[20] This vision occurred in London in November, 1876. It was merely referred to in the previous editions of this book, but I have inserted it here in full from "The Life of A.K." Vol. I. pp. 115-117. It is also given in "England and Islam," pp. 438-442. S.H.H.
[22] E. and I. p. 299.
[23] It is probable that E.M. intended this statement to apply only to the N.T., or to the Gospels, because, before February, 1874, when he first visited A.K. at her house (p. [2]), she had received in sleep "an exposition of the Story of the Fall, exhibiting it as a parable having a significance purely spiritual" and E.M. certainty regarded the Biblical Story of the Fall as "Scripture." S.H.H.
[24] The expression of which the above is an adaptation, had recently been applied by Mr Gladstone to the Turkish power. For the period was the eve of the Turco-Russian War; and Mr Gladstone had found vent for his strong sacerdotal proclivities by siding fiercely against the priest-hating and prophet-venerating Turks, and demanding their expulsion from Europe, very much on the plea that "it was good for Europe that one nation die for the rest." It was in recognition of the part thus played by him that I took for the sub-title of my book ("England and Islam") "The Counsel of Caiaphas." The book—which was written under a high degree of illumination—contained an earnest appeal to Mr Gladstone, which, if heeded, would have saved the country from its subsequent humiliations. Among other things I was clearly shown that the policy which sought to detach England from the East, was of infernal instigation, being intended to thwart the rapprochement between Christianity and Buddhism from which the new humanity was to spring. But the circumstances of the book's production—it was poured through me at great speed and printed off as it came—precluded due revision and elimination of redundant matter; and for these and other reasons, I have suffered it to go out of print. E.M.
[25] There is another fact, referred to in "The Life of A.K.," that must be taken into consideration in connection with experiences of this nature, that is, "the survival for an indefinite period of the images of events occurring on the earth, in the astral light, or memory of the planet, called the anima mundi, which images can be evoked and beheld." (Life A.K. Vol I. p. 125.) S.H.H.
[26] This "Vision of Adonai" by A.K. was merely referred to in the previous editions of this book. I have extracted the following account of the most interesting part of it from "The Life of A.K." (Vol. I. pp. 193-196.) S.H.H.
[27] Speaking of this vision, E.M. says:—"Her apprehension was not without justification; for her body was completely torpid, and several hours passed before consciousness was fully restored to it." (C.W.S. p. 283.)
[28] This is one of the illuminations that were received by A.K., during the latter part of 1878, "directly from the hierarchy of the Church Invisible and Celestial." Speaking of these illuminations, which "dealt with the profoundest subjects of cognition," E.M. says that he and A.K. found in them "a synthesis and an analysis combined of the sacred mysteries of all the great religions of antiquity, and the true origines of Christianity as originally and divinely intended, together with the secret and method of its corruption and perversion into that which now bears its name"; and they "were at no loss to recognise in them the destined Scriptures of the future, so long promised and at length vouchsafed in interpretation of the Scriptures of the past." (Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 293, 294.) S.H.H.
[29] A.K. knew nothing of Spinoza at this time, and was unaware that he was an optician. Subsequent experience made it clear that the spectacles in question were intended to represent her own remarkable faculty of intuitional and interpretative perception. (See Life A.K. Vol. I. pp. 150-1.) S.H.H.