but sketched an outline, which, though rejected at its first
appearance, was based upon real knowledge.
In seeking a plausible hypothesis to explain comets' tails, Signor
Luigi Armellini, an Italian astronomer, has advanced the revolutionary
idea that they are optical illusions, merely the effect of light
passing through the more or less lens-shaped head of the comet. He
publishes, in the _Astronomische Nachrichten_, fourteen photographs of
comet-like forms which he produced by passing beams of light at various
angles through lenses so as to fall upon sensitized plates. He claims
that the different angles at which the solar rays fall upon the nucleus
of a comet as it moves round the sun sufficiently explain the familiar
changes in shape of the tail.