So far, then, nothing remotely
approaching proof has been offered as to any supernatural intervention
during the Retreat from Mons. Proof may come; if so, it will be
interesting and more than interesting.
But, taking the affair as it stands at present, how is it that a
nation plunged in materialism of the grossest kind has accepted idle
rumours and gossip of the supernatural as certain truth? The answer is
contained in the question: it is precisely because our whole
atmosphere is materialist that we are ready to credit anything--save
the truth. Separate a man from good drink, he will swallow methylated
spirit with joy. Man is created to be inebriated; to be "nobly wild,
not mad." Suffer the Cocoa Prophets and their company to seduce him in
body and spirit, and he will get himself stuff that will make him
ignobly wild and mad indeed. It took hard, practical men of affairs,
business men, advanced thinkers, Freethinkers, to believe in Madame
Blavatsky and Mahatmas and the famous message from the Golden Shore:
"Judge's plan is right; follow him and _stick_."
And the main responsibility for this dismal state of affairs
undoubtedly lies on the shoulders of the majority of the clergy of the
Church of England.
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