THE MONTH

London, England

February 1919

(page 152)

REVIEWS

THEOU SOPHIA.

Theou Sophia, Elucidating the Science and Philosophy of the Divine Mysteries, A Complete Epitome and Analysis of Cosmological Science Embodied in the Ancient Wisdom-Foundations. By Holden Edward Sampson. London: Kegan Paul, Pp. xxviii 362. Price, 8s. 6d. 1918.

We have spoken elsewhere in this number of the extravagant lengths to which the syncretism dominant in Theosophy and other kindred cults has recently extended. The book now before us provides a forcible reminder that Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater have found many imitators. Our first inclination would be to dismiss such a volume with the curt remark that to review it in the ordinary sense of the word would be an utter waste of time. If there are readers capable of putting faith in this insane medley of astrology, Buddhism, gnosticism, cabalism, and the Christian Scriptures, such people are beyond the reach of any deterrent arguments which we are able to bring to bear. But there are one or two points which incline us to take the matter more seriously. The first is that the book, which, in spite of the wretched quality of the paper, costs 8s. 6d. net, is published by a respectable English firm, the same in fact as that which for many years past has published the well-known Catholic Dictionary. Of course, if Messrs. Kegan Paul like to see their imprint attached to a volume of this kind it is no business of ours. But the fact, none the less, marks a stage in the development of the occultists movement—, we fancy, which is less one of religious mysticism, than of religious mystification in the Gallic sense of the word. We have as much respect, neither less nor more, for the pronouncements of Mr. Holden Sampson, as we have for those of the late M. Joséphin Paladan, or Dr. Orlando Miller, or M. Léo Taxil, or Mr. F. L. Rawson, or Mr. Aleister Crowley. But while Mr. Crowley, for example, was at any rate a farceur of exceptional brilliancy, Mr. Sampson is as dull as ditchwater.