Transcriber’s Notes Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and punctuation remains unchanged with the exception of Greek and Hebrew which have been extensively corrected. The corrections are listed at the end of the book. The index appears only in Volume 2 of this work. A copy was added to this volume for the convenience of readers. Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus ~bold~ and superscripts thus y^{en}. [Illustration: Head and shoulders drawing of the author] ISIS UNVEILED: A MASTER-KEY TO THE MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT AND MODERN SCIENCE AND THEOLOGY. BY H. P. BLAVATSKY, CORRESPONDING SECRETARY OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. “Cecy est un livre de bonne Foy.”—MONTAIGNE. VOL. I.—_SCIENCE._ FOURTH EDITION. NEW YORK: J. W. BOUTON, 706 BROADWAY. LONDON: BERNARD QUARITCH. 1878. COPYRIGHT, BY J. W. BOUTON. 1877. TROW’S PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING CO., PRINTERS AND BOOKBINDERS, _205-213 East 12th. St._, NEW YORK. THE AUTHOR Dedicates these Volumes TO THE _THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY_, WHICH WAS FOUNDED AT NEW YORK, A.D. 1875, TO STUDY THE SUBJECTS ON WHICH THEY TREAT. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE PREFACE v BEFORE THE VEIL Dogmatic assumptions of modern science and theology ix The Platonic philosophy affords the only middle ground xi Review of the ancient philosophical systems xv A Syriac manuscript on Simon Magus xxiii Glossary of terms used in this book xxiii Volume first. _THE “INFALLIBILITY” OF MODERN SCIENCE._ CHAPTER I. OLD THINGS WITH NEW NAMES. The Oriental Kabala 1 Ancient traditions supported by modern research 3 The progress of mankind marked by cycles 5