• The Soul, and How It Found Me. Edward Maitland. Published for the Author. Tinsley Brothers, London, 1877. 307 pp.

 

            Information: This book, which is nowadays difficult to find, is here at last presented to the Internet public in the Anna Kingsford Site. Its content is very important in the context of the literature related to the New Gospel of Interpretation – of which Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland were the main deliverers, at least as far as the West is concerned.

             Below you have a photo of the original cover, a picture of Edward Maitland (also presented for the first time in the Internet), as well as the title pages, the Preface and the Abstract of Contents, and the links to the sections with the complete Html text of this work.

 

 

[click in the photo to see it in greater size]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE SOUL,

 

AND HOW IT FOUND ME.

 

BEING

 

A NARRATIVE OF PHENOMENA CONNECTED

WITH THE PRODUCTION OF

“ENGLAND AND ISLAM.”

BY

 

EDWARD MAITLAND

 

_______________

 

LONDON:

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR.

TINSLEY BROTHERS, 8, CATHERINE STREET, STRAND.

1877.

[Right of Translation reserved by the Author.]

 

 

 

 

            “There is an animal body and there is a spiritual body.” – PAUL.

 

            “And it shall come to pass afterwards that I will pour out my spirit

upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your

old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.

            “And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days

will I pour out my spirit.” – JOEL.

 

            “And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast:

and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast?

who is able to make war with him?

            “And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and

blasphemies.” – JOHN.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTERS

________________

 

       PREFACE (v-vii)

       ABSTRACT OF CONTENS (ix-xi)
 

I. THE INTRODUCTION (1-11)

II. THE PREPARATION (12-50)

III. THE COMMUNICATION (51-122)

IV. THE CONFIRMATION (123-161)

V. THE REITERATION (162-175)

VI. THE AMPLIFICATION (176-203)

VII. THE CONTINUATION (204-228)

VIII. THE EXTENSION (229-294)

IX. THE RECAPITULATION, DEDICATION, AND TERMINATION (295-307)

 

 

(p. v)

PREFACE

_____________

 

            WHOLLY undeveloped as to the inner regions of their nature as for the most part now-a-days people not only are, but are proud to be, and engrossed, therefore, by the aspects merely external and comparatively trivial of existence, the number of those able to test by its internal evidence, the genuineness of aught transcending the commonest that may be put before them, or to judge of truth by an appeal to the consciousness, directly and independently of any appeal to the senses, is necessarily exceedingly small. Hence it cannot but happen that of those who may read this book, there will be few to whom the question will not continually recur, “Is this Reality or Romance?” and who, consequently, on reaching, if indeed they do reach, the end, will either close it in despair of being able to come to a decision, or remain fixed in their previous incredulity.

(p. vi)

            Such and so vast, in respect of the contents of this book, are the issues at stake, that not only is the world entitled to the fullest enlightenment respecting their genuineness and authenticity possible for it to receive, but it is incumbent on me as its writer to omit nothing that is calculated to minister to the purpose for which the book has been written. Hence it becomes a duty to supply the only additional guarantee in my power, namely, such as may be afforded by my own positive affirmation.

            That, then, which I have to do in this preface, is to make, as I hereby make, the most absolute and unqualified declaration, that the contents of this book are in whole and in part, in spirit and in letter, entirely and unreservedly true, in that fullest and most comprehensive sense of the word in which alone it can consistently be used by one, the chief occupation of whose life has been the pursuit, regardless of consequences, of the highest truth for the highest ends; by one, moreover, who has never, even under circumstances of trial the most crucial, suffered a moment’s obscuration of the faculty either of observation or of comparison.

(p. vii)

            I can confidently declare further, that to be compelled to accept for the facts described in this book any explanation or interpretation other than is herein set forth, would be both for myself and for those who with me are cognisant of them, to find existence itself devoid of consistency and reality, and become the chaotic and meaningless phantasm which by the materialistic and superficial philosophy of the day it is so lightly assumed, so recklessly pronounced to be.

 

EDWARD MAITLAND.

            LONDON, September, 1877.

 

 

[White page.]

 

(p. ix)

ABSTRACT OF CONTENTS

_________________________________

 

CHAPTER (PAGES)

 

I. THE INTRODUCTION (1-11)

            Motive and purpose of the book. Appeal to two classes of objectors, religious and scientific. Superstition not a belief in the supernatural. The superstition of “science.”

 

II. THE PREPARATION (12-50)

            Previous lines of life and study. The search for Perfection. The nature and identity of the world’s religions. Causes of the failure to comprehend them. Their object the worship of Existence. The central fact of Existence. The Soul the spiritual sun from which all else radiates. Correspondence between the spiritual and material worlds. Solar cycles of development. The present epoch, its place and significance. Essential identity of faith and practice in all religious Mysteries, Gentile, Hebrew, and Christian. The world’s Christs. Materialism, sacerdotal or scientific, the antithesis of Pantheism and the betrayal or negation of the Soul.

 

III. THE COMMUNICATION (51-122)

            Arrest of my work on the world’s religions. Prophetic impulses. Enhanced accessibility to ideas. From thought to sight. Revelation of the

(p. x)

World as it is. The soul in the Tree. The vision of “England and Islam.” Its interpretation. How the book was given to me. Identity of the phenomena with those of all previous revelations. “In the Spirit.” The condition abnormal but not morbid. The footprints of the Seers. Physical manifestations; the touch, the voices. The shifting of the spirit. A coadjutor provided. The vision of Jesus; and of the Zodiac. Visit form the spirit of my mother, who speaks aloud. Vision of my son. Vision of my father. Driven of the spirit. “The breath of God.” Buddha. The Neo-Platonists. Manifestations at will. Miracle no violation of natural law. The prophetic faculty. How the spirit strove with Mr. Gladstone. Visit from the spirit of Lord Amberley. Spiritual communication by means of direct action upon the organon of consciousness. Revelation of the nature of Deity.

 

IV. THE CONFIRMATION (123-161)

            “Ready.” A séance: “the same Spirit.” Prophetess and Seeress. “Consummatum est.” An apparition. A visit from the dead. Crucial instances. A spiritual apologue. Spirit messages. The vision of the Glasses. Spiritual recognition of Spinoza, of Swedenborg, of Hans Christian Anderssen. Our Genii. The work required.

 

V. THE REITERATION (162-175)

            The vision of the World’s Fall. Fragments. The vision of the Lesson of Perfection. The parson’s dream.

(p. xi)

VI. THE AMPLIFICATION (176-203)

            Spirit-communication, its modus. First beginnings. Line upon Line. Behind the veil. A visitation. Another. The torturer’s hereafter. The vision of the City of Blood.

 

VII. THE CONTINUATION (204-228)

            The vision of Creeping Things. Revelation of the spiritual significance of various orders of animals. The perfect life. Spirit messages on many subjects. Test upon test. A spirit diagnosis and prescription. “Unconscious cerebration.” An irruption of sprites. A forecast of evil, a promise, and a farewell.

 

VIII. THE EXTENSION (229-294)

            Prophecy and fulfilment. Spirit-obsession. Ministering spirits. Spirit-telegraphy. Change of scene. The promise fulfilled. Revelation of the doctrine of the Universal Soul. A message from the “Guardian of Spinoza.” New development of the Seeress’s faculty. The vision of the Apostles. The vision of the Tree, and the Origin of Evil. The vision of Creation. The vision of the World’s Religions. The vision of the Error of Paul. The vision of God and the Universe. “Science” versus Humanity. Revelation concerning the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception. A vision of the Secret of Youth. Announcement of War and Famine by the Angel of the Earth. Visions of Warning.

 

IX. THE RECAPITULATION, DEDICATION, AND TERMINATION (295-307)

 

 

Sections: General Index   Present Section: Index   Next: I - The Introdution