18 MYSTICAL BUDDHISM. 



air. On the other hand, it is contended, that " since we 

 have attained, in the last half-century, the theory of evolu- 

 tion, the antiquity of man, the far greater antiquity of the 

 world itself, the correlation of physical forces, the conserva- 

 tion of energy, spectrum analysis, photography, the loco- 

 motive engine, electric telegraph, spectroscope, electric light, 

 and the telephone, who shall dare to fix a limit to the capacity 

 of man ? " * Few will be disposed to deny altogether the 

 truth of such a contention, however much they may dissent 

 from Colonel Olcott's theosophical and neo-Buddhist views. 



There may be, of course, latent faculties in humanity which 

 are at present quite unsuspected, and yet are capable of 

 development in the future. 



I may also refer to the statement of Sir James Paget, in 

 his recent address on " Scientific Study," that many things 

 now held to be inconceivable and past man's imagination arfc 

 profoundly and assuredly true, and that it will be in the power 

 of Science to prove them to be so.f 



Clearly mystical Buddhism is far too big a subject to be 

 compressed within the limits of a single paper. 



I will merely, in conclusion, express my doubts whether 

 Asiatic occultism, as connected with the Yoga philosophy, 

 and as believed in by Colonel Olcott, Mr. Sinnett, and many 

 others, will ever bear the searching light of European 

 scientific investigation. 



Nevertheless, it seems to me to be a subject which ought 

 not to be brushed aside by our scientists as unworthy of con- 

 sideration. It furnishes, in my opinion, a highly interesting 

 topic of inquiry, especially in its bearing on the so-called 

 " Spiritualism," " neo-Buddhism," and " Theosophy " of the 

 present day. The practices connected with mesmerism, 

 animal magnetism, clairvoyance, thought-reading, &c., have 

 their counterparts in the Yoga system prevalent in India 

 more than 2,000 years ago. " The thing that hath been, it is 

 that which shall be ; and that which is done is that which 

 shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun." 



* Colonel Olcott's Lectures on Theosophy and Archaic Religions, p. 109. 

 t Report in the Times newspaper. 



