A Modern Priestess of Isis. Abridged and Translated from the
Russian of Usevolod Sergyeevich Solovyoff by Walter Leaf, Litt.D. (Longmans.)—Dr. Leaf has performed this task, useful probably, but certainly, we should say, not attractive, at the instance of the Society for Psychical Research. The Society finds in Mr. Solovyoff's revelations a justification, hardly needed, we should say, for its action in denouncing Madame Blavatsky as an im- postor. Whether this gentleman was always the cool and sceptical observer which he would have us think him is doubtful Dr. Leaf questions it, and points to a statement in a letter recently published by Madame Jelihovsky (sister to Madame Blavatsky) in which he distinctly states, "I can say positively that I con- vinced Richet of the reality of your personal power and of the phenomena which proceed from you." But after all, the question of this gentleman's consistency is but of small importance. That Madame Blavatsky, the " modern priestess of Isis," was a fraud, and that she confessed herself to be such to him, is abundantly certain. It seems that she took up theosophy when she found that the game of spiritism, which she had practised for some time in the United States, was played out. Her theosophy itself was borrowed from certain writers on occultism, as is set out in detail by an expert in these subjects, Mr. W. Emmette Coleman. All this being settled, let the woman and her doings be buried and forgotten, except, indeed, her career should be wanted as a lesson and a warning What a " Nemesis of :anfaith" it is when those who have shaken off belief in religion as a folly out of which the world ought to have grown, fall victims to the frauds of an immoral and lying adventuress.
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