446 Occultism Reconsidered . [August, 
Suppose the Brotherhood were to say “ Point your tele- 
scopes to such and such a spot in the heavens, and you will 
find a planet as yet unknown to you, having such and such 
elements;” or “ Dig into the earth in such a place, and you 
will find a mineral containing a metal new to your Science ; 
its atomic weight, its specific gravity, &c., are so and so 
or again, “ Dig into such other strata on the slope of the 
Mount X, and you will find the remains of an animal as yet 
unsuspected and undescribed, and having such or such 
characteristics.” Such or similar proofs, not of superior 
power , but of higher knowledge, would not increase any 
man’s facilities for evil-doing. Were even the smallest 
evidence of this kind vouchsafed we men of Open Science 
would be glad to recognise the Brotherhood as our masters, 
and to trust to their teachings. But in the book before us we 
find not the smallest trace of anything capable of verifica- 
tion. Till some foothold of this kind is given us it is useless 
to bid us join the Theosophical Society or change our 
“mode of life.” Teachings so indefinite we are compelled 
to rejeCt, not indeed “ superciliously,” but sadly. 
Root Hoomi is reported as saying, in proof of the diffi- 
culty of communicating any of the knowledge of the 
Brotherhood to an outsider, “ How could the phenomena of 
our modern electrical science be explained to, say, a Greek 
philosopher of the days of Ptolemy, were he suddenly re- 
called to life, with such an unbridged hiatus in discovery as 
would exist between his and our age ?” Mr. Sinnett, in his 
own person, argues in a very similar style in an earlier part 
of his work. 
To both we reply that it is found practicable to explain, 
if not all the niceties, yet the main outlines, of modern 
electrical science to schoolboys who at the outset know cer- 
tainly less of the subject than would the Greek philosopher 
of the days of Ptolemy ! 
