494 Analyses of Books . [August, 
There is, we are told, a force in Nature known in Sanscrit 
writings as akaz, said to be “ as much more potent, subtle, and 
extraordinary an agent than electricity, as electricity is superior 
in subtlety and variegated efficiency to steam.” But about the 
attributes and the laws of this force, and the manner in which it 
may be observed, we are told nothing ! We find complaints of 
“ the intricate suspicions with which the European observer ap- 
proaches the consideration of the marvellous in its simplest 
forms. But, setting aside the idea of the “ marvellous ” as 
scarcely scientific, how can we, without the sceptical, critical 
spirit, separate truth from delusion ? The man of science, if he 
finds in the quiet of his own laboratory, and without the presence 
of any other person, indications of a new element or of a new 
force, multiplies tests, and checks, lest he should unwittingly 
deceive himself, and the more widely the novelty stands apart 
from what has been previously known the more rigid is the scru- 
tiny. Hence the treatment which the advocates of occult science 
receive, and which seems to them “ tiresome and stupid,” has in 
it nothing exceptional. But, indeed, judging from a letter of an 
adept, occult science is not something which can be superadded 
to our open modern science as a continuation or an improve- 
ment. We read — “ You do not seem to realise the tremendous 
difficulties in the way of imparting even the rudiments of our 
science to those who have been trained in the familiar methods 
of yours, The more you have of the one the less capable you 
are of comprehending the other.” Again, “ Exadt experimental 
science has nothing to do with morality, virtue, philanthropy, 
and therefore can make no claim upon our help until it blends 
itself with metaphysics.” Hence to us men of the laboratory, 
the observatory, the zoological station, or the museum, this 
occult science has nothing to offer ! 
A number of occurrences are described in proof of the mighty, 
and to us unaccountable, powers possessed by the adepts. We 
do not presume to deny that these are records of adtual fadts ; 
but we must be permitted to say that evidence very far more 
convincing, and incapable of imitation by jugglery, might easily 
have been produced. If such men as Root Hoomi Lai Singh 
were to announce some fadt not at present known, such as the 
existence of an undiscovered planet, the presence of an as yet 
unrecognised element in some particular geological formation, 
&c., the verification of such predictions would silence all gain- 
sayers. 
It is here stated : — “ The philosophical and transcendental 
notion of the mediaeval theosophists that the final progress of 
human labour, aided by the incessant discoveries of man, must 
one day culminate in a process which shall result in the evolution 
of nutritious food out of inorganic matter, is unthinkable for men 
of science.” Strange assertion ! The synthesis of sugar, starch, 
fats, albumen, is not merely thinkable, but is being eagerly 
sought for. 
