Vol 3 Page 311

[In H.P.B.’s Scrapbook, Vol. XI, Part II, pp. 410-12, there are several cuttings from the Ceylon Catholic Messenger of October 25 and 26, and November 1, 1881, entitled “Absurdities of ‘A Buddhist Catechism’ by Henry S. Olcott.” It is a long and hostile attack on Buddhism in general and Col. Olcott in particular. The following passage has been marked by H.P.B. in blue pencil:

“If no other proof of our assertion could be had, Buddhists’ scanty knowledge, not to say utter ignorance, of the earth, its physical and astronomical laws, would be quite sufficient; for even at the present day, the sphericity and the revolutions of the earth, are denied by those who profess to be the disciples of the ‘All-Wise,’ the ‘Enlightened’! Buddhism, according to Col. Olcott, sometimes excels modern science.”
To this H.P.B. appended the following remarks in ink:]

Some ignorant Buddhist priests may deny at present as ever the sphericity of the earth and its rotations. But so do the Roman Catholic bigots and monks to the day and more

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than ever since the days of Galileo. Professor Schöpffer, an eminent astronomer of Berlin, denies the heliocentric system and Father Grégoire of Cairo did so. The Jesuits avoid speaking of that rotation which befools the infallible Bible and Joshua’s “Miracle.”

[She also appended the following final remark:]

Having done with Colonel Olcott and with the “Absurdities of Buddhism” it falls foul upon the “Absurdities of Protestantism”!! Oh Catholic Messenger, Consistency is Thy name!

[This is followed by an article from the same paper entitled “A Catechism About Protestantism and the Catholic Church,” by John Perrone, S.J.]

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