If we deduct from this sum 1,203, we have 3,190 years B.C. of successive
reigns. If it can be shown on the unimpeachable evidence of the
Sanskrit texts that some of the reigns happened simultaneously, and the
line cannot therefore be shown as successive (as was already tried),
well and good. Against an arbitrary chronology set up with a
predetermined purpose and theory in view, there will remain but little
to be said. But if this attempt at reconciliation of figures and the
surrounding circumstances are maintained simply upon "critical, internal
evidence," then, in the presence of these 3,190 years of an unbroken
line of powerful and mighty Hindu kings, the Orientalists will have to
show a very good reason why the authors of the Code of Manu seem
entirely ignorant even of the existence of Bengal--if its date has to be
accepted as not earlier than 1280 B.C.! A scientific rule which is good
enough to apply to the case of Panini ought to be valid in other
chronological speculations. Or, perhaps, this is one of those poor rules
which will not "work both ways?"
--A Chela
THEOSOPHICAL
What is Theosophy?
According to lexicographers, the term theosophia is composed of two
Greek words--theos "god," and sophas "wise." So far, correct. But the
explanations that follow are far from giving a clear idea of Theosophy.
Webster defines it most originally as "a supposed intercourse with
God and superior spirits, and consequent attainment of superhuman
knowledge by physical processes, as by the theurgic operations of some
ancient Platonists, or by the chemical processes of the German
fire-philosophers."
This, to say the least, is a poor and flippant explanation. To
attribute such ideas to men like Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Jamblichus,
Porphyry, Proclus, shows either intentional misrepresentation, or
ignorance of the philosophy and motives of the greatest geniuses of the
later Alexandrian School. To impute to those, whom their contemporaries
as well as posterity styled "theodidaktoi," god-taught, a purpose to
develop their psychological, spiritual perceptions by "physical
processes," is to describe them as materialists. As to the concluding
fling at the fire-philosophers, it rebounds from them upon some of the
most eminent leaders of modern science; those in whose mouths the Rev.
James Martineau places the following boast: "Matter is all we want;
give us atoms alone, and we will explain the universe."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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