"The knowledge and foretaste of power, which, through bodily and mental weakness, they can seldom exercise, have led many of the more unscrupulous seers to resort to trickery. Now and again they are able to perform what men call a miracle, and probably every wonder that we read of has at one time or another been performed, more or less accidentally, by some Eastern ascetic, but knowing the powers that do exist, and being unable to control them at will, they too frequently, either for profit or fame, turn for assistance to the most barefaced impostures.
"The spiritualists are not free from the same reproach. It is safe to assume that as any one who possesses even a slight knowledge of how to make use of the powers of a spiritual sense, will neither require money nor desire fame, all spiritualistic or theosophic exhibitions, which have either of these ends in view, should be regarded with distrust. At the same time they should be interesting as exhibiting a craving on the part of the performer and also of his audience for manifestations of unrevealed yet partially conceived truths.
"Trickery is only powerful when it apes reality. The love of the mysterious is after all a craving for felt possibilities. A conjurer, scoffing at the supernatural which he strives to imitate, would lose his occupation if he possessed sufficient eloquence to convince his audience that there was no truth foreshadowed by means of his dexterity. As the girl-child loves to play with her doll because the maternal instinct lies undeveloped in her breast, so do men love to play with magic, foretasting therein a part of the power which some day shall be perfected. They both know better, but for the moment prefer a true illuminating fancy to a false disillusionizing fact. Yet when some motive of self-interest provokes the deception, only harm can come; the parable is then turned into the lie, the prophet into the charlatan.
"Not long after my arrival in India I met a man who interested me greatly. Up to this time I had little knowledge of Buddhism, and the outcome which I had seen of this religion had given me so far an unfavourable impression.
"Mr. Kanwick was of Scotch descent, though he had been born in Calcutta, and lived in India the greater part of his life. When we met he was a wealthy bachelor of about fifty-five years of age, with no occupation to tie him down. His knowledge of Oriental subjects was well founded, for he had spent most of his life in studying the manners, dialects, and religions of Asia.
"He was at this time engaged in writing a book on the Vedic language and religion, and I travelled with him in the East for many months, passing from one place to another. We visited many of the countries in Central Asia, and whilst he was engaged in studying one of the oldest and purest forms of worship, I was busy perfecting a power which, even in the earliest times, the Vedic philosophers seemed to have reached after. Were I to describe the strange experiences through which we passed, how, disguised, we found our way into sacred shrines never before visited by Europeans, or the various dangers we encountered, in many of which we narrowly escaped death, it would occupy all the time we are likely to have together for the next six months. Aided by the sixth sense, by free use of our wealth, and by my companion's knowledge of the various dialects and customs of the people, we were able to overcome difficulties which would have been impossibilities to ordinary travellers. One evening, however, we met with an experience which brought my travels to an abrupt termination, and in which my companion lost his life.
"We had been staying a few days in a small town, and, having grown over-confident, we determined to visit a temple which was situated about five miles away. It was a foolhardy enterprise, for not only had no unbeliever ever been permitted to approach this place, but none save the priests of a special caste were allowed even to enter the sacred enclosure in which it had been built. I must, however, tell you how we came to find out this place, for it was so situated that but for an accident we might have lived for years in the neighbourhood without suspecting its existence.
"The country here is of very curious formation. On either side of the city perpendicular rocks rise out of the plain forming miniature table-lands, some hardly larger than a tomb, some with room enough on them for small farms, with well-marked natural boundaries, sheer precipices varying from fifty to over three hundred feet. The surface of these rocks is very irregular, and often thickly coated with soil in which grow many tropical trees.
"In a deep hollow on one of the largest and most wooded of these plateaus this temple has been built, but owing to its situation it is quite impossible to see any part of it until the top of the surrounding rock has been reached.
"Now we had as a guide a high-caste Brahmin named Hinma. We had adopted a method of paying him by results, which had proved so far highly satisfactory; the more information he gave us, or the more interesting the place to which he led us, the greater the number of rupees he received at the end of the month. It so happened that for some weeks past the value of his services had been small, and when he received his pay I saw that he was dissatisfied, and read this pass through his mind: